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Caramel Corn to Basil
The Oakland Farmer's Market at Jack London Square
By Peggy Vincent
Between the two of them – the eggplant lady and the mushroom man – I had the perfect two-minute appetizer for a dinner party.
By this time, our bags and baskets overflowed with produce, and some growers had already taken down their big umbrellas. Sellers who didn't want to truck their produce home with them slashed prices, and we purchased armloads of fresh flowers at less than half price – lilies, snapdragons, iris, statice, campanula – all in my favorite shades of pink and purple. The pretty, dark-eyed teenager wrapping the bouquets in newspaper handed each of us a sunflower as we walked away.
Oh, no. The caramel corn. We had to walk right past it to get to the parking lot. "Please!" the children begged.
"Of course, of course, of course," I said, and we stood watching the popcorn maker. He pulled a welder's mask over his face and stirred the spattering, open cauldron with a three-foot-long paddle. At least an inch of popped corn crunched underfoot, and the swarthy young men shoveling the sweet popcorn into plastic bags could barely keep up with demand.
However, we soon walked off with our own pillow-sized bag of caramel corn – and big smiles on our faces. Smiles big enough to last till next Sunday.
Here's all you need to know to visit the farmers' market:
- Jack London Square Farmers' Market is located in Oakland, Calif., at Broadway and Embarcadero. It operates year round on Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- One hour of free parking, with validation, is offered by local parking garages.
- Aubergine Eggplant Pesto available from www.maringourmet.com.
- For a list of other California farmers markets log on to www.starchefs.com/FarmFresh/California.htm.
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