{"id":1235,"date":"2019-03-30T18:51:11","date_gmt":"2019-03-30T18:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1235"},"modified":"2019-03-30T18:51:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T18:51:11","slug":"the-windsor-certified-farmers-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1235","title":{"rendered":"The Windsor Certified Farmers Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

We first discovered the town of Windsor when we sought out a restaurant that used to be there, called Mirepoix.\u00a0 It was quite good in its day, but as with many businesses, their dreams of expansion led to its closing.\u00a0 As far as we could tell, there was no particular reason to return to this little village without that restaurant being there.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t apply to the wineries in the geographic area designated as Windsor.\u00a0 As with the rest of Sonoma County, the towns incorporate huge swaths of land surrounding a market town, such as Sebastopol, Santa Rosa<\/a> or Healdsburg<\/a>.\u00a0 The town leaders have painted the houses in pastel colors giving the downtown area an Americana charm or a Universal Studios glitz, depending on your tastes.\u00a0 As mentioned, there are no renowned restaurants, no hotels except some motels along the Route 101 highway.\u00a0 Windsor seems to be a place that you pass through on your way to somewhere else.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Sonoma County Tourism<\/em><\/p>\n

Except if you happen to be there on a Sunday morning or a Thursday evening in growing season.\u00a0 Then on the Town Green in the middle of Windsor you\u2019ll find an extensive farmers market.\u00a0 We had stopped one Sunday for some breakfast before wine tasting and wound up spending several enjoyable hours there instead.\u00a0 When you\u2019re in California Wine Country, you always need to be aware that there are many farmers who grow crops other than grapes.\u00a0 And the same natural forces that foster fabulous grapes do the same for melons, squash, peppers, peaches, apples, strawberries\u2026<\/p>\n

This is the Windsor Certified Farmers Market.\u00a0 We have no idea who has certified it nor for what.\u00a0 It is as close to a French march<\/em>\u00e9<\/em> as anything we\u2019ve seen in the United States.\u00a0 And much as at those march\u00e9s, <\/em>there are numerous artisans with stands at the Windsor market.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find cheeses, home-made pickles, beeswax candles, macram\u00e9, hanging glass amulets\u2026all the hippy-dippy stuff you\u2019d expect at a California market.<\/p>\n

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A Summer Night on the Green in Windsor.\u00a0 (Note the painted buildings in the background.) Photo courtesy of windsorfarmersmarket.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s usually a musical stage at the Sunday markets and from the end of May through Labor Day there are Summer Nights on the Green concerts during the Thursday markets.\u00a0 The latter are mostly rock, country and Latin which may or may not appeal to you.<\/p>\n

We can almost hear you thinking. \u201cI\u2019ve got a great farmers market at home.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to go to Wine Country for this.\u201d\u00a0 Now, there\u2019s something to be said for the superiority of California fruit but we\u2019re sure that your local farmers raise delicious produce as well.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the reason to go to the Windsor Certified Farmers Market.\u00a0 This is your chance to rub shoulders with the local populace, many of whom are the same people who raise and harvest the grapes and make the wine that you did come to Wine Country for.\u00a0 In keeping with the same spirit that failed to support a fancy French restaurant, this market is intended to attract the neighbors, not the tourists.<\/p>\n

An important reason to travel for wine tasting is that you learn about more than what comes in the bottle.\u00a0 You learn about the whole culture that produced that wine, very much including the people and their customs.\u00a0 That\u2019s true in France, Spain, Italy and the US as well.\u00a0 So take a little time when you\u2019re in Sonoma County and come to Windsor to meet the folks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We first discovered the town of Windsor when we sought out a restaurant that used to be there, called Mirepoix.\u00a0 It was quite good in its day, but as with many businesses, their dreams of expansion led to its closing.\u00a0 As far as we could tell, there was no particular reason to return to this … Continue reading The Windsor Certified Farmers Market<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1238,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions\/1238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}