New Sunflower Farmers Market in San Jose

You may have heard me gripe before about how I would love to eat organic if it were more affordable and readily available. We don't always have the time to go to weekend farmer's markets. Recently, I received an invitation to preview the grand opening of Sunflower Farmers Market in south San Jose. Sunflower, a brand I had never heard of before, merged with Sprouts, a brand I have heard of before, and the south San Jose location is one of their newer stores. I could not attend the preview or the grand opening but I did visit on the weekend of their opening week. Sunflower/Sprouts stores carry locally grown, natural or organic foods, also specializing in vegan and gluten free options. To my expected dismay, no photography allowed in store. So I will show you what I made with $23 worth of organic, natural foods.

Made an omelet from Sprouts brand eggs from local, cage-free hens grown with no antibiotics. Spam, not from Sunflower. Do I taste a big difference in the eggs? No. They are smaller than jumbo eggs at Safeway. They were buy 2 for $5 which is decently priced. I would buy them again for sure.

Made a salad from homegrown kale, previously made quinoa cooked in chicken broth. From Sunflower: vine ripened tomatoes, pre-made tea eggs, garbanzo beans from a can, roasted beets, jicama slices, dressed in Annie's shitake sesame salad dressing. My favorite salad dressing is offered in a 32 oz size at Sunflower! DEFINITELY getting this again. They don't sell the value size at Safeway.

 Sliced jicama (from Sunflower) sprinkled with El Tajin (not from Sunflower) Mexican fruit seasoning. Yummy. An acquired taste for some.

The only things here from Sunflower are the lentils and the eggs. This was a super delicious dinner and note the smaller portion we have learned to eat from our portion control diet. *wink* There's really no recipe here. I cooked lentils per package directions. Patted the salmon dry and seasoned the salmon with salt and pepper on both sides, seared it on a hot pan on both sides until done (I estimate 1-2 minutes per side, doesn't take long). Then I poached an egg. I was aiming for a runny yolk so that the yolk would become the sauce for this dish but my multi-tasking was too slow so it was more of a soft boiled egg consistency. Topped this all with mother-in-law's garlic and chilli peppers in soy sauce. SO DELICIOUS, all of it. Would have been better if the yolk was runny but there's next time for that...

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I am admittedly a cheap foodie/health nut. I post all these links about the health and natural food movement and I don't always eat organic or natural. Not because I am a hypocrite but because I am trying to get the demand popular enough so it becomes more affordable and available for people just like me. With the emergence of Sunflower, Sprouts, Trader Joe's stores, CSA's and other fruit and veggie delivery services, and the recently announced Whole Foods in downtown San Jose , I am pleased to see the demand is growing. While I gathered no such data to do a dollar for dollar comparison, on the whole I felt Sunflower was more affordable than Whole Foods, which some people refer to as "Whole Paycheck." Would I shop at Sunflower or Sprouts again, yes definitely. Would I make Sunflower my main grocery store? No. The ultimate competitor is still Safeway and Lucky. Sunflower is still not cheap enough for lower to middle class America. But I do highly recommend a visit to the store when you want to treat yourself to some really fresh food. It's not pictured here but we also loved the mini asparagus and thought it was super cool you could buy pine nuts in bulk for a whopping $16/lb though. It does make you feel better after you eat organic.

Thank you Sunflower Farmers Market for the invite to preview your store.
*Please note, I did not receive any free goods or money in exchange for this review. These are all my own views.

Learn more at the Sprouts Website