One dollar got me three eggplants at the AnandaDham PeachRanch Farm's stand last Thursday at Newhall's Farmer's Market. The people managing the stand did not match my stereotype of "farmer material" and that made me more curious about the farm. I googled the name and there is was: AnandaDhamPeach farm a buddhist colony where people mediate and live off the land. That explained why one guy at the stand looked sort of like a dark haired white lotus or Pai Mei from Kill Bill 2.
I did salt the eggplant for 20 mins and followed the recipe I had recently seen on justhungry, a gem of a website. It was hands down the best eggplant-dish I have made.
Their eggplants were very tasty, had no bitterness and had very little seeds. For the quality and considering that they were also organically raised I thought they were pretty inexpensive .
I bought more of the same eggplant variety at yesterday's market. This time at the stand I was greeted by a guy with a beard not as substantial as the white lotus' from last week, but very willing to share information about the farm. After some small talk about organic farming benefits and few other purchases I left Newhall's farmer's market thinking how even a small and unassuming market can bring people of unlikely of backgrounds together. Is a bazaar no?
