Fresh: Green String offers fresh eggs and veggies

If you are looking for eggs this winter and having trouble finding them, here’s a little secret: Green String Farm Store in Petaluma gathers its eggs twice daily from the happy hens who live adjacent to the store. They are set out at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

The store, located at Green String Farm and next to Green String Institute, is an excellent year-round source for local produce, olive oil, vinegar, grass-fed meat, butter, cheese and locally grown and milled grains.

The current harvest includes brussels sprouts on the stalk, plenty of great turnips, a few rutabagas, carrots, beets and a bounty of cabbage. There are several varieties of kale, beautiful rainbow chard and both green and red mustard greens.

Fennel and celery are just getting started, as are leeks and big heads of lettuce. You’ll find radishes, too, and onions, along with a lot of winter squash, including Sugar Pie pumpkins.

New crops of mandarin oranges and Lisbon lemons are just starting to come in, too, and there may be a few of the season’s last pomegranates.

There is bulk olive oil from Sonoma and 20-year-old red wine vinegar, made from Sonoma Mountain zinfandel. Both freezers are full, one with grass-fed ground beef and one with a variety of grass-fed beef cuts.

Freshly milled whole Einkorn wheat flour is currently available, too.

Green String always has a variety of estate preserves that change seasonally. Currently, you’ll find tomato sauce, sliced tomatoes, sliced quince, quince sauce, applesauce, nectarine jam, plum jam, peach jam and more. A selection of Vella cheeses and butter is available, too, along with raw honey, raw almonds, dried herbs and herbal salves. Every time I stop by, there is something new and wonderful.

Prices are quite reasonable, in part because so much is raised right here. Nothing is gussied up; it is presented simply, with most root vegetables still cloaked in a layer of earth, which provides protection. Eggs, too, have their natural protective film, which means they can be safely stored at room temperature.

I think of Green String Farm Store as a farm stand for the people, not for the privileged, affordable to almost everyone. Shopping here is a joy, with the institute’s interns eager to engage with customers.

Green String Farm, founded in 2003 by Bob Cannard Jr. and Fred Cline and open to the public since 2006, is located at 3571 Old Adobe Road (at the corner of Frates Road) in northeast Petaluma. During the winter months, it is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information about Green String’s programs and practices, visit greenstringinstitute.org and greenstringfarm.com.

Michele Anna Jordan has written 18 books to date, including the new “More Than Meatballs.” Email Jordan at michele@saladdresser.com. You’ll find her blog, “Eat This Now,” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.