Toby's Feed Barn Pt. Reyes Market

This is Maddie. I met her today at the Pt. Reyes farmers market selling walking sticks with birds nestled on the tops. The sticks are sturdy enough to last a life time for $25, the proceeds of which Maddie is donating to The Smile Train, an organization that helps children around the world who suffer from cleft lip. Maddie made sure I left with a leaflet on the organization, as she did with everyone who stopped to talk with her, and a lot of people stopped. She's irresistible.

As is the entire Pt. Reyes Farmers' Market. Sure there are closer markets and the idea is to reduce my carbon bite but Pt. Reyes has all local vendors. I love that. It's gets tiring trying to figure out where everybody comes from. Except at the Ferry Building market that has heavenly new signs at each stand that lists their location, miles from the market and farming information in identical formats. I need a gospel choir here. Hallelujah.

The Pt. Reyes market isn't big, it's not even half the size of the San Rafael Civic Center market on Sunday mornings. It's not even a quarter of the size but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in surroundings and local character.

I wanted to buy fruit but it's too early in that part of the world, except for strawberries, which I heard there were six boxes brought into Toby's Feed Barn that sold out right away. Instead of fruit I filled a bag half full of purple potatoes freshly dunked in a bucket of water to make them shine, which was the extent of my produce purchases. After that I adopted a duck for $5 and in the middle of the market I met a woman sitting behind a pick up truck doing watercolors of the lavender vendor. I added her photograph to those of some farmers and cruised through the community garden on the same lot, a country band the back up for it all.

Heading down main street to the Bovine Bakery and Zuma's I bought a hand loomed rag rug that may have to be framed from a woman in a cowboy hat selling them on the sidewalk. (Almost everyone had a hat on.) In front of the Pt. Reyes Bookstore I shared a bench with a tall man. This is the big city for me, he said and proceeded to tell me tales of Bolinas, with pot laced brownies, movie stars and socialites and a blog he maintained with photos that no one could find. I think he was telling the truth.

A couple of hours after I got there the market was winding down and I reluctantly headed to my car thinking about the distance to this market and reducing my carbon bite. If the morning had only been about the potatoes I'd cringe but this market is more than local food, it's local character. It's irresistible.