Chefs prep for salsa competition

Four local chefs will chop tomatoes and add their secret
ingredients to create a salsa recipe for the first farmer’s market
salsa competition on Tuesday September 6.
‘Salsa Gigante! Tuesday Taste Off’ is a new event sponsored by
local community groups and businesses to promote interest in
healthy foods and encourage more attendance at the Tuesday night
market.
“The idea is to get more people to eat healthy and in doing
that, get more people to come to the farmer’s market and spread the
word that the Tuesday market will run through the end of October,”
said Melita Love of Farm to Pantry.
Organizers also hope to encourage people to use the CalFresh
token program to buy food from     local vendors. Healdsburg
Farmers Market will match one token for every CalFresh token
purchased, up to $20.
“Right now there is not a lot of usage of the token program and
there is a lot of money there,” Love said of the program formally
known as food stamps.
The salsa competition will begin by sending the four chefs into
the market to collect their preferred ingredients followed by
creating their dishes to be judged by local students and market
attendees.
“We want to encourage people to use fresh, seasonal, local
produce and sustainably grown by our local farmers,” said
Healdsburg Farmer’s Market Manager Mary Kelley.
Carlos Molina will be playing traditional Mexican ballads with
his Trio Nuevo Amanacer and the evening will complete with a raffle
where one lucky winner will take home a farmer’s market bag full of
produce and Veggie Rx tokens that can be used for future purchases.
Tickets for the raffle can be purchased ahead at the Saturday
market or the night of the event.
“This is going to be a whole new experience for market goers and
anyone who may have never tried to shop the market,” said Love.
Festivities begin at 4 p.m. followed by a public salsa tasting
at 5:30 p.m. The winner will be announced at 6 p.m. and a copy of
their recipe will be published in a later issue of the Tribune.
Robin Hug can be reached at Ro***@hb*****.com.