Hidden Gems: Meet Gabriela Solorzano of Mercado Sol

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriela Solorzano

Hi Gabriela , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Our journey began when we moved from Los Angeles, California to Houghton, Michigan located in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The Upper Peninsula offers so much natural beauty, a strong sense of community, and delicious local dishes that my family and I have enjoyed, such as their delicious pasty’s and pannukakku’s. However, growing up as a Mexican-American in Los Angeles, food was always at the heart of our family gatherings, and my family and I began to miss those familiar and nostalgic aromas and flavors that would greet us in our family’s kitchen. This lead me straight to the kitchen where I began to recreate all the dishes and flavors that we were longing for… and to begin building new memories in our own family kitchen.

That’s how Mercado Sol began… we wanted to share those memories and flavors through our foods with the local community.

Mercado Sol strives to offer traditional authentic Mexican family recipes to our community; we pride ourselves in using locally sourced ingredients from local family-owned farms, producers and makers. Currently, we offer fresh salsas, dishes such as tamales, tres leches cupcakes and a variety of refreshing aguas frescas during the local Farmer’s Market season and local festivals.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We live in the northwestern portion of the Upper Peninsula due to its location its quite isolated; Detroit, MI is about 553 miles away; Chicago, IL is about 513 miles away; and Milwaukee, WI is about 324 miles away, we can’t just run to the local Mexican market here. Sourcing some critical ingredients has been challenging. I’m lucky that my mother ships me Mexican cinnamon, hibiscus blossoms and lots and lots of dried chiles sourced in Mexico. I order masa harina, that I source from Masienda, a small business based in Los Angeles, that works with small scale family-owned farms in Southern Mexico to grow heirloom corn. By principle, I want to support only local, small business here, however, they always don’t offer or have the goods and products we need. The fun part has been seeing more farms be excited to grow a variety of chiles to offer; and connecting with farmers directly and building relations with them and get excited about their tomatillos, jalapeños and guajillo chiles, it feels like a world we should all be living in… working from farm to (market) table with the most amazing people working to grow our local food systems.

We had to acquire a permit and secure a certified kitchen to produce our products. Being relatively new to the region, we had to work to get familiar with the rules and regulations and to build relationships, luckily due to the amazing supportive, From the Ground Up Collective, which manages the local farmer markets in the region. We were able to connect with Trinity Church, a local church, with a wonderful kitchen and have been partnering with them since our first year in operation with our license.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Mercado Sol offers traditional family recipe goods from the Mexican state of Jalisco, Jalisco is located in the Western-Pacific region of Mexico. Mercado Sol comes from our love and longing to our familial foods and culture. I grew up going to the mercado’s of Guadalajara, Jalisco, the same mercado’s where my mother, Margarita Garcia Sandoval, helped my grandmother, Josefina Reyes Ibarra, sell fresh homemade cheese from small baskets as a child. Remembering the colors, aromas and sounds of the mercado fills my heart with joy. The inspiration for Mercado Sol, then comes from the variety of offerings you can find in a Mercado – something savory, sweet, and refreshing, which is what we strive to offer on any given farmer’s market. The Sol part comes from our family surname, Solorzano, Sol the Spanish word for “sun”.

We are the only Mexican food based vendor at the farmer’s market, which makes us unique to the region. We’ve had many customers have a taste of their first tamal with us. We truly strive to honor and represent our traditional Mexican foods with what we have locally available to us in the Upper Peninsula, or the “UP”, as it’s affectionally known as by locals. It then becomes a fusion of North and South with the freshest, highest quality ingredients the UP farmers can offer, paired with our family recipes that have been passed down by generations, that makes our offerings uniquely of this place, that we call home now.

Currently we offer tamales, salsa’s, pan dulce, and agua frescas produced with an empathizes on locally sourced ingredients from the Keweenaw Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
So many, all include an amalgamation of food memories, road trips to Mexico with my father, Ricardo Garcia Delgadillo, riding in the back of the truck stopping at the roadside food stands, eating fresh cut sugar cane in the middle of the cane sugar fields, walking around the main plaza eating fresh roasted corn and drinking agua frescas in my father’s home town of Mechoacanejo, Jalisco, Mexico located in the highlands of Jalisco. The endless tamale making assembly line’s I was a part of moving from station as I got older, everyone starts out by having to soak the dry corn husks, then moves up to other stations. Helping my maternal grandmother sell agua frescas and tamales at the local park on the weekends in Pacoima, California. Eating fresh tortillas de harina (flour tortillas) made by my paternal grandmother, Maria del Refugio Delgadillo Luebano, my mother continues to use her recipe. Endless family carne asada’s (bbq’s) that included an underground fire pit for making birria (goat’s stew) and ended with my parents, aunts, uncles and family friends signing to songs by Vicente Fernandez, Los Bukis, and Juan Gabriel at the top of their lungs, of course those songs continue play in our home now.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @themercadosolup