Chefs Crenn and Kronner bring Iacopi produce to life ~ March 3

This March through August, two top chefs will collaborate with a local farmer each month to create an extraordinary meal benefiting CUESA. The series kicks off on Tuesday at Luce restaurant, 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. Buy tickets here >

 

Fresh Food from Small Spaces talk ~ March 4

How local can you grow? Perfect for urban residents who don’t have a big yard, RJ Ruppenthal’s new book Fresh Food from Small Spaces reveals how to harvest something delicious from any patio, balcony, rooftop, windowsill, or cabinet. A surprising variety of food can be grown in even the most cramped and paved of quarters—sprouts, mushrooms, ferments and cultures, vegetables, even berries and fruit trees! Admission is free. Talk begins at 6:00pm this Wednesday, and takes place in the Ferry Building's Port Commission Hearing Room. Reception to follow. Co-sponsored by SFGRO, Garden for the Environment and Book Passage.

Tantalizing Market Tapas classes ~ Wednesdays, April 1 - May 27

CUESA, Dacor, and Parties That Cook present a series of hands-on cooking classes in our teaching kitchen. The two-hour classes will focus on tapas with a California and international flair. They will take place on five Wednesday nights this spring (April 1, April 15, April 29, May 6, and May 27). Classes are $45/person including 2 glasses of BR Cohn wine. Recipes include: Fava Bean and Sweet Pea Hummus (see sidebar); Crostini of Roasted Asparagus Prosciutto and Teleme Cheese; and Shiitake-Scallion Potstickers with Sake Dipping Sauce. Preview the menus for all 5 classes and register here >

Panel on the art of the butcher ~ March 5

The Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology (SAFE) and Meatpaper present a panel discussion highlighting the stark contrast between animals delivered from local slaughterhouses and plastic-wrapped grocery store steak. They will talk about the retail component of the local meat system and how this can change the relationships that chefs, home cooks, and diners have with their meat. 7:00pm on the UC Berkeley campus. Learn more about this talk or SAFE's complete Meet Your Meat Series here >

Saturday, February 28 ~ Market to Table

10:00 am - Artisan talk and cooking demonstration
Taylor Boetticher, Fatted Calf Charcuterie
(Before the demo, Jen Maiser of Life Begins at 30 will interview Boetticher)

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Cory Obenour and Matt Sullivan, The Blue Plate

Tuesday, March 3 ~ Food Wise Booth

12 - 1 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 available to offer advice on all your seasonal meal planning.

Saturday, March 7 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Mark May, Executive Chef at The Lone Eagle in Lake Tahoe

12:00 pm - Discussion, olive oil tasting and book signing
Pamela Sheldon Johns owns a farm in Italy where she makes her own olive oil and teaches cooking classes. She is also the author of 50 Great Appetizers.

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

Food Democracy in Action

Sustainable-minded eaters have something to celebrate this week with the appointment of Kathleen Merrigan to the role of Deputy Secretary at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Merrigan is being seen as a crucial balance to the new head honcho, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who many worry is prone to conducting (big agri)business as usual. Not only did Merrigan draft the Organic Food and Production Act of 1990 while working under Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, but her credentials include a nearly decade-long stint at the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, which runs the National Organic Program. As Organic, Inc. author Sam Fromartz put it back in November, the new No. 2 is “someone who has pursued the change mantra in agriculture for nearly two decades.”

Merrigan, one of Food Democracy Now!’s  “Sustainable Dozen,” was surely bolstered by the signatures of more than 80 thousand concerned eaters, but the work doesn’t end here. As Steph Larsen says in a guest post on Ethicurean, “there are hundreds of political appointments to be made at USDA, and we cannot be satisfied with this one.” See Larsen's complete list.

Locavore First Lady

Will sustainable food be Michelle Obama’s D.A.R.E Campaign? It’s still too early to say, but while her husband appears hesitant to speak to the resounding need for widespread change in our food system, Michelle is slowly but surely making herself into a prime spokesperson on the issue.
The First Lady’s comments to the New Yorker last March on her family’s transition to organic, whole foods have been widely noted. This week, she stepped it up, not only by speaking to the USDA in support of a community garden project initiated by Tom Vilsack (a garden that is either a publicity stunt or a step toward actualizing the victory garden idea, depending on whom you ask) and waxed poetic to the New York Times about the value of local food. 

When food is grown locally, she told a group of reporters and culinary students before the Obamas’ first official dinner, “oftentimes it tastes really good, and when you’re dealing with kids, you want to get them to try that carrot...My kids are more inclined to try different vegetables if they are fresh and local and delicious.”

School Lunch Retrofit

Alice Waters has been urging the powers that be to rethink our $9 billion school lunch program for over a decade. This year, as more of us draw the connections between the cheap calories we (and our children) consume and their externalized costs, the argument has become especially compelling. From the NY Times Op-ed Waters co-authored with Katrina Heron last week:

How much would it cost to feed 30 million American schoolchildren a wholesome meal? It could be done for about $5 per child, or roughly $27 billion a year, plus a one-time investment in real kitchens. Yes, that sounds expensive. But a healthy school lunch program would bring long-term savings and benefits in the areas of hunger, children’s health and dietary habits, food safety, environmental preservation and energy conservation.

Beef: The Plot Thickens

Grass-fed cows don't have the same impact on the water, air and land that cows raised in giant factory farms do, but they're not without their own environmental impact. According to an article in Science News, grass-fed cows are actually more likely to contribute greenhouse gases — as much as 50% more — to the atmosphere than those fed corn to “finish” their growth process.

A Nova Scotia-based scientist Nathan Pelletier says the primary reason is grass-fed cows have so much impact on the climate is the “much higher volumes of feed throughput and associated methane and nitrous-oxide [GHG] emissions,” as well as the increased amount of land needed, among other factors.

Rather than scrap the grass-fed model, however, some scientists in the UK are developing techniques to reduce the amount of methane emitted by pastured cows by planting clovers and other leafy legumes that contain high sugar levels. According to the Guardian, "the altered diet changes the way that bacteria in the stomachs of the animals break down plant material into waste gas."

USDA Proposes to Weaken GE Crop Regulation

According to the True Food Network, the USDA is currently taking comments on a proposal to completely overhaul its regulation of genetically engineered crops. The change could significantly weaken the agency's oversight, so that biotech companies will be able to self-assess the safety of their own experimental GE crops. Read more or send comments to the USDA by March 17 here >

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 28

In: Bernard Ranches, Orangewood Farms (back for the season)
Out: Apple Farm, Hog Island Oyster Company, Glashoff Farms, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, June Taylor Company

Tuesday, March 3

In: Spring Hill Jersey Cheese

Returning, plentiful and/or at their peak this month:
Asparagus, avocados, hot house tomatoes, ranunculus, plant starts, root vegetables, green garlic, cippolini onions, nettles, braising greens, chicories, broccoli, carrots, tulips, narcissus, mushrooms, Meyer lemons, fresh herbs, leeks, grapefruit, kumquats, fennel, flowering branches, Brussels sprouts, oranges

Winding down/limited supply:
Apples and pears (only available from cold storage), some citrus varieties including pomelos and clementines, winter squash, kiwis, persimmons

Vendor and value-added farm products not to be missed (weather willing): Meyer lemon and rosemary campagne from Della Fattoria, coastal sage soap from Juniper Ridge, dried Thai basil from Allstar Organics, quark from Spring Hill Cheese

Featured recipes for February:

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

Grilled Radicchio Salad with Pink Grapefruit, Pink Peppercorns and Garlic-Tarragon “Ranch” Dressing from Eric Tucker of Millennium Restaurant.

Nettle Gnocchi from Christophe Hille, formerly of A16 Restaurant

Hearty Brown Rice, Butternut Squash, and Kale Soup from CUESA's market chef, Sarah Henkin (prepared for the Food Wise Booth on Jan 20, 2009).