It's a bumper crop!

The latest CUESA baby has arrived! Congratulations to our Market Chef, Shanti Wilson, and her husband Ross on the birth of their first child, Henry Joseph Wilson, on August 3. Henry's healthy size--9lb, 12oz--can almost certainly be attributed in part to the nutritious farmers' market food that his mother enjoyed during her entire pregnancy. We look forward to meeting Henry at the market someday soon!

Win a Year of Dining Out

Ten dollars could get you and a friend 12 meals at the Bay Area's best restaurants! Tickets for the Year of Dining Out raffle are now available for purchase online or at our information booth every Tuesday and Saturday. Each ticket offers you four chances to win a collection of 12 dinners for two, plus a gift basket from Fra' Mani Handcrafted Salumi. The winners will be announced at our Sunday Supper, but you don't need to attend the supper to win. Click here to see the list of participating restaurants and purchase tickets >

Next farm tour: Visit orchards on August 26

Our next farm tour will visit two orchards in the Central Valley: Lagier Ranches and Hidden Star Orchards. Click here to learn more and register >

Local chefs and farmers pair up at Macy's

CUESA is partnering with Macy's Cellar for a series of three cooking demonstrations and farmer/chef interviews. This Tuesday, August 14, Chris Cosentino of Incanto and Doug Stonebreaker of Prather Ranch Meat Company will show that meat lovers can be green too. Seating is first-come, first-served starting at 6 pm in the Union Square Cellar Kitchen at Macy's. A $10 donation to CUESA will get you a seat at the demonstration, a sample of the featured dish, a glass of wine from Benziger Family Winery, a canvas Ferry Plaza Farmers Market tote, and a sample of Origins' new organic skin care line.

Saturday, August 11 ~ Market to Table events

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Jennifer Bice of Redwood Hill Farm

11 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Jamaal Taherzadeh of Jones Restaurant

Noon - Seasonal cooking demonstration and book signing
Laura Martinez, author of The Everything Cheese Book

Saturday, August 18 ~ Tomato Celebration

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Talk with Marty Jacobson of Allstar Organics, who grows organic tomatoes in Nicasio.

11 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration and book signing
Rick Hackett of MarketBar will make a dish or two featuring tomatoes. Try a sample and take home a recipe!

11 am to 1 pm - Tomato tasting
Challenge your palate and taste subtle differences in this side-by-side tomato comparison. Location: South Driveway, near Eatwell Farm

Tuesday, August 21 ~ Easy Market Meals

11:45 am, 12:15 pm, 12:45 pm & 1:15 pm - Allison Clement, chef and owner of Square Meals, will demonstrate a recipe using the seasonal, regional ingredients that can be found at the Tuesday market. Every attendee leaves with a sample, a recipe and a suggested shopping list.

All events take place in our Dacor teaching kitchen in the arcade north of the Ferry Building's clock tower unless otherwise noted.

The genus Ficus encompasses over 800 plant species, the most well-known of which is Ficus carica, the species that creates the edible fruits that are right now beginning to flood the farmers’ market. While most people in this country have tried Fig Newtons, and some know figs for their place in literature and mythology, many have never bitten into a fresh, ripe fig. But in California, where figs thrive, they are a common backyard tree and a familiar sight to farmers’ market regulars. The fig’s plump, slippery sweetness teases us at the beginning of summer and overwhelms us at the end.

Indeed, many fig varieties have two distinct harvests. The first harvest, which happens in June, is called the breba crop. The fruits of this harvest tend to be less sweet and more acidic than the flavorful main crop, which is larger and lasts longer. Right now, the main fig crop is just beginning.

The fig’s dual harvest is not the only thing that makes it botanically unique. What are commonly considered the tree’s fruits are actually inverted clusters of hundreds of tiny flowers. The true fruits of the fig are the crunchy things that many refer to as seeds. The unusual structure of this pseudo-fruit is the result of thousands of years of coevolution with the fig’s pollinator.

In the wild, the symbiosis between figs and wasps is a marvel. Miniscule fig wasps hatch inside figs, immediately mate, and then dig a small hole to get out of the fig. Male wasps, which have no wings, die after helping the females burrow out, and females fly away, covered in the pollen of the flowers inside the fig in which they were born. The females then find a new immature fig in which to lay their eggs. They enter the fig by way of a small hole called the ostiole, lay their eggs (inadvertently pollinating the tiny fig flowers), and the cycle repeats.

Though some commercial fig varieties depend upon this miraculous process, most develop fruit without pollination. Recent archaeological findings indicate that even the very first cultivated figs (which are now thought to be the first cultivated crops) may not have required pollination. Early agriculturalists in Western Asia may have recognized this convenient mutation and started propagating trees using cuttings over 11,000 years ago. Figs spread to the Mediterranean and were brought to California in 1759 by the Franciscan monks of Mission San Diego. They were subsequently planted at all the missions along the Camino Real. One of the most popular fig varieties, Black Mission, gets its name from this history. It took over 100 years for a commercial fig industry to develop in California, and today we are the only state with significant fig production.

Still, a fresh fig can sometimes be hard to find. The fruits pose problems in the industrial food system because they must be picked soft and are extremely delicate. Since they don't stand up well to transport and storage, the majority of California’s fig production is sold dried. The fig’s perishability makes it a perfect candidate for direct marketing. Farmers selling their crop straight to eaters can pick the day before market. This is what Knoll Farms has been doing with success for over 20 years. Kristie Knoll says figs are a reliable crop for the farm and that most varieties grow very well in their Brentwood soil. Their main harvest of Brown Turkey, Black Mission, Kadota and Adriatic figs is now underway.

The fig harvest is at its peak in August and September, but some figs may be available as late as November. You can combine this succulent fruit with other foods in various recipes, like those listed below. Or just enjoy the fig’s mythic, historical, and botanical significance and its unadulterated, alluring flavor by eating it plain!

Note: We suggest you bring a rigid container to the market to improve your chances of carrying the figs home unharmed.

Sherry Glazed Figs Stuffed with Toasted Walnuts and Cheese

Grilled Fig Salad with Cantaloupe, Fennel, Arugula and Walnuts

Figs in Port Syrup

Fresh Fig and Green Tomato Salad with Basil

This is the most up-to-date information about which sellers will and won't be attending the market as of Friday, when we send this letter. If there are no changes to a seller's status, they will not be listed. To find out which farmers regularly attend each market, click here. Please understand that there are often last minute changes--it's the nature of farming!

Saturday, August 11

In/Returning: Lagier Ranches, The Apple Farm
Out: Honeycrisp Farm, Bernard Ranches, Brookside Orchids

Tuesday, August 14

In/Returning: Everything under the Sun, Galaxy Granola