First 50 Freebies in February!

Get free food just for showing up at the market! The First 50 Freebies in February giveaway is designed to reward customers who brave the cold and/or rain to find the freshest local food. It's also an incentive for everyone living and working nearby to get away from their desks and daily routines to enjoy the winter bounty. Beginning at 10 am each Tuesday and Thursday during the entire month of February, a fresh farmers market treat will be waiting at the information booth for the first 50 people who come to claim it (this week we gave away lacinato kale on Tuesday and mandarins and navel oranges on Thursday). Featured items will be announced via our Twitter feed and Facebook page that morning. Or just stop by and pick up a surprise!

Hands-on Class: Stocks & Simple Soups ~ February 18

Learn to make flavorful stocks, the backbone of every soup. James Stolich of cookwithjames.com will demonstrate how to make vegetable and chicken stock and then turn each stock into a simple soup. Participants will sit down to a meal of freshly made Swiss Chard and Bread Soup, Roman Egg Drop Soup, Acme bread, and a farmers market green salad.  Take home a recipe booklet and stock starter kit. Class is from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Ferry Building and is sponsored by CUESA and Urban Kitchen SF. Register >

Produce to the People: New Ideas for Local Distribution ~ March 2

There are now over 5,000 farmers markets in the U.S., yet still only a small percentage of Americans regularly eat fresh produce from local farms. Join CUESA and Kitchen Table Talks for a lively conversation about inspiring models for getting fresh, local food to more Bay Area residents. The panel will include: Grayson James, executive director of Petaluma Bounty; Melanie Cheng, founder of FarmsReach; and Christine Cherdboonmuang, coordinator of Healthy Farms/Healthy Communities for Oakland’s East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC) and the Oakland School District. The panel will be moderated by Michael Dimock, president of Roots of Change. The conversation will begin promptly at 6:30 pm and will culminate with refreshments and a reception from 8:00 to 8:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public. Learn more >

Food from the Heart ~ February 12

Get into the Valentine's Day spirit by strolling through the candlelit nave of the Ferry Building Marketplace for the 7th annual Food From the Heart, next Friday from 5 to 8 pm. Enjoy tango and salsa dancing and classical music, and purchase seasonal hors d'oeuvres and Napa Valley wines ($2-4 each). For chocolate lovers, local confectioner Michael Recchiuti and Parisian artist Mark Alsterlind will demonstrate what happens when art mixes with confections by painting with chocolate. Proceeds will benefit Slow Food San Francisco, to send a Ferry Plaza Farmers Market seller to Slow Food's Terra Madre gathering in Italy.

Our Sellers Made History! ~ February 8

Ferry Plaza sellers Eatwell Farm and Petaluma Farms will be featured in The History Channel's "Modern Marvels: Eggs," which charts the journey of the egg from henhouse to breakfast table. The show compares a massive traditional Iowa farm with 1.7 million chickens to Petaluma Farms' cage-free chickens and Eatwell's pasture-raised hens. See for yourself what the differences are, and witness other fun eggsperiments such as the world's largest omelet, pickled eggs, and an artist who sculpts egg shells into jaw-dropping works of art. The show airs Monday at noon and 6pm.

California Culinary Academy Farmer Series

Thanks to a recent collaboration with CUESA, the California Culinary Academy will host 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 farm. The February lunch and dinner, featuring Everything Under the Sun, are sold out, but save the date: the next event will be on March 24.

Fruit Tree Class ~ February 21

Looking to start growing fruit trees, or wondering how to take care of the ones you already have? This introductory day-long workshop near Half Moon Bay will cover the basics of fruit tree selection, biology, ecology, placement, planting, pruning and care, propagation and grafting, watering, and orchard management. The workshop will be held Sunday, February 21, from 9:30 am to 4 pm; payment is $25-$75 sliding scale (or contact the organizer if you can't afford the tuition).  Facilitated by Aaron Dinwoodie, farm manager at Tunitas Creek Ranch, and Antonio Roman-Alcalá of Alemany Farm. To register, email Antonio at antidogmatist@gmail.com with "TREE COURSE" in the subject line.

This week's feature was written by Jessica Goldman

Not in my backyard. The mere phrase suggests the strong ownership many people experience when it comes to their own slice of the outdoors, the place where they can plant a seed and watch it grow. But what if you don't have a backyard?

Take LaVada Hall, a San Francisco resident who lives with her daughter and mother in a San Francisco apartment. She liked the idea of growing her own fresh food and, even with her limited space, attempted to nurture a few small pots of produce. But gophers quickly became a problem and the experiment was over soon after it began. That is, until she heard about the Farmers-In-Residence program.

Near the end of last summer, Hall attended a PTSA meeting at the International Studies Academy, where her daughter, Myrtice, is a student. That night, Audrey Roderick from Urban Sprouts, a San Francisco-based nonprofit focused on garden-based education, announced the opportunity for 12 families to each claim a 3-foot by 8-foot plot of land on the school’s grounds to raise vegetables as a family.

“People were hesitant and only a few parents signed up,” Hall remembers.  “A lot of people thought it would take too much time.” But a deep concern for her family’s eating habits and the opportunity to work closely with her daughter inspired Hall to add her name to the list. “When we joined,” Hall says, “my daughter, my mother, and I made a commitment to each other to eat healthier.”

Myrtice did all the initial planting in the garden and together they shared the responsibility for keeping the plot watered and weeded. They planted lettuce, tomatoes, collard greens, green onions, and napa cabbage. Even though cool weather has slowed plant growth, Hall says she still adds some home-grown produce to their meals at least once a week. “Collard greens were always a family favorite, but now we really love red lettuce and I mix it with the stuff I get at Costco to make my salads for work,” she says. 

Urban Sprouts began in 2003, when Dr. Michelle Ratcliffe and Abby Jaramillo spent time at Luther Burbank Middle School testing out the benefits of a highly interactive, garden-based curriculum. Their findings ultimately raised the profile of school gardens as a core tool for youth development and health. 

Urban Sprouts has since expanded to include seven middle schools and high schools and a summer program — all in underserved areas. The garden-based education takes place weekly or bi-weekly during science classes or electives with lessons that range from life sciences to workers' rights to farm economy, depending on the grade level. The teachers also often include discussions of the food system as a whole.   

The organization’s work with children is held up as a model, but, as anyone working with children knows, schools are only one part of their lives. The idea for the Farmers-In-Residence program stemmed from a desire to bring families into the fold — to teach healthy food choices, increase access to fresh and local food, and create a unique situation for the families to experience their children's school.

“We felt like the work was incomplete,” says Abby Jaramillo, the program's current executive director. She noticed that students were excited about eating vegetables and were eager to bring recipes back to their own dinner table. But fresh produce wasn’t necessarily available to their families. So, she and her colleagues thought, why not help them grow some themselves?

Families are given full responsibility for cultivating their produce — planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting. They’re given reading materials on nutrition and gardening techniques. They’re also encouraged to see Urban Sprouts staff, volunteers, and interns as a resource (they even have access to Roderick by cell phone in case an agriculture emergency occurs). The Urban Sprouts staff also provides classes throughout the year on gardening, nutrition, and healthy eating.

If the Hall family is any indication of the success of the program, the school gardens might just have more potential to inspire community than most of us had imagined. At the last PTSA meeting, LaVada Hall encouraged three more families to sign up for plots. Due to the growing number of interested participants, this year’s farmers will pass their plots on to new families next October. Meanwhile, Urban Sprouts is working on ways to keep current families involved and the healthy routines they’ve created in place.

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, February 6

Out: Bernard Ranches, Hayes Street Grill, Vicolo Pizza, Knoll Farms, Lagier Ranches

Tuesday, February 9

Out: Four Sisters Farm, Frog Hollow Farm, Hog Island Oyster Co.
Returning: Snyders Honey

Thursday, February 11

Out: Hog Island Oyster Co.

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing):
Blood oranges, root vegetables, cippolini onions, chicories, cauliflower, lettuces, broccoli, fennel, plant starts, cabbages, nettles, pea sprouts, green garlic, grapefruit, collard greens, cherimoyas, tulips, flowering branches, torpedo onions, spinach, Meyer lemons, radishes, Brussels sprouts, avocados, asparagus, chard

Winding down/limited supply:
Some citrus varieties, sunchokes, pastured eggs, potatoes, winter squash, apples, and pears

Vendor and value-added items not to be missed:
Southern cornbread mix from Ridgecut Gristmill, citrus salt from Eatwell Farm, tulips from Thomas Farm

Featured recipes for February

Carrot Soup with Orange-Infused Olive Oil and Prosciutto Chips from Cookbook Author Georgeanne Brennan

Shaved Fennel & Orange Salad from Lulu Yang, Lulu's Kitchen

Leek and Rapini Fritters from Angelo Garro with Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson, The Kitchen Sisters, authors of Hidden Kitchens.