At nine o’clock, shoppers arriving at Friday’s Farmers Market waded through a sea of white-clad chefs-in-training already on their way out, cultivated cooks armed with treats of fresh local produce, grass-fed beef and tinted eggs.

And by 9:15 a.m., students in Julie Logue’s Napa cooking class, assembled from Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Missouri, were roundly disappointed to learn that Laddie Hall’s stand had completely sold out of the pastel eggs from the ranch’s Ameraucana and Black Australorp chickens — all 20 dozen of them. They had also discovered that the lovely eggs from Nancy Skall’s eight-acre Middleton Gardens in Sonoma are often tucked away for long-standing customers — and are as rare as hen’s teeth. So, with bunches of Nancy’s brilliant onions and heads of garlic jostling in their baskets, the group was off to Leslie Rudd’s Dean & Deluca to track down rich cream for their fruity clafouti recipe.

Judging from the shoppers at the Farmer’s Market, the intense focus on freshly-picked local produce is widening this season to include sustainable, resource-wise animal husbandry. The valley is endorsing eggs from free-range chickens and antibiotic-free beef from the grass-fed, exotically-horned cows of the Scottish Highlands. And St. Helena, having backed local, sustainable and organic farming methods for years, is slowly becoming a Western outpost of the heritage breeds movement.

We probably won’t be allowed, though, to see many actual live animals at the market. Since the health department asks that Triple “T” Ranch’s two Labrador dogs stay confined to their pickup truck and that you leave your pets at home, it’s likely that Napa County inspectors  won’t be encouraging the display of cows on-the-hoof, or letting us watch heritage chickens peck through their greens, or even let us get a buzz from beekeeper Rob Keller’s bee hives. But perhaps the rules will soften by the end of the season.

Meanwhile, the nature-deprived children among us can sign up with Anne Garden at the White Barn booth for Summer Camp starting June 16, with children’s arts, filmmaking and nature camps - featuring hiking, exploring and feather-collecting around the 1872 carriage house/barn at the end of Sulphur Springs Avenue. Another week of art and nature camp starts on Aug. 4. Call 963-8536 for details.

New this year, the Culinary Institute of America’s “Green Thumb” stand is growing produce at their three local gardens: on the St. Helena campus in Deer Park, and near the dorms on Pratt Avenue. CIA culinary arts student Michael Shethar explains that the student farmers are using “sustainable and organic practices” — and spreading a lot of ladybugs from garden to garden — while they wait a couple of years required for the full COCC organic certification. Meanwhile the CIA stand is offering colorful treats: deep purplettes (bunching onions), spring cippolini (an old-style Italian onion), tender pea shoots harvested at “micro stage” with super-tender leaves, tendrils, stalks and flowers (the flowers look like sweet peas, taste like raw peas).

For garnish, investigate the CIA’s intriguing basket of culinary flowers: the purple “Verbena Canadensis,” sage and chive and Welsh onion blossoms. Summer savory popped up here, and lovage and lemon verbena, along with luscious pineapple sage, plus green globe and the lovely purplish artichokes called “violettas.”

Next Friday, Chef Vincent Nattress of Meadowwood will be giving the summer’s first chef’s demo at 10 a.m.

This week’s seasonal Farmers Market recipe combines the delights of spring greens with healthy red meat from grass-fed beef.

Long Meadow Ranch Hoisin Beef Pear Salad

This hearty spring salad with mixed baby greens and grass fed beef is perfect with sauvignon blanc. The beef marinates in a tarragon-hoisin marinade, and because it is so lean, it is cooked briefly and served rare. Hoisin — a rich, intensely flavored soybean, garlic, chili pepper sauce — can be found in the Asian section of Sunshine Market.

The beef: To make the marinade, combine 1/2 cup LMR extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup hoisin sauce, 1 crushed shallot, 1/4 cup coarsely chopped tarragon, 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper.

Pour it over 1-1/2 pounds of LMR grass-fed ranch hand filets (steaks cut from the tri-tip), turning to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least two hours and up to 24, turning occasionally. Just before cooking, season with salt and pepper.

Heat 1/4 cup LMR olive oil in a skillet; quickly sear the filets on both sides, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Let rest while preparing the salad. Just before serving, cut into thin slices.

The salad: To make the dressing, whisk together 1/2 cup pear vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey, and 2 tablespoons minced shallots; stir in 2 cups toasted, chopped walnuts. Let stand 1 minute. Whisk in 1 cup LMR extra virgin olive oil and  sp 1/2 cup walnut oil; season to taste with salt and pepper. Core and thinly slice six ripe pears. Fan the pears on six serving plates, one per serving.

Put 8 cups mixed baby greens into a large bowl; add the cooked beef. Toss the lettuce and beef with just enough dressing to lightly coat the salad. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mound the greens/beef over the pears. Sprinkle 1/2 pound crumbled Maytag Farms blue cheese over the top, dividing the cheese among the plates. Garnish with black pepper and chopped parsley.

Photographer Carol Troy (caroltroy@comcast.net) is the author of Cheap Chic and a former New York photojournalist whose pictures have appeared in the N.Y. Times, Child, Vanity Fair and Conde Nast Traveler.

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