I finally got to pitch a more "Wacky" review for the VC Reporter about what one can immediately consume at local farmers markets. I did a comparison of sorts between the Saturday Ventura Market and the Sunday Ojai Market. The Ventura Market is coming along but the Ojai Market is worth driving in from L.A., just to visit. Truly a beautiful, magical small town experience.
We got to sample juices and kettle corn, macaroons and raw chocolate. Easter lillies, fresh strawberry pies and tomato starters with names like "Mortgage Lifter" were all lined up like Velveteen Rabbits, looking for homes. There was a new fudge vendor at the Ojai Market, so happy to be there! and a dog bakery with expensive treats for our four-legged guardians. At first my dog poo poo'd the yogurt-covered motorcycle I'd bought him and tried to get us to give him our smoked salmon instead by employing a huge, hollow-eyed gaze. As that didn't work because a) we're cruel and b) the salmon was too good! he succumbed to eating his motorcycle and actually did tricks for more.
The Raw-Stamina chocolate people in Ojai are now selling their version of raw fudge made with almond milk. Farmer & Cook almost killed us with the sticky spelt shortbreads -- highly addictive! Some of the most amazing things we had were form Mt. Olive -- boy do they have their act together! Samples of salad dressings, caramelized walnuts and tapenades abound! Do try their persimmon walnut chews, they are DIVINE! and the Pine Needle Juice is very interesting. We tried the pork, beef and pineapple gourmet tamales (sold at both markets) and liked the pork with green tamatillo sauce best. The pineapple one tasted more like a pineapple lifesaver than real fruit -- was very sweet but once we put some of the smokey hot sauce on it, it balanced out a bit.
We are currently fighting over the last of the chewy cheese curd globules and dipping them in Mt. Olive Pear Butter from the market is a transcendental experience. There's a vendor at the Ojai market selling re-useable shopping bags and Eric Nivelle had his beautiful photographs and cards for display. I took a moment talking to him about a particular photo he took of a homeless woman pushing her shopping cart in front of a Law School and he shared the story with me. That woman is a PHD who once had the world at her fingers and now spends her life pushing her shopping cart and living on the streets. I hope to hear more about her story one day. We are all vulnerable and life is ever-changing.
As we left the Ojai Market and wandered home with our goods, the guitar player was fervently singing "I Saw the Light!" and I stopped to snap a shot of the Cheese Man next to him whose shirt said "What a Friend We Have in Cheeses". Ojai is just like that, a wildly eclectic, often oddly harmonious blend of occurances. We walked home by the welded, twisted sculpture on Aliso street that asks people to names it. Chris took the chalk and put "Authur" and I grabbed it and dubbed it "Strudel" as we walked by. The duck lady of Signal St.'s Easter ducks were out in full and I noticed another interesting assemblage by her. Look at the slideshow above. I am not going to assume what she was trying to say.
If you find interesting new things at the markets, please leave comments about it, always looking for new products to write about and try!
