Urban Farming Tour ~ Friday, September 12

Join CUESA for a tour of two urban farms: Happy Quail Farms in East Palo Alto and Alemany Farm in San Francisco. Farmer David Winsberg will take us on a tour of his greenhouse and shade houses that are home to hundreds of varieties of peppers. He’ll also walk us through his vegetable patch, introduce us to his flock of chickens, and treat us to a tasting of Happy Quail peppers. Next we’ll head next to Alemany Farm, the largest farm in San Francisco. Manager Jason Mark will show us around this unique farm that provides fresh, organic food and creates jobs for residents of a nearby public housing development. We’ll also have a chance to get a little dirt under our fingernails. The tour costs $25 and includes a delicious lunch made from farmers' market foods. Tickets are nonrefundable. We will leave and return to the Ferry Building in a comfortable bus. Get more information or purchase tickets here.

Three Wise Farmers Tour ~ Sunday, September 28

This all-day farm tour will highlight the adaptations and innovations of three organic farmers: Greg and Raquel Massa of Massa Organics and Carl Rosato of Woodleaf Farm. The Massas will show us rice growing in their fields and, if we're lucky, we'll see the harvest in progress. We'll also learn about Massa's first experiment with growing wheat, part of which was lost in a fire just before harvest time. At Woodleaf, we'll see the stone fruit orchard that is not producing fruit this year. After losing the crop to a late freeze, Carl Rosato has adapted by planting vegetables to sell at the market. Come learn from three wise farmers! Stay tuned...tickets will be available next week.

Our newest sponsor

CUESA would like to thank A2Q2. They have very generously donated their auditing services so that we may improve our operations. A2Q2 is a Santa Rosa-based consulting firm specializing in compliance, internal audit, process design and accounting projects. Their mission is to provide personalized attention and the highest quality service to their clients. More information about can be found at www.a2q2.com.

Waste Wise tip of the week #13

Re-use the bottom halves of your egg cartons by planting seeds in them. The recycled cardboard makes a great home for new plant starts that can be easily transplanted later.

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

Saturday, August 16 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Freeman Barsotti, Capay Fruits & Vegetables
Interviewed by CUESA volunteer Earl Shaddix.

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Gwendolyn Smith, Literacy for Environmental Justice's Good Neighbor program & co-author of the Healthy Community Cookbook

10 am - 1 pm - Education booth: Where does your food dollar go? Location: South driveway

Tuesday, August 19 ~ Easy Market Meals

12:00, 12:30 and 1:00 pm - Seasonal cooking demonstrations
Amy Fothergill, "The Family Chef"

Saturday, August 23 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Meet the producer

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Keith Hammerich, San Francisco City College

10 am - 1 pm - Education booth: Where does your food dollar go?
Location: South driveway

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

Brentwood is one of the fastest growing cities in the state. Thousands of new homes have sprouted up in what has been an agricultural community for nearly two centuries, causing the population to balloon from 7,500 to 47,000 in just 14 years. A new exhibit by local artist Gail Wadsworth (whom some shoppers may know from the Knoll Farms stand at the market) and photographer Doreen Forlow records the lives of farmers in Brentwood. Through oral histories, photographs and paraphernalia, “Shifting Perceptions on the Urban Edge” tells the stories of a group of family farmers maintaining their way of life and business on the edge of a rapidly developing suburb. Below are three excerpts:

“The challenges of farming, I think, have gotten significantly harder to deal with relative to all the growth in the area...On the one hand, they want you to be the designated farmer. On the other hand, they don’t want you to make noise, make dirt and slow down things on the road or use chemicals or have any runoff, so there’s a conflict there, big time....And one of the things that disturbs me the most is constant battles with being used as a dump...we spend a lot of time and money cleaning up garbage...they choose not to understand that there’s this deal about private property and it’s not all public property....I think there’s a big difference between open space and farming."
—Jerry Tennant, Tennant Ranch, grows walnuts, pomegranates and Fuyu persimmons on 250 acres.

“…I have mixed emotions about the changes, I really do. It’s just the progress of the community as a whole—I mean the progress is here and you’re not necessarily going to stop it and if we wanted to stop it...the time to stop it...was 30 years ago and we were a little slow in reacting. Now maybe I’ll say that again 30 years from now that we should have done it. But...the growth is here and it’s not necessarily a farming community—I don’t consider Brentwood necessarily an agricultural community any longer. There’s still some farming but it’s just a matter of time before it goes away or it’s going to change completely.
—Glenn Stonebarger, G&S Farms, raises corn on 600 acres. He sells some of it on Saturdays at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

"I would hope that people would get interested in this idea about local food —that they really would discover the value of having ranches and farms surrounding an urban area—like it used to be—and that this would be a really, really fine place to do something like that. Because there’s good farm land down below—there’s good ranching land here in these hills. I think that would make this a good community and it would accomplish a lot of the goals that people in general seem to have...."

"One positive thing is that a lot of kids are interested in farming.... I think there’s some hope there. My biggest dream is that this area will become like Italy. We don’t have the old buildings but you can still have a delicious lunch."
—Mary and Howard Lentzner, Ennes Ranch, raise grass-fed cows, pigs, chickens and rabbits on 1,000 acres.

“Shifting Perceptions on the Urban Edge" will be on display in Martinez through October 1, 2008. Learn more >
The exhibit was funded by the California Stories project.

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 16

In/returning: Juniper Ridge, The Critical Edge Knife Sharpening
Out: Brooks and Daughters, Bernard Ranches

Tuesday, August 19

No changes.

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing): apples, summer squash, Valencia oranges, nectarines, peaches, pluots, radishes, basil, sunflowers, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, tomatillos, grapes, zinnias, duck, pullet eggs, cucumbers, eggplant, mint, nopales, wild pig, peppers, pears, fresh garbanzo beans, 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: apricots, fresh lavender, fava beans, peas

Farms that may be returning in this month (weather willing): Woodleaf Farms (please note that due to extreme weather last Spring they don't have stone fruit to sell this year but will bring us some of their wonderful vegetables), Payne Family Farm

Seasonal vendor items not to be missed: Heirloom tomato juice from Happy Girl Kitchen, Burbank plum and Meyer lemon conserve from June Taylor, summer squash and corn ravioli from The Pasta Shop, Porchetta sandwiches from Roli Roti

Recipes for August

Savory Crepes with Chevre, Shiitake Mushrooms and Smoked Trout from Chef Samantha Smith

Red Pepper Bisque from cookbook author Linda Carucci

Italian Bread Salad with Tomatoes and Basil from cookbook author Joanne Weir

Stone Fruit Bruschetta with Crème Fraîche Ice Cream from Elise Fineberg, Taste Catering

Yerba Buena Gimlet from Reza Esmaili, Conduit (May 14, 2008)