Tastes and Tidbits - A Tale of Healdsburg Farming

Indulge me while I take a break from planting kale to weave a tale of farming. I have the opportunity to grab your attention in the guise of blogging but maybe it’s actually proselytizing and who knows even preaching.

In any case it’s about food, near and dear to all of us although we each express our gustatory passions differently. I hope you will join me in my quest for tastes and tidbits.

My self-assigned topic is the of which I am a member, and I will get back to that, but first I thought I would ruminate on Healdsburg’s farming history as I know it.

You’ve heard our town referred to as “the buckle of the prune belt”, right? We have an old real estate promotional photo dated 1905 in our tasting room at showing prune trees in blossom in Dry Creek Valley. The caption referred to prunes, grapes and hops as “The Triplets” and the tag line gushed “You don’t even need to irrigate!”. You think winery tours are a big deal? How about the prune blossom bus tours coming up here from San Francisco not so many years ago?

My first awareness of a Healdsburg farmers market was a little different. On a stretch of Healdsburg Ave fronting the old earthquake-ravaged brick buildings somewhere between the erstwhile Office Cafe and Tamaulipico Restaurant, I remember a local farm gardener by the name of Frank McClain selling gorgeous, huge red onions out of the trunk of his 50s vintage 3-holer Buick.

It must have been in the late 1960s and I recall being annoyed because Frank’s job was tending the flower gardens at my family’s home on Eastside Road, not growing onions there. Today I celebrate Frank’s inventiveness and green thumb because that was idle ground he was using and he fed and pleased a lot of people.

So our food traditions are rich and varied and mouthwatering. Onions and prunes and apples and milk and wine and beer.

Sometimes it seems with the juggernaut of the wine industry that that is all gone. But it’s not; just lift up the canopy of that cabernet vine and you will glimpse the stirring of food coming back. The pundits talk about food and wine. I used to ask, “but where’s the food?”.  Now I can tell people to go check out that farm up the road for a dish to go with their zinfandel.

So, back to the We do have a history of a few dedicated farmers bringing their produce and food products to town weekly on Saturdays and somewhat less predictably during the week.

The Saturday Market has been in the parking lot behind and as long as I have been involved. In later blogs I will bring you (and me) up-to-date on past traditions, other locations and the farm families who have served you over the years.

Saturdays have become a delight for locals and visitors alike with a cornucopia of fresh-picked seasonal farm goods and good community cheer. Midweek, though, has been a bit inconsistent, but happily it is now poised for an exciting rebirth.

We all love on Tuesdays; that afternoon has become an icon of small town togetherness, cheer and camaraderie. But a practical venue for selling carrots it is not.

We farmers marketers tried to coexist with the music--both on and off the Plaza--we even moved to another historic City location, the , but we suffered from not being at the epicenter of town. But this year we are back!

and now on Wednesdays when we can make our own sweet music.

Later blogs will talk about why you will want to patronize our market; that’s the proselytizing and preaching part. But for now let me just urge you to come on out and have fun with us. See you there!

Healdsburg Farmers Market on the Plaza, June - October, Wednesdays 4:00 - 6:30