Pickling Party ~ August 5

The Urban Kitchen/CUESA pickling party is back by popular demand. Learn the secrets of pickling a variety of fresh seasonal produce with Todd Champagne of Happy Girl Kitchen. The class will take place from 5:30 - 7:30 pm in the CUESA Kitchen, on the North side of the Ferry Building. Pre-register.

CUESA Benefit Dinner at Jardinière with Dennis Lee ~ Monday

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

Epicurious in the market ~ Tuesday and Saturday

Epicurious.com, the website for people who love to eat, will be at the Ferry Plaza next Tuesday and Saturday. San Francisco is the first stop on their 3rd annual cross-country tour of leading farmers markets. Visitors to their booth will be invited to browse online menus and recipes that showcase seasonal fruits and vegetables. Stop by for recipes featuring products from growers in our market and register with epicurious.com to get an eco-friendly tote and other free foodie gifts!

Electric Supercar at the Market ~ Thursday

The Racing Green Endurance (RGE) is a high-powered electric car that was built at the Imperial College London and designed to reverse the public perception of electric vehicles as slow, unattractive and limited in range. This summer, the RGE is traveling down the Pan American Highway — from the north Alaskan coast to the tip of Argentina — passing through 14 countries and covering over 16,000 miles. If you're interested in seeing this supercar in person, The RGE will be making a special stop in front of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market (on the South end, near Market Bar) this Thursday from 10 am to 1 pm.

'Botany of Desire' Movie Night at Hayes Valley Farm ~ July 20

Hayes Valley Farm is hosting a free film night sponsored by KQED and featuring The Botany of Desire, a documentary film based on the book by Michael Pollan. The film is a "sensuous and eye-opening exploration into the human relationship with plants, trees and flowers, through the lens of four familiar crops: apples, potatoes, tulips and marijuana." The event is free and starts at 7 pm ($5 suggested donation at the door to benefit education and programming initiatives). Learn more

Aquaponics Classes ~ July 25

Kijiji Grows will be offering a hands-on introduction to aquaponic systems later 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 class runs 10:00 am - 2:00 pm at the Kijiji Grows facility in West Oakland and costs $50. Register.

 

Saturday, July 17 ~ Berry Festival

10 am - 12 pm - Berry tasting in the South Driveway.

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

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

Tuesday, July 20 ~ Food Wise Booth

12:30 - 'til whenever the food runs out - 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, July 24 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration and book signing
Joanne Weir, cookbook author and host of "Joanne Weir's Cooking Class."

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

As tomato season arrives in the market, it can be difficult not to become a little obsessed with this versatile, savory fruit. We spoke with Arthur Allen, author of Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato, about flavor, agricultural breeding, and the big picture of tomato farming.

CUESA: What makes the perfect tomato, in your opinion?

Arthur Allen: A lot of sun and a good breed are both important. You have to know what you’re doing with the soil. The best tomatoes I’ve ever had were mostly organically grown. Organic tomato plants tend to produce less, because you’re not pumping as much nitrogen, phosphorous, etc. into them, but they have more flavor.

I tasted Del Cabo tomatoes in the field in Mexico and they were the best I’ve ever eaten. They’re pretty good when I buy them in a grocery store, but they just don’t taste the same. You lose a lot of the volatiles in transit (through the stem hole, or some people think they're lost through the skin), which account for very fleeting and characteristic flavors.  

CUESA: Can you say more about the shift toward portability in the tomato industry?

Arthur Allen: There is this inverse relationship between portability and flavor. To make something portable, you want it to be thick skinned so it doesn’t bruise easily. And you’re probably going to be picking it less than fully ripe in order to be selling it 2-3 weeks later. So those two things automatically go against the biology of flavor. Many farms are also growing  larger fruit because bigger tomatoes require less labor in the harvesting process. But the bigger they are, the more they become sort of like water bags.   

CUESA: Why do you think one of the most public discussions about farm labor is occurring in the tomato industry?

Arthur Allen: Tomatoes are one of the biggest crops in Florida. More than half of them go to fast food restaurants and all those fast food restaurants are always squeezing down on costs, so the farms don’t dictate the price. The bottom line is these undocumented workers get the shaft.  

I went out and picked tomatoes one day in Immokalee, Florida; it was really harsh work. It was not even a very hot day for that area, but it’s piece-work [workers get paid by the bucket], so you have to keep going or you don’t get paid. And these guys I was working with were so nice. If they had a couple of extra tomatoes, they’d drop them in my bucket on the way to the truck. And although I’d picked about half as many as most of them, the way they’d rig the pay, the top guy made maybe $10 more than I did.

They don’t tell you what they’re going to be paying until the end of the day; and they calculate it so they’ll be paying minimum wage, no matter what. At the height of the season, workers can make maybe $80 in a 10-hour day. It’s supposed to be an eight-hour day but it really starts at 4:30 am and ends at 7 pm, when they drop you back off. A lot of the time you just spend waiting for the sun to come up and burn the dew off the fields. The workers take pride in producing food for people, but they’re pretty exploited and I think it’s a good thing that they’ve started to organize and get better pay.

CUESA: What other insight did it give you into the state of industrialized tomato production?

Arthur Allen: The whole system is so bizarre. We picked these tomatoes green and then they’d go to the packing operation where they’d sort them by size and gas them so that they start to turn. And then they’d ship them to another company that sorts them into boxes that are going to different companies — let's say they send several tons to McDonald's, which will have a centralized location where they slice them and put them in packages that go out to their burger chains.

CUESA: And it all relies on cheap fuel and cheap labor.
 
Arthur Allen: Yes, but on the other hand, you look at California, and a company like Morning Star — which makes 10% of the world’s canned tomato products – only has have around 200 employees. They beef up a little in the harvest season, but so much of their process is automated.  

I tell the story in my book of how these two scientists at UC Davis — one was a breeder and the other was an agriculture engineer — developed the tomato harvester and a new breed of tomato designed for the harvester simultaneously in the early 60s. The tomatoes [were bred so they] wouldn’t fall off the vine when the harvester blade hit them, but they'd to fall off when they were shaken. And then in the early 70s they developed these color-sensing electronic eyes, which could tell if an unwanted green tomato was coming off the conveyor belt and would zap it with a little finger. So that meant there were even fewer human hands required. And gradually they reduced their labor force.

So it’s a double-edged sword. Because, on the one hand, picking tomatoes is such miserable work — and has always been low-paying. On the other hand, it took jobs away from people. And it’s a little hard to figure out what the ethics are.
 
CUESA: Was there anything that really surprised you in your process of writing the book?

Arthur Allen: Seeing this world — and going from the organic local, heirloom scene to these big farms producing zillions of tomatoes — I met a lot of people I liked and I really learned to admire farmers of all sizes.

I thought it would be more cut and dry in terms of good guys and bad guys — and there are some shady characters in the ag world — but it turned out I just really liked farmers.

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 17

Returning: Hunter Orchard, Payne Family Farm
Last week: Bruins Farms
Out: Triple Delight Blueberries, Ridgecut Gristmills

Tuesday, July 20

Returning: Shelly's Garden
Out: Triple Delight Blueberries

Thursday, July 22

Out: 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)