News Tribune file

I just called Picha farms in Puyallup and they're reporting they have just a few days of raspberries left for the season (and blackberries, too).

Anthony's restaurants have been serving Picha raspberries and berries from other Washington berry farms in some of its desserts and drinks. On the menu at Anthony's: Washington Berry Shortcake and cocktails like Spiked Berry Lemonade, Northwest Berry Cosmos, Blueberry Drop and a Bumbleberry Rita.

With berry season dwindling, Anthony's soon will start serving desserts and drinks made with Washington grown peaches.

Click "read more" for the recipe from Anthony's for Fresh Washington Berry Shortcake. You can make it with Picha raspberries or you can substitute any kind of berry or fruit.

Picha Farms
Where: At the corner of 66th Avenue East and 52nd Street East, just off River Road.
Call: 253-841-4443

Anthony's Restaurants
Point Defiance: 5910 North Waterfront Drive, Tacoma; 253-752-9700
Harbor Lights: 2761 North Ruston Way, Tacoma; 253-752-8600
Other Anthony's locations: http://anthonys.com/restaurants/locations.html

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The Steilacoom Farmers Market opens its first market season at 3 p.m. Wednesday. Read my story here for background on the market.

Kelly Barkhurst, volunteer market manager, said the market will launch its first season nearly at vendor capacity. She and vendor coordinator Voraya Srisamang have booked 43 vendors. The site of the farmers market – the tennis courts at Lafayette and Wilkes –only has room for 50.

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Farmers markets in Puyallup and Key Peninsula open this weekend.

The Sunrise Village Farmers Market on Puyallup's South Hill opens its first season Saturday May 30. Market Manager Janie Morris told me last month that the market would start small, probably with fewer than 20 vendors, but would increase as the season progresses. Morris said a number of South Sound farmers have committed. They include the Sunrise Flower Farm, River Road Farmers Terry Carkner and Doug and Keith Chadd. Also, farmers Maria Alverez and Ramon Ayala will bring produce from Yakima to the market. Stone Ground Bakery from Yelm will sell bread at the market. Click here for hours and the location of Sunrise, as well as other South Sound markets.

Also opening this weekend is the Key Peninsula Farmers Market, which opens Sunday May 31. Chanetta Ludwig, who many will recognize as "The Bee Lady" will return to the market this year to sell her honey and flavored honey sticks, as well as produce from her Lakebay farm. Click "read more" to find out how Ludwig farms her honey and to find a list of other South Sound farmers markets where she sells her honey.

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Pictured here: Ewe Moon blue cheese

The Tacoma Broadway Farmers Market opens tomorrow (Thursday). Market hours will be 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Broadway, between 9th and 11th.

Willapa Hills Farmstead Cheese will sell cow's milk blue cheese, sheep’s cheese, fresh ricotta, fresh yogurt cheeses tomorrow. Here's a look at their farm:

Who are the farmers? Stephen J. Hueffed and Amy Turnbull of Willapa Hills Farmstead Cheese, a 146-acre farm in Doty, west of Chehalis. The couple bought the farm in 2005 and live there with their three children, Willem, Lucas and Lillian. Hueffed’s mother, Marilyn, assists with cheese production and other grandma duties. They make cheese from sheep’s and cow’s milk. They tend a herd of 140 Lacaune-East Friesian cross ewes.

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Pictured here: Heirloom tomatoes, including brandywine, green zebra and cherokee purple, and others. Photo by Drew Perine/The News Tribune

Heading to the farmers market this week? Here's a look at what's fresh at the farmers market:

At the market this week: Heirloom tomato starts from Morgan Creek Farm, Saturday at the Gig Harbor Farmers Market, open 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, 6808 Kimball Drive (Kimball Drive Park and Ride); 253-851-7397; www.gigharborfarmersmarket.com. Morgan Creek Farm also will sell at the Tacoma Broadway Farmers Market when it opens May 21 and the Key Peninsula Farmers Market when it opens May 31.

Who are the farmers? Steve and Donna White own Morgan Creek Farm, but they weren’t always farmers. The pair were flight attendants for American Airlines for 20 years. Then came a reassignment to Chicago in 2002. They missed each other, they missed their horses and their farm in Vaughn. They traded in grumpy passengers for growing flowers – dahlias, lilies and a few other varieties. Then they found they had a niche with heirloom tomato starts. This year, they planted nearly 10,000 tomato starts.

What?! Isn’t it too early for tomatoes? Of course, it’s way too early to plant fragile tomato starts, but now is a good time to buy. And here's why.

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Coming this summer to Steilacoom: A new farmers market.
The Town of Steilacoom’s farmers market will run Wednesdays from June 24 to Aug. 19.

The idea of the market spun from Kelly Barkhurst, a Steilacoom resident and caterer. In a town that is easy to navigate by foot and has many attractive amenities, she was surprised there wasn’t already a farmers market when she moved to Steilacoom from Puyallup a year ago.

She liked the idea of a market built around the notion of fresh, healthy produce.

“I was thinking we don’t have fresh produce available. It’s such a luxury to walk into town to buy fresh produce. Farmers markets are becoming such vital parts of a community, it just seemed something we could add to our community here,” she said.

She took the idea to town hall.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Farmers Market Fresh is a weekly series featuring farmers and food producers who sell at South Sound farmers markets. Each week in this space, we’ll write about a different farmer and the markets where they sell.

What’s at the market this week: A variety of fresh and aged cheeses, including fresh mozzarella, chevre and ricotta, from the River Valley Ranch Cheese Farm in Fall City. Available Saturday at the Proctor Farmers Market, open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays at North 27th Street and Proctor; 253-961-3666; www.proctorfarmersmarket.com.

Who’s the farmer: Julie Steil started her 20-acre Fall City farm in 2006. Before that, her cheesemaking was a hobby. But then a cheese buyer from Whole Foods tasted her homemade cheese at a parent-teacher meeting at the high school Steil’s children attend. With encouragement from the buyer, she ditched her high-pressure career in real estate property management, bought some cows and goats, purchased some land by her home and started River Valley Ranch Cheese Farm.

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Oregon writer Tami Parr has a new book out that I don't think I could live without now that I've read it. If you're a person who loves cheese, you'll understand.

Parr researched 71 Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia cheese farms and wrote brief profiles of each farm. The book is a collection of fascinating details about the history of each farm, as well as a look at the styles of cheese each farm produces. It also tells readers how to get to each of the farms – complete with maps. I am already planning on visiting a few when I take some time off in May. I'm sure I'll end up writing about them.

From our region, a handful of cheesemakers are featured.

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Update: The opening day for the Sunrise Village market has been moved to May 30 to avoid a conflict with the Memorial Day weekend holiday.

A new farmers market is coming to South Hill Puyallup this spring. Beginning May 30, the Sunrise Village Farmers Market will operate every Saturday in the upscale Sunrise Village shopping center off of Meridian East and 156th.

The shopping center – home to a Target, Staples, Pet Smart, LA Fitness and restaurants that include the RAM, Pizzeria Fondi and Qdoba Grill – will host the market at the rear of the mall where a big box retailer formerly was to anchor that portion of the 65-acre site.

Janie Morris, former manager of the downtown Puyallup Farmers Market and past president of the Washington State Farmers Market Association, will manage the market on behalf of Investco, the company that manages the property.

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The Olympia Farmers Market opened today. Next up: Gig Harbor and Proctor. Both open Saturday.

Opening soon are Tacoma, Puyallup, Federal Way and other markets.

Need to know when all the markets open and where they're located? Find our farmers markets list here.

When Stadium Bistro waved good-bye in April, comments were a mixed bag. My favorite memory of the place didn't even involve real food. Virtual food, yes. The guys kicked my butt in a round of Cooking Mama for the Wii.

Unfortunately there are no wine tasting, coffee brewing or sauce simmering games for the Wii. Yet. (There should be!) When they make those games, perhaps I'll challenge some of the folks at the new businesses going into the old Bistro space.

I stopped by Monday afternoon to see what was going on in the place and chanced upon Stephen McConkey, one half of the team that started Sound Bites Sauce & Spread Co. a few months ago. Maybe you've sampled their wares at one of the 14 farmers markets they participate in. In Pierce County they do Sixth Ave., Gig Harbor, Puyallup and the Tacoma Farmers Market. And they're subletting kitchen space in the old Bistro spot. Sound Bites will prepare their sauces and spreads there and sell them in the wine bar. Stephen also confirmed that the building will retain its events room and that the small space next door will be a coffee shop.

Here's the description Sound Bites uses at its site, a bare bones page at the moment:

Sound Bites makes hand-crafted sauces and spreads from around the world, prepared with ingredients sourced from right here in the Pacific Northwest.
 
Visit us at a Puget Sound farmers market for delicious dips and sauces including hummus, pesto and chimichurri.
 
All of our products are made with varietal grapeseed oils from the Yakima Valley. Try our buttery Chardonnay Pesto, refreshing Garbanzo Hummus with Riesling Oil, and Chimichurri made with the rich flavor of Cabernet Sauvignon Oil.

 
I called Rich Hines, the other half of Sound Bites (and the president of the board for the Tacoma Farmers Market) to get his take on the neighborhood and the sauce-making biz.

"We don't know the opening timeline, but just last week they put in a door and window for the coffee shop," he said. He added that the building could be buzzing again in as little as two months.

He said he and Stephen are impressed with the hip "all-hours" activity of the neighborhood and are "excited about being part of that little food and beverage community that's forming in that building."

They're in talks with other wine bars and a Kent martini bar as well as local wholesalers, Rich said, adding that one goal is to put their sauces and spreads into local grocery stores.

"We've been getting calls from restaurants that feature hummus on their menus," he said. "They want to offer a locally made hummus, and we believe we're the only craft hummus makers in the Seattle-Tacoma area. Plus virtually every item in the container except the lemon juice is from the Northwest."

Company catch phrase: "Fiercely Local."