California Culinary Academy Farmer Series ~ February 11

Thanks to a recent collaboration with CUESA, the California Culinary Academy (CCA) is hosting a series of farmer lunches and dinners in the student restaurant, Carême 350. The prix fixe meals mark the culmination of each class' culinary education and will feature produce grown by a local farmer (this week it's Everything Under the Sun). The next day of the series, February 11, includes lunch from 11:30 am – 1 pm and dinner from 6 - 8 pm. Reservations are available through OpenTable.com.

2010 Market Update

Beginning January 31, Aidells Sausage Company will no longer appear in our Saturday market. The story of Aidells is one of success. They started with us as a small local company and are now a national brand reporting annual sales in excess of $20 million. Their sausages are now available in 46 states, including 31 stores (and several other farmers' markets) in San Francisco. We are proud to have been one of the early venues for the company's products and we are thankful to Aidells for helping our market become a success. Moving forward, we hope to incubate other small sustainably-minded businesses, especially those with local products and few direct marketing opportunities.

Wes Jackson at UC Berkeley ~ January 25

Agriculture is the primary cause of biodiversity losses and chemical contamination of our land and water. With human population doubling as we approach the end of the fossil fuel epoch, humanity will soon realize that soil is more important than oil — and that soils across the planet are under siege. Dr. Jackson, who Life magazine predicted to be among 100 “most important Americans of the 20th Century,” will discuss how to solve this 11,000 year-old problem. Read more >

The Global Food Crisis and Local Solutions ~ January 27

Join Grassroots International and The Oakland Institute for an evening of conversation about the root causes of the global food crisis and the solutions — including sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty — being promoted by local communities and international social movements. Panelists include Nikhil Aziz of Grassroots International, Aldo Gonzalez of the Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca, Anuradha Mittal of The Oakland Institute, and Marcia Ishii-Eiteman of Pesticide Action Network. The event is free and takes place at the Mission Cultural Center from 6:30-8:30 p.m. RSVP to: LAutler@GrassrootsOnline.org

It’s citrus season in California, and yet many of us are drinking orange juice out of cartons — juice from Florida oranges picked last spring, stored without oxygen and then flavored with synthetically produced “flavor packs.” Alissa Hamilton, author of Squeezed: What You Don’t Know about Orange Juice, spoke to CUESA recently about this irony, the industry behind it, and the value of fresh fruit. 

CUESA: How has the orange juice industry impacted our ideas of the seasons, when it comes to oranges and orange juice?

Alissa Hamilton: Having a 365-day supply strips away any understanding we have of seasonality. The industry first of all stores quite a bit of juice and also imports a lot from countries like Brazil. Their goal is to provide consistent tasting product, as well as consistent supply, which goes back to the 1960s when the FDA got involved in standardizing orange juice.

CUESA: At the center of Squeezed is the fact that orange juice makers don’t have to provide information about these synthetically produced flavor packs on the carton because they're made from orange bi-products. Can you say more about this?

AH: I’ve been surprised about how people reacted to knowledge of the flavor packs. It really rocks people’s world to learn that most orange juice is not a fresh product. We take it for granted that we have a right to know what’s in food. I think people would be really upset if we were back in the 1960s, when standardized products didn’t have to list the ingredients on the label, but where we are today is not very different, in some respects.
 
I argue that current regulations [should be seen as] requiring companies to label the flavor packs because of the degree of manipulation involved, yet the FDA isn’t bothering with it; it’s pretty low on their priority list.

CUESA: Why do you think it’s perceived to be so much easier to pour a glass of orange juice than to slice an orange?

AH: People may think it’s less expensive or more convenient to buy a carton of juice, but a whole orange has more vitamin C than a glass of [packaged] juice. Orange growers just don’t advertise oranges — we don’t have the same advertising for any whole food that we do for products. What actually surprised me when I was doing research for the book was how readily people buy into the advertising behind orange juice without much thought.

CUESA: Has the decision to buy whole foods over processed foods become a political one?  

AH: It has come to that, yes — which is kind of crazy because it just seems to me to be common sense that you start with a whole food. For instance, part of the reason so much research went into developing good tasting orange juice was to provide soldiers over seas with vitamin C, soldiers who didn’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. 

CUESA: You talk about the famous “part of a balanced breakfast” line that appears in many ads, along with the image of cereal, toast, milk, and orange juice. Can you say more about that?

Well, one of the reasons there has so much branding around the “balanced breakfast” is because the same big company now often owns multiple brands — for instance the quick oats might be owned by the same entity that owns the juice brand, so it’s a way of bundling them together.

CUESA: If more people knew what actually went into the process of making packaged orange juice, do you think they’d be as likely to drink it?

AH: My intent was not to get people to stop drinking orange juice but [for them] to realize what it is they’re drinking. People have a right to know how industrialized the process has become, so they can make decisions that are consistent with their values. Many who drink orange juice also have concerns about the environment and agriculture, but don’t draw a connection. They might envision oranges growing in a Garden-of-Eden-like orchard in Florida, but I think if people took a trip to Bradenton, [the home of Tropicana, a product of PepsiCo.] and went to the processing plants, then yeah, they might make different choices.

CUESA: Do you have anything else to add?

AH: The risk is that my message will be narrowed to just orange juice, that readers will wonder: what about grapefruit juice? Or apple juice? I would hope that the message is broader than that; we really need to fight for more transparency surrounding how all of our food is produced.

See more of Alissa Hamilton's thoughts on pre-packaged orange juice in the video below (click here if you're having trouble viewing it)

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 23

Returning: Flatland Flower Farm
Out: Capay Fruits and Vegetables, Knoll Farms

Tuesday, January 26

Returning: Bella Viva Orchards, Cap'n Mike' Holy Smoke, County Line Harvest, Donna's Tomales, Hidden Star Orchards, Hodo Soy, Prather Ranch Meat Company

Thursday, January 28

Returning: Achadinha, County Line Harvest, Lagier Ranch, Pizza Politana, Tacolicious

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing):
Grapefruit, root vegetables, chicories, cruciferous vegetables, kumquats, lettuces, Asian greens, fennel, cabbages, nettles, sunchokes, pea sprouts, green garlic, blood oranges, collard greens, cherimoyas, tulips, flowering branches, winter squash, onions, spinach, Meyer lemons, radishes

Winding down/limited supply:
Potatoes, eggs, Brussels sprouts, avocados (apples and pears are also available in limited quantities from cold storage this time of year)

Farms returning this month:
Brokaw Nursery

Vendor and value-added items not to be missed:
Dried tomatoes from Everything Under the Sun, hot pepper flakes from Allstar Organics, Meyer lemon yogurt from Saint Benoit Yogurt

Featured recipes for January

Green Garlic Soup from Erica Holland-Toll, formerly of Lark Creek Inn

Capunet- Piemontese Cabbage Rolls from Staffan Terje of Perbacco (December 13, 2008)

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