A Pivotal Time for What We Eat: Why the farm bill matters and how you can act now

On Wednesday, June 6, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, a farmer, a chef, and food and farm advocates will discuss the 2007 Farm (and Food) Bill’s impacts on farms, consumers, and the health of our nation. Find out what’s going on with the Farm Bill right now, why it matters, and how you can make a difference. Time is running out for influencing legislation that will shape our entire food system. Reception with light refreshments starts at 6:30; program begins promptly at 7pm. Click here to learn more >

Buy Fresh, Buy Local Celebration

On Sunday, June 10, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm at the Jack London Square Market in Oakland, join the Community Alliance with Family Farmers to celebrate the First Edition Bay Area Buy Fresh, Buy Local Food Guide. Eat a delicious seasonal breakfast, get a copy of the Guide, watch cooking demonstrations, and meet local food enthusiasts! Cost: $5 for Children; $20 for Adults; $100 to be a Buy Local Supporter with special seating and gifts. Seating is limited so reserve your ticket online by clicking here.

Saturday, June 2 ~ Market to Table events

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Robert Lower of Flying Disc Ranch

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Sean Thomas of Café 150 at Google Inc.

Saturday, June 9 ~ Cherry Festival

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Aomboon Beutel of K & J Orchards

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Eric Gower, author of The Breakaway Cook, will show a creative way to cook with cherries. Book signing to follow.

11:00 am to 1:00 pm - Cherry Tasting
Sample the season’s best from all the cherry growers in the market.

Tuesday, June 12 ~ Easy Market Meals

11:45 am, 12:15 pm, 12:45 pm & 1:15 pm - CUESA's Market Chef, Shanti Wilson, will demonstrate how to prepare simple meals using seasonal, regional ingredients

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

Make your trip to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market simpler and more educational. We hope you take advantage of our many market services and educational programs, including some new additions:

Information Booth - Come to our Information Booth (big green tent located curbside, just south of the Ferry Building’s clock tower) to get help finding specific farms or products (like those on our weekly produce highlights list), get parking validation, use your EBT (federal food stamp program) card, pick up literature about sustainable agriculture, get recipes for seasonal cooking, learn about upcoming events, and more! This week, we are also unveiling a large magnetic map of the market that will make it easier to see where your favorite sellers are located when they come in for the season. The map uses different colored icons for farmers and vendors, making clear who’s who.

Veggie Valet - With heavy and easily bruised stone fruits flooding the market, summer is the perfect time to start using our Veggie Valet. Instead of squishing your peaches and hurting your shoulders, stow your purchases with us at the Information Booth. Your produce will sit safely in tubs while you continue to shop, grab some breakfast or lunch, or retrieve your car. We have more tubs and racks than ever and are happy to help you load your car curbside, right behind the Information Booth. Our valet service is available on Saturdays from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Farm signs – Starting in mid-June, every farmer at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market will hang a new sign that includes the distance from farm to market, the size of the farm, a little bit about the history and philosophy of their farm, and a fun fact. Did you know that the Barianis conserve energy by burning leftover olive paste in a special furnace that provides heat and hot water? That the Peach Farm doesn’t grow any peaches? That music therapy is one of Tory Farms’ growing practices?

Easy Market Meals – The premise of our newest program is that people won’t buy fresh food if they don’t know what to do with it. Join our Market Chef, Shanti Wilson, and guest chefs every other Tuesday for short demonstrations of simple, seasonal meals made from fresh ingredients from our Tuesday farmers' market. Visit our events calendar to see the schedule >

Market to Table programs – Our long-running Saturday cooking demonstrations and Meet the Farmer programs are better today than ever. Upcoming chefs include Sean Thomas of Google’s Café 150, Samin Nosrat of Eccolo Restaurant, and author Joyce Goldstein. Where else can you see some of the Bay Area’s best chefs use some of the region’s freshest produce to create delicious meals that you can taste, and get the recipe to take home? We’ll also soon be offering our Meet the Farmer interviews as downloadable MP3 files on the website, so you can listen on your computer or iPod if you miss the program. Visit our events calendar to see the Market to Table program schedule >

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, June 2

In/Returning: Apple Farm, G&S Corn, Green Gulch Farm, Honeycrisp Farms, Sutton's Protea
Out: Lucero Organic Farm

Tuesday, June 5

In/Returning: Bella Viva, Snyders Honey, Sutton's Protea