Serving up summer at Bayfair Market

Photo courtesy of San Leandro Farmers' Market at Bayfair Center. 

Farmer's markets can often be known as a place for only organic fruits and veggies, but one visit to the San Leandro Farmers' Market at Bayfair Center proves that they can also be a one-stop shop for breads, cheeses, meats, soaps, flowers, honey products and even freshly-prepared pizzas to cook at home.  

This market is just a short walk from the Bay Fair BART Station toward East 14th Street, located in the parking lot of the Bayfair Center and makes up a network of many Bay Area markets through the California Farmers' Markets Association, operating since 1994.  

Here is a compilation of the most delectable picks from Bayfair Market to incorporate into your summer dishes:

1. Sausages with a variety of ingredients for exceptional flavors, such as fig walnut gorgonzola pork sausage, chicken tomato basil feta sausage, or classics like linguica and polish. Cut them up and add to a veggie stir fry or have a family barbeque and grill them like hot dogs. Packs of four sausages range from $6 to $8, and they let you mix and match meals for an array of culinary tastes!  
2. Mini potato bags are plentiful at Bayfair market in baby reds, yukon golds, purple potatoes and fingerling varieties. These baby  taters are a starchy side when roasted with rosemary and garlic: add them to any main course. One pound of mixed potato bags sell for $2.50 and two-pound bags sell for $3.50.  
3. Sugar snap peas and fava beans pair well in summer salads with chopped bell pepper and red onion, marinated in olive oil and vinegar. A crunchy, healthy snack for kids, snap peas are $5 per pound and the nutritious legume, fava beans sell for $4 per pound. Seperately or together, these peas and beans are yummy summer picks.  
4. Honey products also go hand in hand with summer fun. Replace sugar with honey to sweeten fruit salads and add to lemonade. For those warm summer nights, light a patio dinner with wax candles or have a sweet piece of comb on ice cream for dessert!  
5. Not your ordinary raisins are sold at Bayfair market. Aside from regular sweet purple raisins and mild golden raisins, tart pink and orange raisin mixes make a unique addition to oatmeal in the mornings and satisfy a sweet tooth as an evening snack with nuts — not to mention — these raisins are twice the size of the average grocery store raisin, with double the tastiness, and at $5 a pound, they are half the price, too.  

Photo courtesy of Raquel Crites. 

Photo courtesy of Raquel Crites. 

Photo courtesy of San Leandro Farmers' Market at Bayfair Center.