Santa Cruz Farmers Markets

Pleasure Point Bakery (PPB) was created in 2019 by Elle Sommers. Elle is from Montreal Canada and pursued baking with curiosity as a child. She loved eating and got around eating too much sugary stuff by making and baking it. Elle would ask her mom, "what can I make right now that we have everything for in the pantry?" When the recipe was done and hot on the counter she was less interesting.

In her adulthood, after living in Asia for years and eating a rice-based diet, she returned to North America and devoured bread only to develop a gluten allergy. This was the inspiration for her gluten-free recipes. PPB is focused on health and wholesomeness. To make an artisan bread that is gluten free is a real challenge. Elle focused for an entire year on developing basic her recipes. A foundational value is to make goods that are healthy and low starch with nuts and seeds and organic ingredients that help the body feel good. Everything is also vegan. She’s not vegan but her husband is and so PPB provides this service.

Pleasure Point Bakery came together because of the farmers' markets in Santa Cruz. She was inspired by the energy/community at the markets but couldn’t buy any of the bread as a shopper. She wanted to be part of it and saw the development of the bakery as an opportunity to get involved and provide a service.

Pleasure Point began at the Westside in rotation in 2020 and expanded to Live Oak that year. Elle had worked in bars and restaurants her whole life and likes to be part of a crew that provides a service. Entering as a provider felt special on another level. Talking with other vendors who understood what it takes to make selling at market come together was refreshing and helpful. The first year there is not one week that she didn't learn something that helped her improve upon her systems – what to bring, how much to bake, the aesthetic. It was a steep learning curve.

Elle built out a dedicated kitchen for PPB in her garage - including prep space and ovens. Currently she is the only cottage business in the SCCFM membership. She hopes that she will have more flexibility for creativity when her other works shifts or shrinks; currently she has a full-time job managing human rights for a large company. Elle makes sure that everything they make is moving through ethical systems and has worked for Fair Trade for years.

Core ingredients in PPB goods include certified gluten free flours (almost all organic), nuts and seed oils. All come from North America - all from US except for coco powder and chocolate - but nothing at this point is specifically local. The almonds and walnuts are California grown. Because she does all the processing and chopping by hand the ingredients have to come in a certain format to make the work doable - a situation she considers to think about and troubleshoot.

Find PPB at the Westside and Live Oak markets the first Sunday of the month.

Garden Variety Cheese is a small farmstead business specializing in artisanal sheep cheeses - fresh and aged. Based in Northern Monterey County, the sheep and some members of a very small staff, live and graze on Monkeyflower Ranch - a 40 acre property of fields and fencing. Owner Rebecca King and her team began commercial milking and cheese production in March of 2009 and are in ever increasing demand for their flavorful, small batch goods.

Hans hoped to focus his thorough knowledge into a service that he could provide to his community in order to share in and spread seafood appreciation for all of its many health benefits and limitless culinary making ecologically sound choices when it comes to selecting their seafood. In 2003 he found his niche at the local farmers markets, when he & Heidi began selling his own local salmon catch. They also then got licensing to be able to purchase fish directly from local hook-and-line fishermen. Since then they have grown to include 18 markets per week and now are also enjoying taking on additional ventures with their new CSS program and even doing Oyster Bar Catering at parties, weddings, festivals, and events.