Menu of first courses for this year's Sunday Supper ~ October 5

CUESA's annual supper is only a month away! Guests will be surprised by one of the following first courses when they sit down for dinner in the Ferry Building's Grand Hall. Seats are selling fast, so don't hesitate to make your reservation now >

Erica Holland-Toll, The Lark Creek Inn
Roasted heirloom peppers, butter beans, grilled escarole
and onion ring escabeche with garlic aioli

Scott Youkilis, Maverick
Marinated fresh sheep cheese with arugula, roasted sweet and spicy peppers, smoked cherry tomatoes and olive oil fried bread

Laurence Jossel, NOPA
Olive oil poached sea bass with purslane, haricots verts,
potatoes and capers

Mourad Lahlou, Aziza
Squid salad with preserved lemons and marash pepper

Ryan Farr and Elizabeth Falkner, Orson
Charcuterie plate featuring pork and potatoes with homemade mustard, pickled grapes and chicharrones

Robbie Lewis, Bacar
Carpaccio of market mushrooms, harvest grapes,
aged goat cheese, walnuts and lemon verbena

Jamie Lauren, Absinthe
Heirloom tomatoes with charred onion vinaigrette, smoked burrata,
roasted gypsy peppers and wild arugula

Colin Dewey, Bix
Heirloom tomatoes, fresh pulled mozzarella, basil, and olive oil

Jonnatan Leiva, Jack Falstaff
Local albacore tuna, foie gras, and smoked bacon,
with chervil and sherry vinaigrette

Heirloom Tomato Talk ~ Wednesday, September 10, Noon

Acclaimed food writer, grower, and seed conservator Amy Goldman will be in conversation at the Commonwealth Club with CUESA Executive Director Dave Stockdale to promote her new book, The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table. A frequent guest on programs such as "Martha Stewart Living," Goldman, who is dedicated to preserving agricultural biodiversity, will share her personal insight into growing and eating the perfect tomato.
Learn more or buy tickets here >

Urban Farming Tour ~ Friday, September 12 (One week away!)

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, where he grows 30 different pepper varieties, and treat us to a tasting of Happy Quail peppers. Next we’ll head to Alemany Farm, the largest farm in the city and a source of both organic food and jobs for the residents of a nearby public housing development. Get more information or buy 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 Massa and Raquel Krach of Massa Organics and Carl Rosato of Woodleaf Farm. At Massa we'll see rice growing in the field and, if we're lucky, a harvest in progress. At Woodleaf, we'll hear about Rosato's choice to plant vegetables after losing a year's worth of stone fruit in a freeze. Come learn from three wise farmers! Get more information or buy tickets here >

Three Sisters Celebration ~ Saturday, September 13

Next Saturday, our culinary programs will focus on the Three Sisters: corn, beans and squash. The Three Sisters were the main agricultural crops of many North American native people and are an often emulated model of companion planting today. See below for schedule details.

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

Saturday, September 6 ~ Market to Table

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

10:30 am - Farmhouse Cooks
Christina Kelso and Robert Lower of Flying Disc Ranch will demonstrate recipes that highlight the dates they grow.

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Sascha Weiss, Lettus Café Organic

11:45 am - Cooking demonstration and book signing
Diane Morgan, author of Grill Every Day: 25 Fast-Track Recipes for Weeknights at the Grill

Saturday, September 13 ~ Three Sisters Celebration (see above)

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

10:30 am - Book talk and cooking demonstration
Patricia Klindienst, the author of The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic America will demonstrate a traditional johnny cake recipe a talk about Native American agriculture.

11:15 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration featuring squash
Chris Jones, the girl and the fig

12:00 am - Meet the producer and bean cooking demonstration
Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo and author of Heirloom Beans: Great Recipes for Dips and Spreads, Soups and Stews, Salads and Salsas, and Much More from Rancho Gordo

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

There was no shortage of ideas at last week’s Slow Food Nation. The “Food for Thought” speaker series at Herbst Theater, the Soap Box in the Civic Center victory garden, and Friday’s Changemakers Day gave many of today’s brightest food thinkers a place to expound. And while the weekend’s writers, policymakers, activists, and food producers were often preaching to the choir, they reminded those of us who are in the choir just how nice it can be to hear a good sermon now and then.

In Friday’s opening panel, Carlo Petrini, the contemplative founder of the international Slow Food movement, recommended that Americans stop identifying as consumers. Instead, he hopes we begin to recognize that, as eaters, we play an important role in the production process and are, in fact, “co-producers.” When we see ourselves this way, says Petrini, we empathize with and feel inherently supportive of every other step in the creation of our food.

Urban eaters who identify as co-producers of their food take an interest in the whole food system. And they place a clean environment at the forefront of their choices, because they know it’s crucial to producing more food. They also see the importance of re-investing in rural areas, said Paul Muller of Full Belly Farm (which sends out over 1500 CSA boxes every week). When eaters begin to investigate how their food is grown, “it changes what farmers are paid for,” says Muller. “It’s not just the number of Brussels sprouts they grow, it’s the fact that they are willing to be stewards of the land.”

Co-producers might also start thinking differently about climate change, an issue that received a great deal of attention on Friday and Saturday. Food production has contributed heavily to climate change—in the form of fossil fuel-intensive agriculture and transport —and the industry will need to adapt, as shifting climates create greater uncertainty for farmers. Panelists suggested that eaters take a stand against climate change by participating in urban gardening, eating less meat and more local food, and helping their communities adopt renewable energy alternatives. The Sierra Club’s Carl Pope was among a panel of experts who spoke on the issue. He said that while the destabilization of the climate promises to bring enormous challenges, two shorter-term problems might force changes that will keep the earth’s climate from going completely off the rails: an impending lack of water in the Western states (itself partly a symptom of climate change) and the rapid decrease of available fossil fuels.

Being a co-producer also inevitably sheds light on farm workers and small-scale farmers, many of whom have only a marginal chance of earning a living wage. At the same time, it has the potential to put us further in touch with the industrial food trap, wherein many of the working poor must rely on “cheap,” highly processed food. The key, said worker’s rights advocates from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and spokespeople from the domestic fair trade movement, is to start seeing the solutions to these problems—farmworker justice and equitable access to good food—as inherently linked. Blogger Jen Maiser’s suggestion to incorporate a public service component into next year’s event might be a small step in that direction.

With all these challenges in mind, co-producers might also want to start helping to recruit and support young farmers. A number of panels and discussions at SFN returned to author and theorist Richard Heinberg’s projection that the country will need 50 million new farmers in order to successfully de-industrialize our agriculture system and feed people while shifting away from fossil fuel-heavy food production. Achieving even part of that goal will require a major re-integration of food production skills into our education system, especially as the median age of today’s farmer approaches 60.

In the meantime, some co-producers in the Bay Area are connecting food with its origin by looking at our region as a “foodshed,” much like a watershed. (Tune in two weeks from now to learn more.)

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, September 6

In/returning: Flying Disc Ranch, Bernard Ranches, Apple Farm, Rancho Gordo
Out: G & S Corn (for 2 weeks)

Tuesday, September 9

In: Frog Hollow Farm

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing): Asian pears, dates, apples, summer squash and early winter squash varieties, French prunes, artichokes, pomegranates, carrots in many colors, frisee, brown rice, Valencia oranges, radishes, basil, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, Brussels sprouts, grapes, romanesco, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, wheat, persimmons, corn, onions, lettuces, okra, grass-fed beef, tomatoes, melons, ornamental millet, potatoes, beans (wax, shelling and Romano), jujubes, jicama, radicchio, sweet potatoes, plums

Winding down/limited supply: Pawpaws, prickly pears, peas, nectarines, peaches, pluots, fresh garbanzo beans, figs

Farms that may be returning in this month (weather willing): Flying Disc Ranch, 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).

Seasonal vendor items not to be missed: Tofu jerky from Hodo Soy, Sikil P’ak from Primavera, Bread and Butter pickles from Happy Girl Kitchen, Bella Donovan coffee beans from Blue Bottle Coffee

Featured Recipes for September:

Sharlyn Melon with Boccalone Lardo and Torn Basils
from Chris Consentino of Incanto and Boccalone

Miriam’s Butternut Squash and Pear Soup
from What San Francisco Families Eat!: Favorite Family Recipes from Presidio Hill School in San Francisco

Ear-Shaped Pasta with Broccoli Rabe & Sausage
from Janet Fletcher, San Francisco Chronicle

Sweet Couscous with Fresh Pomegranates
from cookbook author Paula Wolfert