The Rancho Santa Fe Farmers Market is coming to town every Sunday of the year starting May 2.
The market will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot of the Del Rayo Village Shopping Center in the Fairbanks Ranch area (16079 San Dieguito Rd., Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92091). The Helen Woodward Animal Center is a beneficiary of the market and will receive 10 percent of the vendor profits each week.
“I felt like we really needed something like [this market in this community],” said organizer Raquel Pena, who works in event planning and real estate. “Finally, we will have a market of just top-quality products that are not represented by sales people or vendors, but represented by the farmers themselves. This is a farmers’ market and that’s really key.”
The Rancho Santa Fe Farmers Market will not be a place where people come to eat, Pena said. Rather, it will be a place to pick up farmer-fresh foods and ideas to take home and get busy in the kitchen.
“It’s a place for foodies to explore what’s out there,” said Pena, who said they will also launch a website soon that will provide interesting new recipes every month.
Pena is a Farmers Market aficionado, she loves the markets in Santa Monica and Hollywood, as well as the sprawling weekend ones in Hillcrest. She has even gone up to Portland, Ore. to check out markets.
Pena said it doesn’t get much better than buying vegetables and fruit that have been picked that same day, sometimes just the day before.
“I’m crazy about heirloom tomatoes, all the stone fruits and avocados,” Pena said.
Doing her research to find farmers for the Rancho Santa Fe Farmers Market has been a satisfying experience for a foodie such as herself.
“This has been heaven,” Pena said. “It’s been incredibly fun.”
Pena has found a collection of farmers to attend the Rancho Santa Fe market, all from local farms within 150 miles of San Diego. Rather than get a lot of farmers with the same kind of produce, she has tried to find farmers who specialize in each item. Some confirmed farmers include:
• Maggie’s Farm: famous for its Stellar Mix salad mix that comes with edible flowers.
• ParadiseValley: “the best avocados and lemons,” Pena said.
• Sage Mountain: seasonal organic vegetables
• Smit Orchards: stone fruit like cherries, peaches, plumcots, pluots, apricots
• Archie’s Acres: living basil, lettuces, kale, chard
• Suncoast Farms: artichoke and asparagus
• Kuwano Farms: strawberries, raspberries, white raspberries, blackberries and grapes
In addition to fruits and veggies, farmers will also be selling homemade olive oils, honeys, artisan bread, pastas, eggs, olives, fresh roasted coffee, teas, soaps and candles.
The market will also have a fresh fish vendor, cut and potted flowers, and Soledad goat cheese.
Pena is also excited about the cherries they will have available for the market’s opening day on May 2. Cherries have a short season and their launch date will be perfect for the just-in-season fruit.
The market will be held in the middle of the parking lot at the Del Rayo Village Shipping Center where parking will also be available.
“We wanted to provide a service to the community and have Del Rayo be a place where people can come together and find fresh produce at reasonable prices,” said Charles Covello, president and owner of the shopping center.

Rancho Santa Fe Rotary donation to Kids Korps

Rancho Santa Fe Rotary Club donates $ 2,000 to the Kids Korps “Build a bike” program
Cindy Bloch, Past Regional President and founding memer of Kids Korps, receives a check along with Robin Chappelow the Regional Program Director from President Michael Manhard

Grant Show and Alphonso Ribiero

On March 14, more than 150 guests attended the Fresh Start Surgical Gifts soiree overlooking Morgan Run Golf Course in Rancho Santa Fe.

“Fresh Start Surgical Gifts provides free, world-class reconstructive surgery and related services to disadvantaged children and young people with physical deformities caused by birth defects, accidents, abuse or disease,” said Nancy Kelly, development director.

“Children come from across the United States and all over the world to receive the gift of a fresh start.”

Since its inception in 1991, $17 million has helped 4,800 children and young people undergo life-changing surgical transformations.

Celebrity co-hosts and emcees for the evening Alfonso Ribeiro and Grant Show were delighted to be there.

“This is my sixth year hosting this event and I love doing it because it’s all about the kids,” Ribeiro said.

Other celebrities and professional athletes who took part in the fundraiser were Marcus Allen, Hank Bauer, Bucky Brooks, Willie Buchanon, Darren Carrington, Vince Coleman, Danny Farmer, Marshall Faulk, Michael Haynes, Rob Heidger, Seth Joyner, David Justice, Patricia Kara, James Lofton, Ursula Mayes, Craig McEwen, Tina Mickelson, Phil Nevin, Jeffrey Nordling, Leslie O’Neil, Andre Reed, Sam Scarber, Mike Scifres, Junior Seau, Pete Shaw, Lauren Shiohama, and Craig Whelihan.

Guests perused abundant silent auction tables. However, the Morgan Run Club & Resort full membership was the buzz.

Jason Lawhead served as auctioneer.

During the evening, patient Juan Hurtado delivered inspirational words after reconstructive surgeries to his cleft lip and palate. He thanked Fresh Start for making his dreams come true.

Event sponsors included EDCO Waste & Recycling Services, Marcus Allen All Stars Helping Kids, Inc., Davlyn Investments, Dowling & Yahnke, Godes & Preis LLP, The Handlery Hotel & Resort and MLSM.

Members of the 2010 Golf Classic Committee were chair Vanessa Jackson, Brian Ferguson, Jason Finley, Mike Gainey, Jim Godes, Rob Heidger, Mike Kozlowski, Pete Lassalette, Annette Legaspi, Pete Lizarraga, Pete Middleton, Erik Moore, Cindy Reed, and John Rubey.

It is said that Patrick became Ireland’s patron saint by driving the snakes from the Emerald Isle (throwing down the witty challenge, “All snakes wishing to remain in Ireland, raise your right hand”). It’s a great story, but not literally true.

Since the Ice Age, the country most likely had no snakes; however, serpent symbols were prominent in the pagan rituals that dominated Ireland. Over the 3 decades that Patrick spread Christianity throughout the country, those ancient practices were “driven” away.

March 17th is believed to be the day St. Patrick died (in 460 A.D.) and is observed as a religious holiday throughout Ireland. Here in America, we mark it by adopting some of the symbols and practices of the Irish, hoping some of their “luck” will rub off on us.

* Finding a penny and picking it up

* Finding a four-leaf clover

* Sneezing 3 times before breakfast

* Spilling wine while proposing a toast

* Having a ladybug land on you

* Seeing a spider spinning in the morning

* Dropping a glove

* Picking up a pencil in the street

* An itch on the top of your head

Interestingly many people wonder what is the meaning of ‘Erin Go Bragh’. It is mostly translated to mean ‘”Ireland Forever’.

Origin: Speakers of the Irish language assume that the phrase is a corruption of the Irish Éire go Brách or Éireann go Brách. The term brách is equivalent to “eternity” or “end of time”, meaning the phrase may be translated literally as “Ireland until eternity” or “Ireland until the end (of time)”. The form Éireann go Bráth or Éire go Bráth is also used in Irish and means the same thing.

St. Patrick’s Day holds a special place in my heart. My Great Grandmother came to America from Ireland in the early 1900′s. I never did get a chance to meet her as she passed away a year before I was born.
Mary Mc Anteer was her name and she spoke Gaelic. My Grandmother ( Mary’s daughter ) told me great tales of the famine and eating potatoes and onion sandwiches for months when there was nothing else. How her mother and father struggled to make it to America and ended up raising 13 children here. I loved listening to those stories and always wanted more information. I heard she was one tough broad. I guess she had to be.
I vowed that if I ever went to Ellis Island, I would look for her name. When I finally did make it there, I was sadly unsuccessful in finding her paperwork. But, I was able to imagine what it must have been like by looking at all of those other transcripts, photos and items left behind so long ago.
I have often looked at Mary’s old photographs and can see the resemblance in my own Mother, sister and myself. I love that we are truly Irish but that she made the decision to leave that barren land to better her life and ours.
So, tomorrow I will raise a mug of coffee and Irish whiskey and make a toast to her, eat cabbage and corned beef and try to keep the memory alive. Erin Go Bragh!

INDIAN WELLS — Life high on a hill atop Rancho Santa Fe soon is to begin for Jelena Jankovic. Would that her tennis have similar elevation. Jankovic’s game has been askew since she began the 2009 season as the ranking player on the WTA Tour, but no player around here was talking more animatedly yesterday than the Serbian woman. It’s not tennis that excites her as much as the prospect of occupying the home she is having built in Rancho Santa Fe. Jankovic said she visited the site before coming here for the BNP Paribas Open. “They were putting the roof on. It’s like a dream come true,” she said of a home that, by her measurements, is to have three levels with 20,000 square feet of living space and have a garage large enough for 10 vehicles. “I have five (cars) for now,” said Jelena, who evidently does a lot of driving. Jankovic became aware of the joys of living in the San Diego area when she was competing in tennis events at La Costa. “I picked a lot on a hill,” she said. Its cost, according to San Diego County records: $1.5 million. Jelena advised her architect the place must include a tennis court (it does). “And I wanted a big master bedroom and a huge bathroom,” she said. Done. She is hopeful of moving in by the end of the year. Jankovic’s season, meantime, has not begun positively, with a first-round loss (to Agnes Szavay ) at Sydney and a third-round defeat (to Alona Bondarenko ) at the Australian Open. “But I am working hard,” she said. “I feel every day I am getting better and better. I want to work on coming forward.” Jankovic is the No. 6 seed here. Nothing all that dramatic is apt to occur in the opening round of a tennis tournament with a 96-player draw that hands out 32 seeds and awards all 32 byes. The women’s phase of the Paribas did, however, show off a Justine Henin who soundly eliminated Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-2. “I need tennis; I need to play,” said Henin. “Emotionally, I feel much better when I am playing.”