The Mercer Island Farmers Market is so pleased that we will have a new vendor, Jacobs Creamery, joining the market on Sunday, July 31st. In other vendor news: unfortunately, Molly Moon Ice Cream will not be at the market again, but Parfait Artisan Organic Ice Cream will be; plus, we have product updates from Farmers Market Preserves and Got Soup.

Jacobs Creamery, Doty, WA

Jacobs Creamery will be bringing eggs, European-style cultured butter, plus cheeses including Cheddar, Gouda, and Jarlsberg.

In addition, they will be bringing their famous chocolate and vanilla puddings. The folks at Jacobs have this to say about their puddings:

We’re quite proud of the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ it elicits from those tasting it for the first (and sometimes second, third, or 40th) time. The vanilla version is made with cream and real Tahitian vanilla beans, and while we don’t want to brag, it’s equivalent to the best crème brûlée you’ve ever had. The chocolate has a rich, dreamy mousse-like texture that will have you licking the container clean. Please be forewarned that both flavors are highly addictive.

As the season develops, Jacobs will be bringing to the MIFM more of their product line, including cream cheese, crème fraîche, fromage blanc, crumbled mozzarella, ricotta, and yogurts.

Molly Moon Ice Cream, Seattle, WA

Customers at the Mercer Island Farmers Market getting ice cream at Parfait's ice cream truck. (Photo by Joel Wachs)

Unfortunately, this Sunday Molly Moon will be missing another market day due to a scheduling conflict. They should be returning to our market on August 14th after the MI Farmers Market’s break on August 7th due to SeaFair weekend.

Ice-cream fans, no need to fear as Parfait Artisan Organic Ice Cream will be at the MIFM. If you haven’t already, be sure to try what the editors of Sunset Magazine have called one of the best ice creams on the West Coast.

Farmers Market Preserves, Seattle, WA

Rome Doherty, owner of Farmers Market Preserves, Seattle, WA at his booth at the Mercer Island Farmers Market. (Photo by Joel Wachs)

Rome Doherty, owner of Farmers Market Preserves, clearly loves his work and his products.  He writes, “This is a great time of year to be a jam lover and I’ve got ‘em all. Last weekend, I had seven different strawberry jams, three or four [different] raspberries and a ton of Pie Cherry Jam. This week I’m adding blueberry from Skagit Sun farms and great organic blackberry from Hayton Farms. I have a few jars of loganberry as well.”

In honor of all of the different kinds of berry jams that Farmers Market Preserves has, Rome has selected “bramble“ as the “magic” word for this week. So, if customers would like a dollar off of their first jar of Farmers Market Preserves jam, they should be sure to work in the word-of-the-week into their conversation with Rome.

Got Soup?, Seattle, WA

A customer at the Got Soup? booth at the Mercer Island Farmers Market on June 26, 2011. (Photo by Alyssa Hatsukami)

While most of the MI Farmers Market’s customers know that Jerry Baxter, owner of Got Soup?, changes the soups every week, what they might not know is that he might change the soups on market day depending on the weather. He writes, “So when the weather changes like it did last weekend I sometimes change the soups. I cannot sell hot soups on hot days, that’s why I changed over to cold soups…” So if Sunday turns out to be unexpectedly hot, Jerry will be bringing cold soups in place of this week’s soups. Either way, we always love his delicious soups, hot or cold.

This week’s soups are:

• Orange & Cumin Sweet Potato (vegan)
• Artichoke Paella (vegan)
• Pork Pozole
• North West Chowder
• Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho (vegan & raw)

Got Soup? has sourced much of the produce in their soups from local farms including from such Mercer Island Farmers Market vendors as: