Boo!

Wishing you a spooky Hallow's Eve
full of locally produced treats!

Sally Fallon on raw milk and sustainable agriculture ~ Tomorrow

Join CUESA tomorrow at 11:45 am for a book signing & lecture by Sally Fallon Morell, author of best selling 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. Sally will be in town as part of the Weston A. Price Foundation's ninth annual conference, Wise Traditions 2008.

Fungus Festival ~ November 8

The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, Ferry Building Marketplace, and Far West Fungi celebrate culinary mushrooms at the third annual Ferry Building Fungus Festival. Festivities begin on Saturday at 10 am with a range of free events, including a mushroom cultivation table, mushroom displays and more. Merchants inside the Marketplace will also be offering special mushroom fare, tastings, and demonstrations. The event will benefit the Mycological Society of San Francisco.

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, 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 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

Saturday, November 8 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Farmhouse Cooks
Sylvie Lemoine of Spring Hill Jersey Cheese will prepare some of her favorite recipes using Spring Hill cheeses.

11:15 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Daniel Clayton of Nibblers Eatery

Fungus Festival Events
10 am - 2 pm - Mushroom displays, tastings, and activities inside and outside the Ferry Building

12:00 pm - Meet the producer
John Garrone, Far West Fungi

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: In order to give a full range of perspectives on Proposition 2, we contacted all four egg producers in our market. What follows is based on the most substantive interviews we conducted. Jesse Kuhn of Marin Roots also went on record in support of the proposition; David Evans of Marin Sun Farms is out of town.

"I don't know what 'happy' means to a chicken," says Steve Mahrt of Petaluma Farms. The third generation egg farmer heads the company behind the Petaluma, Rock Island, Uncle Eddie's, Judy's Family Farm and Gold Circle brands. Mahrt says he recently invited a veterinarian up to his farm―where they produce around 4,000 dozen eggs a day―to see both the caged and cage-free chickens Petaluma raises, for himself. "Even the vet, a Prop 2 proponent said, 'I can't tell if the chickens are any happier out of the cages,'" he recalls.

Mahrt has raised a portion of his chickens in cage-free environments for 25 years, but he opposes the Humane Society-sponsored Proposition 2, which would require chickens raised for eggs to be given enough space to "turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs," because it strikes him as well-intentioned but bad for business. Mahrt and others at Petaluma Farms, including Stan Keena, who sells the eggs at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, are worried that if the proposition passes, producers in other states will flood the California market with cheap eggs, while farmers here will be hampered by the need to invest in more space―a cost that will run between 12 to 28 cents per dozen, according to one UC Davis study. Mahrt says he doesn't want to have to pass that cost on to his customers and says that estimate strikes him as way too low.

When asked about how the measure might impact Petaluma Farms' business, Mahrt is unequivocal: "I will not be in business if Prop 2 passes."

Prop 2 would require increased space for all animals kept in poultry facilities, sow gestation pens and veal crates by 2015. And since there are comparatively few hogs or calves raised in the state, egg-producing hens are at the center of the discussion.

Just how much space would that mean? Mahrt believes he will be asked to give every hen nearly five square feet of room (the equivalent of their wingspans, or about 26 inches, squared); it's a requirement he says would force him to expand even his cage-free hen houses.

Nigel Walker of Eatwell Farm doesn't interpret the proposed shift that way. He points to a document called the Humane Farm Animal Care Standards for Production of Egg Laying Hens, which reads "a minimum of 1.5 square feet must be allocated to allow normal behavior."

"It's a very modest measure," says Walker. "Basically, caged chickens will go from having a space the size of 2/3 of a sheet of letter size paper to one the size of two sheets of letter size paper." Walker is an outspoken advocate of Prop 2; he signed on to the official rebuttal to the arguments against the proposition and has spoken to a number of media sources about his stance.

Prop 2 would not impact Eatwell Farm directly; Walker raises 3,000 free-range laying hens that roost in mobile coops and are moved to new pasture every 2-3 weeks. They have space indoors and are protected by predators at night, but they spend a great deal of time foraging and pecking for food outside their coops. "I'm not saying everyone has to do it like I do. That's not what Prop 2 is about at all. They are still factory farmed eggs. But it will give them a little more space."

None of us know exactly how hens feel about their living conditions, but Walker has a guess. "Take the 10-12 people you work with and make them all get into an elevator," he says. "After 24 hours, you’d be killing each other! That’s pretty much how caged chickens are living now―it's elbow room only."

As for some egg producers' concerns about the changes, Walker believes that creative solutions will allow producers to comply with regulations without expanding their footprints. In Europe, where, he says "the growers screamed about it, it became law and everyone's adapting to it," many egg-producing operations have switched to what's called an aviary system. Aviaries allow for multiple levels of habitat, but the overall density-per-house is the same as caged operations. Says Walker: "it just allows chickens to move around and interact and engage in social behavior."

Any way you boil, fry or scramble it, Prop 2 has implications that reach far beyond California. Several other states have passed similar laws relating to pigs and calves, but this is the first time such a ballot measure has been raised in relation to egg-laying hens.

"It could ripple its way through the country, says Walker, "and that's why the biggest contributors to the campaign against Prop 2 are the United Egg Producers (UEP), who are based in Iowa." This kind of larger industry support doesn't surprise Steve Mahrt, who says of the UEP, "this group sticks together." He adds that the Humane Society is a Washington, DC-based group, saying "Prop 2 is being voted on in California, but it has been a national issue all along."

Pictured above, from top: 1) Stan Keena sells eggs for Petaluma Farms at the Saturday market 2) Pasture-raised chickens at Eatwell Farms.

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, November 1

In/returning: Massa Organics
Out: Kashiwase Farm (for the season), Ranch Gordo, Happy Quail Farms, Bernard Ranches, Apple Farm, Flatland Flower Farm, Rose Pistola, Hayes St. Grill/Vicolo Pizza, Primavera

Tuesday, November 8

In: Frog Hollow Farm
Out: Happy Quail Farms
Coming next week: County Line Farm

Returning, Plentiful and/or at their peak this month (weather willing): raw olives, chestnuts, rutabagas, dates, apples, turnips, winter squash, artichokes, pomegranates, carrots, Meyer lemons, grapefruit, oranges, radishes, Brussels sprouts, grapes, broccoli, rapini, persimmons, limes, lettuces, potatoes, cardoons, puntarella, radicchio, sweet potatoes, leeks, fennel, cabbage, kiwi, chicories, Christmas trees, salsify, mushrooms, walnuts, clementines

Winding down/limited supply: basil, berries, tomatoes, plums, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, dahlias, pastured eggs (production will be slowing down), pears and apples (many varieties of both these fruits will still be available from cold storage throughout the winter)

Farms/Vendors that may be returning this month (weather willing): Olsen Organic Farms, Double K Christmas Tree Farms

Vendor and value added farm products not to be missed: Smoked cider-brined pork chops from Fatted Calf; French plum, mustard seed and onion chutney from The Apple Farm; organic almond butter from Massa Organics

Featured recipes for November:

Potato Cress Soup from Sarah Henkin, CUESA’s Market Chef

Roasted Leg of Lamb With Garlic, Anchovies and Rosemary from Fabrice Marcon, Mistral Rotisserie

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted from Recipes from Bon Appetit-Too Busy to Cook, Volume Two (Knapp, 1981)

Featured cocktail recipe:
Kentucky Pilgrim, H. Joseph Ehrmann, Square One Vodka