Santa Cruz Farmers Markets

Hidden Fortress is a farm based coffee roaster. Coffee helps finance the start-up costs of a new farm which specializes in breakfast items like fruit, eggs, muffins, and of course, coffee! Owner Amelia Loftus started roasting coffee as a hobby in 2000 and has roasted all the coffee she drinks ever since. On a trip to Hawaii a few years ago she picked wild coffee beans and hand processed a small batch of coffee. This experience gave her a profound respect for the amount of labor and expertise required to produce excellent coffee. When looking for a way to reach self sufficiency as a farmer, coffee was the logical choice.

The roasting is done with obsessive attention to detail on a very small scale fluid air bed commercial roaster that roasts just 2 pounds at a time. The roaster uses propane and solar power from a mobile solar power generator mounted on the truck which also powers the coffee booth at the farmer's market. With such small batches the coffee is labor intensive to produce but it is also easy to keep inventory farm fresh.

In 2024 Switch Bakery joined our circuit, rotating through various markets and introducing their exceptional gluten free products. Owners Amanda and Joshua had both been baking for over a decade and made a giant leap, SWITCHING up a whole host of things a couple of years back, to follow their dreams. Switches included leaving their day jobs to focus on the bakery, focusing on a regional market, committing to simple, organic and nutritious ingredients, making staple foods that were common sustenance in households decades ago.

Joshua and Amanda's angle on baked good came from necessity and, over time, became inspired by creativity, feeling good and meeting a need in communities. Joshua has crones disease - as a result the team transformed their kitchen ingredients into items helpful for nutrition, ease of digestion and gut health including farm eggs, rice flours, avocado, coconut and olive oil and butter.

Though they love and excel at pastries, Switch grew their savory line of items, working to make food that is fuel and that people feel good eating. Perhaps less fancy but still satisfying and providing the body with basic sustenance.

Switch is currently a team of two, Joshua and Amanda, and they do all of their baking in a commercial kitchen in Santa Cruz County. They run best with a four-person team and are hiring. Together they build a weekly menu playing off of seasonality and personal and world affairs. One of their most beloved items is a carrot bread, their flat breads highlight items in the market, Joshua often taking the lead from the Live Earth veggie box, and a current joy is a Palestinian-inspired bread.

With Switch Bakery as the central project of their household, no day jobs to float the, the team does have visions for growth. Joshua also has a background in helping businesses get off the ground and grow; he appreciates right-sized businesses. They are proceeding with caution and imagine certain products scaling up to meet regional needs while others stay small scale and accessible through direct sales. They hope to eventually have enough revenue that will grant them time fore creativity and connection in addition to the baking and selling grind. For now scaling up to the current demand is a goal in itself. They sell out at every market and have doubled their production in the last year.

Swich sells at the Downtown Market weekly and is in rotation every other Saturday at the Westside beginning February 1st. Check them out at market and ask about their order-in-advance and pick up at market options. They also do weekly bread subscriptions and provide a discount if you pick up at an SC Market. Amanda and Joshua didn't expect to love selling at farmers' markets but it has turned out to be a bright spot and a place for growth. We're all benefiting!

New Natives is a Santa Cruz based microgreens, sprout and mushroom farm started by Sandra Ward and Ken Kimes in 1982. Sandra states, “We started very green but, curious and eager to embark on a creative endeavor where we would learn much and possibly make a living”. Developing the growing system and many processes on their own, the two worked day and night spurred by increasing demand. Over three decades their tiny production in a garage blossomed into a business with 10 employees producing over 2,000 lbs. weekly. With your health in mind, New Natives harvests their microgreens in the sprout stage when the plant is feeding from the seed. This stage is noteworthy for a high concentration of vitamins and enzyme activity in addition to flavor. To find their spectacular array of sunflower, broccoli, scallion and arugula shoots, aside a spread of colorful mushrooms and tasty sprouts, stop by their farmstand at the Live Oak or Downtown Santa Cruz Farmers' Market.