Twelve chefs celebrate six farmers in a series of seasonal suppers

Each month, from March to August, two top chefs will collaborate with a local farmer to create an extraordinary meal to benefit CUESA. The series kicks off at the restaurant Luce, where Dominique Crenn, of Luce, and Chris Kronner, formerly of Slow Club and Serpentine, will work with Louis Iacopi of Iacopi Farm. From there, the feast moves on to One Market, Picco, Spruce, Americano and Aziza. See the full Movable Feast schedule here >

We have a name!

We received an amazing 185 suggestions for our new kitchen advice booth. Thanks to everyone who submitted! The most amusing included Ferry Godmother (Bonnie Powell), Sarahndipity (both Janet Paz and Marcus Rector), CHEF.Y.I. (Karen Jew), and Turnip with Answers (Chubby from Bunrab). And the winner is: Food Wise by Jill Nevard. Congratulations, Jill!

Come by the Food Wise booth this Tuesday to try Sarah Henkin's first quick, delicious and easy one-pot meal suggestion. Take home the recipe and pick up the ingredients while you're at it!

Citrus festivities at the market  ~ February 7

Come celebrate the California fruits that bring sweetness, tang, and a little bit of sunshine to the winter table. Get your dose of C with CUESA as we kick off another year of culinary education at the farmers' market.  Activities include a citrus variety tasting challenge, a meet the farmer station, a citrus in the kitchen display, an "orange smile" digital photo booth, and a cooking demonstration highlighting both a pasta dish and a salad that feature citrus.

Cowgirl Creamery guest cheese maker ~ tomorrow

David Gremmels, from Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Oregon will be selling some of his artisan blue cheese at the Cowgirl stand this Saturday.

In Search Of Good Food benefit dinner ~ February 7

Support a documentary about California's emerging sustainable food system and enjoy a good meal. Leif Hedendal (The Secret Café, formerly of Greens Restaurant, etc.) is serving up several courses of wintery vegetarian delicacies using fresh, local produce.  The night will feature a preview of the in-progress movie, musical accompaniment, and an inspiring talk by Bu Nygrens of Veritable Vegetable. BYOB. 7-10pm. Tickets are $40-100 (sliding scale). More information and menu here >

 

Help market shoppers sort their waste wisely

Meet other friendly market shoppers and help us divert over 90% of market waste from the landfill: volunteer to help man our Waste Wise Stations! The market needs waste-wise volunteers every weekend in order to keep the program running. Even if you can only give a few hours of your time, we'd be thrilled to have you involved! Email Ashleigh Collier for more information.

Editor's note: At CUESA we believe that local meat from humanely raised, pasture-based animals is a sustainable choice. By expanding our awareness of just how many resources go into a single piece of meat, we are more likely to make conscious choices and to appreciate more fully the meat we do eat.

Mark Bittman wants you to eat less meat. In his typically disarming way, The Minimalist — as he's referred to in his New York Times column, as well as online, where he writes a blog and appears in short cooking videos — will dish it to you straight.

At a recent appearance at the Ferry Building’s Book Passage, while promoting his new book Food Matters, Bittman told a room full of fans: “You can’t be an environmentalist unless you care about how much meat you eat.”

Bittman is well known for his books How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Food Matters expands on his idea that “if you buy your own food and cook your own food, you tend to put much better things in your mouth than if you don’t.” Thanks in part to a realization he had after reading the UN report called Livestock’s Long Shadow, and to his decision to tackle some of his own health issues head on, The Minimalist is now advocating an even larger shift. In the vein of Michael Pollan's now well-known creed, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants," Bittman has the potential to reach a broad audience of home cooks who may have not read Pollan's books or seriously consider their food choices from a sustainability perspective.

Here’s how Bittman breaks it down: industrial livestock production accounts for 18% (1/5) of the greenhouses gases currently being emitted and ranks above transportation as a contributing factor to climate change.

The average American eats a half pound of meat a day, which accounts for 1/6 of the world’s livestock consumption. As the developing world begins to eat more meat and countries such as China take on behavior similar to ours, the projected global demand for meat will be 120 billion animals a year (or twice what we currently consume) by 2050.

“I know statistics are numbing," says Bittman, "and these numbers may seem like no big deal, until you consider that it takes 70% of all the available farmland in the world to produce the meat we’re eating now – whether it's land the actual livestock take up, or it’s being used to grow the corn and soy that feed livestock.” And, he points out, if demand does go up to 120 billion animals, you’d need an impossible 140% of the world's arable land.

“The land just isn’t there,” says the chef-turned-environmental-advocate, adding that meat production can’t get any more efficient (“and the efficiency we’re experiencing now comes at the expense of animals’ well-being"). Bittman also makes a comparison to Americans' dependence on fossil fuels. “The resources aren’t there in order to grow unless people change their behavior. So we have to — for lack of a better word — conserve.”

Bittman himself now eats a vegan, whole grain-based diet for the first two meals of the day and allows himself to eat "whatever he wants" for the third. In other words, the recipes in Food Matters are the direct product of his own at-home experiments. The book is also full of concrete suggestions as to how to accommodate a more plant-based diet. He recommends making a frittata, for instance with a much a higher ratio of vegetables to eggs than average. Or a spaghetti sauce “spiked” with a little meat for flavor, but loaded with vegetables. He also encourages his readers to get to know a few delicious ways to prepare beans and other legumes, so as to incorporate them into weekly meal planning in place of some meat-based dishes. See Bittman’s whole grain granola recipe here>

Most importantly, Bittman is asking his audience to think incrementally, and to start where they’re comfortable. “If we ate nine billion animals in the US next year instead of 10 billion, that’s still a significant change,” he says. As for his own love of meat, Bittman says: “I’ll never stop eating animals, but it is time we stopped raising them industrially and stopped eating them thoughtlessly.”

This is the most up-to-date information about which sellers will be attending the market as of Friday. If there are no changes to a seller's status, they will not be listed. You'll find a list of which farmers regularly attend each market here. Please understand that there are often last-minute changes—it's the nature of farming!

Saturday, January 17

In: Andante Dairy, Blossom Bluff Orchards, Chan's Nursery, Marin Roots Farm
Out: Happy Quail Farms

Tuesday, January 20

Out: Critical Edge Knife Sharpening, Snyders Honey

Returning, plentiful and/or at their peak this month:
Blood oranges, plant starts, kale, nettles, green garlic, cruciferous vegetables, flowering quince branches, chicories, root vegetables, tulips, pea sprouts, narcissus, kumquats, braising greens, Cara Cara oranges, baby lettuces, kumquats, Napa cabbage

Winding down/limited supply:
Avocados (should be plentiful again in February), Brussels sprouts, pastured eggs, fresh goat cheese, persimmons, pomegranates, apples and pears (from cold storage only right now)

Vendor and value-added farm products not to be missed (weather willing): Sierra Beauty applesauce from June Taylor, beef jerky from Marin Sun Farms, liverwurst from Fatted Calf, dried sweet marjoram from Allstar Organics

Featured recipes for January:

Smoked Trout, Grapefruit & Watermelon Radish Salad from cookbook author Laurel Miller

Wild Mushroom Bisque from cookbook author Susan Spungen

Pan-Seared Marin Sun Farms Flank Steak with Shaved Farmers’ Market Vegetable Salad, Sautéed Potatoes, and Green Garlic Aioli from Erica Holland-Toll of Lark Creek Inn

French Toast with Lemon-Ricotta Filling and Fresh Citrus Compote from Thy Tran