California Central Coast Wine and Food Guide.

We arrived at the Templeton Farmers Market about half past nine and the shoppers were in full force. Everyone seemed busy buying their food and treats for their upcoming Thanksgiving day feasts. We too, were on a "mission" to buy some special treats for our loved ones far away. The vendors were well aware of everyone's needs stocking an unusual big selection of food products so not to disappoint.

As we walked past Mike and Carol Broadhurst' s Dragon Spring Farm booth, Mike and his wife were busy restocking their booth with their delicious squash and pumpkins from their truck. I waved and said hello to them as they worked.

Just down from them, Rick Cody from the Cody Farms Booth was busy putting out more of his dried fruit and nuts. His fresh pecans are exceptionally good this year. We stopped and purchased a pound of pecans to use in one of my grandmother's cookie recipes. I hope I have time to try and make a few dozen for Christmas-they're delicious!

We continued on and as we went past Debbie Paver of Charter Oak Style booth, we saw that she was in the midst of negotiating some lamb and pork sales of her great quality organically-raised farmed meat.

Stopping at the Paso Almonds booth, we inquired from Stephan Joyce, their salesman, what new products he had for sale this holiday season. Besides his "Sweet Hots', "Almond Brittle" which he sells for $10.00 a one pound bag, he also has Almond Butter- a nine ounce jar for $5.00. And for "carmel-corn lovers", he has Paso Almonds Brittle Corn which he sells for $5.00 a large bag.

He also has two new products that are not available to Templeton Farmers Market customers: "Almond Biscotti" (the traditional Italian-styled cookie) and "Marzi Bars" (A Marzipan baked confection.) Due to non-compete regulations, he's only allowed to sell them at the Cambria and Atascadero Farmers Markets in the North County. We were allowed to taste both though. They're delicious! -Worth a trip to one of the other markets. He told us, that we could also order them via phone by calling 805 549-9126.

Before leaving his booth we decided to buy some of his current selections for little Christmas gifts to friends and family. These are such great little inexpensive-but much appreciated gifts to give when you're on a budget but yet want to remember someone at Christmas-time!

Just next to the Paso Almond booth were John and Barbara Pierszalowski at their Kiak Seafoods booth that sells their Wild Alaskan Salmon for $11.00 a pound. Barbara walked over and gave a friendly hello while husband John was tending their booth.Their salmon is picture-perfect!

Walking back to the other end of the Park, we noticed two different faces at the Stoltey's Bee Farm Booth. Why it was the owners Paul and Jean Stoltey! We had to stop and say hello and get the status of their bees and their honey varieties.

Paul Stoltey told us that right now, the bees are dormant and will continue to be until February or so. I asked him when they might have the Eucalyptus honey again. He told us, "due to the lack of rain this last year, the bees didn't pollinate any of the Eucalyptus trees." He's hoping this next rainy season "won't disappoint us again. If there isn't much rain, we'll only have the clover and orange blossom honeys."

The Stotleys also sell several sizes of organic bee pollen for those of you that have allergies and use pollen on a regular basis. Their honeys also now come in four different sizes. If you want to call the Stolteys about their honey and pollen, you can call 805 466-0473.

Before leaving the market, we stopped at the NPO Organic Pistachios booth where owners Cecil and Donna were again selling their fresh roasted farm-grown Pistachios. I asked them how they've been and how this year's crop is.

They said this year's crop (nation-wide) is dramatically down from normal years. For some reason the pistachios crops are only twenty-five percent of usual-sized crops! So shoppers plan ahead and buy your pistachios now. Their pistachios have been farmed organically, roasted and lightly-salted with sea salt and are also available salt-free. They think they'll be sold out by February, since their crop is so small. So plan ahead.

With the brisk breezes blowing, and a list of other stops we had to do before heading home, we decided to call it a day and take our "finds" to the car before we got any colder. Next time, I hope we we'll be able to meander a little more and not be so rushed.

Hope to see you next time and in the meantime, have a Happy Thanksgiving!