The produce and people are the tops

The salsa sold at the Modesto Certified Farmers Market is made the day before to ensure freshness.

Beverly Jones of Ceres, with help from family and friends, chops the tomatoes, peppers, onions, cilantro and garlic. She adds her secret seasoning and packages the finished product in 16-ounce containers.

She'll have 55 to 60plastic tubs, each labeled and ready for sale, when the market opens at 7a.m. Thursdays and Saturdays on 16th Street between H and I next to the Modesto Library. By market closing at 1 p.m., she's generally sold out.

"I need this. It's something I've always wanted to have … my own. It really brings a smile to my face. It really does," said Jones, 61.

That's the type of passion you'll find from the vendors, said Marie Uber, events coordinator and a certified massage therapist who also sells her products at the farmers market at her Take Time Healing Arts Center booth.

"It's really just down-home people that put a lot of love and tenderness in their products," Uber said.

The vendors are just one of the many reasons to shop at farmers markets. Variety of merchandise is another. You'll find houseplants, garden plants, potted herbs, baked goods, cheese, preserved goods, dried fruit and fresh produce. In season now are cherries, apricots, blueberries, tomatoes, a couple of very early varieties of peaches, squash, zucchini and onions.

"There is a whole new trend of people wanting to buy food as local as possible," said Dan Best, director of certified farmers markets in Sacramento County. "But most people just want thingsthat are in season, fresh and cheap, and that is the usual case of locally produced fruits and vegetables being sold at the markets by our California growers."

Going to a farmers market is like attending an old-fashioned social gathering where merchants greet you by name, you see friends and you pause and listen to the day's entertainment or treat yourself to some hot popcorn.

Carolyn Sizemore, Stanislaus County's compliance officer for certified farmers markets, said there is a real sense of belonging to something special.

"The vendors themselves are very outgoing and friendly. The customers who are mingling out in the street recognize friends," she said. "There's a lot of camaraderie going on. It's a very friendly atmosphere."

With farmers markets opening every week in the valley and farmers gearing up for a big harvest, the deputy agriculture commissioner in Stanislaus County wants to highlight the distinction between the merchandise at an open-air market and farmers markets certified by the county ag department.

"A lot of people like eating California grown, and we are making sure that happens," said Kamal Bagri. "We make sure it's grown by the person who's selling it."

To ensure the merchandise is locally grown or produced, she said, "consumers should look at the certificates that are posted at every booth. If they are certified people, they will have the certified producers certificate up at the booth" listing all the products they can sell.