2016 Foodshed Project Series

Santa Cruz Community Farmers’ Market Kick Off Event

By Nicole Zahm

The Foodshed Project (FSP) is coming into its fourth season at the Downtown Santa Cruz Farmers’ Market and we are so excited to bring it back. A free, at-market educational program of the Santa Cruz Community Farmers’ Markets, FSP brings out farmers, food artisans, community-based organizations and local chefs to visit, teach and share their experience with residents and customers.

Featuring a summer/fall event series, FSP highlights various food issues, offering mini-classes, hands-on activities and storytelling at the market. Our goal is to illuminate and support the important work being done in our regional Foodshed.

Successful in 2012–15 spotlighting acts including the well-loved Route 1 and Pinnacle Farms, Dirty Girl Produce, Penny Ice Creamery, El Salchichero, and Companion Bakeshop, this year brings another outstanding line up. June through September FSP events are hosted at the Downtown Santa Cruz Farmers’ Market at 3 p.m. the second Wednesday of each month. Presenters are the market farmers and vendors themselves who highlight the history of specific foods and agricultural practices while putting delicious tastings of strawberry pie, blackberry ice cream and grass-fed meatballs in the hands of customers.

FSP also partners with organizations such as Food, What?!, the Museum of Art and History, Bike Santa Cruz County, offering a venue for local leaders, young and old, to educate the community about ecological farming and food justice. 

The first Foodshed Project event of the 2016 season, Pie In The Sky, is just around the corner on June 8.

Swanton Berry Farm propelled organic strawberry growing into the spotlight in the 1970s and they are still at it. At this pie party they shed light on local strawberry history while Companion Bakeshop knocks your socks off with tasty, pastry pandemonium — FREE pie all around. Visit the Photo booth lead by a Museum of Art and History youth crew, make some very, berry art, get your face painted, win prizes, listen to fine live music and take a turn with the bicycle-powered blender.