Today I met a woman who is part of the genius behind Square One Organic Vodka. We started a conversaion about cocktail blogs, which she calls clogs, I suppose because that is a more appropriate-sounding term than cocklogs. She is hosting a market-fresh beverage contest in San FranDisco at one of their Farmer’s Markets, and her business partner is leading a seminar on Friday called Farm to Glass. I have a particular interest in this, as you can read in my post on Drinking Seasonally.
Every Saturday after we close down our booth at the Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market my helpers and I assemble at my house for After Market Cocktails. I don’t want to over-emphasize the role of produce and Slow Food drinking ethics here—after-market cocktails started not as a celebration of local agriculture but as a way of takin’ a proverbial load off after a hard day’s work. Indeed, sometimes after-market cocktails consist of only a beer or two. It was only recently that I started to recognize the activist quality in our post-market ritual. People who eat locally should drink locally and seasonally, and blah blah and so forth, if for no other reason than to avoid the palate fatigue that comes with ordering a Gin & Tonic (or, godforbid, a Vodka Soda) every time you go out for years and decades.

After Market Cocktail #1--The Blueberry Bruise
¼ cup fresh Blueberries
4 slices fresh Cucumber
2 ounces Hendricks gin
2 dashes green Chartreuse
In a cocktail shaker muddle blueberries and cucumber with a teaspoon of caster sugar. Reserve 3 blueberries and 1 cucumber slice for garnish. Coat inside of chilled cocktail glass with Chartreuse. Shake and strain, garnish with bluebabies and cukes. Come to think of it, this drink might be well served in a sugared rim, if you're inclined towards things like that, which I'm usually not