Win a year of fantastic meals

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 will be available for purchase every Tuesday and Saturday, beginning August 30, at the farmers' market and at the CUESA office during normal business hours. Each ticket offers you four chances to win a collection of 12 dinners for two. The winners will be announced at our Sunday Supper on October 5, but you don't need to attend to win. Click here to see the list of participating restaurants >

 

Two fall farm tours ~ September 12 and 28

Journey close to home on CUESA's Urban Farming Tour and visit Happy Quail Farms in East Palo Alto and Alemany Farm in San Francisco on Friday, September 12. Or, if a longer adventure appeals to you, travel with us to Massa Organics and Woodleaf Farm on September 28, 2008 for the Three Wise Farmers tour.

The market in the news

Bryce Loewen from Blossom Bluff Orchards was quoted last week in the San Francisco Chronicle's Seasonal Cook and a New York Times food blogger gave FPFM vendors (Cap’n Mike’s, Roli Roti and others) some love. The Cheese Course column in today's Chronicle also spotlights Andante Dairy's Figaro cheese.

We're hiring a Waste Wise Coordinator

CUESA seeks a part-time coordinator to oversee the composting and recycling in our Tuesday and Saturday markets. Learn more here >

Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust Harvest Celebration ~ Sept 14

Feast on the seasonal bounty of Brentwood farms at the Historic Taylor Ranch in Byron, California. Chefs from Bay Area restaurants such as Venus, Sunrise Bistro and Sunnyside Café will prepare foods grown within miles of the celebration. All proceeds benefit the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust, which works to ensure that future generations continue to enjoy a local source of food. Learn more >

Vandana Shiva speaking in the North Bay

Don't have tickets to see Vandana Shiva at Slow Food Nation? The physicist, ecologist, activist and author of Soil Not Oil: Securing Our Food in Times of Climate Change will be speaking about the perils of the global industrial food system next Thursday in Santa Rosa. Learn more >

Waste Wise tip of the week #14

Instead of amassing printed cookbooks, why not use online recipes instead? CUESA collects all the recipes used in our cooking demonstrations here. You can also find recipes that utilize local ingredients on blogs such as market shopper Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks.

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

Saturday, August 23 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Johann Smit, Hidden Star Orchards

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

10:00 am - 1:00 pm - Interactive exhibit: Where does your food dollar go? Location: Education Booth in the South driveway.

Saturday, August 30 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Jim Cochran, Swanton Berry Farm

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Jennifer Carden, author of Toddler Café: Fast, Healthy, and Fun Ways to Feed Even the Pickiest Eater

9:00 am - 2:00 pm - Desmond Jolly, co-author of California’s New Green Revolution: Pioneers in Sustainable Agriculture will be signing and selling copies of the book (see feature below).

8:00 am - 1:00 pm (every hour, on the hour) - In honor of Slow Food Nation, CUESA's Executive Director, Dave stockdale will give free 15-minute introductions about the history, mission, operations and programs of the market. Maps provided. Location: Education Booth in the 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.

This month marks the release of Desmond Jolly’s California’s New Green Revolution: Pioneers in Sustainable Agriculture. In the book, the former director of the UC Davis Small Farm Center and current CUESA board member takes a close look at the work of 13 businesses that have played significant roles in advancing sustainable food systems throughout the state. Two of the pioneer farms are also Ferry Plaza Farmers Market vendors ― Capay Fruits and Vegetables and Swanton Berry Farm. We spoke with him recently about his book.

CUESA: How did you choose the producers profiled in New Green Revolution?

Desmond Jolly: Some produce meat, some produce vegetables and fruit, others are wineries; some are organic, some are biodynamic, and some do seed saving. So these farms present a real diversity across our agricultural landscape.

CUESA: Can you give some examples of a few of the most innovative farming or business practices you discovered?

Jolly: I find Highland Hills Farm to be very innovative. The farmer there runs a very small-scale farm…and I appreciated his willingness to raise heritage breeds of cattle that thrive in the environment where he lives without a lot of chemicals, antibiotics, growth hormones, etc. And, of course, biodynamic winemaking. It wasn’t long ago that organic wines were perceived to be inferior and could not compete. Within the last 10 years we’ve seen organic wines grow up and now [farmers are focusing on] biodynamic wine, which [involves] other ingredients, some of which might seem mystical, but, as I explain in my chapter about Ceàgo Vinegarden, have some real scientific and biological bases.

CUESA: The farmers you profile speak of their plans to become more efficient or environmentally sound, rather than growing larger. On the other hand, you include a chapter on Veritable Vegetable, the organic produce distributor, and they discuss the need to keep growing. Can you respond to some of these contradictions?

Jolly: These are big contradictions that are not easily resolved. I don’t think there is any farm profiled in the book that you would call a mega-scale farm. (Though, there are some industrial scale farms that are modeling themselves to some degree on these farms)...And the small farms that are growing are all, to some degree, wrestling with how to maintain their integrity while serving a larger clientele. On the other hand, there is a logic in the marketing world, where sometimes if you don’t grow, you don’t just stagnate, you atrophy. The good thing is that the demand for organics keeps growing, and in Veritable Vegetable’s case, they face competition, so if they don’t try to occupy that space, they may be pushed out of it.

CUESA: What about the next generation of pioneers? Is there a passing of the baton going on?

Jolly: Definitely. If you take a farm like Full Belly…there are at least half a dozen interns spending about a year each on that farm, learning how to work on and manage that kind of complex operation…and many of them told me personally that they plan to either own or operate a farm. And many other workers from farms I visited have already gone on to do so. So I feel confident that this isn’t going to die out as these pioneers age.

CUESA: Why did you include CUESA in the book?

Jolly: The farmers’ market movement was central to the evolution of the larger sustainable agriculture movement in California. What is so interesting about CUESA is that it not only affords urbanites access to a cornucopia of nutritious, flavorful foods, but it has taken the lead to educate urbanites as well. And now it’s looking for ways to encourage the farmers and the vendors who sell at the market to delve more deeply into sustainable production and marketing methods.

Jolly will be selling and signing books in the CUESA Education Booth, on the south side of the Ferry Building on August 30. Learn more or buy the book here.

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 23

In/returning: Brooks and Daughters, Bernard Ranches
Out: Alive Restaurant, G&S Corn, La Cocina

Tuesday, August 26

In: Alive Restaurant, Hodo Soy
Out: None

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