Connoisseurs’ Marketplace has always been about good food, from its popular chefs’ demos to its international street fare. This year, Menlo Park’s popular gourmet extravaganza, July 19-20 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Santa Cruz Avenue, will launch another edible element — Organic Alley, a tented area featuring four esteemed Bay Area food companies: Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo, Virginia’s Live a Little, Planet Organics and June Taylor Jams.
Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo will offer skewers of organic tomatoes and basil marinated in Bold Balsamic Dressing by Virginia’s Live a Little. Their colorful booth will display some of the many varieties of tomatoes grown by Del Cabo in Baja California and the herbs raised by Jacobs Farm on the San Mateo coast, as well as a collection of the dressings and other salad accompaniments created by Oakland-based Virginia’s Live a Little. They will also hand out recipes for using tomatoes and herbs.
Planet Organics, the home-delivery service based in Sonoma, will have samples of apples, strawberries, and delectable spreadables from June Taylor Jams. Like a miniature farmers’ market, their booth will exhibit how their delivery boxes are packed with seasonal produce such as peaches, nectarines, sweet white corn, potatoes, green beans and heirloom lettuces. It will also showcase an array of artisanal conserves, marmalades, fruit butters and syrups from June Taylor Farms.
Founded in 1980, Jacobs Farm grows over 60 varieties of herbs and edible flowers between Pescadero and Santa Cruz. In 1985, the company launched the Del Cabo farmers cooperative in Baja California, teaching sustainable agricultural practices to a community of struggling subsistence farmers. Today the cooperative has grown to more than 500 farms in the valleys between the Sea of Cortez and the mountains of the Baja peninsula. Del Cabo has also helped build a new medical center for the region.
Virginia’s Live a Little was created in 1996 by Virginia Davis, a former pastry chef for Il Fornaio, whose tantalizing garlic croutons made with leftover sourdough bread were the inspiration for starting her own company. A mother of three sons, she understood how busy people are and wanted to offer delicious, easy-to-use and healthful products that would let families slow down and enjoy a salad with dressing and croutons made by a real chef. All of her dressings, vinaigrettes, croutons and crostini are made with fresh ingredients.
For more than a decade, Planet Organics has been delivering farm-direct organic produce to Bay Area homes from local farms including Green String Farms, Olson Farms and Valley End in Sonoma; Coke Farms in Watsonville; and Happy Boy Farms in Santa Cruz. They also offer dairy products, meats and eco-friendly kitchen products. Known for its community outreach, the company donates 4% of its sales to schools and nonprofits, as well as thousands of pounds of produce each year to the San Francisco Food Bank.
June Taylor Jams uses organic heirloom and forgotten fruits from small family farms in an effort to revive the tastes of the past and keep rare fruit varieties from going extinct. Their products are made following traditional methods of conserving, with minimal sugar and no commercial pectin. The marmalades use the seeds and membranes of the fruit, while the skin is candied. Some of their products are infused with the flowers and herbs they grow to create complex flavors.
Organic Alley will bring an exciting taste of Bay Area farm-fresh and naturally produced foods to the food-savvy crowd at Connoisseurs’ Marketplace.
