Where's your market pride?

Okay Ferry Plaza lovers, we know you're out there!! Are you going to stand by and let markets in places like Flint, Michigan and Durham, North Carolina beat us? Vote for Ferry Plaza today. If we pull ahead and win $5k, we'll use the money to create micro-grants for farmers working to make their operations more sustainable. Vote here and show those other markets we mean business! (If you recruit friends to vote you could also win $50 cash).

Allrecipes.com in the market ~ July 18

The Ferry Plaza is the first stop on the Allrecipes.com cross-country tour of five leading farmers' markets. Next Saturday, they will be here helping shoppers with practical, reliable solutions and ideas for preparing the produce you buy at the market -- so you can cook with confidence and serve with pride. Ferry Plaza Farmers Market visitors can also browse online menus and recipes on allrecipes.com that showcase seasonal fruits and vegetables available in the market.

Berry Bash ~ Saturday, July 25

Visit our berry tasting booth from 10-1 to sample variety of berries from the market. The berry curious can also pick up tips about the health and nutritional benefits of berries and take home berry-centric recipes. The CUESA teaching kitchen will host a free berry-focused cooking demonstration taught by Executive Chef Michael Weller from the California Culinary Academy.

Beekeeping on the Urban Fringe ~ July 12

Slow Food Delta Diablo invites you to spend a day at Knoll Farms in Brentwood touring the farm, eating lunch and learning about honeybees and the important relationship between thoughtful farmers and mindful beekeepers. The event runs from 10 am to 3 pm. Buy tickets here>

Graze the Roof urban gardening workshop ~ July 11

A hands-on workshop focused on building raised beds out of milk crates. These containers are not only elegant, but affordable and easy to make. The planters are also strategically designed to capture and reduce runoff and are great for rooftops, patios, and contaminated sites. Only $5. Learn more here>

Tell lawmakers: Monsanto is not the answer to world hunger

Is hunger merely a problem of agricultural yield? That's what biotech giant Monsanto would have us believe as they position themselves as the solution to world hunger through bigger yields. The kicker? There is no proof that GMOs actually do increase yield. In fact, a recent study shows the opposite to be true. However, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to soon release a blueprint for development aid in Africa and other parts of the developing world that features GMO seeds prominently. Read a recent interview on Ethicurean about the issue then tell your senators what you think>

 

Saturday, July 11 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am Seasonal Cooking demonstration
Pru Mendez, Tucos Wine Market and Café

Tuesday, July 14 ~ Food Wise Booth

12:00 - 1:00 pm - CUESA's market chef Sarah Henkin will be joined by Amy Fothergill, the Family Chef. They will be giving out recipe cards and samples of a simple meal made with market ingredients.

Saturday, July 18 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am Seasonal Cooking demonstration

Trace Leighton, Nibbler's Eatery

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

This week's article was written by CUESA intern Becky Tsang.

Erin Sweet’s connection to agriculture goes way back. The owner of Ridgecut Gristmills grew up in Davis surrounded by fields of corn, canning tomatoes, and sunflowers. Erin spent her college summers working on a tomato farm, and what little free time she has now often goes toward the Young Farmers’ and Ranchers’ Committee of the American Farm Bureau.

As the one-woman force behind Ridgecut Gristmills, Erin mills, mixes, and hand delivers her stone ground cornbread and buckwheat pancake mixes and sells them at several small stores and farmers’ markets.

The idea to start milling her own grains came to Erin when she realized that her home County (Yolo), once the number one corn-producing county in California, was losing much of its corn fields. It was 1999 and agriculture in the county fell on hard times; many of the crops she knew and loved were moving abroad or to other parts of California.

At the time, says Erin, “corn didn’t pay enough to justify growing it on its own, so many growers gave up.” She soon began brainstorming solutions with her father, who was raised on a farm in the Midwest and felt similarly passionate about the issue. “We had to figure out a way to make corn pay for our local growers,” she recalls thinking, “but how?”

When the idea to mill the corn and sell mixes came to Erin, it was at least partly motivated by nostalgia. Cornbread made with fresh cornmeal plays a big role in her memories of her father’s hometown in southern Indiana.

“It was truck farm country,” she says. “And each town had a mill.  The cornbread had a texture and flavor like no other.”

In recent years, corn prices have gone back up, due mainly to ethanol production, but Erin has stuck to her original goal of sourcing locally. All the corn she uses comes within 80 miles of the mill, and all is non-GMO.

While teaching agriculture at a local high school, Erin tweaked her recipe for months to get the perfect “just add water” mix. Her students unwittingly played guinea pigs; she had them taste and critique as she swapped wet ingredients for dry and played with corn and wheat proportions. On top of recipe testing, Erin says she was offering students an opportunity to hone their critical thinking and description skills. “I was teaching them how to give reasons by tasting my cornbread,” she says.

She purchased her mill in January of 2006, and by that summer had started at her first farmers’ market in Napa. She says she prefers stone milling to steel milling because “it generates less heat, allowing for more nutrients, vitamins, and minerals to remain in the grains.” She also mills all of her grains the week before she sells them to ensure freshness.

By the end of the same summer, Erin developed a gluten-free buckwheat buttermilk pancake mix. Erin originally milled only organic buckwheat (grown in North Dakota and Minnesota), corn, and rice, choosing to outsource wheat to retain her gluten-free status. In her gluten-free* products, Erin substitutes Calrose medium-grain white rice for wheat. Recently she has purchased a second mill for the purpose of milling Massa Organics' wheat.

Finding a supplier to will deal in the 1,000 pound increments Erin works in was a challenge. Because corn is a major commodity crop, it’s not easy to get small amounts. A thousand pounds may not seem small, but many distributors only offer 26 tons at a time. Finding the right dry egg and dairy products was another difficulty. Not only are the suppliers hard to find, but some ingredients, such as butter powder, use artificial and filler ingredients like wheat.

Erin says it wasn’t long before she was “yelled at by enough Southerners” with strong opinions about how cornbread should taste; now she sells a second cornbread mix with less sugar and more cornmeal texture.

In addition to the mixes, Erin also grinds fresh corn for grits (or polenta) every week. In honor of her father, she’s named it “Jimmy’s Cracked Corn,” and recently made polenta with it for Father’s Day. “He’s Mr. Midwestern, so he’s very much a corn boy,” she says.

*Due to the transitions with the new mill, Sweet will be unable to offer gluten-free corn products until approximately September.

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 11

In/returning: Apple Farm, Bernard Ranches, Chue's Farm, Critical Edge Knife Sharpening, Flatland Flower Farm, Hidden Star Orchards, Payne Farms, Star Route Farms, Woodleaf Farm
Out: Juniper Ridge, Triple Delight

Tuesday, July 14

In/returning: none
out: Hidden Star Orchard

Thursday, July 16

In/returning: 4505 Meats Thomas Family Farm (new) and Farmhouse Culture (new)
Out: none

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing):
Okra, figs, plums, field grown tomatoes, melons, dahlias, new potatoes, peanuts, shelling and romano beans, tomatillos, crabapples, grapes, summer squash, nectarines, peaches, pluots, radishes, basil, sunflowers, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, garlic, onions, lettuces, french and green beans, heirloom roses, corn

Winding down/limited supply:
Blueberries, hot house tomatoes, apricots, cherries, dates (new crop will come in early September), rhubarb

Value Added and Vendor items not to be missed:
Lunch from one of the 6 vendors at the Thursday market, apple wood smoked salt from Allstar Organics, peach preserves from Hunter Orchards

Farms/Vendors that may be returning this month (weather willing):
Woodleaf Farm, Payne Farms

Featured Recipes for June:

Simple and Delicious: Summer Pepper Salad from David Winsberg of Happy Quail Farms

Corn Soup from Roland Passot of La Folie

Pacific Halibut with Farmers' Market Succotash and Yukon Gold Sauce from Anna Davis of Houston’s Restaurant

Cocktail ~ Basil Gimlet from Greg Lindgren of Rye