Lunch Hour Chef cooking class ~ Friday, August 1

Our culinary partnership with Parties That Cook continues next week with the first of three lunchtime cooking classes. In this hands-on lesson, participants will learn to make innovative summer sandwiches and salads using ingredients hand-picked from our market. This week's menu includes a grilled chicken sandwich with marinated artichokes and lemony hummus (with a veggie option of a grilled vegetable sandwich) alongside a salad of arugula with grilled peaches, gorgonzola and candied pecans. Click here to register ($25 per person) or to preview the menus for the remaining classes.

Epicurious.com at the market

Epicurious.com, the website for people who love to eat, will be our special guest at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturday, July 26. San Francisco is the first stop on thir cross-country tour of five leading farmers' markets. They will host a special educational display in our market where visitors can browse online menus and recipes that showcase seasonal fruits and vegetables. They will also have recipes created especially for our region featuring products from growers in our markets. Stop by and register at www.epicurious.com to get a free tote bag filled with recipe cards.

Waste Wise tip of the week #10

The longer your produce stays fresh, the less of it you'll waste.
Read more in Grist's latest Ask Umbra column >

Waste Wise volunteers are needed every Tuesday and Saturday at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. E-mail ashleigh@cuesa.org for details.

Saturday, July 26 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Meet the producer
Ed George of the Peach Farm

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Mauro Pando of Grand Café

10:00 am - 1:00 pm - Culinary information station
Featured food: aromatic herbs
Location: south driveway

11:45 am - Cooking demonstration and book signing
Dana Jacobi, author of The Essential Best Foods Cookbook

Saturday, August 2 ~ Tomato festival

10-1 pm - Nutritional information and tasting booth
Taste a diverse array of tomatoes from the market. Each farmer has selected a favorite variety.

10:30 am - Meet the producer
Karen Lucero of Lucero Organic Farms

11:00 am - Tomato-centric cooking demonstration
Joyce Goldstein, acclaimed author of Mediterranean Fresh and other cookbooks

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

Note: this is the first in a series of CUESA features about energy use.

You could call it a labor of love. Each Saturday, either Tory or Rebecca Torosian of Tory Farms will drive the farm’s grapes and stone fruit 212 miles to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. The two-way trip, which would have cost them 80 dollars a year ago, now costs around 140 dollars.

California might be the best state in the union for growing food, but transporting it here is another story. As of July 21, the average price* for regular gas in California was $4.46 per gallon, considerably higher than the national $4.06 per gallon average.

Farmers like the Torosians are feeling the pinch and taking steps to stay afloat. Rebecca says that in years past Tory Farms used a gas card that allowed them to fill up at any hour of the day for an extra surcharge. Now they pay solely in cash to avoid the surcharge. The shift has meant the farmers need to plan ahead, but they say it’s “a lot better than waiting for that huge bill at the end of the month.” The farmers have also had to raise the price of their fruit, but not by much. “We know the consumer isn’t getting a raise, either,” Rebecca adds.

Higher gas prices may also encourage some farmers to seek out gas-free and other low-carbon alternatives. Those who already have are reaping the benefits. Take Nigel Walker of Eatwell Farm. He fuels his truck with recycled vegetable oil he picks up from two San Francisco restaurants that are on his weekly delivery route. Read more about the truck in the Eatwell blog.

David Winsberg of Happy Quail Farms is another example. On Tuesdays, and during the early and late months of the season when his load is smaller, he transports his specialty peppers and other veggies to the market in a rare electric Ford pickup truck. The vehicle was an investment, but one that has made a lot of financial sense for the comparatively short 34-mile drive from Palo Alto. David pays a hefty downtown rate to park in a nearby garage where several of the spots are equipped with electric vehicle plug-ins. But even with that cost, he says he spends about 30% less than the cost of a gas-fueled round trip because the electricity itself only puts him out $1.50 each way.

“I don’t think there will be a silver bullet any time soon,” he said recently, from behind a busy stall at the Tuesday market. “There’s enough technology out there that we could all be doing a little more to lessen our footprints.”

Kirsten Olson of Hunter Orchards says that she anticipates a day when she and her husband might have to stop making the 300-mile-each-way commute from their farm near the Oregon border, but it’s not a day they’re looking forward to. For them the draw is not just the sales but the cultural exchange.

“For us it’s a delight—to come to this market, to interact, to see the other growers,” says Olsen, who has cut her time in the market to a few weeks per year. “We get to take all of this energy back to dinky Siskiyou county with its six signal lights and share with the farmers there. It has to do with the migration of ideas.”

* Prices courtesy of the US Energy Information Administration

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 26

In/returning: Bernard Ranch, Knoll Farms
Out: The Apple Farm, Critical Edge Knife Sharpener

Tuesday, July 29

In/returning: Critical Edge Knife Sharpener

Returning this month (weather willing): Okra, figs, plums, field-grown tomatoes, melons, dahlias, new potatoes, peanuts, shelling and Romano beans, tomatillos, crabapples, grapes

Plentiful: Summer squash, nectarines, peaches, pluots, radishes, basil, sunflowers, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, garlic, onions, lettuces, French and green beans

Winding down/limited supply: Hot house tomatoes, apricots, cherries, blueberries, dates (they will return in September), rhubarb

Farms that may be coming in this month (weather willing): Little Organic Farm, Hunter Orchards, Short Night Farm, Payne Family Farm

Seasonal vendor items not to be missed: Albacore tuna lox sandwiches from Cap’n Mike’s, strawberry rhubarb fruit turnovers from Downtown Bakery, picnic hams from Fatted Calf, fresh boysenberry yogurt from St. Benoit Yogurt

Recipes for July

Cocktail ~ Midsummer Dream from Erick Castro, Chicago Fire

Fresh Fig and Green Tomato Salad with Basil from cookbook author Marie Simmons

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

Peach Melba from cookbook author Jeff Cox