Surprise lures on this weekend's tours!

I really am not a poet, that title just popped out of my tired brain just now. It's after 6pm and I'm past ready for quitting time today!

Spring is definitely in the air! The temperature on the bank's thermometer at 3rd and Fairfax read 97 (F) when I was leaving the market on Saturday, after a fantastic tour. Friday was equally great, and included some special guests. Thank you everyone, for coming out in the warm, beautiful sunshine! We had full groups both days and it was pure pleasure to be the host.

Lisa joined us on Friday which is such a rare treat. Last summer when we began the tours, we very often were co-leaders and that happens only once in a while now. For those of you that have never met my wonderful sister, when you finally have the privilege it will have been worth waiting for!

Two other ladies you will love to meet in the very near future, are LuAnn Roberto and Marla Dennis. I mention them both now because they have joined Lisa and I on our team, as creative geniuses to lend support for our marketing and PR efforts. LuAnn has been our artist and soul sister since the beginning (since even before that), and Marla is our Facebook and online marketing expert. I could write an entire book to sing their respective praises so just rest assured, you'll be hearing more about them soon. LuAnn came on our tour - for the second time - a week ago Saturday with her lovely mom and two friends. Marla came to play for the first time on Friday and since she snapped photo after photo, she probably missed a lot of my clever banter and will have to come again!

Also on Friday, we enjoyed some extra color, with Carolyn Scott and Dan, her fiance-videographer joining us, to create a video for Carolyn's brilliant, check-out-worthy site The Healthy Voyager. Carolyn is a vegan and, was pleased that she really enjoyed the tour's tastings and claims she was quite full at the end! We aim to please! We are delighted and very grateful that now her fan followers will be turned on to Melting Pot Tours!

No celebrity sightings (that I knew of!) on Friday but, Saturday....Actor Billy Zane was spotted dining al fresco at Little Next Door on West 3rd Street. Was I the one who spotted him? I was not. Did I have a clear idea of who he was when they said "That's Billy Zane!" I did not. I am so pleased that our fabulous tour guests can point these things out - thank you to our Saturday spotters Liliane and Julie!

I wrote last week about how Cook's Library is closing on April 30 and would love to think that my blog post was responsible for the mob that had converged there both Friday and Saturday but, I'm quite sure it was not! Tim and Ellen were gracious as usual as they dealt with our big groups and their lot of customers buying up a storm. On Saturday, JoAnn Cianciulli, Author "LA’s Original Farmers Market Cookbook" coming out in just a few days, arrived at Cook's just as we did. We helped her lament that her dream was to see her cookbook in the window of Cook's Library, and her timing is sadly just off, a little bit.

Two rounds of good news on that note, however. That very cookbook will be celebrated at the Farmers Market at a big booksigning event on April 16th - I will get more information about that to you soon. The book will be sold at the Market and you are welcome to take it to merchants like our darlings at Huntington Meats for autographs! I mention Huntington Meats because Nancy Silverton will be joining the guys that day to grill up some burger samples. If I'm not mistaken, the entire Market will be partying to launch the cookbook that is...75 years in coming! This is all part of the big 75th birthday party going on at the Market all year long.

The other note of good news is that Tim at Cook's Library told us on Saturday that they are keeping their mailing list. He did elude (dare I quote?) that there may be something in the future for Cook's Library, and they will still keep in touch with their following. So if you haven't signed up yet and would like to, now is the time!

And with that I leave you, so that I may prepare handmade loaves of bread for baking. Ahh, the perfect antidote to a busy day on the computer!

Wishing all of you a delicious week, your faithful Tour Maestra,
Diane Scalia