October 1 – 8 . . .
Meder Street Sunday Market
If you’re like us, you live for August and September — dry-farm tomato season! The best, the most intensely-flavored, the juiciest – tomatoes the way the Great Mother intended them to be.
And there are lots of terrific tomatoes out there at our farmers markets. But now I know the source of the very best.
Meder Street Market is a boutique stand open at the bustling (ha!) crossroads of Meder & Western Drive on the Westside.
Sundays from 10am until 3pm, you can find neighbors hanging out over bins of brilliantly-hued flowers, basils, onions, tomatoes, squashes, beans. It’s a charming, laid-back scene where the best tomatoes in the area go for a mere $3/lb.
Organic, home-grown, yeah baby!
NuLu @ Capitola Book Cafe
Restless Lulu Carpenters entrepreneur Manthri Srinath emailed to tell me that his empire now stretches from Scotts Valley, through downtown Santa Cruz and over to….Capitola!
Caffeine enabler Srinath has installed all the sensitive and jolting coffee drinks and pastries we’ve come to demand of Lulu’s at the long, cozy coffee bar of Capitola Book Cafe. This is very good news to discerning coffee fanatics who love great books. Okay, and summer beach books too.
“We’re open 6am-10pm Mon-Fri, 7am-10pm Saturday, and 7am-8pm Sunday,” explains Srinath. “The bookstore still opens at 9am, but us coffee people like to start early.” I’ll drink to that.
Yet another reason to stop by Capitola Book Cafe – in the 41st Avenue & Capitola Road vortex, next to the 41st Avenue Cinema.
Getting Fresh
The Farm Cart is back at the foot of the UCSC campus, every Tuesday and Friday, and it’s loaded with crisp greens, long-stemmed cippolini onions, herbs, flowers and berries.
Ah, the blueberries and strawberries have been especially wonderful this year. Maybe it’s the drought, but the flavors this year are notably intensified, distilled, utterly childhood revisited.
Stop by from noon to 6pm, Tuesday and Friday, and get something truly fresh for your dinner. Everything is grown just up the hill at the Center for Agroecology‘s organic farm.
A Bite of Bastille
Muriel and Michel of Au Midi invite all of their friends and patrons to come to the great French summer fest known as Bastille Day — Tuesday, July 14th, naturellement!
The intimate Aptos bistro will be open that evening by reservation only, for a limited seating of French food, music and ambience. The holiday menu includes chilled gazpacho, paella Provençal, and fig tart — for a special prix fixe of $25 per person (tax & tip not included).
Allons enfants de la Patrie!
Au Midi is located at 7960 Soquel Drive (behind the Aptos Cinema). 831-685-2600
Block Party Bonanza
Obviously it was an idea whose time had arrived. The idea of an outdoor community dinner seemed simple enough. But who knew that it would be so wildly popular that even before the 6pm start time the long table between Kelly’s and its companion wineries was packed. Grills were blazing, families had staked out turf on the long, long table — which was quickly joined by every piece of furniture the popular bakery-bistro could find.
The idea of inviting folks to bring their own glasses, plates and utensils, to purchase dinner dishes from a variety of tempting open-air stations, and then to just somehow go with the happy chaotic flow – well it worked. Gloriously.
Everyone seemed willing to play, and the warm summer evening helped everything 
work. From across the parking lot, Cellar Door chef Charlie Parker (shown here in white) set up a station offering gorgeous fingerfood as well as the inventive wines of Randall Grahm.
Always willing to take chances, to create little islands of social warmth and to never take themselves too seriously – Mark and Kelly Sanchez just keep getting it right.
Inside the Flame
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.