Farmer's market customers have long wondered how a handful of radicchio or a few stalks of Swiss chard could eat up the better part of a twenty dollar bill, though until now seemed to accept the far-fetched story that small-scale organic farming was highly cost-intensive. But the mystery appeared to be clearing up after a vegetable vendor was seen leaving the farmer’s market in a cream-colored Range Rover HSE.
Maya Swek, of San Rafael, was the witness who reported the sighting. Here is her first hand account:
“I was buying an astronomically priced butternut squash when I noticed, just by chance, that the vendor was wearing Prada glasses, and I recognized his flannel from a Todd Snyder catalog. Something didn’t feel right so I hid in the Porta-Potties until the market wrapped up, and followed him to the parking lot.”
Swek’s detective work did not end there. Incensed, she tailed the man back to his spread in Napa Valley, where he unloaded bushels of cash from all the suckers at the farmers market. He then threw some seeds in the dirt, squirted some water on them and (not knowing his little operation was being observed) said aloud, "All done for the day."