Adventures at the Kensington Farmers Market

Just when I was jonesin’ for a farmers market experience,  I got an email from Lynn Voight of All Things Olive, one of our vendors at the Olney Farmers and Artists Market.  She sells at the year-round Kensington Market on Saturdays and wanted her customers to know that one of her suppliers would be visiting her tent that week.  Coincidentally, I am reading Tom Mueller’s  book Extra Virginity, about the “sublime and scandalous world of olive oil,” with intention to review it soon.

I took it as a sign that I should make this one of my first extended forays outside since my heart problems.  I was glad I did.

Jon Fadhl is the owner of Jovia Groves from Dixon, CA.  As one of the 300 or so small, independent growers in California, Georgia, Texas, Oregon, and Arizona, he represents a segment that, taken together, consists of less than 1% of the olive oil market.  Jovia Groves has earned the California Olive Oil Council’s independent certification as a producer of  true extra virgin olive oil.  On his ranch outside Sacramento, he and his wife Sylvia grow and bottle a boutique oil which, like all the oil Lynn and Keith sell, is far superior to any mass-produced oil and guaranteed to be 100% extra virgin.

Jon is a paradigm of the class of artisans who are devoted to making the best product possible from local sources.  He has a full-time job in addition to raising olive trees, and is a competitive water-skier as well (can you say “overachiever?”)  His oil will be available from All Things Olive when OFAM opens May 13th.

Frankly…Pizza!  Both an exclamation and the name of another vendor at Kensington who will be joining us at OFAM this spring.  They have a portable, wood-burning clay oven in which they bake thin-crusted pies of amazing crunch and succulence.  We weren’t clued in that they sell out every market day, so we counted ourselves lucky to snag their very last pie of the day.  They’ll be a fine addition to our market.

One vendor we don’t expect to see in Olney but I couldn’t resist mentioning is Krishon Chocolates, because of their unique display of chocolate dinosaurs hatching from eggs.  A different kind of Easter egg, sure to give the Bunny conniptions!