Renewing America’s Food Traditions with Gary Nabhan and Ashley Rood ~ April 29

Gary Paul Nabhan, writer, food and farming advocate, rural lifeways folklorist, and conservationist, may be best known for his pioneering Southwestern locavore experiment described in Coming Home to Eat. His new book is a journey across our continent’s 13 distinct "food nations" that details endangered foods and brings them to life with cultural histories, folk traditions, and recipes. Nabhan will speak at the Ferry Building along with sustainable agriculture advocate and contributing writer Ashley Rood. The event is $10, runs from 6 to 8:30 pm, and ends with a tasting of heritage foods. Buy a ticket >

The Grilled Cheese Tour ~ April 23

On a Thursday from 1:00 - 8:00 pm, America's favorite comfort food goes sustainable. Travel to Petaluma with CUESA for a behind-the-scenes tour of two beloved Ferry Plaza Farmers Market vendor operations: Cowgirl Creamery and Della Fattoria bakery. The bus tour is only $25.00 and includes a fresh-baked cheese sandwich. Buy tickets >

Tickets still available for this month's Movable Feast ~ April 7

The next delectable dinner in the Movable Feast series will be at One Market Restaurant, where Chef Mark Dommen will work with Erica Holland-Toll of Lark Creek Inn to highlight spring vegetables from County Line Harvest. The menu will include spring garlic soup, marinated duck breast, rainbow chard raviolis, and crispy skin steelhead. (At right: We caught both chefs shopping at the County Line stand at a recent Tuesday market. County Line's David Retsky, shown at center, will also be attending the dinner.) See the complete Movable Feast schedule here >

Best of the Bay reception ~ April 25

Mingle with market managers from New York, New Orleans, London, Barcelona, Seoul and elsewhere while enjoying the best food and drink the Bay Area has to offer. This tasting event will spotlight local restaurants and chefs, farmers’ market vendors, wineries and breweries. It coincides with Project for Public Spaces’ 7th International Public Markets Conference, which brings together over 200 of the world’s best market operators. This year, the conference is being co-hosted by CUESA and the Ferry Building Marketplace. Tickets are $75. Learn more >

King Corn screening to benefit Pie Ranch ~ April 7

The Red Vic will host a Movie Night with Pie Ranch, a thriving, hands-on farm and food system education center on Highway 1 near Pescadero. Pie Ranch connects rural and urban people and inspires healthy communities. Guests are invited to arrive before the screening time to visit the theater's backyard garden. Tickets are available on a sliding scale from $20-$100. More information >

Brown rice is the perfect recession food

And it's about to get better: For a limited time, Massa Organics will be offering their two-pound bags of organic brown rice for only $4 or two for just $7.

Setting the food safety bill record straight

You may have received hysterical emails or seen YouTube videos about H.R. 875, a bill that claims to modernize food safety. Many of the most vocal opponents are worried that the bill will "outlaw organic farming and backyard gardening." Reputable sources such as Food and Water Watch, Marion Nestle, and Slow Food USA agree: much of the over-blown response has kept people from actually reading the text of the bill (or the other two being proposed that focus on food tracking). The main purpose of H.R. 875 is to split the FDA into two agencies, one focusing on food and one on drugs and medical devices.

From Food and Water Watch: “There is plenty of evidence that one-size-fits-all regulation only tends to work for one size of agriculture – the largest industrialized operations.  That’s why it is important to let members of Congress know how food safety proposals will impact the conservation, organic, and sustainable practices that make diversified, organic, and direct market producers different from agribusiness... But simply shooting down any attempt to fix our broken food safety system is not an approach that works for consumers who are faced with a food supply that is putting them at risk and regulators who lack the authority to do much about it.”

Saturday, April 4 ~ Market to Table

10:15 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration and book signing
Stephanie Rosenbaum, author of The Astrology Cookbook: A Cosmic Guide to Feasts of Love

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Bibby Gignilliat, Parties that Cook

Tuesday, April 7~ 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, April 11 ~ Eggstravaganza

10 am - 1 pm - Egg science discovery station. Learn about the transformations eggs make in the kitchen and make your own mayo! ($1 donation)

10 am - 11 am - Natural egg dying
Boris Portnoy will create natural dyes made out of market produce and flowers. The demo will be kid-friendly and participants will get 2 eggs to dye and take home. ($2 donation)

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Amaryll Schwertner of Boulettes Larder will prepare an egg-focused recipe.

11:45 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Aaron French of The Sunnyside Café will make variations on hollandaise sauce.

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

The basics:

Starting Saturday, May 23, 2009, Ferry Plaza Farmers Market vendors will only dispense bags that are fully compostable or recyclable within the City of San Francisco waste collection program, such as compostable BioBags® and paper bags. Plastic bags do not meet these standards and will no longer be available at the market.

Will there be a charge for the new bags?

BioBags and some paper bags cost significantly more than cheap, fossil fuel-derived plastic bags. This new CUESA policy allows each market seller to decide how to best recover their costs from customers (using incentives, surcharges, etc.). We believe that shoppers, not farmers and food producers, should bear the financial burden for the bags they use. You can help support your farmers by bringing your own bags.

What’s wrong with plastic bags?

In a sustainable food system, it’s not only the food that’s important, but also how it is packaged and carried home. Plastic bags are one of the most ubiquitous products in the world, and over a million of them leave the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market each year. Only 1 to 4% of bags in the US are recycled.

There are negative consequences of plastic bags at every step in their life cycle, such as the extraction of the petroleum and natural gas used in their production, the energy consumed and pollution generated in the manufacturing process, and the fact that most of them end up in the landfill.

What are the compostable bags made of? Do they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs)?

BioBags are made in San Leandro out of Mater-Bi™, a resin manufactured in Italy out of starches, glycerines, and other materials that come from corn (it may also contain some canola- and sunflower-derived products). Mater-Bi is certified GMO-free by a European third party certifier.  Mater-Bi is currently not manufactured in the United States because GMO-free corn is not available here.

Are BioBags really better than plastic?

Single-use disposable items are never going to be truly sustainable. The greenest solution is to reduce bag consumption and reuse the bags you have. But everyone forgets their bag from time to time, and we want to provide the most environmentally friendly alternative available.

By most measures, BioBags are the best single-use option we know of. Some sellers use paper bags, which are either recyclable or compostable and can also be made of recycled materials, but they require a great deal of energy to produce and have other drawbacks. We are keeping our eyes open for new bag technology should it become available. Read an assessment of single-use bags (PDF) >

BioBags and paper bags are a stopgap solution until we’ve all trained ourselves to bring our own reusable bags to the market every time we shop.  

How was this decision made?

CUESA’s Board of Directors (which includes 3 market sellers) proposed the idea, then solicited feedback from all market sellers on their preferred implementation strategies. 

Is the FPFM the only market making the switch away from plastic bags?

We’re early to the game, but we can’t say we’re the first. The Berkeley Farmers Market is doing away with plastic bags this spring; the Old Monterey Market in Monterey, CA stopped distributing them last Earth Day. The Irvine market in Southern California is also bag free, and there are several other markets in the area trying the idea on for size, including the Fairfax market in Marin. 

For more FAQs, including: Do biodegradable plastics really break down?; How do I compost these bags?; What alternatives do you recommend for produce I store in plastic bags?; Why are some products still sold in plastic?; Does the corn in these bags compete with food production?; and What else can I do? visit the CUESA website >

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, April 4

In/Returning: Tierra Vegetables, Apple Farm
Out: June Taylor Company

Tuesday, April 7

no changes

Plentiful /returning this month (weather willing): Torpedo onions, chicories, cabbage, Stockton red onions, fresh goat cheese, English peas, rhubarb, basil, raspberries, squash blossoms, dandelion greens, fresh bay leaves, miners lettuce, hot house tomatoes and cucumbers, spinach, asparagus, avocados, pastured goat, green garlic, spring onions, kumquats, nettles, broccoli, rapini greens, artichokes, baby turnips, carrots, strawberries, mizuna, radishes and radish greens, fava beans, pastured eggs, baby beets, Belgian endive

Winding down/limited supply: Brussels sprouts, tulips, citrus, lilacs, hyacinth

Farms/Vendors that may be returning this month (weather willing): Happy Quail Farms, Balakian Farms, Lucero Organic Farms

Value Added and Vendor items not to be missed:
Tallow soap from Marin Sun Farms, Japanese maples from Rainbow Mountain, Natilla from Bodega and Yerba Santa Goat Cheese

Featured Recipes for April:
Spring Greens Puree with Homemade Sourdough Crackers from Jessica Prentice, Wise Food Ways

Asparagus Salad with Charred Onion Vinaigrette, Slow Roasted Tomatoes, Burrata, Wild Arugula and Speck from Jamie Lauren, Absinthe Brasserie & Bar

Chicken with Arugula, Artichokes and Natural Pan Juice from Keith Hammerich, Culinary Arts Instructor, City College San Francisco

Cocktail ~ La Fragola from Jon Gasparini, Rye