Guest View

Farmers’ markets represent a unique bridge between urban and rural communities that provide an opportunity to support the local economy, as well as access to fresh, nutritious foods. Aug. 5-11 is National Farmers’ Market Week. This designation seeks to increase the public’s awareness of the role local farmers’ markets play in creating healthy communities and in building prosperity among farmers and small businesses.Farmers’ markets support California’s small and diversified farms, and return money to our local economies. At a farmers’ market, 100 percent of your food dollar goes to your local farmer, while a farmer only receives 15 cents of every food dollar that consumers spend at traditional food outlets. Studies have shown that all farms, regardless of scale, are significantly more likely to survive if they have local food sales as a part of their marketing portfolio.Local markets also provide low-barrier entry points for new farmers, ranchers and food entrepreneurs, allowing them to start small and test new products.In 2017, 7,377 markets and direct-marketing farmers accepted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) electronic benefit transfers, resulting in $22 million in SNAP spent at farmers markets. This provides access to fresh, local produce and enables SNAP recipients to purchase the nutritious foods their families need to stay healthy.  A growing number of farmers’ markets also offer incentive programs to low-income seniors and WIC (Women, Infants and Children Program) customers.Unlike many supermarkets, farmers markets put fruits and vegetables front and center and create a shopping environment where nutritious foods are not only affordable, they are celebrated.Visit your local farmers’ market this week and enjoy the bountiful crops that are grown close to you.Sen. Bill Monning represents the 17th State Senate District, which includes all of San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz counties, and portions of Monterey and Santa Clara counties. The weekly Morgan Hill Farmers Market takes place year-round 9am to 1pm Saturday, at the Caltrain parking lot on Depot Street in the city’s downtown.

Most Bibles begin with the words “In the beginning.” However, the more recently published Hebrew Bibles offer a different translation: “As God was beginning to create…”   A few lines later, we read that the sun, the moon and the stars are created on the fourth...

On any given Wednesday night, if you're lucky enough to get an invite, you can spend some time barbecuing and hanging out with the Elrods, a local racing family.Their shop in San Martin—the walls lined with trophies going back four decades—is a proud homage to the off-road racing lifestyle. Everything you might need to build a machine capable of enduring the roughest terrain on the planet is found here. Engines, motorcycles, and hunting trophies encompass the walls. Add all that to a cooler with a never ending supply of Coors Light, and it is paradise.I’ve know the family for about two decades. I was introduced to them through my childhood friend Curtis Giacolone. His cousin J.C. Elrod was the heir apparent to the racing legacy that his father Jeff and his uncle Wes created. For J.C. on the weekend of Sept. 30, this would be his first time in a race car after almost six years. He broke his back in a motorcycle accident, an injury that left him incapable of pursuing his passion.I was excited to go back to a racetrack, even more than usual since this would mark my friend’s return to racing. I was there one night when J.C. announced and displayed the car that he would be building. While a great deal of input came from Jeff and Wes, the mastermind behind the build would come from another friend, Donnie Powers. The build started about five months before the first scheduled race. I got to witness some of the transformation from rust bucket to race car, and I was ready to put aside a weekend to come see them in action.In the pits, no one was expecting anything too dramatic. All they hoped for was to just finish. So when J.C. won his second heat, all of us were ecstatic. For everyone who had put in a ton of sleepless nights, it was vindication. The night ended with what some could consider a disappointing finish: 11th place. But everyone was happy with how the car performed.The next night I was hoping for more good racing. The American Stock class provides for a lot of rubbing and crashing. J.C. had a few extra dents after the qualifying heat, which led to a little bit of an altercation in the pits. Emotions can run high, so scuffles between drivers aren’t uncommon.In the main event there was a lot of good things that came out from the race. Unfortunately it ended with J.C. spinning out just before the final lap. Throughout the weekend everyone was coming over to take a look at the car, admiring the rugged and traditional aspect it brought to the track. In short, while not finishing, they let everyone know they were just beginning..Being a family affair, Jeff—who all of us call “Boss Man”—was prouder than I’ve ever seen him. Self-admittedly he was a nervous wreck throughout the race, so to see his son come out unscathed after the nightmare six years earlier was an awesome sight to behold. J.C. himself was proud of everyone coming together to get that car on the track.While Elrod Racing didn’t take the checkered flag that weekend, it was just the beginning. The Team motto, “Build, Race, Win,” is prevalent. Where a lot of people starting off in racing use a cookie cutter style of building a racecar, these guys started from the bottom.So if you're ever free on a weekend and want to see a part of an old school American tradition, come out to the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds and cheer on the number 84x Elrod Racing car, the local boys.Gilroy resident and Live Oak High alumnus Connor Quinn is Region IX State Membership Coordinator for Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organization that employs military veterans. He is also a VA work study at the Gavilan College Veterans Resource Center.