Spring Breakfast by the Bay ~ May 5, 2007

Our Spring Breakfast by the Bay fundraiser is only two weeks away, taking place at Pier 1 1/2 on May 5. We are especially excited this year to welcome Marion Nestle as our speaker. Dr. Nestle is a former Bay Area resident, receiving her BA, PhD and MPH from UC Berkeley, as well as spending a decade on the faculty of UC San Francisco's School of Medicine. While she normally teaches at New York University, Dr. Nestle is currently a visiting professor at UC Berkeley and is generously sharing some of her limited West Coast time with us. She will be discussing her latest book, What to Eat, which examines the politics behind the layout of conventional grocery stores, clarifies what many of the health claims on processed foods actually mean, and decodes nutrition labels. She will discuss food politics, sustainability and nutrition, and how these issues--and CUESA--are part of a national social movement centered on food. Dr. Nestle hopes the Q & A session lasts much longer than her talk, so bring your inquires along with your appetite. To learn more and reserve your place, click here >

Happy Earth Day!

Celebrate Earth Day on Saturday at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market by learning about where your food comes from and supporting local, ecological farmers.

CUESA Sponsorships

CUESA has created a variety of sponsorship opportunities to support new and growing programs. This week, we are happy to announce our partnership with Stone & Youngberg, now the Lead Sponsor of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Stone & Youngberg has been an independent, locally owned and operated financial institution for more than 75 years. Stone & Youngberg has roots in local agriculture: in the 1930s the firm helped finance irrigation projects in California’s Central Valley to feed the state’s booming population during the Depression. Today, Stone & Youngberg offers a comprehensive range of financial products and services to public agencies and investors. Stone & Youngberg is based here in the Ferry Building, and we have seen first-hand that their staff are loyal Tuesday farmers' market shoppers.

We thank Stone & Youngberg for their support! If you would like to learn more about CUESA sponsorship opportunities, contact Dave Stockdale at 415 291-3276 x107 or dave@cuesa.org.

The Pennywise Eat Local Challenge

Starting on Monday, April 23, a nationwide group of food bloggers and some Locavores will commit to the weeklong Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge, focusing on eating local within the budget of an average American. To keep tabs on how the challenge is going, or if you want to try it out yourself, go to www.eatlocalchallenge.com. To read Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle article about the challenge, click here.

BALLE Conference

The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) is holding its 5th Annual Conference from May 31 to June 2 at UC Berkeley. Workshops include Sustainable Cities, Growing Local Food Systems, Financing Your Community-Based Business and many others. For more information, visit www.livingeconomies.org.

Saturday, April 21 ~ Artichoke Festival

The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is celebrating a quintessential California vegetable, the artichoke, with a day of educational and gustatory events.

10:30 - 11:00 am - Meet the farmer
Conversation with artichoke grower Louis Iacopi of Iacopi Farm in Half Moon Bay

11:00 am – 12:00 pm - Seasonal cooking demonstration and book signing
Veteran instructor Linda Carucci, author of Cooking School Secrets for Real-World Cooks: Tips, Techniques, Shortcuts, Sources, and Hints will demonstrate how to cook with artichokes. Copies of Linda's book will be for sale courtesy of Book Passage.

12:00 – 12:30 pm - All About Artichokes
Bernadette Festa, Registered Dietitian with over 20 years working in nutrition, will discuss the history, nutrition, and medicinal value of this delicious thistle species.

11:00 am – 1:00 pm - Eat artichokes!
A gourmet treat--Roasted artichokes with green garlic--will be available for a donation. Meanwhile, attendees can visit CUESA’s artichoke discovery station to learn about artichokes and how to prepare them at home.

Saturday, April 28 ~ Market to Table Events

10:30 am - Meet the grillmaster and cooking demonstration
Steven McCarthy of Prather Ranch Meat Company

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Chris Cosentino of Incanto Restaurant and Bar

All events take place in our Dacor teaching kitchen in the arcade north of the Ferry Building's clock tower.

This week's feature was written by CUESA volunteer Elizabeth Linhart.

It’s easy to forget that artichokes are largely a California phenomenon. Any dinner guest from outside the state will remind you of this: just notice the bewildered look on their faces as the artichoke is placed in front of them, followed by, “How do I eat this?” This is not an unreasonable question. In fact, the scaly looking vegetable is the bud of a mostly inedible thistle flower.

Artichoke consumption is an art: one scrapes the edible parts off of the many petal-like leaves (called bracts) folded around the bud, removes the then-exposed spiny florets at the base (also known as the choke), and eats the fleshy, flavorful heart. Observing the hedonism with which his fellow Romans devoured artichokes, Pliny remarked, “thus we turn into a corrupt feast the earth’s monstrosities, those which even the animals instinctively avoid.”

Despite Pliny’s grievances, artichokes have allured humans for more than two millennia. Thought to have originated in North Africa, where it is still found as a wild thistle, the artichoke traveled across the Mediterranean, seducing the Greeks, Romans and eventually Catherine de Medici, who popularized it in French cuisine. However, it remained unknown on this continent until a group of Italian immigrants planted a few hundred acres of the crop near Half Moon Bay in the late nineteenth century.

Quickly, artichokes became a popular delicacy in California and filled fields in Monterey County, where the temperate climate and deep, fertile soils provide a perfect growing environment. By 1920, farmers were shipping crates of artichokes by rail to the East Coast where their popularity exploded. Ciro Terranova, a member of the New York mafia, began cornering the artichoke market by buying all the crates coming in from California and reselling them at a 30 to 40 percent profit. Known as the “Artichoke King”, Terranova kept his profitable monopoly through intimidation of distributors, merchants and even growers. These “Artichoke Wars” escalated to such a degree that Mayor LaGuardia declared artichokes illegal in New York. However, LaGuardia himself could not resist the allure of the artichoke and after one week lifted the ban.

Fifty years later the artichoke was once again under scrutiny, this time not by gangsters and politicians but gastronomes. James Beard in a 1971 issue of Gourmet Magazine wrote, “There is a great feeling among serious wine drinkers that artichokes spoil the flavor of fine wines and therefore should be forbidden at great dinners.” His complaint was that a certain sweetness lingered on the tongue following its consumption. Artichokes contain a unique organic acid called cynarin, which stimulates sweet receptors on the palate, changing the character of subsequently consumed food and drink. Could this sweetness be part of the artichoke’s allure?

Find out for yourself at CUESA’s Artichoke Festival tomorrow, April 21.

This is the most up-to-date information about which sellers will and won't be attending the market as of Friday, when we send this letter. If there are no changes to a seller's status, they will not be listed. To find out which farmers regularly attend each market, click here. Please understand that there are often last minute changes--it's the nature of farming!

Market announcements: In honor of the Artichoke Festival, Acme Bread Company will be making an artichoke focaccia (available after 11:00 am) using baby artichokes from Iacopi Farms. Don't miss out on this one-day-only treat!

Saturday, April 21

In/Returning: Balakian Farms, The Apple Farm, Lucero Organic Farm
Out: Lagier Ranches (back next week)
Note: This is the last week of the season for Little Organic Farm!

Tuesday, April 24

In/Returning: Bruins Vegetables, K & J Orchards