Another Barn

It is unusual to see a white barn. If they are painted at all, they are red, but usually they are, well, barn colored. Our dining table is made of salvaged barn boards. While yesterday's white barn is used to make wine, this one is used to store and sell produce.

We happened upon the Tierra farm stand in Santa Rosa several years ago, having bought some of their delicious dried peppers at the San Francisco Farmers' Market. Compared to the scenic setting of the SF farmers' market, practically underneath the Bay Bridge, the stand was a rickety affair--little more than an open air shed. Their produce is sold exactly as it comes out of the ground, dirt and all. They have an enormous number of different peppers which are turned into "chili jam", chili powder, chili salt and strings of dried chills worthy of Albuquerque.

Now the owners have "rescued" this white barn and turned it into farm stand and storage space. It used to be a stack of carefully numbered boards and beams, but with many fundraisers and a lot of patience it is being returned to its original state. There are bins of veggies that just came out of the field, shelves with five or six different kinds of chili jam, a table covered with at least twenty different kinds of dried beans with names like Tiger Eye, Anasazi, Hutterite, Pinquito, and Flageolet., and a display of hand spun Shetland wool, of all things. It is all wonderfully haphazard.

Today we visited Tierra to restock our supply of chili jam (some are hot, some mild, all are sweet, piquant. and yummy), and chat with Lee, the sister in the brother sister pair who own the land and the stand. It is really nice to see these old barns being rebuilt, repurposed, and reused...and a lot more fun than the grocery store!