At the Mission Trails Regional Visitor Center this weekend, a cozy, crackling fireplace and a local holiday market might be a perfect rainy-day nature fix — with sweeping views of the park's iconic five peaks.
"At the Visitor Center, we are in the heart of the park. Mission Trails is an 8,000-acre open space park with 65 miles of trails," said Jennifer Morrissey, executive director of the Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation.
The foundation supports the City of San Diego in caring for Mission Trails, including projects such as land acquisitions, educational outreach, invasive plant removal — and the annual Holiday Marketplace.
"We at the foundation organize a holiday marketplace every year, and it's a way to have local makers and artists sell their wares and share their creativity with the community," Morrissey said. "It's a way for them to support themselves, and a portion of all of the sales come back to the foundation to support Mission Trails."
The two-day market features more than 20 local creatives, including painters, ceramicists, textile artists and more, such as Juliana Tipton Designs, San Diego Woodturners, Red Thread Vintage and Two Hermanas.
One vendor is Elizabeth Rosales Aguilar of Raíz Chocolate, whose "bean-to-bar" chocolates, drinking chocolate and confections draw on the rich flavors of her childhood.
"I make chocolate, Mexican chocolate. We source all of our cacao from Mexican farmers who work in agroforestry systems," Rosales Aguilar said.
Agroforestry is a sustainable farming method, where a multiple crops grow together. Cacao is particularly vulnerable, Rosales Aguilar said, and this approach protects the soil and prevents disease from wiping out entire harvests. It also provides farmers with more economic flexibility.
"When one crop is not doing that well that year, they have different types of crops that they can sell as well," she said.
Raíz Chocolate sources directly from farmers, and the origins of the cacao shape every decision Rosales Aguilar makes.
"The chocolate bars, these are 70% and they're made with a very particular cacao which is called almendra blanca or cacao caramelo," she said. "This is the first heirloom cacao variety that Mexico has, and it's pretty rare. It only grows in a very small region of the state of Chiapas and Tabasco."
She's also inspired by traditional chocolate-making techniques, which create flavors distinct from United States or European chocolates and hot cocoas.
"In Mexico, traditionally we use cacao lavado, which is a post-processing practice of cacao. It gives you a deeper flavor of chocolate. It's more intense. It's also more bitter and stringent, but in Mexico that's the way we drink it," Rosales Aguilar said.
The Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation has much to celebrate as the year closes, including historic achievements.
"The foundation was created in 1988 with the intention to help the park be maintained. That's something that we do every day. We help the rangers and city staff maintain the trails as well as the facilities," Morrissey said. "And we're really excited because for the first time in our history, we have started to do land acquisition."
One acquisition added 108 acres north of Highway 52 to the park, which will eventually feature new trails. Along with multi-year invasive plant and brush removal programs and hosting more than 3,000 students on free field trips, it has been a significant year for Mission Trails.
For the park, the Holiday Marketplace supports local creatives like Rosales Aguilar — and for those artists, it's a way to give back.
"I love this park. I love the conservation efforts," Rosales Aguilar said.
Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation Holiday Marketplace
9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Nov. 15-16
Mission Trails Visitor Center
1 Father Junipero Serra Trail, San Diego, CA 92119
Free | MORE INFO
