Darin hits the farmers’ market with the ultimate expert, Sam Rogers. Bridging the gap between some of California’s top chefs and the state’s finest growers for over fifteen years, she sits down to share her five rules for shopping like a chef. Whether you’re a farmers’ market rookie or you’ve been selecting heirloom tomatoes since the ‘90s, Sam’s rules will turn your weekly produce run into a culinary adventure.
[00:00:00] Darin Hello and welcome to Five Rules for the Good Life. I'm your host, Darin Bresnitz. Today, I am joined by farmers market expert, Sam Rogers, who has been a trusted liaison between farmers and some of the state's top chefs for over 15 years and her substack, Sam Loves the Market is one of my favorite weekly reads. Today, she joins us to share her five rules on how to shop the farmer's market like a chef. And we chat about how to approach shopping, the perfect type of vessel to bring with you and how to challenge yourself to try something new. Let's get into the rules. Sam, it's so good to see you. I'm glad I caught you at a day that you weren't at the market. I appreciate you making time to sit down and chat with me.
[00:00:48] Sam Of course, I'm very excited to chat, all things market.
[00:00:51] Darin I always feel that I never make it to any of the farmer's markets in LA. And when I think of someone who's there all the time, it's you in the best way possible. How did you make going to farmer's market is just part of your normal routine?
[00:01:06] Sam When I was in my early 20s, I somehow ended up convincing John and Vinny that I was the girl for them to go and pick up all their produce. I knew Sarah and Sarah from Kismet and Rotisserie, and they had just signed the contract with John and Vini, and I was like, I think I can do it. Loved being at farmers markets, I loved learning, I love asking a million questions. And I just made this job up and it stuck. And at the time there wasn't a bunch of us. Mostly chefs were going to the market or there were wholesalers. So navigating it was fun and it was new and it exciting and I was in my 20s and it didn't matter that you were waking up at five o'clock in the morning multiple times a week. And I fell in love with it and I found my thing which is speaking both chef and farmer pretty fluently.
[00:01:58] Darin For those who might not be familiar with a farmer market buyer, what role do you play at a restaurant?
[00:02:04] Sam Once upon a time, someone wrote that they were a liaison for a female signature. Sure. I wanted a fancy name because I thought buyer sounded boring. And I also don't buy everything. I only buy produce and meat. I only do stuff directly with farmers. So I took farm liaison and just put that on my signature on my emails. And now that's, I guess, technically what this role is called.
[00:02:26] Darin Excuse me for saying the word buyer. I'm so sorry.
[00:02:30] Sam I'm so much more, I'm so much, so much more. So basically what I do is I consult four restaurants and four chefs and work with them to create their menu based on extreme seasonality and work directly with local farmers, basically to bridge those two. So I know who grows the perfect. Small Brussels sprouts versus who grows medium size and it works for your dish perfectly. Being able to understand what a chef wants and what they see and how they imagine a dish being and their little isms because everyone's got their own ism.
[00:03:03] Darin Eeking chef is very important.
[00:03:05] Sam Speaking chef is very, very important, but also speaking farmer is very important and understanding why something is late that year or being able to tell them, hey, what if we bring in the favas two weeks early so that way they're a little bit smaller, a little more tender, and they'll work better for our dish.
[00:03:21] Darin All right, Sam, let's get into the five rules of how to shop the market like a chef. I love that you started out not really knowing what you were doing at the farmer's market, because I feel that it could be very overwhelming. Yes. And for rule one, the thing that I always forget is it doesn't actually start when you're at the market. It starts when you are at home. It's the first rule before you even go to the farmer's market to make sure that you're shopping correctly.
[00:03:45] Sam Rule number one is you have to take your own inventory, which my husband laughed so hard when I went over these rules with him because I'm actually terrible at this part, but it's so important to do. I'm great at it when it comes to a restaurant, but when it come to my own house, you forget to look in your fridge and actually see what you have. Do you have an extra bunch of asparagus from last week that you haven't used yet? You need to really understand what you have so you don't go to the market and repurchase things that you have
[00:04:12] Darin Mm-hmm
[00:04:13] Sam because that is wasteful. And then you end up feeling overwhelmed by what's in your fridge. You end up getting mad at yourself. She's like, I already had this, I didn't need this. You don't get things that you did need. Take the time. It takes 10 minutes. You're basically cleaning out your fridge, you're getting so organized, you're a perfect person.
[00:04:30] Darin Ha ha ha ha!
[00:04:32] Sam And really see what you have and see what you need and then you can go in fully prepared.
[00:04:37] Darin I feel like I've built my entire life around building up a great tote bag collection. But you say when you're going to the farmer's market for real, a tote bag is actually not the carrying item to bring. What is rule two? What do you suggest?
[00:04:50] Sam My rule number two is get a box. Get a box, get a crate. Do something that keeps it so it is flat.
[00:04:57] Darin Hmm
[00:04:58] Sam Tote bag is great if you're buying apples, if you are buying winter squash, if you're buy hardy things that will not get smashed, oranges, whatever, those sorts of things, then bring a tote bag. Always have it. I've got like 900 lining every wall of this house. However, when I go to the market, I always bring a crate because you just had your beautiful moment picking out all these beautiful herbs and greens and all of this stuff, and now you get home and they're all smashed. And once they bruise, they go bad. It's very delicate. You're working with a lot of delicate stuff, so you need to treat it delicately. Also what I've realized is if you have a box, you see exactly what you've purchased. Yes. It gets exciting at the mart. Oops, now I bought basil two times because it looked pretty at two different places. But if it's in a box and it's perfectly laid out, you see what you have. It lets you really appreciate what you purchased.
[00:05:51] Darin One of the great things about also having a crate and seeing how much you bought is having a general idea of how much you spent and this ties directly into rule number three.
[00:06:00] Sam Yes, rule number three, it's the same with chefs as it is with you. Have a budget, give yourself X. I have a very strict X that I give myself before going into a market. So it allows me to not overspend because when you get overexcited, you end up overspending, you end buying too much, you're not able to eat that much food, you end wasting, it all becomes a cycle. And then you don't wanna go to the market because you feel like you're just gonna end up in that place again. Or you look at the farmer's market like a lot of people do as just being way too expensive. And the reality is yes, a lot what you're gonna be getting there is more expensive than what you gonna see at the store, but the quality of what you getting is going to be so much higher. But if you give yourself X, then you can go to the market and get yourself those fancy strawberries that you really, really love that bring you oh so much joy. You can allow yourself those little things because you've given yourself X amount of money.
[00:06:50] Darin Sometimes what keeps people from market is the budget, but then also the fact that they go, I know what I'm going to get already. I just need strawberries, blueberries, and some lettuce. I'm just going to go to the store. Rule four challenges the buyer to do what?
[00:07:03] Sam Rule four challenges the buyer to try something new every market. Something that's really fun with chefs is they come to me and they're like, hey, I want to do a bok choy underneath this fish because it will fit perfect. And my favorite thing is to come to them with a couple of different versions that are similar to a bok choi. Let's try a tatsoi. Let's try a yuchoi. Let try a different thing. Something they haven't tried. Endless options. This isn't a supermarket. This is the farmer's market. This is where all the different varietals get to come out. So every time you go to the market, try something slightly different and you can talk to your farmer about it. Say you love kale or say you love black kale, like a regular like standard kale. Ask them like, hey, I love this. I like making these dishes with it. What would you suggest I sub it for? And use the word sub. Now you sound like a buyer. That's one of those fun ones. It will widen and excite you because that's really what the farmer's market should be for. It's full of adventures of what you can make and what you eat and different flavors. So try it, it's really fun.
[00:08:03] Darin Going to a farmer's market or even a restaurant, there is such a great thing about irregular and knowing the vendors that you shop from and having those relationships where they can grow something for you. Rule number five, challenges you to make new relationships.
[00:08:16] Sam Yes, so rule number five is really a Sam rule more than it's a chef rule. Having a checkbook or having cash at a farmer's market is putting money in the right pockets. Take it as an opportunity to spread the love a little. I have my staples. I know exactly where I get 90% of my products every time. However, once a market, I wanna go try something new from someone I haven't tried yet. For example, blueberries from Forbidden Fruit because they specialize in just blueberries. And you might try the greatest blueberry you've ever tried.
[00:08:49] Darin What can only help?
[00:08:50] Sam Overall, I found that it not only widens my relationships and widens how exciting and large and fun the farmers market is. We have microclimates in Southern California. It's amazing how two farms that are only five miles apart from each other, the flavors can taste completely different.
[00:09:05] Darin Real terroir with your strawberries. Yes, of course. Well, Sam, it's always such a pleasure to chat with you and always to see what you're picking up and posting about when you're at the market. If people want to see where you're shopping or sign up for your fantastic sub stack, where can they go?
[00:09:21] Sam I have a Instagram, Sam Loves the Market, that is always bustling with new photos, whatever I found and little tidbits to learn. And then I also have a weekly subset also at Sam Lovers the Market that kind of goes a little bit deeper into one product a week. And I also do long farmer interviews that are really fun to get to know these people even on a deeper level.
[00:09:42] Darin I really do think it adds to the experience of eating a peach or cooking with something to know how they grew it, why they grew in the story of their lives.
[00:09:51] Sam It's a relationship
[00:09:52] Darin Sam, thank you so much. And I hope to run into you sooner than later at the next farmers market I go to.
[00:09:58] Sam Can't wait to see you there.
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