Two summer cocktail events

Artisanal cocktail class ~ August 14
Join Scott Beattie, author of Artisanal Cocktails, and Lou Bustamante of St. George Spirits for CUESA's next exciting hands-on class. Beattie will talk about seasonal cocktails and teach the group how to make two summertime drinks from his book, the Blackberry Lick and the Westside Bellini. Instruction will include side recipes, garnish how-tos, foams, and rim sugars and salts. Drinks will feature St. George/Hangar One spirits and fresh, seasonal fruit from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Buy tickets>

Summer Farmers' Market Cocktail Night ~ August 12
Celebrate summer's bounty by sipping handcrafted cocktails made by some of the city's best bartenders! For $30, guests will enjoy 2 full-sized signature cocktails made with Square One Botanical, the new spirit that pairs floral and fruit flavors, along with 12 other sample-sized drinks that will bring together botanicals with summer produce (think berries, peaches and tomatoes). Featuring mixologists from Elixir, Beretta, Rye, Bourbon and Branch and more. Buy tickets >

Jam Making Class with Urban Kitchen and Happy Girl Kitchen ~ August 28

As part of our 2009 Preservation Celebration, Happy Girl founder and preservation wizard Jordan Champagne will share her meticulously developed techniques in a 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 of jam making along the way. Everyone will take home two delectable jars of their newly jammed goods and instructions for making jam at home! Learn more or buy tickets >

Dine with us at Americano ~ August 4

Join us at Americano, where chef Paul Arenstam and Incanto's Chris Cosentino will collaborate on the last of our monthly dinners. The meal will take place on Americano's heated patio at the Hotel Vitale and the menu will be be packed with the summer's best fruits and veggies from Dirty Girl Produce. The menu includes: Heirloom Tomato Panzanella and Cucumber Salad, Whole Roasted California Striped Bass with Fennel Salmoriglio, Spit Roasted Porchetti with Dirty Girl Greens, and Summer Fruit Crisp. Seats are $80, or $100 with wine pairings. Buy tickets here >

Simple farmers' market cooking videos

This summer, organic home cook and Slow Food organizer Jen Dalton is partnering with Care2.com and LocalHarvest.org to promote the “Love Your Farmers' Market” contest. Jen’s seven-episode cooking show sets out to raise awareness of local foods and community farmers' markets (and the episodes all start at the Ferry Plaza). See more videos here >

Miso exhibit at the market ~ tomorrow

The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), the Japanese government's nonprofit organization for promoting trade and investment between Japan and other countries, will be in the market tomorrow. Experts from JETRO will be educating shoppers about miso, the traditional and popular fermented food ingredient. Stop by for samples of different types of miso and recipe cards featuring ways to combine miso with seasonal foods from our market. Learn more about miso>

Epicurious in the market ~ August 1 & 4

Epicurious.com, the website for people who love to eat, will be at the Ferry Plaza tomorrow and on Tuesday, August 4. San Francisco is one of the stops along their cross-country tour of seven 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 markets and register with Epicurious.com to get a free, eco-friendly tote filled with recipe cards and other foodie gifts!

Jonah Raskin at Book Passage in the Ferry Building ~ August 12

Raskin will talk about Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating & Drinking Wine in California. Part memoir, part vivid reportage, this work chronicles the renaissance in farming organically and eating locally that is unfolding in Northern California. Raskin tells of the year he spent visiting farms, working the fields, selling produce at farmers’ markets, and following it to restaurants. Several FPFM farmers appear in the book, including Star Route's Warren Weber and Wayne James from Tierra Vegetables.

Celebrate Farmers' Market Week!

Since 2000 the number of farmers' markets listed in the USDA's official directory has grown over 170%. This means opportunities for hundreds of thousands of producers to sell directly to millions of customers wanting fresh food. Farmers' markets support farmers, while improving public health, building local communities and strengthening regional economies. Learn more about Farmers' Market Week from the Farmers Market Coalition or read an editorial about it on Huffington Post.

Saturday, August 1 ~ Market to Table

10:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Jerry Di Vecchio and Francoise Dudal Kirkman, authors of You've Got Recipes: A Cookbook for a Lifetime

11:00 am Seasonal Cooking Demonstration
Joyce Goldstein, author of Tapas Sensation, Small Plates from Spain and Mediterranean Fresh

Tuesday, August 4 ~ Food Wise Booth

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

Saturday, August 8 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Joanne Weir, author of Wine Country Cooking and Tequila

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

With all the shots being taken at organics lately, this week’s headline proclaiming “Organic food not healthier” probably wasn't a surprise for sustainability-minded eaters. (Tough economic times have many Americans looking for ways to spend less in the short term, so it's an opportune time for agribusiness to step in and seal the deal.) The coverage — which, in some cases, leapt to conclusions beyond those drawn by the study — prompted an outpouring of passionate, articulate testimony about the many-faceted value of organic food.

The research in question is a survey of many studies, encompassing the last 50 years. It was commissioned by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), an independent government body in the UK, and, as the headlines imply, it concluded that organic and conventional food have around the same nutritional content.

Many, like food politics expert and author Marion Nestle, were outraged by the narrow focus of the research in question. “These authors did not compare amounts of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, irradiation, genetic modification, or sewage sludge," she wrote on Thursday. "This is an example of nutritionism in action: looking at foods as if their nutrient content is all that matters — not production methods, not effects on the environment, and not even taste.”

The Organic Center (TOC) gave a point-by-point response, showing that the study had “downplayed positive findings in favor of organic food.” When the scientists at TOC reviewed the same literature just last year, their results differed greatly; they found that levels of key antioxidants and polyphenols were in fact noticeably higher in many organic crops.

Timothy LaSalle of the Rodale Institute also pointed out that, despite the media angle, the FSA study does show organics as having more beta-carotene and flavonoids, as well as more protein, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium — all of which, he says, “are required to foster complete nutrition.”

Perhaps more importantly, LaSalle mentions what's missing from organic food. In one recent (April 2009) survey he points to, organics are said to have fewer heavy metals, less pesticide residues and less of several other toxic compounds. And although there is very little research being done about the health benefits of food free of these substances, it is worth noting that pesticide exposure has been linked to birth defects, male infertility and nervous system disorders. Home pesticide use has also recently been tied to cancer in children.

As Paula Crossfield of Civil Eats wrote in the Huffington Post, the results of the study may have also been skewed by the fact that the nutrient content of all our food has been going down over time (and a number of the earlier studies in the survey examined crops that are no longer grown at all). Crossfield also pointed to the fact that a number of the individuals in the FSA have at one point been employed in some branch of agribusiness, including Arla Foods (a big European dairy), Sarah Lee Corporation, and the UK grocery giant Sainsbury's. "Therefore," she concludes, "it is not hard to assume that the perspective may lean towards what is best for agribusiness interests."

One expert from the Soil Association chimed in with an eye toward the years ahead, years she worries could be significantly worse if organics don’t become the norm. “Our future will be dominated by climate change." she wrote. "Here organic farming is leading the way…For our own health and the health of the planet, organic food and farming will play a big part in a sustainable future.” We couldn't have put it better ourselves.

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, August 1

In/returning: Honeycrisp Farms (special one-time appearance), Woodleaf Farm, Hidden Star Orchards
Out: Apple Farm, Flying Disc Ranch

Tuesday, August 4

In: Hidden Star Orchards

Thursday, August 6

No changes

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing):
Grapes, tomatillos, cucumbers, apples, summer squash, Valencia oranges, nectarines, peaches, pluots, radishes, basil, sunflowers, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, Asian pears, grapes, zinnias, duck, pullet eggs, cucumbers, eggplant, mint, nopales, peppers, pears, squash blossoms, smoked fish, wheat, baby corn, onions, lettuces, okra, figs, grass-fed beef, plums, tomatoes, melons, dahlias, new potatoes, peanuts, wax beans, shelling beans and Romano beans

Winding down/limited supply:
Mulberries, fresh lavender, peas, fresh garbanzo beans

Value Added and Vendor items not to be missed:
Zante currants from Tory Farms, chicken stock from Mountain Ranch Organically Grown, fresh salsa from Happy Girl Kitchen, tayberry conserve from June Taylor, sauerkraut from Farmhouse Culture

Featured Recipes for August:

Shaved Cucumber, Radish & Bottarga Salad with Zinfandel Vinaigrette from Chris Consentino, Incanto

Fire Roasted Eggplant Soup from Sondra Bernstein, the girl and the fig

Stewed Okra, Corn & Tomatoes from Sharon L. Anderson, Purple Plum Restaurant

Summer Fruit Crostata from CUESA's Market Chef, Sarah Henkin

Cocktail ~ Midsummer Dream from Erick Castro