CCOF's 3rd Annual Organic Beer and Wine Tasting ~ Tonight

Ferry Building food vendors will pair with California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) certified vintners and brewers to offer sample snacks and beverages. Prices: $25 for 10 tastes or $15 for 5 tastes, which includes a commemorative wine glass. A portion of the proceeds go to support CUESA.

Farmers on TV and the radio ~ Tomorrow

Dan Lehrer of Flatland Flower Farm will be a guest on the national radio show West Coast Live. WCL will be broadcasting from the Ferry Building from 10 am to 12 pm for the next four weeks, and you can be part of the live audience. For more information, visit www.wcl.org. Tune in by radio to KALW 91.7. You'll have another chance to hear from a Ferry Plaza Farmers Market farmer tomorrow morning on CBS 5. Tune in at around 8:50 am to see Jonathan Sciabica of Sciabica and Sons talk about this year's olive harvest!

Sally Fallon on raw milk and sustainable agriculture ~ November 1

Join CUESA for a book signing & lecture by Sally Fallon Morell, author of bestselling cookbook Nourishing Traditions, editor of Wise Traditions, and president/founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Sally will discuss the pioneering research of Weston Price on primitive diets and the consumer’s role in building a fair trade economy for small farmers. See calendar below for time and place. Sally will be in town as part of the Weston A. Price Foundation's ninth annual conference, Wise Traditions 2008.

CAFF Local Food Workshop ~ October 30

Join Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) for the first in a weekly series of workshops featuring guest speaker Jason Mark from Alemany Farm and co-author of "Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots" Mark will offer his thoughts on the opportunities and challenges of urban food production. Learn more here or buy tickets here >

Clark Wolf presents a wine extravaganza with the authors of The Wine Snob's Dictionary ~ November 10

Witness the vibrant intersection of the country’s top sommelier, David Lynch, wine director of Babbo in NYC, with David Kamp, renowned editor, food writer and humorist, as they explore a vastly changed and charged wine world. The event will be at Book Passage in the Ferry Building and a portion of the proceeds go to support CUESA. Learn more or buy tickets here >

Public Fruit Jam ~ November 1st

Bring fresh fruit and clean, empty glass jars to the jam-making session as part of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' latest exhibit, The Gatherers. The art collective Fallen Fruit will also lead a discussion about the basics of jam and jelly making, pectin and bindings, the aesthetics of sweetness, as well as the communal power of shared food and the liberation of public fruit. When the jam is done, the public is invited to take it home, share it, or trade with other participants. The event is free, but space is limited. Reserve your spot here >

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

Saturday, October 25 ~ Harvest Festival

10 am to 2 pm - Apple cider pressing and butter making (near the CUESA kitchen) and spinning and weaving demonstrations (in the Ferry Building).

10 am to 1 pm - Apple tasting (south driveway near Eatwell farm)
Taste nearly a dozen varieties rarely seen in stores.

10:30 am - Market Manager's fall harvest report
Dexter Carmichael, CUESA's Director of Market Operations

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Jacob Des Voignes, Fish & Farm

Saturday, November 1 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Larry Glashoff, Glashoff Farms

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Joanne Weir, PBS host, cooking teacher, and the author of Wine Country Cooking

11:45 am - Book signing and lecture
Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions, editor of Wise Traditions, and president/founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation

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

Editor's note: this week's feature is by Katrina Davidson, one of many Bay Area bloggers eating especially locally for the month and chronicling their experiences. Here's a semi-exhaustive list of other blogs by Eat Local Challenge participants.

I never intended to be a locavore. I took part in the Eat Local Challenge last year thinking my husband and I could survive off Massa Organics brown rice and eggs from the woman with the chicken hat at the Barrett Farm stand and call it a success. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Instead of suffering through the Challenge, meals became a celebration, a time to learn about places and people. And it’s those seasonal and personal narratives that continue to inform what we eat and have a perennial seat at our table.

Farmer David Little became my sage; he had advice about how to cook the many varieties of Petaluma potatoes he grows and preserve the dry farmed tomatoes I’ve come to depend on all year, fresh or from the freezer. Stan Devoto of Devoto Gardens had advice about which of their Sebastopol apples was the sweetest, which the most tart, and which made the best pot of sauce. Before long, I could taste the mix of sunshine and fog in the spinach, chard, nettles and turnips I bought from the secret land of Bolinas.

We gave up the grocery store for food untraveled, often with dirt still on its roots. And because I work and commute we ate simply, letting go of most foods with multiple ingredients. We began using oil and vinegar for dressing. We ate homemade salsa on mixed greens, and Purple Haze carrots instead of tortilla chips. We snacked on almonds, strawberries and figs. We ate vine-ripened melons, St. Benoit yogurt with honey, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. I made pots of Rancho Gordo heirloom beans, mashed potatoes, slow roasted tomatoes, and applesauce sweetened with more honey.

I also discovered restaurants near my home―Ava’s in San Anselmo, Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur, Smallshed Flatbreads in Mill Valley―which created their menus, and still do, from farms whose names I was beginning to recognize.

A year later the learning curve has relaxed. I'm participating in the Challenge again this month, but around ninety percent of our food already comes from small local farmers. My desire this year is to use the challenge to more fully include friends and family, despite their busy lives. It's not an easy transition to make, but I hope, through example, to show them that I’ve gained far more than I’ve missed.

Recipe: Katrina's Favorite Locavore Salad

INGREDIENTS
A handful of local walnuts
A bowl's worth of Marin Roots Farm greens
1/2 basket of strawberries (or pears, figs, persimmons, apples or kumquats, depending on the season)
2-3 tablespoons Bariani olive oil
2 ounces of Andante chèvre
Sea salt to taste

PREPARATION:
Toast walnuts and let cool. Mix greens and fruit in a bowl. Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle salt, crumble chèvre and top with walnuts.

Katrina Davidson is a fourth generation native of Northern California. She lives to eat and eats to blog at kaleforsale.blogspot.com.

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, October 25

In/returning: Juniper Ridge, Redwood Hill Farm,
Out: Massa Organics, Green Gulch Farm (for the season)
Last week of the season: Kashiwase Farms

Tuesday, October 28

No changes

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing): Mushrooms, almonds, persimmons, pomegranates, jujubes, pears, dates, apples, squash, artichokes, carrots, frisée, lemongrass, walnuts, Valencia oranges, radishes, muscat grapes, strawberries, pumpkins, broccoli, raspberries, Brussels sprouts, romanesco, cucumbers, peppers, wheat, onions, lettuces, pastured pork, tomatoes, marigolds, potatoes, wax beans, shelling beans and Romano beans, radicchio, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, root vegetables, celery, kale, sunchokes, cabbage

Winding down/limited supply: Cucumbers, peas, nectarines, peaches, pluots, plums, figs, quince, okra, corn, eggplant, blackberries, melons, basil

Seasonal vendor items not to be missed: Sour cherries in Kirsch syrup from June Taylor, chorizo sausage from Fatted Calf, cilantro chutney from Sukhi’s, spelt and corn meal pizza shells from Viccolo Pizza, dry-farmed tomatoes packed with basil and peppercorns from Happy Girl Kitchen

Featured Recipes for October:

Butternut Squash Soup with Apple Compote
from Sondra Bernstein, The Girl & The Fig

Milk Braised Marin Sun Pork Shoulder with Cabbage and Polenta
from Staffan Terje, Perbacco Ristorante and Bar

Date Pinwheel Cookies

Cocktail ~ Apples to Oranges
from Lou Bustamante, Hangar One Vodka