Newport farmers market adding activities

The weekly event on Sundays in struggling Lido Marina Village is a boost to the area, businessman says.

The Newport Beach Farmers’ Market in Lido Marina Village is adding free cooking demonstrations, activities for children, raffle prizes and additional vendors in mid-October, according to a market organizer.

Le Pain Quotidien in Fashion Island has partnered with the market to bring the all-new Chef-to-Farmer Series.

The weekly cooking demonstrations will highlight select produce with simple recipes created from ingredients straight from the local vendors, said market Manager Elle Mari.

“We want to be a resource that’s there for the community,” she said. “The community just needs to come out and take advantage of it.”

The cooking demos are aimed at drawing in crowds, but the real hope is that the new series will help transform the one-time visitor into a weekly shopper, Mari said.

Which is where education provided by Jonathan Eng, head baker for Le Pain Quotidien who is helping lead the new collaboration, comes into play.

“Most people have a preconceived notion when they look at a tomato of what they want to do with that tomato,” he said.

But, if you can show a new recipe and give a few ideas, that person will have more reasons to cook with tomatoes — thus, buying more and providing much-needed business to the local farmer, Eng said.

“One of my reasons for doing this is to improve the state of the market,” Eng said. “If I can commit to buying two cases of, say, raspberries a week, then that relieves some of the pressure from the farmer.”

Small family-operated farms don’t produce quantities of produce large enough to stock grocery store chains, so they rely on farmers markets, such as those run by nonprofit Sprouts of Promise, which runs the Newport Beach Farmers’ Market on Sundays and Costa Mesa’s SoCo Farmers’ Market on Saturdays, Mari said…

Read more of this article by the Daily Pilot here: “Newport farmers market adding activities”.