BERKELEY, Calif.— A decorated chalkboard displays the baked goodies at the Moonlite Bakery booth at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market. Fresh baked cookies, cakes, brownies, frittatas, granola and even home-brewed iced tea sit behind a glass panel, waiting to be bought. Almost every item caters to a person’s dietary needs, such as the gluten-free polenta torta. Every treat is organic and attracts the customer’s eye with bright colors, like the vegetable frittata and the sour cream and blueberry coffee cake, or interesting names, such as the coffee-rum pirate cake and the organic hibiscus peppermint iced tea.
Shirley Trimble runs the bakery and sells her pastries to local cafes in the Berkeley area. “I’ve worked as a baker for 30 years. I started selling pastries to cafes around eight years ago,” said Trimble. Her pastries change depending on her whims and the season, and she’s at her booth year-round at the market.
“My most-sold item is a vegetable frittata,” said Trimble after she served several customers pastries from her booth. Trimble said she gets lots of customers because “some people like to have something to munch on when they’re walking.”
Trimble also sells hot chocolate occasionally.
“I’ve always been into baking as a little girl,” she said, taking a sip of her iced tea. “When I was a teenager, I went into a bakery and tasted a vanilla eclair and that’s when I knew that I wanted to bake.” Trimble has baked ever since and takes pride in her creations.
“Today, my specialty item is a Mexican Chocolate Pop Tart,” she said.