Category — Markets

After kayaking in Point Reyes’ Drake’s Estero, an awesome bay full of hundreds of birds, wildlife, seals and more, my boyfriend and I tried some cool organic places on our way home from Marin.

Our first stop was at Point Reyes Station, a tiny cute village at the southern end of Tomales Bay, next to Point Reyes national seashore. We found a wonderful store called Toby’s Feed Barn, and inside were local and organic produce, honeys, grains, and even organic animal feed for ranchers in the area. Next to the barn was an organic coffee and tea shop and a yoga center. On Saturdays, this barn hosts the only all local, all certified organic produce market in the Bay Area sponsored by Marin Organic. Toby’s is located on Main Street in Point Reyes Station.

Our next stop going home was in Fairfax, another lovely town in Marin County, but much bigger than Point Reyes Station. We stopped downtown and passed a slew of yoga, alternative medicine, and funky clothing shops. But the best thing we found was Lydia’s Lovin Foods, an organic vegetarian restaurant with live and cooked foods. The decor was warm, the waitress very friendly and food was fast. We tried the Ocean Friendly Nori Roll, filled with sprouted almont pate, avocado, cucumber, lettuce wrapped in nori. Vivek got a detoxing special soup made out of cucumber, celery, and more. He also got a side of very Green Salad–this is the way a salad should be, not like the one in Flea Street Cafe. This salad was fresh, tasty, and had a great flavor (We tried the tahini ginger dressing). The cucumber soup and Nori roll really hit the spot. I’d definitely recommend this place; apparently other people have already, it’s won awards last year for best vegetarian and vegan cuisine and best caterer.

You’ve also probably seen Lydia’s sold at Whole Foods, Rainbow Grocery and other health food stores. They’re known for their raw and sprouted cookies and crackers. I definitely think this is worth trying. Lydia’s is in Fairfax, located at 31 Bolinas Road.

As some of you may know, thanks to a letter by a food critic, Michael Pollen, Whole Foods had announced a plan to focus on sourcing from local farms. The CEO of Whole Foods outlines his response and features Bay Area farms as an example. Let’s hope Whole Foods keeps its promise on focusing on these smaller farms. It’s great that the Whole Foods CEO has a blog. Check out the rest of it here.

My boyfriend and I discovered a new market near our place in San Carlos yesterday afternoon. We checked out Sigona’s, a 20 year old local market with outposts in Stanford Shopping Center and a much larger one in Redwood City, across from Costco. Once we stepped in, we were surrounded by produce everywhere shipped in daily. They clearly had organic produce labeled with reasonable pricing and selection. The only complaint I have is that I couldn’t tell which farm or region the produce came from. There were some farm names, but not consistently labeled. Located in Stanford Shopping Center, Stanford and at 2345 Middlefield Road, Redwood City.

Often people in SF go straight to Whole Foods, the Ferry Market or local food store to get produce. My favorite place in the city is Rainbow Grocery. It’s a co-op with all natural, some organic and only vegetarian food. It’s like a wholesaler (Costco) with bulk foods, local produce and a big selection of personal care and vitamins.

People bypass this not so glamorous looking warehouse building, but once you step inside, you’ll find an awesome array of foods for a good price. I found organic safflower oil, 3 varieties of organic bulk soy sauce and olive oil. The produce was extremely fresh, mainly from local farms.

Don’t miss this place! Located on 1745 Folsom St (@14th St) in San Francisco.

I had been hanging out at my high school friend, Nakako’s, living room and saw a flyer for japanese groceries on the floor. I picked it up and saw alot of specials on organic tofu ($1) and organic soy sauce, and produce. She told me Japanese people naturally have a lot of organic food. I went to the Nijaya in San Francisco and San Mateo. SF is much bigger, but San Mateo still had alot of Japanese staples. Some of the things I saw organic was ginger, broccoli, soy sauce, somen, soba noodles to name a few. Nijiya is located in San Mateo, San Francisco and Mountain View.

I had lunch with a my friend Lis at work the other day and she recommended checking out West Side Organics. Given that she works 12 hours a day, she told me that she wanted only one place to shop for both produce and groceries that were organic. Westside Organics was voted Best Home Delivery Service of 2005 through San Francisco Magazine.

Pro: You can get both produce and groceries straight to your door, better than a CSA that just does produce. Prices seem reasonable, though not a huge discount like Rainbow Grocery or CSAs.

Con: It doesn’t specify which farmers they source from locally or nationally. However, if your hours are as bad as Lis’ and you don’t mind that the produce isn’t local; this might be for you.

Since when did Safeway become so organic? I tried their organic blue corn tortilla chips with flaxseed and salsa from their “O –Organics” line. I was so surprised by the quality–this could have been either from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods’ private organic line.

However, I would not recommend their produce. The veggies lack flavor; it was one of the worst broccolis I have tasted.

Pros: Good for non produce staples, convenient location and hours
Cons: Not local, poor produce quality