Looking for Fathers' Day fun? Come to Urban Eats! ~ Sunday

Is your family excited about cooking or growing good? Bring 'em down to our first Urban Eats celebration at the Giants County Fair. Find out who won seven cooking and gardening contests, taste eight varieties of summer fruit, test your skills in a cherry pit spitting contest, and learn about growing food in the city from a variety of fun food and farming displays. Best of all, the event is free! Keep up with Urban Eats on Facebook. See the schedule of events for the day. Also: Dads ride for free with the purchase of a kid's unlimited ride wristband!

Farmers Market Cocktail Night: Summer Savory ~ July 7

Beyond the Bloody Mary and the dirty martini, we rarely find savory flavors in our cocktails. Yet with the market bursting at the seams with tomatoes, corn, and peppers, we'll be dedicating our next farmers' market cocktail to the savory flavors of summer. For $33, guests will enjoy two full-sized signature cocktails, taste eight sample-sized drinks and snack on bites from local restaurants. Buy tickets.

California Culinary Academy Farmer Series ~ June 24

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 dinner on June 24th is sold out, but there are still tickets available for lunch (11:30 am to 1 pm) featuring produce from Eatwell Farm. The latest round of graduating CCA students also recently took a personal tour of Eatwell Farm with farmer Nigel Walker (pictured above). Tickets available through Open Table.

Sustainable Sausage and Beer Party ~ June 24

Kick off grill season with an evening of locally made sausage and beer. Taste grill-worthy sausages from seven local chefs and sip an assortment of beers paired by members of the San Francisco Brewers Guild. At the “Ask the Butcher” booth, Dave “The Butcher” Budworth of Avedano’s and Marina Meats will be on hand all evening to answer questions about sausage making.  Doug Stonebreaker of Prather Ranch Meat Company will also man an “Ask the Rancher” booth, sharing behind-the-scenes stories from the ranch. Proceeds from this event will go to the CUESA Seller Scholarship Fund. See the full chef and brewery line up or buy tickets.

Shopping with Chefs

Over at 7x7 Magazine, CUESA Market Manager Lulu Meyer writes about shopping with some of the chefs who frequent the market. This week, she tours around with Mourad Lahlou of Aziza (can you guess why he was buying green strawberries?). Read her post.

Methyl Iodide Action

California is on the verge of approving a potent carcinogenic gas for use on strawberry fields and other food crops. The chemical — methyl iodide — is used in laboratories to generate cancer cells, yet agricultural applications would release it directly into the air and water. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation is accepting comments until June 29. Tell them what you think. Or read more about methyl iodide on SF Gate.

Vote for the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market

The American Farmland Trust is hosting its America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest again. Why not take 10 seconds and give the Ferry Plaza some love? It will love you back, three days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Saturday, June 19 ~ No demos

We'll be busy planning the Urban Eats celebration at the Giants County Fair.

Tuesday, June 22 ~ Food Wise Booth

12:30 - 1:30 pm - CUESA's Market Chef, Sarah Henkin, 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, June 26 ~ Sausage Grill-Off

12:00 pm - For the third year in a row, local chefs will face off in the market and vie for the title of Grill Master. Last year’s burger champion, Mark Sullivan of Spruce, will return to defend his title against Dave Bazirgan of Chez Papa Resto, Peter McNee of Poggio, and Thomas Odermatt of Roli Roti. Guests can also visit an education display about humane meat production, and mini sausages from all the chefs will be available for a $2 donation (proceeds benefit CUESA). Takes place in the South Driveway.  Note: The Victoria Wise demo that was scheduled for today has been rescheduled to July 3.

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

By Brie Mazurek

Eric Maundu is, self-admittedly, an unlikely gardener. Growing up in Kenya, he became disillusioned with agriculture, seeing farmers struggle with lack of arable land, water, and resources. “The last thing I wanted to do was farm,” he says.

Everything changed when Maundu learned about hydroponics, which uses nutrient-rich water in place of soil and fertilizers. By that point, he had studied industrial robotics and had moved to the U.S. to work as an engineer.

“All my life people had told me you need soil to grow plants. People kill one another for soil,” says Maundu.  Farming with water offered new possibility.

Today, Maundu is the cofounder of Kijiji Grows, an Oakland-based company that designs and sells custom aquaponics systems for growing food. With his business partner, local artist and Guerilla Café cofounder Keba Konte, he also educates people about aquaponics and brings new possibilities for sustainable farming to Bay Area schools, homes, and businesses.

Closing the Loop

In a typical aquaponics system, water cycles through a fish tank into a gravel-filled planter. Natural bacteria break down the fish waste, converting ammonia, which is toxic to fish, into nitrates that feed the plants. The fish water irrigates and fertilizes the plant, and the plants purify the water, which is recycled back into the fish tank, creating a closed-loop system.

Fresh water herbivorous and omnivorous fish — like tilapia, catfish, largemouth bass — can also add another level of food productivity to the garden. Aquaponics systems are easy to maintain, requiring only small amounts of water to replenish the evaporation loss. (Aquaponics uses up to 90 percent less water than soil-based methods of farming.)

Outside the Kijiji Grows office in West Oakland, Maundu grows herbs and leafy greens in a demonstration garden irrigated by a small goldfish tank. Though the plants are untouched by soil-borne disease, they are not immune to air-borne pests such as aphids. Maundu is unfazed by aphids, though. When he finds a kale leaf on which aphids are starting to breed, he picks it and drops it in the fish tank for the goldfish to eat.

Maundu has spent the last decade experimenting with aquaponics. His goal is to build affordable systems using locally sourced and recycled materials, or whatever people have on hand. “I’ll go out of my way to use something that is made or found locally, rather than use something that’s sustainable but must be transported from far away,” he says.

The Village Grows

A few years ago, Maundu returned to Kenya to help people in AIDS-ravaged villages establish low-tech aquaponics and sustainable farming practices such as worm composting. When he returned to the U.S., he saw connections between the arid savannas of Kenya and asphalt deserts of West Oakland, where soil is scarce and residents face food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty, and economic underdevelopment. His eyes were also opened to opportunities he hadn’t seen before, such as vacant lots, public spaces, and community resources.

Revenue from the home aquaponics systems Kijiji Grows builds and installs helps fund Maundu’s service work with youth and the community. (“Kijiji” means “village” in Swahili.) Working with the Oakland Office of Parks and Recreation, Maundu built an aquaponics garden in North Oakland’s Mosswood Park, and started organizing after-school and summer youth programs.

He found that aquaponics, when combined with computers, can be used to engage youth in food issues. Drawing on his engineering background, Maundu employs electronics, math, programming, and 3D design tools in his youth classes. He sees the Mosswood project as a model worth expanding on. The next phase will be developing the areas around the Kijiji Grows warehouse (including an empty lot under the BART tracks) into gardens. Maundu also plans to create an aquaponics-based entrepreneurship program, which will train youth and adults in professional and technical skills such as business planning.

Aquaponics provides the medium, but the mission is to give people tools for self-sufficiency and channel the power of community. “I’m trying to go beyond the ‘green’ trend,” Maundu said. “It’s about creating connection.”

Meet Eric Maundu of Kijiji Grows along with number of other Bay Area sustainable food pioneers this Sunday at Urban Eats at the SF Giants County Fair at McCovey Cove, Giants Lot A, behind AT&T Park.

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, June 19

Returning: Apple Farm, Arlequin, CandyCot Fruit Co., Flying Disc Ranch, G&S Corn, Glashoff Farms, June Taylor Co., Juniper Ridge, Knoll Farms, La Cocina
Out: Brooks and Daughters, Elston Family Farm (out for the season)

Tuesday, June 22

Returning: Prather Ranch Meat Co.

Thursday, June 24

Out: Lucero Organic Farms

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing): Nectarines, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, Armenian cucumbers, basil, corn, fresh shallots, Rocambole garlic, summer squash, Little Gem lettuce, haricots verts, snap peas, radishes, peppers, spinach, wax beans, cherries, cauliflower, beets, leeks, nopales, squash blossoms, artichokes, fresh herbs, pullet eggs, new potatoes, tomatillos, apricots, pickling cucumbers, fresh lavender, heirloom roses

Winding down/limited supply:
Blueberries, nettles, pastured eggs, hot house tomatoes, sour cherries

Value-added and vendor items not to be missed:
Heirloom tomato ketchup from June Taylor, leek and horseradish kraut from Farmhouse Culture, borage from Heirloom Organics, “DGC" cherries from K & J Orchards

Farms/vendors that may be returning this month (weather willing):
Green Gulch Farm (June 5), G & S Corn (June 19), Hunter Orchards, Candy Cot Fruit Company

New and returning Thursday Market Farmers and vendors:
Lucero Organic Farm, Farmhouse Culture, Hapa Ramen (June 17th)

Featured Recipes for June:

Radish Green Soup from Sarah Henkin, CUESA's market chef

Grilled Skirt Steak Sandwiches with Salsa Verde from Sara Deseran, 7x7 Magazine

Broccoli Rabe on Toast with Tapenade and Goat's Milk Cheese from Cookbook author Deborah Madison

Strawberry Tart with Mint & Frisée Salad from Louis Maldonado, formerly of Cortez (now at Aziza)