Diet For a Hot Planet: A Book Talk And Reception With Anna Lappé ~ April 10

Climate change is coming, and our food is implicated. Anna Lappé’s latest book has a simple message: if we are serious about addressing climate change, we have to talk about food. Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It voices the dreams, tales, and warnings of the farmers and eaters at the front lines of the battle to keep the planet cool and explores the potential for sustainable agriculture to mitigate climate change. Mei Ling Hui, SF’s Urban Forest Coordinator, will speak briefly about the City's sustainable food policies and efforts to address climate change. Come hear more about this important and timely work, and find out how your food choices make a difference. Learn more or buy tickets. Read a recent Washington Post article about Lappé.

Last Butchery Class ~ April 1

CUESA and Urban Kitchen SF are teaming up to present a three-part butchery series with David "The Butcher" Budworth. The first two classes in the series sold out, but there are still a few spaces available for the goat class on April 1. Learn more.

Tantalizing Market Tapas Classes ~ Wednesdays, March 24 - April 21

CUESA and Parties That Cook present a series of hands-on cooking classes focusing on seasonal tapas with an international flair. The two-hour classes will take place in our teaching kitchen on three Wednesday nights this spring (March 24, April 7 and April 21). Classes are $75 per person. Recipes include spring lamb skewers with mint-pistachio pesto (pictured); Meyer lemon bars with a shortbread crust; and puree of fava, sweet pea, and mascarpone with garlicky pita chips. Preview all three menus and register.

Inside the Hen House -- April 20

Do you know where your chicken comes from? Find out more in this panel discussion sponsored by CUESA. Carole Morison, the former chicken farmer featured in Food, Inc., will tell the story of her 23 years working within the industrial poultry system, in which growers must agree to inhumane practices that cause water and land pollution and produce birds full of antibiotics. She will be joined by farmers Norman and Aimee Gunsell of Mountain Ranch Organically Grown, who raise 500-800 chickens at a time—organically and on pasture. Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules, In Defense of Food, and The Omnivore's Dilemma, will introduce the panelists and frame the debate. The panel will be moderated by Anya Fernald, who launched Slow Food Nation and now supports the development of values-driven food businesses through her company, Live Culture. The panel begins at 6:30 and will be followed by a reception with farmers' market refreshments. Tickets are $5.00 and available here.

 

California Culinary Academy Farmer Series ~ March 24

Thanks to a new 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 ingredients grown by a local farmer. The next event, on Wednesday, March 24, includes lunch from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm or dinner from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, and will feature the latest bean variety from Rancho Gordo. Reservations available through Open Table. Read a recent article about the event.

Work for CUESA Through JOBS NOW!

CUESA is now hiring a part-time Market & Event Assistant and a part-time Administrative Assistant through the special stimulus funding for San Francisco County's Jobs Now! program. To be eligible, you must be a San Francisco resident, have a child under the age of 18, and be unemployed or qualify as low income. Learn about the positions on the CUESA website or visit the JOBS NOW! site to apply.

Saturday, March 20 ~ Asparagus Festival

10 am - 1 pm - The CUESA kitchen team will sell open-faced grilled asparagus sandwiches with fresh goat cheese on Acme bread for a $1 donation.  While you're in the kitchen, visit the Asparagus Education Booth to learn all about how this early spring vegetable is grown.

11:00 am - Asparagus cooking demonstration
Peter Rudolph, Madera Restaurant at the Rosewood Sand Hill

11:45 am - Asparagus cooking demonstration
David Bazirgan, Chez Papa Resto

Tuesday, March 23 ~ Food Wise Booth

12:30 - 1:30 pm - Sarah Henkin, CUESA's market chef, will give 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, March 27 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration and book signing
Lorna Sass, author of Cooking Under Pressure

11:45 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Dominique Crenn, Luce

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

When asparagus hits the farmers market every spring, it can seem a little like a tornado.

Between late February and mid-May, Zuckerman’s Farm brings around 3,000 pounds in from the San Joaquin Delta every Saturday. And if you combine that with the amount the farm sells at the Tuesday and Thursday markets (where many chefs come to stock up for the week) it’s likely that the farm moves between 60,000 and 80,000 pounds of this vegetable in a single season — at the Ferry Plaza alone. But don’t let this appearance of asparagus-fever fool you; the local asparagus market is actually on the decline.

According to a recent LA Times article, only around 11,500 acres of asparagus still grow in California — a huge drop from the 40,000 acres that grew only 10 years ago. If farmers markets were an accurate indicator, the asparagus market might be flourishing — but many mid-sized growers like Zuckerman’s rely very heavily on the wholesale market, and in that arena it’s become nearly impossible to compete with imports from Mexico and Peru, where the cost of labor is especially low. According to the LA Times, farmer Roscoe Zuckerman actually had to “plow under most of his early fields, saving only enough to supply his farmers markets.”

Capay Fruits & Vegetables is the market’s only current organic asparagus seller; they devote 20 acres of their farm to the vegetable and sell a great deal of it through their CSA boxes, but they bring a few thousand pounds to the Ferry Plaza each spring.

Although it’s a perennial crop, meaning that it reappears every year and doesn’t have to be re-planted, asparagus is incredibly labor-intensive because it has to be harvested by hand. "There are a lot of actions required to make a single bunch," says Capay’s Freeman Barsotti.

Getting an asparagus crop going isn’t easy either. For the first few years, farmers refrain from clipping the spears, which will open if left alone and turn into a fern-like plant. That way, "carbohydrates are stored in the roots over time — and that's the energy it takes to make the shoots the following year," says Freeman.

Asparagus, member of the lotus family, also requires irrigation to survive through the dry season – so this winter’s abundant rain has been good for the crop. Carlos Zuckerman of Zuckerman’s Farm says he welcomes the heavy rainfall, which has increased the Delta waters surrounding their acreage (the farm is on an 'island' in the delta formed by the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers and is surrounded on all sides by levees). The farm should now have enough water to last them through the summer.

Support the local asparagus market at the CUESA asparagus festival this weekend. See details above.

Some reporting for this article was done by Kenrick Mercado.

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, March 20

Returning: Hare Hollow, Ridgecut Gristmills, Swanton Berry Farm
Out: The Apple Farm

Tuesday, March 23

Returning: The Peach Farm (with lilacs!)

Thursday, March 27

Returning: County Line Harvest
Out: Tory Farms

Returning or plentiful this month: Fennel, pea greens, raw olives, English peas, lilacs, fava beans, hyacinth, parrot tulips, rhubarb, spinach, asparagus, avocados, green garlic, spring onions, nettles, broccoli, rapini greens, artichokes, baby turnips, carrots, fresh goat cheeses, goat meat, pastured eggs, plant starts and maybe strawberries

Winding down/limited supply: kiwi, Brussels sprouts, cherimoyas, shallots, some citrus varieties like Cara Cara oranges and satsumas

Farms that will be returning this month (weather willing): Bodega & Yerba Santa Goat Cheese, White Crane Springs Ranch, Madison Growers, The Peach Farm (with lilacs!), Happy Quail Farms

Featured recipes for March

Shaved Fennel and Pistachio Salad from Aïda Mollenkamp, formerly of CHOW

Spring Greens Puree with Homemade Sourdough Crackers from Jessica Prentice, Wise Food Ways

Asparagus Breakfast Pudding with Green Garlic and Fontina from Bibby Gignilliat, Parties that Cook

Radish Green Soup from Sarah Henkin, CUESA's market chef