The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market:

“is a California certified farmers market operated by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture“ ~CUESA

The market is open Tuesday and Saturday.

Below are spotlights on a few of their unique vendors in this city building, such as the Far West Fungi shop, and organics from the Farm Fresh to You store.

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The misperception that cooking is too time consuming turns out to be a major roadblock on our path to a sustainable national food system.

Cooking is not time consuming. Shopping for groceries, however, is.

One strategy for making cooking a part of your daily life is to maximize your cooking to shopping ratio.

Here are some tips on how to cook more and shop less:

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But as frosts linger and the cold winds start to blow, don’t punt and think your fresh local bounty will disappear till spring.  With a little strategic shopping and planning, you can preserve a local meal focus all winter long by taking advantage of those last farmer’s markets.

Here’s another perk of eating local year round:  you’re supporting the economic health of your community.  Just ask Cindy Torres, manager of the Longmont Farmers Market outside Boulder, Colorado, and an IATP Food and Society Fellow.  Passionate about using local food systems as a healthy economic development tool, Torres co-founded the Boulder County Food and Agriculture Policy Council to look at how her area can increase the local food supply to enhance the lives of community residents of all economic backgrounds.

“With a little bit of planning and preparation, we can readily eat local till the spring markets start up again,” explains Torres.  Here are her favorite five tips:

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Sweet potatoes have a lot of nutrition packed into relatively few calories. According to NutritionData, a single serving (1 cup) of sweet potatoes has 769% of the daily value of Vitamin A. They’re also high in vitamin C and several B vitamins, as well as minerals such as Manganese, Potassium, Copper, and others. The low glycemic load of sweet potatoes gets them into low-carb diets and many weight lifters include them in their meals.

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While she gobbled down the melon, I surveyed the fridge for dinner. I needed to use up some leftovers from a party earlier this week where I served dips and chips. I had a half jar of salsa and some sour cream left over. With the red potatoes and jalapeños I bought today, I had the makings of a good side dish for dinner.

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Frittatas are well-known for their ability to absorb leftovers.  Just gather whatever is in your fridge, dump it into an oven-safe dish, and pour eggs over it.  Simple. 

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My daughter looks forward to shopping at the farmers’ market.  I think she’s excited because she never knows what will be there.  When one booth owner mentioned that he would have blackberries the next week, she talked about that to anyone who would listen and pestered me about it until we went back.  If my husband or I purchase a head of lettuce at the grocery store, even if she’s with us, she won’t eat it.  But she eats the lettuce she buys at the farmers’ market, just like she eats the lettuce she grows in her little garden.

I confess that I would do many things to get my daughter to eat her veggies – including eating vegetables I hate – but I, too, like gardening and going to farmers’ markets, so this one is no sacrifice. 

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This summer you can show your support for your favorite farmers market, by helping it win a $5000 reward. Care2.com and Localharvest.org are sponsoring this great online contest. The $5000 top prize will be awarded to the farmer’s market that is voted the most popular by internet users like you.

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My favorite Bayview corner sandwich shop, Upper Crust Deli on Third Street in San Francisco, has just started carrying fresh seasonal produce. They are now selling a variety of melons, potatoes, apples, bananas and many other healthy fruit and vegetable options.

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The seasonal weekly farmer’s market at UCSF Mission Bay will be held every Wednesday, from April 22 to November 25, 2009, from 10 a.m.–3 p.m.

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Take a tip from Annie Somerville, acclaimed chef at the Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, when you explore the upcoming first farmers’ market of the season, check out some of the more unusual, fresh fare that showcase spring flavor.

Chef Somerville knows her seasonal offerings.  For the past 28 years, she has helped lead the Greens Restaurant to become a national showplace for creative, fresh, local vegetarian cuisine that features the local abundance from sustainable and organic California growers.  Her signature dishes, like the Warm Cannelli Beans and Wilted Greens recipe below, draws inspiration from her regular forages at the Embarcadero Farmers’ Market and area farmers.

“At the market the last couple of weeks, you could really start seeing big indicators that the season is shifting and spring has officially arrived,” explains Chef Somerville, as she vividly and affectionately describes spring produce as if they were beloved old friends returning for a visit.  For an artistic chef like Somerville, the farmers’ market provides a culinary palette, a place where she can wander and draw cooking inspiration from the ingredients she sees.

Take a tip from Chef Somerville and explore some of the more unusual, uniquely flavorful fare that appears this time of year.  Here’s some ideas on using three of her favorites:  Nettle, chervil and kale.

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For those of us who love a crispy slice of bacon but also care about the impact of our food choices, eating meat can be a very complex issue.  Just for starters, there’s the environmental aspects of meat production, the safety concerns with industrial processing (read this frightening article in the NYTimes about ‘anthrax sausages’) and the thorny ethical questions of animal welfare to consider. It’s a difficult question: how can we have our steak and eat it too?

My current solution? Buy locally and sustainably raised meat from farmers markets. I went to the bustling Union Square Greenmarket in New York City last weekend to explore my meat purchasing options and do some research. And by ‘research,’ I mean ‘eating.’ Here are photos and some reasons why farmers markets are a great place to get your meat fix.

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But Orlando’s local program is anything but. The first tip-off? It’s launched in conjunction with the Disney Entrepreneur Center. Not exactly the name that comes to mind when you think of supporting local businesses. But then again, neither is McDonald’s — but according to “Buy Local Orlando” program guidelines, the fast food chain qualifies as a local merchant.

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[Creative Commons photo by Carl Tashian]

Spring is getting close! The bulbs from last year are peeking out of the ground, and I’ve even spied a few things starting to bloom out back! This week’s Vegetable Husband newsletter mentioned that farms nearby are starting to plant for Spring, and it reminded me that it’s time to get my own Spring garden going, too! Here are some great resources to get you started.

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The article, written by Samina Raja, Changxing Ma and Pavan Yadav, postulates the question: How does healthy food access in neighborhoods of color differ from those in other areas? Specifically, they test the hypothesis that “access to different types of food retail destinations, located within a five-minute travel time, in predominantly black and mixed-race neighborhoods differs from that in predominantly white neighborhoods, while controlling for factors such as income, population, and area of the neighborhood.”

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This summer when my dad came to visit, I told him about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and he sounded interested.  You see, my dad is a big Willie Nelson fan, and he grew up visiting family farms.  As Beth Bader explains:

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is basically a mutual agreement between consumers and a farmer that helps guarantee the farmer a reliable income, and the consumers each get a share of the produce throughout the season.

A CSA is a real partnership; the consumers take on some of the risk of farming as a bad season can mean less produce. However, the support through the tough seasons allows the farm to continue, and it certainly pays off during the good seasons. Most seasons, a CSA subscription provides enough produce to feed a family of four. Many will offer shared, or half subscriptions for single people or small families.

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North African Chickpea And Kale Soup
recipe courtesy of Susan Voisin at FatFreeVegan.

1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced or diced
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8-1/4 teaspoon chilli powder or cayenne
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
generous pinch saffron, lightly crushed
2 bay leaves
1 3-inch cinnamon stick
3 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 cans, drained and rinsed)
8 cups vegetable broth (or water plus bouillon)
1 large bunch kale, thick center ribs removed and chopped (at least 8 cups)
about 2 cups water
salt to taste

Spray a large saucepan with olive oil spray and heat it. Add the onion and carrot and cook over medium-high heat until the onion begins to brown (about 5 minutes).
Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the spices, including bay leaves and cinnamon stick, and cook, stirring, for another minute.
Add the chickpeas and stir to coat them with the spices. Pour in the 8 cups of vegetable stock, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the chopped kale and stir. If necessary add water to cover the kale and cook until it is tender, about 10-25 minutes, depending on how cooked you like your kale. Check frequently to see if it is becoming dry and add water as needed. Add salt to taste and serve.

Susan Voisin is the author of the popular blog Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, which has won blog awards from VegNews Magazine and the Well Fed Network.

1. A Green and Affordable Thanksgiving

NBC11 recorded a segment on how to have a sustainable Thanksgiving as part of their Green Week coverage. I got to spend the morning with them talking about heritage turkeys, organic vegetables and ways to create a natural Thanksgiving Centerpiece.

To view the segment click here.

2. How To Get The Kids Involved in Helping You Create a Green Thanksgiving

Do you want to get the kids involved in your green Thanksgiving plans? Watch this video to see how these kids helped out.

For full story go here.

3. Thanks, Earth

SustainLane, a green living company provides 5 top tips for a Green Thanksgiving.

Read here for full story.

4. Handmade Holidays: Thanksgiving Craft Ideas to Share with the Family

The talented crafters at Etsy have some very special holiday how-to tutorials to share this season. Earlier this week they featured this adorable “patchwork trivet for your table. You can spice up your home decor, whether you’re hosting Thanksgiving or a potluck with friends!”

For full story go here

5. How Local Will Your Thanksgiving Be?

A local Thanksgiving is a green Thanksgiving. It is not hard to eat local during the Holiday. Beth Bader tells you how.

For full story go here

6. Beyond Pie: 10 Great Savory Pumpkin Recipes

Nothing like pumpkin at the Thanksgiving table. Here are 10 pumpkin recipes to satisfy your savory side and take advantage of the current farmers market bounty.

For full story go here.

7. Green Gorilla: Create a Natural Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Have the kids help you create a natural Thanksgiving centerpiece.  The folks at Green Gorilla show you how.

For full story go here.

Instead blend your own creativity and contribution and come up with your own vision and project for promoting sustainable agriculture and local food. Come up with your own project to work towards a secure, healthy food system. Think out of the box and beyond just the dollars you spend at your farmers’ market. How can you contribute your skills, interests and enthusiasm toward bigger-picture change?

Melinda and Dan Hemmelgarn provide super-sized inspiration in such self-initiated, purposeful volunteering. Long-time supporters of their local farmers’ market in Columbia, Missouri, this creative couple blended their talents and passions into creating a calendar featuring area farmers: Farm Hands – a Tribute to the hands that feed us.

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