Fresh from Our Farmers: Season begins for Healdsburg farmers market

On Saturday morning at 9 a.m., the legendary cow bell will mark the start of the Healdsburg Certified Farmers Market’s 2015 season.

This is a particularly special and poignant start to the season. In January, Nancy Skall, beloved farmer and founder of Middleton Farm, passed away, leaving her carefully tended fields of succulent strawberries, delicious rhubarb, extraordinary asparagus and more in limbo. Now there’s good news. Earlier this week, escrow closed on the property, located on Westside Road, and the new owners, Anne and Monty Woods, have been moving forward quickly getting permits and such in place. The Woods are hoping to retain the farm’s long-time manager, which will guarantee the remarkable quality and diversity of the farm’s harvest. If things unfold as expected, Middleton Farm will attend on opening day.

All of the farm’s core vendors are returning, including Preston Farm, Bernier Farm, Foggy River Farm, Ridgeview Farm, La Bonne Terre, Reyes Farm, Blasi Farm, Carrot Top Farm, Geyserville Gardens, Ortiz Farm, New Family Farm, Basurto Farm and Alexander Valley Farm. You’ll find nettles, kales and chards, a huge array of lettuces, fresh favas, spring garlic, spring onions, asparagus, strawberries, arugula, spinach, radishes, salad mix and braising mix, carrots, radishes, oranges and, maybe, artichokes. There will be plenty of fresh herbs, too, including some of the season’s first basil, and lots of plant starts, including a wonderful array of tomatoes from Soda Rock Farms. Both Preston Farm and Foggy River Farm will have local grains.

Healdsburg Charter School’s first-grade class, taught by Maria Hadley, will have a booth, too, selling vegetable starts from their class garden. Proceeds support the gardening and nutrition classes at the school.

Vyborny Ranch of Geyserville has eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts and cut flowers. Busalacchi Farms has the year’s first cherries, Neufeld Farms has nuts, dried fruit and the first of the season’s summer fruit.

Owen Family Farm and Ford Ranch attend with a wide array of pastured meats. Ford specializes in beef; Owen has goat, lamb, pork, sausages, pet treats and, sometimes, rabbit and raw pet food. Franco Duun’s One World Sausages is here, too, with his constantly rotating selection of international sausages.

Deergnaw Olive Oil attends this market with their estate olive oil. Gourmet Growers of Petaluma offers several species of mushrooms. Pug’s Leap has cheese.

There will be no seafood at the opening market but Dave Legro hopes to have fresh-caught salmon by May 9; the season opens this Friday.

Sonoma Compost will be giving away compost (bring a 5-gallon bucket or feed bag), Sonoma County Master Gardens will be on hand to offer advice and Farm to Pantry, a local gleaning organization, will attend opening day, too.

There is plenty to eat and drink at the this market, including beverages from Biotic Beverage and Sonoma County Juice Company and coffee, sweets and savories from Jimtown Store.

This market typically has fewer craft and other non-food vendors than other markets, as the bylaws limit the number to five at any given market. Several rotate throughout the year.

The Healdsburg Farmers Market, founded in 1978 and managed by Kenny Lowe, takes place on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon one block west of the town plaza, at North and Vine Streets from the first Saturday in May through the last Saturday in November. For more information, visit healdsburgfarmersmarket.com.

Michele Anna Jordan has written 19 books to date, including the new “More Than Meatballs.” Email Jordan at catsmilk@sonic.net. You’ll find her blog, “Eat This Now,” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.