New! ~ Visit our culinary information station

This Saturday, we're trying out a new feature in our market: a culinary information station. Located near our teaching kitchen in the arcade north of the Ferry Building's clock tower, the station will be open from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm and will feature a different food each week. A culinary intern will be on hand to provide information about how to store and cook the featured food. This week, come learn about stinging nettles!

Tune into West Coast Live ~ May 3

Tomorrow, May 3, CUESA's Director of Education Julie Cummins will be a guest on the nationally broadcast radio show West Coast Live to talk about our new Waste Wise Farmers' Market Program. WCL will be broadcasting from the Ferry Building from 10 am to 12 pm, and you can be part of the live audience. For more information, visit www.wcl.org. Tune in by radio to KALW 91.7.

Local chefs and farmers pair up at Macy's ~ May 14

The last installment of the Macy's Get Green series, produced in partnership with CUESA and featuring farmers from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, is set for Wednesday, May 14. Sara Tashker of Green Gulch Farm and Annie Somerville of Greens Restaurant will talk about the longstanding relationship between the farm and restaurant. Then they will prepare a delicious dish so you can taste the results. Seating is first-come, first-served starting at 6 pm in the Union Square Cellar Kitchen at Macy's. A $10 donation to CUESA will get you a seat at the demonstration, a sample of the featured dish, a glass of wine from Benziger Family Winery, a Ferry Plaza Farmers Market tote and a sample of Origins' new organic skin care line.

Farmers' market cocktail demonstration and tasting ~ May 14

CUESA is participating in the second annual San Francisco Cocktail Week with a farmers' market cocktail demonstration and tasting on Wednesday, May 14, from 5 to 7 pm in our teaching kitchen. The line-up of bartenders includes:

• Joel Baker, Bourbon and Branch
• Steve Liles, Boulevard
• Josh Harris, Pier 23 and Elixir
• Josephine Packard, Alembic
• Greg Lindgren & Jon Gasparini, Rye
• Reza Esmaili, Conduit Yerba Buena
• Carlos Yturria, Grand Pu Bah
• Jon Santer, San Francisco chapter of the US Bartenders' Guild
• Erick Castro, Sacramento chapter of the US Bartenders' Guild
• Victoria Damato, Bar Johnny

Tickets are $15 per person, which includes tastes of all twelve demonstrated drinks and two drink tickets redeemable for signature cocktails. To purchase tickets, click here >

Celebrate the market community at our Spring Breakfast ~ June 7

On June 7, the CUESA teaching kitchen in the North Arcade will be transformed into the setting for our annual breakfast gathering. Come delight in spring's abundance and the people who bring it to us each week. A market seller will be at each table to share stories about her or his business. There are three seatings--9:00, 10:00 and 11:00 am. Tickets are $25 per person ($15 for children 2-12) and proceeds benefit CUESA’s education programs. We sincerely hope you can join us! To purchase tickets, click here >

Saturday, May 3 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Javier Salmon of Bodega and Yerba Santa Goat Cheese interviewed by CUESA volunteer Matthew Runeare

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Alexandra Lopez, The Food Diva

Saturday, May 10 ~ Flower Festival!

10:30 am - Meet the producer

11:00 am - Flower arranging demonstration
Devon Gaster, Master Floral Designer

11:45 - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Sandra Keros of Healthy Focus

10:00 am to 2:00 pm - Edible flower discovery table

All programs will take place in front of the Ferry Building on the north side.

In mid-April, figuring he was safely past the frost season, Carl Rosato of Woodleaf Farm took a trip to visit his mother. When he left, his orchards were full of developing fruit: it promised to be another good year. When he returned, Carl’s famously tasty peaches (about the size of cherries) were shriveled, the fruit on his apple and pear trees had turned black, his persimmon trees were completely devoid of leaves and the new tender growth on his kiwi vines was gone. Two nights of 25-degree temperatures—a very late frost—had devastated his farm.

Says Carl, “We have three frost protection machines and I’ve got two cords of firewood per night that I burn that would have given us six degrees. I would have saved easily half the crop if I’d been here … We wouldn’t have had a good year, but we would have had a year. This was the coldest it has ever been by quite a few degrees for that late.”

Carl estimates that his tree fruit harvest will be only about 1% of what it was last year. To make ends meet, he’s planning to grow row crops like tomatoes and melons, which he’ll will sell at the Berkeley farmers’ market and possibly the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market as well. The few peaches Woodleaf will offer to customers this year will come from a handful of trees that were shielded by a windbreak or their house.

Kirsten Olson and John Tannaci of Hunter Orchards, who farm in one of the northernmost counties in California, were also affected by the late freeze. Says Kirsten, “This Artic storm came in at a record low, an all-time record low. Eighteen degrees.” Though Kirsten and John also use wind machines, they weren’t able to raise temperatures the ten degrees needed to save the crop completely. They are still waiting to find out how their peaches and cherries fared. “Fortunately for us,” says Kirsten, “we’ve always been strong believers in diversity.” Their garlic, lavender and raspberries are unharmed, and they are planning to plant additional field crops.  

Despite the hardships of farming, especially at a northern latitude, Kirsten’s outlook remains positive. “We choose to live and grow in a climate that’s even more challenging than the Central Valley, and we enjoy it. We open ourselves to that risk and we take what’s given to us.”

Our sympathy goes out to Woodleaf Farm, Hunter Orchards and other farms that have been affected by the freeze. We look forward to seeing them in the market soon and supporting them by eagerly buying up what they do bring. We’ll sure miss those Woodleaf peaches, though!

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!

Saturday, May 3

In/returning: Bernard Ranches, Happy Quail Farm, Lucero Organic Farm Out: The Apple Farm, Flying Disc Ranch

Tuesday, May 6

No news!

Returning this month (weather willing): Shallots, summer squash, squash blossoms, Cipollini onions, cherries, blueberries, apricots, raspberries, basil, heirloom roses, broccoli di cicco, Bloomsdale Spinach, halibut, squid, loquats

Plentiful: Strawberries, Stockton Red onions, baby root vegetables, lettuces, celery, fresh herbs, fava beans, English peas, fennel, artichokes, rapini

Winding down/limited supply: Asparagus, citrus, braising greens, nettles

Farms that may return this month (weather willing): Triple Delight Blueberries (hopefully May 10), Paoletti Farms, Kashiwase Farm

Recipes for May

Trio of Crostini: Braised Artichokes, Roasted Spring Onions and Roasted Beets with Fennel, Liza Shaw, A16 Restaurant

Zucchini Fritters, Former CUESA Market Chef Shanti Wilson

Fava Beans & Strawberry Salad with Pecorino, Chris Cosentino, Incanto Restaurant

Pan Roasted Squid with Iacopi Farms Gigande Beans, Rapini and Meyer Lemon,  Staffan Terje, Perbacco Ristorante and Bar