It was difficult to find, but the Tuesday Santa Fe Farmers Market was a nice little gem that was worth the effort. It may not have the expanse and star power of the ones we visited last week in Hollywood and Sana Monica, but there was a nice assortment of growers with local produce. We were told the Saturday market (held in the back parking area of a shopping mall) is three times the size and has three times the attendance. Definitely worth seeing next visit.

 

 

Well. It’s not Marin County’s Farmers Market or the one at Union Square in New York, but the Okaloosa County Farmers Market in Northwest Florida features some good produce. To be honest, it’s a farmer’s market as opposed to a farmers market, as only one vendor showed up on a Tuesday (it operates Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). Ruth’s Produce (I think it’s Ruth & her son) had cukes, tomatoes, radishes, potatoes and a bunch of stuff that’s rather foreign to a Yankee like me. It’s about 30 minutes from Destin as you snake you way through Ft. Walton Beach and Mary Esther. Actually, I think it’s close to the Okaloosa Airport (which is the airport we will fly to next time we come here).

Back in March, when we attended the World Baseball Classic in San Diego, we happened upon the great Hillcrest Market. We are in town to see Dylan perform, so we went back to the market and were entertained by the 7^th Day Buskers. And we were pleased to see pluots still are in season.

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We were totally wiped out on Friday morning, but gathered enough steam to hop on The Tube and make our way to the Borough Market. It's similar to The Ferry Plaza Market in San Francisco with a mix of permanent vendors and temporary stalls. We'll be back!

Ah yes, life (and video) is more than baseball. Really. On our quick trip to Cleveland, we took the RTA out to the West Side Market. While it’s supposed to be at its peak on Saturdays that might be a tight squeeze as we head home late tomorrow morning. In addition to the produce stands on the outside portion, there are permanent stalls inside the building that contain bakeries, meat and poultry markets, spice shops and even more.

Ok, call me a homer, but while Cleveland’s West Side Market is great, I have to say I like Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal a bit better. Where else can you find chocolate-covered licorice and world-class sticky buns?

We cannot visit California without a trip to a farmers market. This one, San Diego’s Hillcrest Farmers Market, is open 9 am-1 pm Sundays, rain nor shine. We liked it even better than the ones in Ocean Beach and Carlsbad in terms of variety of produce and assorted food products.

 

In addition to blood oranges, radishes and other transportable fare, we purchased tea and spices at Conscious Cookery, a small yet stellar stand with a variety of spices, teas, beans and dried corn products. I see that the owner of the stand also has a blog that is very well done.

 

We’ll be back—and next time we'll bring more money.

In today's installment, Allen and Mike 'cast about the evolving online video market -- a subject we'll be returning to regularly.  For today, we'll focus on Apple's iTunes vs. Google's online video offering. Will consumer-created content be a deciding factor in who owns the online video market?

After visiting the Farmers Markets in Carefree, DC Ranch and Downtown Phoenix, we landed on the best one, that being the Wednesday “chef’s market” at the Town & Country Shopping Center at 16^th and Camelback along the “Camelback Corridor.”

Here’s a quick tour of the market; there will be a separate video of a few of the cooler vendors.

Not to rub it in to those shivering masses, but we wandered down to the farmers market in Central Phoenix (Central & McKinley Sts. To be specific) in 75-degree weather. Forgetting to move my new JVC camcorder from picture mode back to video mode, all I captured with my new gadget was one picture. Luckily, I pulled out my Sanyo Xacti and shot some footage of a a duet performing at the market.

You will notice my conversation with an admirer of my cool Xacti. Pays to have multiple video cameras on one’s person

This weekend (Oct. 7^th and 8^th) marks the grand opening of the Carefree Farmers Market. As you can see, it’s a small gathering of vendors so far, but one of the sellers told my wife more vendors will be at the market once the market in Cottonwood is over.

 

Well, it's not the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco or Union Square Farmers Market in New York, but today the Roadrunner Park Farmers Market kicked off the Arizona Farmers Market Season. No organic stone fruit, rosemary sea salt or heirloom tomatoes, but good-looking salsas and chiles.

The LAWeekly has a story today that is either a bombshell or a blinding flash of the obvious, depending on your position in the digital media world as it applies to the future of newspaper publishing.

Expect more, not less, of this in the coming months...

 

 

Interesting news today: seems venerated Silicon Valley VC firms Sequoia Capital and Kleiner-Perkins have decided to invest $8.5million in Adam PodShow, Inc., a business built by Ron Bloom and Adam Curry (yes, that Adam Curry).  Silicon Valley monarchs John Doerr and Ray Lane have are joining the PodShow board of directors.

Coincidentally, another podcasting pioneer, ODEO, received another round of funding from firms Charles River and Amicus, and a host of angel investors including Ron Conway.

So, now all the bright-eyed enthusiasm we've seen in the eyes of developers and podcasters, the confident exclamations that this podcasting thing "is going to break big" have come to pass.  Actually, not exactly.  Now comes the really hard work -- creating revenue generating businesses out of all this potential   energy. 

In other words, folks like Adam (PodShow) and Evan (ODEO) are the dogs who've been chasing the car in the streets of Silicon Valley for months. Today, they caught the car. Now what?

Seriously, the funding an business-development expertise that comes with the money are the fuel that will allow companies like PodShow and ODEO to develop tools and programs that will deliver revenue in the form of subscriptions, advertising etc. 

 

At long last, the hiatus is over. Allen's back from vacation.

In today's MADCAST, Allen and Mike engage in rampant speculation regarding NewsCorp's future after its purchase of Intermix and the company's announcement of an Internet division to handle online business for its sports, news and entertainment properties.

Why it seems like just yesterday that we were reading about Rupert Murdoch telling his fellow captains of the media industry and the Internet was changing everything...

 

As part of our baseball and beach adventure, we took time out last week to visit Philadelphia's Reading Terminal. Funny, I used to walk by the Terminal countless times when I lived/worked in Philadelphia, but never took the time to explore.

Oddly, the place is wired for free Wi Fi Internet!