Vote for the Ferry Plaza and you'll jump start our farmer micro-grant program.

Beginning today, you now have two ways to vote for the Ferry Plaza as your favorite farmers' market. This one, sponsored by American Farmland Trust and this one sponsored by Care2 and Local Harvest. The latter earns the winning market $5,000 and if CUESA wins we will use the funds to start a micro-grant program for farmers in our market looking to make their practices more sustainable. How's that for an incentive?

Summer Sausage and Perfect Punch class ~ June 26

Get ready for your July 4 barbecue with the latest CUESA class. Meat master Ryan Farr will teach sausage-making and grilling, purveyor Steve McCarthy will discuss sustainable meat, and mixologist H. Joseph Ehrmann will demonstrate how to make farmers' market-inspired cocktails. Participants will learn to make four different types of sausage using local certified humane heritage breed pork. Farr will explain what cuts are best; show how to grind, season and stuff the meat; and offer techniques for grilling the finished sausage. Only 5 spots left! Buy your tickets>

CUESA’s Second Annual Iron Chef Grill-Off ~ June 27

Four local chefs will be battling it out on the grills: Mark Sullivan of Spruce, Andrew Swallow of Mixt Greens, Taylor Boetticher of Fatted Calf, and Elizabeth Falkner of Orson. Chefs will use grass-fed beef from Marin Sun Farms to concoct their best burgers, and each will create a surprise side dish with ingredients from the market. A limited number of mini-burgers will be available for a $2 donation. The judges will be H. Joseph Ehrmann of Elixir, Jessica Battilana of 7x7 Magazine, and market shopper/drawing winner Marjanne Pearson. The event will take place in the south driveway, across from Roli Roti.

Movable Feast at Aziza ~ July 7

Dine on Aziza's modern Moroccan cuisine as chef and Saturday market regular Mourad Lahlou features produce from Marin Roots Farm. Mourad was gracious enough to open his entire restaurant — normally closed on Tuesdays — just for this dinner. Look out for the menu, created in collaboration with chef James Syhabout of the soon-to-open Commis in next week's e-letter. Buy your ticket here >

A Kitchen Table Talk with Jessica Prentice ~ June 23

The second installment of Kitchen Table Talks — brought to you by 18 Reasons, Civil Eats, and the architecture offices of Sagan-Piechota — will include a clip from Edible City and a talk by Jessica Prentice, chef, local food advocate, and co-founder of the Community-Supported Kitchen, Three Stone Hearth. The event takes place from 6:30 - 8:00 and there's a $10 suggested donation. Please RSVP here to reserve a spot.

Reduced July 4th hours

Planning your July 4th weekend and wondering where you might get last- minute corn, ground beef and watermelon? You might like to know that the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market will be open that Saturday from 8 am to noon.

 

Saturday, June 20 ~ Market to Table

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Kara Haspel Lind, Kara's Cupcakes

Tuesday, June 23 ~ Food Wise Booth

12:00 - 1:00 pm - Sarah Henkin, CUESA's market chef, will be giving out recipe cards and samples of a simple meal made with market ingredients. She'll also be available to offer advice on all your seasonal meal planning.

Saturday, June 27 ~ Iron Chef Grill-Off

11:00 am - 12:30 pm - Local chefs vie for the best burger-maker title in the south driveway. Grass-fed mini-burgers available for $2 donation. (More details above.)

11:00 am - 1:00 pm Chef Marc Vogel will have a grilling advice booth set up and will be available to answer any and all your grilling questions.

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

Note: A while back we featured an article about wild foods that can be found at the farmers' market. This week we bring you a dispatch from volunteer Jacky Hayward about another emerging wild food trend.

 

When I first met Iso Rabins, he was handing out flyers for his then nascent project, forageSF.  

“Have you been going out with the foragers?” I asked. He said he had been.
 “How? Aren’t they reticent to show off their ‘spots’?”
“Well, yes. But I guess they trust me, it’s all about building relationships,” he said.

I continued asking questions about the plants he foraged — not only mushrooms, but "uncultivated" nettles, greens, flowers, berries, and stone fruit. I was also curious to know what drew him to foraging. What interests Iso isn’t just bringing wild foods into the cityscape, it’s the dialogue that foraged foods inspire. Indeed, since the launch of forageSF, the increasing awareness of foraged foods has added a new element to many locavores’ conversations.

Foraging is not a new culinary tradition. A number of Bay Area restaurants buy directly from individuals who gather wild food outside urban areas and/or on open public land. What makes forageSF unique in this area is its CSF (Community Supported Forage) boxes, which are made available twice a month to subscribing members. An example box, described on the forageSF website, lists the following: four kinds of wild mushrooms, New Zealand spinach, wild onions, miners’ lettuce, sea beans, and oranges.

Iso coordinates the CSF and works with a small, rotating team of foragers. I spoke to one, named Justin Vallone, when he was dropping off wild nettles from Mt. Tam at Iso’s house recently. “What we need is to feel more connection with nature so that we realize a place is worth saving,” he told me. “[When we only eat] food we buy from stores, we have no idea.”

Foraging appeals to many counter culture eaters, because it further challenges today’s broken food system. Leif Hedendal, a local chef who regularly uses foraged, wild foods in his cooking, puts stock in the foraged foods movement because he believes in creating ‘an alternative economy.’ Iso agrees. For him, purchasing foraged foods, similar to shopping at the farmers' market, has the potential to bring trust back to the food economy. As he puts it, ”When you look a farmer in the face, chances are, he isn’t going to lie to you.” The same, he believes, goes for building relationships with foragers.

Iso has also extended his efforts to a new project, the Wild Kitchen. Founded last February, the Wild Kitchen offers Bay Area residents lessons about foraged food followed by a dinner made with wild ingredients. At the first of these dinners I went to, we were served foraged greens in a foraged citrus dressing, followed by a variety of wild meats (including elk sausage, wild boar, and venison) and acorn ice cream. I sat next to feralKevin, an East Bay forager, who had collected the acorns.

As the popularity of foraged and wild foods increases, so does the scrutiny. Gathering food in public parks is most often illegal—while one person picking a side salad worth of minor’s lettuce from the Presidio is unlikely to be noticed, large scale harvesting of wild greens from state and city parks is considered poaching. ForageSF is not currently legally sanctioned or regulated, either, despite Iso’s efforts to navigate some legal gray area. Iso did try to register his business legally, contacting city and state officials for best practices, but unfortunately there are few laws regarding the sale of wild foods beyond mushrooms, rendering Iso’s business unregulated and thus illegal. He has recently found a commercial kitchen and storage space where he will be able to legally store and prepare some foods. In addition, he has recently created partnerships with individuals who own the land on which some wild foods are growing.

Foraged food also raises questions about toxicity. Even when food is grown in what appears to be a pristine natural area, there’s no telling how clean it is. That’s where Iso hopes the partnership with land owners will comes in. “When people forage [food] for me, I always talk to them about where it comes from,” he says, adding that he also plans to do regular testing for heavy metals and other toxins.  

Like shopping at farmers’ markets, eating foraged food ties us more directly to the land upon which it is raised. This is an important element to Iso’s Wild Kitchen dinners. A lot of the greens at the first dinner came from the Presidio, a fact he hopes had an impact on that night’s diners.

“People at that dinner will never think of the Presidio in the same way again,” he says. “That’s my interest: creating a connection between people and their environment through food.”

Read more:

Neighbor, Can You Spare a Plum? The New York Times (June 9, 2009)

Jacky Hayward is the managing editor of Chef's Blade and blogs at OmniEater. You can find Jacky at the Ferry Plaza every Saturday morning, talking to her favorite farmers about dried fruit and fertile chicken eggs.

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, June 20

In/returning: Bernard Ranches
Out: Apple Farm, Knoll Farms, Tierra Vegetables

Tuesday, June 23

In/returning: Devoto Gardens

Returning and plentiful this month (weather willing):
Nectarines, strawberries, raspberries, Armenian cucumbers, basil, corn, garlic and leek scapes, summer squash, Little Gem lettuce, haricots verts, snap peas, radishes, peppers, spinach, wax beans, cherries, cauliflower, beets, leeks, nopales, squash blossoms, artichokes, fresh herbs, pullet eggs, new potatoes, tomatillos, apricots, pickling cucumbers, fresh lavender, heirloom roses

Winding down/limited supply:
Pastured chicken, hot house tomatoes, sweet pea flowers, blueberries (possibly gone by July), fava beans

Value Added and Vendor items not to be missed:
Fruit- and herb-infused syrups from June Taylor, almond milk from Lagier Ranches, Plant Crack fertilizer from Flatland Flower Farm

Farms/Vendors that may be returning this month (weather willing):
Green Gulch, G & S Corn, Candy Cot Fruit Co., Woodleaf Farm, Payne Farms, and Ridgecut Gristmills (new vendor).

Featured Recipes for June:

Bordeaux Spinach, Fava Bean, and Basil Salad with Egg Yolk Vinaigrette and Roasted Garlic Crouton from Sarah Henkin, CUESA Market Chef (May 26, 2009)

Zucchini and Mint-Stuffed Squash Blossoms from Brian Streeter, Cakebread Cellars

Sous Vide Duck Breast Cooked in a Crock-Pot with Star Route Spinach and Hamada Farms Bing Cherries from Bruce Hill of Picco and Bix Restaurants

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