Marketplace Chat Table & Cooks' Club

Come Join the Club and Come Home to Cooking

The Marketplace is not only an assembly of open-air stalls filled to the brim with locally grown farmer-direct produce, handcrafted goods and delicious ready-to-eat foods. It’s that central place where people have regularly gathered down through the ages in cities and villages around the world to stock up on provisions and to hawk their opinions along with their wares. To meet up with friends, gossip, flirt, debate, sing, dance, drink, and eat. To feel nourished and released in an atmosphere of exchange that keeps us in step with life and its countless possibilities. To give and get support both for and from the vitality in our own community.

So here’s a new way to join this club of bon vivants. Welcome to my Marketplace Chat Table.  It’s like a chat room with instant feedback, only out-of-doors and with real live people. It’s a social club for would-be and practiced cooks, a market basket shopping tutorial, a supplementary discussion group and brainstorming session that helps inspire you to make the most of all the lovely things you’ve just bought and puts into practice a lot of the underlying principles we talk about in the Come Home to Cooking classes. Become a member and you can take your place around our table any Wednesday evening this summer at the Petaluma Farmers’ Market.  Come celebrate the season as you live the joy of making yourself at home in our marketplace.

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS INCLUDE:

• The gift of a generous, green Come Home to Cooking Market Bag [insulated & zippered] to keep your produce lively until you can get it home [one per subscribing member].
• A companion Take-Home List of Individual Produce Storage Guidelines.
• The Chance to Start Fresh Every Week with Professional Culinary Advice.
• An Ongoing Produce Tutorial with Selecting & Buying Tips.
• A Recipe & Menu Brainstorming Session.
• Learning What It Means to Make the Most of Your Shopping Dollar & “Waste Not, Want Not.”
• More Delicious & Nutritious Food Simply Made by Starting with the Best.
• Developing a More Personal Relationship with Our Local Growers.
• Investing in Support from and for Our Community While Reducing Your Carbon Footprint.
• A Place to Sit & Eat with Gratitude in Good Company. [You can get something from one of the wonderful market food vendors or else feel free to bring yourself a little picnic from home.]

DATES: Every Wednesday starting June 10 and running through August 26, 2009
TIME: Come anytime between 4:30-8:00 pm [SEE SCHEDULE of ACTIVITIES BELOW]
PLACE: On Second Street between B & C Streets in downtown Petaluma
MEMBERSHIP DUES: [Both subscriptions include the Come Home to Cooking market bag gift.]

• 4-Week Subsription: $80 [Come any 4 weeks you want.]
• Full Season Subscription: $160 [Come to any or all of the 12 summer market weeks AND enjoy the extra benefit of choosing any one week to bring along a friend at no extra charge.]
• Single Visit Drop-In: $25 [Can be credited toward a subsequent membership subscription.]

For my planning purposes it would be great to know even a day in advance if you are planning to come to our Marketplace Chat Table that week, but please feel welcome and encouraged to just show up last minute whenever it works for you. And if you come to market with your partner in life, please let them know that your membership entitles them to join us as space allows.

HOW TO JOIN:
Membership will have to be limited to provide enough room for everyone’s comfort within our 10’ x 10’ covered market space. Dues can be paid at the market, but to secure Your Place Around Our Table in advance…

Please make your check out to Come Home to Cooking, include your:

• phone number
• email address
  And Mail to:
  Come Home To Cooking
  PO Box 2891
  Petaluma, CA 94953-2891

Upon receipt I will send you a confirmation email with directions and details. Please note that confirmed membership dues are non-refundable.

Marketplace Chat Table Schedule of Activities

[These meetings are structured like an informal class with the following format, but please feel welcome to come join us any time that works best with your schedule.]

4:30 – 5:30: TOUR THE MARKET WITH KAY for a Produce Tutorial with Selecting & Buying Advice.
5:30 – 6:30: MEET UP BACK AT THE CLUB TENT to Assess Everyone’s Purchases, Review Effective Storage Guidelines, and Discuss Recipe & Menu Ideas to Help You Make the Best Use of Everything You Take Home [bring a notebook & your questions].
6:30 – 8:00: GET YOUR PICNIC SUPPER from one of the wonderful Market Food Vendors [and/or bring something from home] and GATHER BACK AROUND OUR MARKETPLACE CHAT TABLE to Celebrate the Timeless Joy of Eating Together in Good Company while still talking more about food and cooking with visits from the farmers. Ahhh, the Good Life.

"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."  [Somerset Maugham]

See you at the market!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Max Baumhefner]

Hey carrot top! Thanks for the shout-out with my grade school quotation in the tomato class description. Thanks for all the great food that's keeping me sustained through the bar exam, and to Pop as well for all the awesome bread that's been key.