Sasha Piligian of Ena Bakery encourages talking with your farmers

For a long time, I had a complicated relationship with farmers markets.

“They’re hellish,” I’d tell people, before launching into a profanity-laced rant about the “thronging, sweaty bourgeoisie” frothing and fighting for the first of the fiddle-head ferns.

The truth is, the clamoring crowds kind of freak me out. The last time I went to the Hollywood farmers market, I ran into — no joke — seven people I knew, all from different parts of my life, within the span of 20 minutes and before I was even able to lay my hand on a single tomato.

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Sasha Piligian, baker and owner of Ena Bakery, explains how to make it through a Wednesday market without having a panic attack.

And while I’ve always loved the produce, supporting local farmers and how I’m able to watch the seasons go by every year — as the apples turn to citrus, the citrus to strawberries, the strawberries to melons, melons to figs, and figs back again to apples — going to the market felt like a chore.

But recently, that’s changed. Most weeks, I’ve found myself taking the long drive to the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market and leaving not miserable, but — believe it or not — excited and inspired!

I wasn’t sure what had shifted until I talked to Sasha Piligian, baker and owner of Ena Bakery. Sasha rarely misses a Wednesday market, and the baked goods she makes usually closely follow the produce that’s in season. She helped me see that the reason I’ve started to enjoy the market more, is I’ve started to build community there, to feel like a part of it.

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Sasha very kindly offered to show me around the market, and the day before I was going to meet her, I sent her the following text:

“What do you want everyone to know about the farmers market?”

She replied with a very lovely voice note, which I thought worthwhile to transcribe and share here.

From Sasha:

“I know this maybe sounds kind of cheesy, but I don’t think it’s about where to get the best peach or whatever. Everyone has their preference, and, you know, some places are better than others. ‘Better,’ whatever.

But I feel like I really like going to the market, and that it’s special because, you know, I’ve been going for over 10 years and it’s kind of like a second home.

I think if you are new to going to the market, all you have to do is go.

The farmers really do like to talk about what they’re excited about.
You can build a relationship with them. Maybe you make something and you bring it to them. They love that.

And then you just build rapport with people. You start to see the same people. Maybe you don’t know their name, maybe you do know their name, but you’re like, ‘Hey, where did you get that?’

Whatever, um, anyway, sorry, this is 2 minutes. 
OK, bye.”

The next day, I toured around the market with Sasha. She’s in constant conversation with the farmers and other shoppers at the market.

When we found out one farm would be out of apples by October (which is unusually early), Sasha passed the news along to other cooks and bakers, and together they started brainstorming about how they would adapt.

In between buying berries and picking up crates of citrus, she passed out scones to the farmers whose products she’d used to make them: her blackberry dealer from 2 Peas in a Pod, her flour connect at Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project and her lime plug from Schaner Family Farm.

Sasha seemed to know everyone at that market. We could barely walk a few minutes without running into someone she knew. Tagging along, I even made some new friends.

As I looked around, I realized I already recognized some of the vendors, and they recognized me. I bumped into a few chef shoppers I’d met in prior weeks, maybe bonding over how good the Thomchord grapes were, or asking them where they got their Early Girl tomatoes.

If you feel overwhelmed by the market, I encourage you to take Sasha’s advice. Just go. Go to whatever farmers market you please, and start talking to people. Chefs, shoppers, farmers.

You’ll probably learn something, and maybe you’ll even get a sample of something good.

Yours,
Cody

P.S. I’ll be off next week, and back again the following week to talk to you about my favorite fruit: figs. Until then, happy eating.