Farmers Market Mania

San Diegans’ craze for healthy food spurs the growth of local markets and keeps Catt White busy

By Cecilia Buckner

Recent food industry incidents — the latest involving the risk of botulism and the fun food  “uh oh” SpaghettiOs” — has forced us to put more thought into what goes in the fridge.
Food comforts us and give us strength, but sometimes it can make us sick.
Salmonella, e.coli and food additives that contribute to severe health issues have got us touching and smelling our food more and squinting to read the fine print ingredients in labels.
We buy food that we have learned, over time, is good for us  . . . But do we really know where the  romaine lettuce we carefully washed, tossed and sprinkled with a low calorie vinaigrette came from?
“Knowing they’re getting fresh food and where it’s coming from,” farmers market manager Catt White says, is a large part of why people are flocking to the county’s farmers markets.
It is a growing trend, according to marketing reports. We want to know more about the food we are putting on our tables — what is in it and  how it was grown.
White manages three of the county’s farmers markets — the Little Italy Mercato and the North Park and Normal Heights venues. White says one of the things that she enjoys most about working at the markets involves her ability to educate people about the food they eat.
“ We’re not doing the earth any favors when we go into corporate farming for food production,” White says. “Unless people get more and more aware, we are going to have serious prolonged repercussions here. I have six grandkids. I’d like the earth to be in some kind of shape when they take over.”
Although White received a degree in criminal justice from Arizona State University, her passion, if you have not already taken note, is food. “You don’t meet too many people, as a lawyer, that are happy to see you,” she says. “The restaurant business is all pretty fun.”
White co-owned and operated a successful, trendy restaurant with her husband in Phoenix, where she lived for about 20 years. She also published a couple of restaurant trade magazines, Serving Arizona and Serving San Diego and freelanced for a few publications, writing restaurant reviews.
This experience in the food industry has made her work at the farmers markets a natural extension, she says.
Since the Little Italy Mercato opened just short of two years ago, it has doubled in size from a couple blocks of vendors to nearly four.
White says the juxtaposition of the farmers and their goods against the backdrop of the Downtown highrises and the harbor makes it an ideal, picturesque venue for a farmers market.  “We’re on Date street,” she says. “We’ve got a view of the water. There’s no better place to be.”
About one year after opening the Little Italy market, White was hired to take over the management of  the North Park Farmers Market that is sponsored by North Park Main Street. A couple of weeks later she was hired to manage the Adams Avenue venue by the Adams Avenue Business Association.  There were some difficulties with permits initially, at the latter, she says, but the market is now in its permanent spot off of 35th and Adams on the grounds of John Adams Elementary School.
“We may add one more market,” White reluctantly utters. “I can’t tell you where. You know the Adams Avenue market hopped around some, so I am not big right now on publicizing a market until all the permits are in place.”
The number of farmers markets in the county has increased by more than 40 percent since last year. Nearly 50 markets are sprinkled all over the county, compared to 33 in 2009, according to Dawn Nielsen, deputy agricultural commissioner.
The country as a whole has seen an increase of about 13 percent in the number of farmers markets in the past year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Alex Finlayson, a writer and playwright whose husband worked as an executive sous chef in San Diego for eight years, used to visit the Little Italy farmers market on a regular basis, before moving to Texas. Finlayson says she loved the fresh food, the fact that her money went to locals and putting a face with the product.
“Visiting farmers markets is recreational, spiritual, sensual — and political,” she says. “Not to mention fun. Greeting the farmers by name and vice-versa, was just a bonus.”
White says she looks forward to talking and working with the farmers.  “It’s kind of like a little family after awhile,” she says.
A couple of those farmers, North Park residents Lucila de Alejandro and husband Robin Taylor, operate Suzie’s Farm in Border Field State Park south of Imperial Beach.  They sell their organic produce at the local farmers markets, including the Adams Avenue and Little Italy Mercado venues.
De Alejandro says White is an extremely savvy businesswoman who cares about the people she works with. “She’s loyal to her vendors and her vendors are extremely loyal to her,” she says.  “They follow her from market to market.”
Suzie’s Farm is a certified organic farm. The farm’s booth at Adams Avenue featured fresh spinach and arugula in June.
The availability of items you cannot find in your grocer,  and the advantage of talking with the people who grow your food are why a blogger,— “BBQ dude” — says he drives to the Little Italy and Hillcrest farmers markets from his home in Rancho Penasquitos. “If you ask someone in a grocery store, odds are the staff doesn’t know anything about what they sell. The folks selling it (at the farmers markets) almost always know a ton about it,”  he says.
Knight Salumi’s “meat products simply aren’t available in grocery stores,” and “their product is stunning,” he says. “And that lady at the Little Italy market that sells live sea urchins. Where else can you get live sea urchins?”
At the county’s farmers markets you will find a variety of vendors offering a varied selection of organic produce and meats, prepared food, flowers and maybe a little jewelry. Some of the vendors you might find include Eclipse Chocolat, She Sells Sea Salts, Da-le Ranch, Paradise Valley Ranch, Sage Mountain Farms, Lone Oak Ranch, Knight Salumi and Suzie’s Farm.
For a list of farmers markets  in the county and hours of operation, visit the San Diego County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures Website at  co.sandiego.ca.us/awm/farmers_markets.html.