Celebrate Urban Eats at the County Fair ~ June 19 and 20

Do you make the best jam in the city? Do you grow the sweetest carrots? At this year's Giants County Fair, CUESA is hosting a special tent celebrating homegrown and homemade food. San Francisco residents are invited to enter an array of contests, including best garden basket, honey, and eggs, as well as best preserved and baked foods. Read the rules or download the contest application form here. Related organizations are also invited to participate. Apply here if you want a table at the event. The deadline is June 4.

Hands-On Cocktail Class with Scott Beattie and Lance Winters ~ May 7

Learn the art of seasonal cocktail making with acclaimed mixologist Scott Beattie and master distiller Lance Winters of St. George Spirits and Hangar One Vodka fame. Class participants will learn the basic anatomy of a cocktail and will be given the opportunity to work in small groups to make their own market-fresh strawberry margaritas, classic Mai Tais, and gimlets with St. George's rum, agave spirit, and Qi orange liqueur. Instructors Scott and Lance will be available to guide everyone through the hands-on part of the class and II Cane Rosso will provide delicious cocktail-friendly appetizers. Learn more.

California Culinary Academy Farmer Series ~ May 12

Thanks to a recent 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 produce grown by a local farmer. The next event includes lunch from 11:30 am to 1 pm or dinner from 6 to 8 pm, will feature the produce from Knoll Farms. Tickets available through Open Table.

Vendor Tour: Fatted Calf Extravaganza! ~ May 16

Celebrate all that is Fatted Calf with an intimate look at their Napa HQ and a visit to Hudson Ranch (pictured on the right), which supplies the pasture-raised, heritage breed, hormone and antibiotic-free pork that helps make Fatted Calf's products taste so good. We'll begin the day with a guided tour of the facility where Taylor Boetticher, Fatted Calf's owner and chef, will show us how they produce their legendary artisanal charcuterie, like pâté, salami, prosciutti, confit and fresh sausage. We'll enjoy a brief stroll through the Oxbow Public Market before we head off to Hudson Ranch with Taylor to visit the chickens, see the pig pasture, and tour the gardens with Ranch Manager Scott Boggs. Then we'll sit down to an outdoor BBQ prepared by our hosts. Meat lovers unite! Tour starts at 9 am and returns to the Ferry Building by 4:30 pm, $25. Learn more or buy tickets.

Spring Farmers Market Cocktail Night ~ May 19

CUESA and the Northern California chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild (USBG) will host an evening of farmers market-inspired cocktails. Attendees at this happy hour gathering will enjoy two full-sized signature drinks and taste 10 others crafted by renowned Bay Area bartenders using seasonal ingredients hand-picked from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Imbibe, snack, and take home recipes in the name of supporting local, sustainable agriculture and Bay Area cocktail culture. Featuring food and drink from: 15 Romolo, Cantina, Gitane, Bourbon & Branch, Rose Pistola, Wexler's, Hotsy Totsy Club, Sauce, Blackbird, Il Cane Rosso, Bon Appétit Management Company, Absinthe Brasserie and Bar, and The Plant Café Organic. Buy tickets.

Farmer’s Market Courtesy Shuttle ~ May 1

Starting May 1, a free courtesy shuttle operated by San Francisco Minibus will begin connecting the Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market with nearby parking lots. This service will continue through October. The shuttle will depart from in front of Pier ½, on the north side of the Ferry Building every half hour starting at 8:30 am. The last shuttle will leave the market at 1:30 pm and the loop will include stops at Broadway and Embarcadero, the Golden Gateway Garage (near the Clay Street entrance), and the 75 Howard garage. Additional details will be available at the Information Booth.

Happy Girl Kitchen's Spring Canning Fling ~ May 1

Do you can or preserve food at home? Do you want to start? Join Happy Girl Kitchen to kick off the Food Preservationists, a program that provides home canners with access to impeccable quality produce at a reasonable cost. Bring your favorite preservation recipes to swap and jars of what you preserved last season to share. Sip cocktails featuring Happy Girl products, nibble on tea snacks (including the famed bottomless pickle platter), and get revved up with a barn hoe-down featuring bluegrass bands. And best of all, it's free. No canning experience is necessary. The Spring Canning Fling runs from 1 to 6 pm at 449 49th Street (at Clarke) in Oakland (a short walk form the MacArthur BART station).

Garden City Classes

Have you been dreaming of starting a garden in the city but don’t know how to find a space? If so, this three-part practical workshop series, co-presented by the San Francisco Parks Trust and Garden for the Environment, is for you. The workshops include tips on finding city land, navigating permits, and building community support. Learn more.

Saturday, April 24 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Leif Hedendal, local chef (Read Market Manager, Lulu Meyer's article about Leif on the 7x7 website)

Tuesday, April 27 ~ 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, May 1 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Mike Yakura, Ozumo

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

If you've seen Food, Inc., you may remember watching Carole Morison walk through her chicken house gathering a handful of sickly, lifeless birds to dispose of. It's a chilling scene, and one that occurred almost daily over the two decades Carole and her husband were contract farmers for Perdue. By the time Food Inc. was made, the Morisons had decided to end their contract with the company and Carole was in a rare position to act as a whistle blower. In the film, she described the harsh conditions for the animals and the people involved in such contracts and shed light on an industry often shrouded in secrecy. Earlier this week, Carole spoke on CUESA's Inside the Hen House panel with Norman and Aimee Gunsell of Mountain Ranch Organically Grown. After the panel, Carole answered a few questions for us.

CUESA: By now, many of our readers will have seen you discuss breaking the contract with Perdue in Food Inc. What happened on the farm next?

Carole Morison: Since we quit raising chickens we’ve been leasing the land to someone else who grows corn and soybeans. Perdue wanted us to upgrade our facility, which would have cost us $150,000, but we didn’t, so we’re not in the debt we would have been. We’re down to 14 acres. And we’re trying to figure out exactly what we want to do next.

CUESA: You had raised chickens for 23 years; that must have been a huge transition.

CM: Yeah, my husband has been in it all his life. The land we’re on was part of his family’s original home farm. By the time the contract ended, we both had jobs off the farm, so we were used to getting up early and every day was filled with work.

CUESA: You’re still involved as an activist, trying to help folks who are stuck in contracts with big poultry companies. What kind of changes are you advocating for? 

CM: Agriculture has changed so much. Contracts are really at the forefront, not just with poultry, but with most all [industrial] farming.

It’s a dictated policy as to how your farm is run, what you do, how you feed your chickens. For instance going out to buy feed from a source other than the company you contract with — that’s cause for violation of the contract. You have to take what they give you. It’s the same with everything. It’s like the coal mine and the company store, totally controlled. It really has nothing to do with the farmer’s performance anymore. It's more or less the performance of the company’s inputs — the poults or day-old chicks, the feed, medicine, etc.

There are new proposed guidelines that the United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA) is supposed to release for contract farmers. The hope is that this will level the playing field a little. We’re currently working off the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921.

CUESA: What are your thoughts on the recent effort to position people who are proponents of sustainable food as “anti-farmer”?    

CM: I’ve definitely noticed that and I’d say that’s probably the number one battle plan of industrial agriculture. It has been their way for a long time. Within the poultry industry they also pit farmer against worker; it’s divide and conquer.

The fact is these big companies took the farmer out of the equation a long time ago. Now the farmer is trying to take back what was rightfully theirs to begin with. But I do understand the pride folks have, when they’ve put their whole life into this work. Nobody wants to admit that they’re wrong. But I don’t see [the sustainable food movement] as disrespect for the farmer. I view it more along the lines of people finally recognizing what the farmer is stuck in.

CUESA: You're in a position to act as a bridge between several kinds of people. How did you get here?

CM: My first foray into the activism world came through an environmental group — and at that point it was like mixing oil and water. It was a Chesapeake Bay group. I went to one of their press conferences prepared to do battle. And a few comments they made kind of hit home. Something called Pfiesteria had caused large algae blooms in the Bay. It was caused by run-off from poultry manure and it created massive fish kills. The press at the time positioned the farmers against environmentalists and fishermen.

But at one point the environmentalists made it clear that they didn’t understand how it all worked. They needed our help and I thought, “if it’s this easy to talk to environmentalists, how bad can anybody else be?” So I think if we all want to survive through what is going on with agriculture, we’re all going to have to give an inch.

CUESA: You’ve been in the Bay Area all week; what will you take back with you?

CM: One of the things I hear from contract poultry farmers I work with is: how can we manage this enormous debt, cut back on the amount we’re producing, and still survive?

I’d had a hard time envisioning how that might be done. Then I spent time on Alexis Koefoed's Soul Food Farm and now I know it’s possible. Their rotational grazing system is great. And it was just mind-boggling for me to see chickens running around outside. We used to raise 54,000 chickens every seven weeks. Even if we’d cut that in half it could have made a big difference in terms of the environmental impact. And heck, with what the farmers are making under contract — an average of four cents a pound — how much worse can it be?
 
I’ve also learned that [changing the system] will take more than separate groups working on separate issues. At the panel, so many good ideas came up — like nonprofit investing in meat-processing infrastructure, for instance. I thought maybe we can throw all these ideas together and come up with a different system! So I have a good feeling about it. I’m beginning to think I just might see it in my lifetime.

Pictured above: Alexis Koefoed and Carole Morison.

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 24

Returning: Apple Farm, Critical Edge Knife Shapening, Elston Family Farm, Happy Quail Farms, Lucero Organic Farms
Out for the season: Capay Canyon Ranch, Glashoff Farms

Tuesday, April 27

Returning: Bruins Farm, Happy Quail Farms
Out: Blossom Bluff Orchards

Thursday, April 29

No changes

Plentiful /returning this month (weather willing): Stockton red onions, flowering arugula, fresh goat cheese, English peas, rhubarb, 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, many varieties of citrus, lilacs, hyacinth

Farms/Vendors returning this month (weather willing): Happy Quail Farms, Balakian Farms, Lucero Organic Farms, Bodega & Yerba Santa Goat Cheese, White Crane Springs Ranch

Farmer and Vendor items not to be missed:
Queso fresco from Bodega Goat Cheese, whole wheat tortillas from Massa Organics (NEW!), “Super” tulips from Thomas Farm (now on Thursdays and Saturdays)

Featured Recipes for April:

Asparagus Soup with Curry & Crème Fraîche from Mourad Lahlou, Aziza

Tender Spring Green Salad with Almonds, Radishes, Chèvre, and Kumquat from Leif Hedendal, local chef

Roasted Loin of Goat with Spring Vegetables, Herb Butter and Barley from Louis Maldonado, formerly of Café Majestic, now of Aziza (March 28, 2009)

Rhubarb-Almond Bars from Aïda Mollenkamp, former food editor, CHOW (May 3, 2008