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 ~ Tonight

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, tonight 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 paint with chocolate to demonstrate what happens when art mixes with confections. Proceeds will benefit Slow Food San Francisco’s efforts to send a Ferry Plaza Farmers Market seller to Terra Madre, the international Slow Food gathering in Italy.

Pam Peirce Talk at Flora Grubb ~ February 28

Pam Peirce has released a brand new edition of Golden Gate Gardening, the indispensable book on gardening in San Francisco. Hear her speak at Flora Grubb Nursery and get your book signed. Learn more >

Panel Discussion: The Butcher and the Vegetarian ~ February 18

Visit 18 Reasons for an evening of conversation with Tara Austen Weaver, author of The Butcher and The Vegetarian. Tara has invited a few of the real life characters from her book, including Doug Stonebreaker of Prather Ranch, to join her and speak about the complex food choices we each face. After the panel discussion, 18 Reasons will open their doors for socializing and book signing. 6 to 7 pm: Ticketed panel discussion ($10) 7 to 9 pm: Open, drop-in party ($5 or free for attendees of the panel discussion).

Upcoming Haiti Fundraisers

Devil's Gulch Ranch has organized a series of local fundraisers for Haiti Earthquake Relief. Here are just few:

• Mark Pasternak and Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak, the owners of Devil's Gulch Ranch, have recently returned from Haiti and will share their experiences at Toby's Feed Barn in Marin on February 13.
  
  
• Flour and Water will partner with Devil's Gulch Ranch to host a special benefit dinner on February 21.
  
  
• Chefs Chris Kronner of San Francisco’s Bar Tartine and Sean Rembold of Brooklyn’s Diner will team up to create a four-course dinner featuring Devil's Gulch rabbits on February 22.

Ecology Center Seed Swap ~ February 26

Potluck supper, hoedown music, homegrown garden seeds, and the company of fantastic local gardeners! Learn about seed saving classes and the Library at the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (BASIL) 11th Annual Seed Swap. BASIL is a project of the Ecology Center. Learn more >

Saturday, February 13 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Eric Tucker, Millennium and author of The Artful Vegan

Tuesday, February 16 ~ Food Wise Booth

12:30 - 1:00 pm - Sarah Henkin, CUESA's market chef, will be giving out recipe cards and samples of a simple meal made with market ingredients. She'll also be on hand to offer advice for all your seasonal meal planning.

Saturday, February 20 ~ Soup Festival

10:00 am - 1:00 pm - Soup Booth in the South Driveway

• Soup Display: Learn about the history of soups from around the world, and pick up tips for making your own stock. Discover the "anatomy of soup"
• Grown-your-own soup garden display featuring plants from Flatland Flower Farm
  
• Enjoy a hot cup of Ferry Plaza Farmers Market Minestrone Soup for a $1 donation
  
• Also, look for the big soup spoons at farmer's tents while you shop — this indicates that the farmer has a special soup recipe of their own to share. Collect the recipe cards as you shop.

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Chad Newton, Fish & Farm

All programs take place in CUESA's Dacor teaching kitchen, in front of the Ferry Building on the north side.

In the kitchen at the California Culinary Academy(CCA) a student makes fresh pasta. At the center of a mound of green-tinted flour, he begins slowly working in a golden pool of liquid egg. The pasta will be served on the students’ final day in CCA’s teaching restaurant, Careme 350, and it's the addition of powdered green garlic says chef and instructor Amy Toder, that will make the pasta green.

The green garlic comes from Everything Under the Sun and the farmer, Bill Crepps, is visiting the class on his way home from the Tuesday farmers market. He's there to meet with students, answer questions about things like organic certification and his path to farming (“I got into it more as an environmentalist”), and to put a face on the food he’s delivering for this month’s menu. Toder shows Bill how she and her students plan to incorporate his produce. She picks up the garlic-infused dough for Bill to smell, and asks: “Isn’t that wonderful?” Toder then details her plan for a salad that will use a combination of Bill’s fresh and dried Mandarins, with the dried ones sprinkled on top at the very end of the process, “almost as a nut replacement.”  Bill wonders aloud why he hasn't tried that — he's a man with no shortage of ideas — and asks if he can get a copy of the best recipes to share with his customers.

Like her students, Toder is clearly inspired by the farm-fresh produce. (“It was probably picked around 24-hours ago,” says Bill.)  She retrieves a radish from the school’s walk-in cooler and compares it to one she gets out of a box of Bill’s produce. “You can see that this one is a living thing,” she says, pointing to Bill's radish. “It has so much vitality!”

CCA classes don't just graduate once a year; instead, a small group of them graduate every six weeks. Until recently, each graduating class was asked to prepare and serve something called the “Grand Buffet.” They worked hard on a wide variety of entrees, salads, and sweets for Careme 350 guests — all made with conventional produce bought through a large distributor. “If you can cook with these ingredients, you can do anything,” says Toder. This year, thanks in part to a collaboration with CUESA, the school has shifted to what they are calling the Farmer Program; instead of the buffet, they plan and prepare a final lunch and dinner with produce from a single small-scale farmer.

Within the context of a year-long curriculum that Toder says addresses sustainable food for just about one day, the Farmer Program could have an important impact on tomorrow’s emerging chefs. Sarah Henkin, CUESA’s Market Chef, is a CCA alumna who came to CUESA as a volunteer intern because she wanted to familiarize herself with local farmers and the food they grow. She’s hoped for the day when her alma mater would institutionalize this important aspect of culinary education. “Many of these farmers supply San Francisco’s top restaurants and it's important that young chefs are exposed to the local produce available in the Bay Area,” she says, adding, “this is a great opportunity for graduating students to make connections that could last them their for whole careers.”

Chefs are a crucial piece of the food system and their choices have a significant impact on the local food economy. Sourcing directly from farmers can cost more, so Toder says she’s also working with students to think about cost-saving measures such as controlling portion size and reducing waste. The move away from the “Grand Buffets” concept was part of that process.

The CCA is only one campus of the Cordon Blue, a network of culinary programs in cities all over the country that each plan to integrate farmers into the curriculum in one way or another. Chef Instructor Damon Barham, who works with Toder, is excited to see such a system-wide shift. “It's really being incorporated into the corporate model" he says. "Going forward, over the next 10 years, I think working with local, sustainably-produced food will be the model.”

The next set of farmer-inspired graduate meals at Careme 350 will be served on March 24. Stay tuned for ticketing information.

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 13

Returning: Flatland Flower Farm, Bruins Farms, Ridgecut Gristmills, Hayes Street Grill/ Vicolo Pizza, Primavera, Prather Ranch Meat Company, Juniper Ridge, The Apple Farm

Tuesday, February 16

No changes

Thursday, February 20

No changes

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing):
Blood oranges, root vegetables, cipollini 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

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup from CUESA's market chef, Sarah Henkin

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.