Jamming with Happy Girl ~ July 15
Part I of our Sweet 'n' Sour Preservation Series! Preservation wizard and Happy Girl Kitchen founder Jordan Champagne will share her meticulously developed techniques in this hands-on class. Participants will use produce from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market to make strawberry meyer lemon jam and mixed berry jubilee, learning the fundamentals along the way. Everyone will take home two delectable jars of their newly jammed goods and instructions for jam making at home! Learn more.

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.

CUESA Benefit Dinner at Jardinière with Dennis Lee ~ July 19

Namu's chef Dennis Lee will make a special appearance at Jardinière on July 19th, where he will prepare a prix fixe meal. Some of the proceeds will go to CUESA's seller scholarship fund. Reserve a spot.

Kitchen Table Talks: The Farmer and the Fisherman Talk Water ~ July 20

Some portray California’s water problems as a farmer vs. fisher battle, but this is a simplistic, inaccurate depiction. Many farmers are just as concerned about the ecological health of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta as the fishermen and women whose livelihoods have been devastated by the reduction in fish populations over the past several years. At the next Kitchen Table Talk, you'll hear from Mike Hudson, the president of the Small Boat Commercial Salmon Fishermen’s Association and former executive director of SalmonAid, and Brett Baker, a sixth generation pear farmer, biologist, and former agricultural policy analyst. Learn more.

Aquaponics Classes ~ July 11 and 25

Kijiji Grows will be offering two hands-on introductions to aquaponic systems this month. Learn about the components of a recirculating aquaponics system, as well as aquaculture, filtration and hydroponics. Explore the role of aquaponics in nature, and learn about its numerous applications. The classes run 10:00am - 2:00pm at the Kijiji Grows facility in West Oakland and cost $50. Register.

Saturday, July 10 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
John Toulze, Estate

Tuesday, July 13 ~ Food Wise Booth

12:30 - 1:30 pm - Amy Fothergill, the Family 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, July 17 ~ Berry Festival

10am - 1pm - Berry tasting in the South Driveway.

11:00 am - Berry-focused cooking demonstration and book signing
Stephanie Rosenbaum, author of The Astrology Cookbook: A Cosmic Guide to Feasts of Love

11:45 am - Berry-focused cooking demonstration
Christine Gallary, Jill Santopietro and Amy Wisniewski, CHOW.com

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

Lorraine Ottens started making lacto-fermented sodas a year and a half ago. She and her farmer fiancé Nigel Walker of Eatwell Farm tasted one of these unusual beverages at the Wise Traditions conference hosted by the Weston A. Price Foundation. “I’ve never liked the taste of kombucha and I’m not a soda drinker, but this was refreshing, delicious and, on top of that, good for you,” she says.

Lorraine sought out a recipe and found one for “cultured coolers” in (former CUESA staffer) Jessica Prentice’s book, Full Moon Feast. After following it once, she began to experiment with batches for her family. She liked the fact that the lactofermentaion helps the body form digestive enzymes and create essential fatty acids. And, because they contained salt, the drinks made for a useful source of electrolytes.

“Nigel pointed out that it would make a great value-added product at the farmers market,” Lorraine recalls, “so I started playing with adding anything and everything we had around the farm.” She mixed a fizzy base of fermented whey, sugar, and salt with water and juice from fruit that was growing on the farm. She also soon added the aromatics – the lavender, rose geranium, lemon verbena, and rosemary — Eatwell uses for its herbed salts and hydrosols. Lorraine debuted the line — Drinkwell Sodas — at the Eatwell Farm stand at the market last summer.

“I noticed people weren’t applying the same approach to drinks that they were to their food,” says Lorraine. She started making these alternative sodas because she wanted people to think about buying organic, healthy and local when they shopped for drinks, too. Drinkwell sodas bridge that gap: all the fruit that doesn’t come from Eatwell is sourced from other local farmers, such as pomegranate from Twin Girls Farm and blueberries from Lagier Ranches. Lorraine started out using leftover whey from Spring Hill Cheese Company, but she eventually switched to whey she makes herself using Straus yogurt because it contains Lactobacillus, a beneficial bacteria.

Another byproduct of the whey-making process is yogurt cheese. Lorraine and Nigel eat what they can and feed the surplus to their chickens — on top of the feed grains they grow on their farm. “A lot of people have asked about buying the cheese,” she says, “but we’re always looking for non-soy protein sources for the chickens. And it gives them good bacteria as well, which helps keep them healthy.” 

Recently, Lorraine re-considered the word “soda,” because of its less-than-healthy connotation, and has renamed her drinks “Drinkwell Softers.”

“The goal of the drink is to offer something that is softer and kinder on the body and softer on the environment,” she says. In addition to the local ingredients, Lorraine has also taken an eco-friendly approach to packaging. She sells the softer by the glass and in re-usable glass bottles that she makes available for $1 deposit. She also encourages her customers to bring the bottles (or a container of their choice) back for refills at $.25 an ounce.

She ferments the drinks on Thursdays and takes them out to put on ice by Friday afternoon, so that by the time they're ready to be served on Saturday, they taste fresh and fruity. Customers who like the beverage less sweet can allow it to ferment further (Lorraine herself prefers it this way).

The beverages have become so popular that she’s now focusing on marketing them elsewhere. The aromatic flavors just started selling at Rainbow Grocery and Lorraine designed a custom flavor for a seasonal cocktail at the Clock Bar this summer. One of the drinks also made an appearance in a cocktail at a recent CUESA event. “I’d really like to see them on more cocktail menus around the city,” she says. “They make really nice mixers. And a great alternative for folks who aren’t ordering alcohol.”

Drinkwell Softers are available in the market, at the Eatwell Farm stand, every Saturday.

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, July 10

Returning: Apple Farm, Arlequin, Ridgecut Gristmills
Out: Juniper Ridge

Tuesday, July 13

Last week: Triple Delight Blueberries

Thursday, July 15

Last week: Triple Delight Blueberries

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing):
Cherry tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, raspberries, ollalieberries, okra, figs, plums, field grown tomatoes, melons, dahlias, new potatoes, peanuts, romano beans, tomatillos, crabapples, grapes, summer squash, pluots, radishes, basil, sunflowers, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, Rocambole garlic, onions, lettuces, french and green beans, heirloom roses, corn
 
Winding down/limited supply:
Blueberries, hot house tomatoes, apricots, cherries, dates (new crop expected in early September), rhubarb

Value-added and vendor items not to be missed:
Red Cloud apricots in rose geranium syrup from June Taylor, honeycomb from Snyders Honey, cheddar andouille sausage from 4505 Meats, Rosa de Castillo beans from Rancho Gordo

Farms/vendors that may be returning this month (weather willing):
Woodleaf Farm, Hunter Orchards, Payne Family Farm

Featured Recipes for July:
Baked Pesto Zucchini with Squash Blossoms from Anne Gingrass of Brix Restaurant. (June 12, 2010)

Fresh-Stretched Mozzarella With Marinated Summer Vegetables from Craig Stoll, Delfina

Tomato Peach Salad from Joyce Goldstein Author, Mediterranean Fresh (W.W. Norton, 2008) (August 2, 2008)

Carlon Family Blueberry Pie from John Carlon, Sierra Cascade Blueberry Farm (June 14, 2008)

Cocktail ~ Midsummer Dream from Erick Castro, Chicago Fire (May 14, 2008)