We’re sponsoring musicians Coco and Lafe on their 2011 “Get Fresh” 100 Market Tour across the U.S.! You heard right, 100 farmers markets coast to coast! Don’t forget to check out the page dedicated to them on our blog, and today we have an update from them!
From California to the Treasure Coast of Florida, we drove 2400 miles and received an education in homegrown and handspun fibers, and an exciting overview of hydroponic and vertical farming in hurricane country.
This map shows where we expect to be on this next tour. Over 60 markets are booked already. You can see the map in real time here.
The Vista Farmers Market in California is managed by Mark Wall. Three years ago we shot our “Get Fresh” video for farmers markets there, along with our press kit video and a music video. You can see the 30 second “Get Fresh Video” here on YouTube or on our website.
FRESH HEROES
Some Of The Amazing People We Meet At The Markets
Kids and adults trying a spinning wheel at the market? Homegrown and handspun yarn, soft hats, luxurious rugs with no wool itching?
Kathy Lambert, a retired school teacher, sets up one of her spinners every week at the Vista Farmers Market in Vista, California. She’s a present example of where our clothes come from, or should come from.
30 plus years on the farm, she and her husband raise the llamas, sheep and goats, shear them and spin the wool.
She read and believes the practice: “Support the view you want to see. Do you want to see a factory or a pasture with sheep in it?” She’s also a sweetheart. Take a look at beauty at Rancho Borrego Negro’s home on the web.
This is Angel, one of the happy residents at Rancho Borrego Negro. You can own her fleece here.
Imperial Beach, California Farmers Market
We’ve played over 100 farmers markets coast to coast, and this is one of the most beautiful settings of all them. Which is saying a lot if you’ve seen Colorado’s and Maine’s.
This is our view from the microphone.
Deanna Rose is the manager and greets us with a hug. Even the surrounding retailers treat us like royalty. I walked into a coffee shop called Cowabunga, and the owners recognized me from a picture in their local paper and asked “Is Coco with you?” I explained she was setting up the sound system (you see how it is? I’m getting coffee while she’s busting butt. I can explain.). They insisted on giving me a homemade, fragrant whole-grain muffin to take to her.
Why do I love this life?
Delray Beach GreenMarket, Delray, Florida
Thomas Produce Company, Boca Raton, Florida
Meet Cindy Thomas.
“My grandfather came from Italy in 1902 and started the farm in Buffalo, [New York].”
Her grandfather, Angelo Thomas, dynamited the stumps to grow beans and other vegetables.
In the 50’s, her father, John Thomas Sr., added the Florida farm.
Today, John Thomas Sr. is 90 years old and “shows up at 7 a.m.” already moving fast. He and his seven children, along with about 90 employees, farm 4,000 acres in New York and another 17,000 acres in Florida. They truck produce back and forth as the harvest and weather shifts.
They produce 10 million boxes of tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans and cucumbers.
They grow 5,000 acres of green beans. “This year, with the cold weather, we covered 1,000 acres of green beans. What we didn’t cover burned [frost] right down to the ground.”
Who’s afraid of hard work? Me; that’s why I’m a musician, but no one in the Thomas family.
The Real Time Farms Blog 
These three (Lilla included) are waaaayyy cool to listen to and watch perform. It’s sorta’ embarrassing to admit, but they all got their musical talent from me!
Very Neat! We have an historical society in Ontario and its located in farming country here so the animals are very familar…. I was actually searching for a friend by the name of “Cindy Thomas” that comes to mind quite often as I wanted to marry her some years ago.
Thanks and keep up the good work,
Denny