Farmers' Markets
The quick answer: In the food reformation, three trends travel together—healthful eating, artisan cooking, and farmers’ markets. Support your local farmers’ market.
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Examining a US map of where farmers’ markets are most active, I have that déjà vu feeling—like, “This is the first time I’ve seen this map but it feels like I’ve seen it before.” Then I remember the longevity map we discussed in this post. There’s an association: Where longevity is improving the most—mainly the costal regions in the West and New England—you find people buying more local food, especially through farmer’s markets. Vice versa for where longevity is doing the worst—in the Deep South, and central states—there are fewer farmers’ markets.
Writing this blog has dominated our life for the past year. The beautiful wife has been a good sport but I wondered if we couldn’t combine it with getting out and having some fun. The beautiful wife was likely thinking of cooking classes in Provence, France, but I was curious about the local fast food restaurants. Did they offer anything that was healthful and tasteful? You saw the fast food taste tour report here. She brightened up when I proposed we next tour the café style restaurants like Chipotle, Panera, Rubio’s, and Café Rio. A post is upcoming.
My fancy sister in San Francisco puts on a Christmas ornament-shopping trip before Thanksgiving. It’s a tradition. This year I wondered if we couldn’t combine the trip with some Bay Area food tourism. So on Friday, while the girls shopped, I tried the Milky Whey. More precisely, I explored the Sonoma Marin Cheese Trail (read about it here).
The Milky Whey
It was raining as I left San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge but it stopped when I arrived at the tiny town of Nicasio. I was so sorry I hadn't brought my camera because the Victorian steepled church (built 1867), one-room schoolhouse, and volunteer fire department’s ancient carriage house, were too picturesque for words. The Nicasio Valley Cheese Company is a farmstead creamery, meaning they own the cows. (Artisan cheese makers only know the cows.) They make cheese using organic milk from their herd of 400 cows. I tasted the cheese and bought some Nicasio Reserve as a gift for my sister, as we were spending the night at her Pacific Heights home.
Next was an artisan cheese maker, the Cowgirl Creamery at Point Reyes Station (a little bigger than Nicasio, but no less charming). I joined a class on cheese making, unaware that it was a private course arranged by a family from San Jose. They kindly let me join in tasting the different cheeses. I learned a lot (don’t wrap cheese tightly in plastic film, don’t eat cheese with black mold, etc.), tasted the local cheeses, and decided to buy a kit to make my own cheese (available from homecheesemaking.com). Here I bought the acclaimed Point Reyes Blue Cheese.
There are 27 cheese creameries that can be visited; I regretted there was only time to see two but made a vow to return in the spring. Next stop: San Francisco’s farmers’ market, strategically placed around the old Ferry Building between the Embarcadero and the skyscrapers of the financial district.
Ferry Building Farmers’ Market
The best of the San Francisco waterfront, for me, runs from the Golden Gate Bridge at the old Presidio, around Fisherman’s Wharf, along the piers of the Embarcadero, to the old Ferry Building, hard by the Bay Bridge. On Saturday there’s a farmers’ market, which we visited with my fancy sister. The morning was beautiful in the way that only people who love San Francisco can appreciate. A warm sun was shining through patches of fog carried by a cool breeze; packs of runners jogged along the Embarcadero, sharing the right-of-way with strolling sea gulls; and ships of all kinds made their way around Alcatraz Island.
The farmers’ market, arranged around the Ferry Building, is the place to go on Saturday morning. You not only get fresh, organic (the Bay Area, especially Marin County, is ground zero for the Organic Movement) produce, you get to visit with the people who raised it, and taste free samples. A walk through the market is an education on what’s in season.
What's in season? Root vegetables. Not just the ordinary stuff, we're in San Francisco afterall, these are heirloom root vegetables.
It's the season for pomegranates, and persimmons (in the background). I bought some fresh pomegranate juice ($10 per quart).
The beautiful wife fell in love with these fresh beets and cooked them up when we got home. I find beets hard to eat, but I liked her recipe (roasted, with Greek yogurt, jalapeno pepper, ginger, coriander, cumin, garlic, mustard and cilantro added).
You can see the end-of-season color rotation of bell peppers in this picture, as they pass from green to yellow, then orange and finally red.
We bought a bag of Valencia oranges for making juice. You can enjoy the perfect taste of fresh OJ and save about 1/3 of the cost if you do your own juicing. It's also good exercise for the wrist muscles. We don't often see Valencias in the local markets, they mostly carry navel oranges, which are best for eating.
Want to destress? Spend a few moments in the morning sun here by the bay, tell your sad story to sea gulls perched on the rail, eat tasty artisan cooking, and listen to the local music. (Yes, I put something in his collection case.)
Present at the Creation
At the end, I stood quietly, sniffing the air, composing a deep thought. Something critical to the Food Reformation is going on here, around this crazy place known as Bagdad by the Bay. To the south is the paradigm-busting, creative chaos of Silicon Valley. To the north are the organic dairy pastures of Marin County. To the east, the croplands of the great San Joaquin Valley. Nearby by is Berkeley, home of Alice Waters' Chez Panisse restaurant, famous for the creative use of local organic produce known as California Cuisine. There's nothing like this area in the world.
Pomegranate juice at $10 a quart isn't the answer to the terrible crisis of the modern American diet (MAD). But standing in this farmers' market, looking around at these passionate orthoexics (a word I just invented), I felt close to the creation of the answer. The last century belonged to Food Inc. but this is a new century, and this region is becoming ground zero for America's food reformation. A torch has been lit. We must carry it forward. To the barricades! And when you shop, vote with your dollars. Food Inc. must either listen and change, or go the way of the dinosaurs.
Please comment on whatever your thoughts and feelings are about the food reformation.
P.S. for Guys: Your Best Chance to Impress Your Beautiful Wife
Plan a minimoon (a short trip with your dearly beloved) to the Bay Area. Stay in charming Victorian bed-and-breakfast inns, tour the cheese creameries of picturesque Marin and Sonoma County (catch the Friday cheese course at Cowgirls Creamery), take the sunset walk over the Golden Gate Bridge, holding hands all the way over and back, and on Saturday morning take her for a stroll along the Embarcadero, enjoy a grazing breakfast at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market, and buy some beets to take home to the kids. Maybe I should organize a group trip.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 10:12PM | by Skip Hellewell | 17 Comments | 6 References | Share Article | in grocery shopping, vegetables | Email Article 
Reader Comments (17)
Oh, this makes me homesick! (I grew up in Oakland and lived in SF before we moved to Singapore). The food in the Bay Area is definitely much better than anywhere else in the country (with the possible exception of NYC), and I think one reason is the culture of artisan/local food (even convenience stories in SF sell organic produce).
So many Americans eat really dreadful food (Wonder bread, jello salad and overcooked macaroni for instance) and I find it so depressing. I'm not sure if it's because they can't tell the difference (since they aren't used to eating good food) or good food just isn't available (often true outside of major cities). I think it contributes to obesity too, because the only way to make disgusting food palatable is to add lots of sugar, salt or fat.
I hope the food revolution works, and that everyone has access to deliciousness (like they do in China, France or Italy).
I love California! I am not a beet lover either, but with the other ingredients your wife added to them, you probably could have eaten anything. Seasonings work wonders.
I feel like I went on a little vacation after reading this. Lovely.
And I have relatives to visit, so I really should go there.
Food is an important part of the travel experience to me. Key lime is a whole different kind of delicious in Key West, I'd never enjoyed clam chowder before until I had it in New England.
I'd love to try the best food from each country. Let's organize a trip for that!
Today I was picking up my co-op share from Bountiful Baskets and thought how nice it would be if I could also pick up a dozen eggs from a local farmer, a gallon of raw milk, a tub of local honey (and now I'm thinking I should add artisan cheese to the list)--a one stop shopping place for REAL food. That's a farmers market! That's the way many people around the world shop for their food . It's the way WE should be buying our food. Imagine how the quality, nutrition, and health of the American diet would skyrocket if we shopped and ate like that.
Sadly, the climate of Colorado is not condusive to year round Farmer's Markets and we are held hostage to whatever the Grocery Giants dare offer us. I'd give up flying cars for the offerings in your pictures!
This takes me back to every wonderful Saturday in Santa Barbara. Although we didn't stock up on much (we were-and still are-poor college students), we just enjoyed everything about it. Now we live in New England which pales in comparison.
Therenare few things I love more than going to the farmer's market. The fresh air and the music and the samples... it's worth getting up on a Saturday morning for! This particular experience y had is one reason I am really rooting for a move to California for us. I want to be able to enjoy local and organic vegetables in season year round :) I try to speak frequently about the farmers market on my blog in hopes that it will encourage others to try it at least once. I want those farmer's to get more business so the movement grows!
On a side note: I was able to host a very successful cooking club night. Everyone walked away very excited for the next one, and all the other participants volunteered to demonstrate their own favorite recipes at a future date. I showed them kale chips, spinach smoothie, and carrot ginger soup. The next end will be taught by a girl who lives on a farm outside of Chicago. She is going to share her family's sweet corn :)
I live in utah's Dixie, they claim to have two farmer's markets, alas, they lie. These are just free craft fairs, and sometimes if you are really lucky an organic farmer comes and asks seven dollars for a six ounce bag of lettuce. I would love to support a real farmers market. I have looked into community supported agriculture, but the nearest one is forty five minutes away. So, for now, I try and buy organic. I also try and make bread, tortillas, naan, pancakes, granola, pita, bagels, pizza dough and desserts. They all taste infinitely better than anything I have ever bought at the store and are all a lot more healthier for my family. Thank you for the time you put into this beautiful blog!
Jenna, congratulations on your first cooking club meeting. Please share more as your meetings progress. Skip
I live in Alabama and you would think the climate would contribute to a bounty of Farmer's Markets with plenty of fresh produce practically year round but you would be mistaken. Our church is putting together Thanksgiving baskets for a local charity and I went to the store last night with the list provided by the charity: canned fruit, canned meat, macaroni and cheese, Hamburger Helper, peanut butter and jelly. There was also a request for dried beans and corn meal and grits and oatmeal - which was encouraging. But I was so sad, trying to shop and shop wisely (nutrient wisely) for this. It didn't feel like I did a good thing - it felt wrong to be providing such poor nutrition as an act of kindness and love.
This was my favorite post to date. I love that city and wish I lived closer to enjoy those opportunities to be part of the food revolution in action. Santa Barbara has its niche, but nothing like the Bay Area. Thanks for sparking a desire for a future trip up there. In the meantime, I'll make a concerted effort to more regularly hit the local Farmer's Market on Thursdays.
Skip, you are a poet!
Yes,let's take a trip! We could board the train in Salt Lake City and do the royal tour! I'm only half joking.
This was a beautiful post. Thank you!
The Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market is a beautiful spot and I love taking visiting family and friends, but the prices make a regular use of it prohibitive. Luckily, there are many other farmers' markets throughout the cit that tourists would rarely see. The best is the Alamany Farmers' Market at the base of Bernal Heights. It's the oldest in the city and has a great mix of organic and exotic (mainly asian) produce with much better prices. Also, many of the neighborhoods have a small F.M., some during the week for mid-week shopping. Next time you're here, I recommend checking one of them out.
Yes, group trip! I think we were there once.
There is a very small Farmer's Market in Provo. We can get nice eggs and grain fed local beef and vegies and fruit and it's growing. Lots of craft booths.
Hope your Thanksgiving was/will be delightful.
Cheers...
www.tastespotting.com
Someone just pointed out this web site to me. Lots of beautiful photos. If you click on the photo you get the recipe. There are lots of healthy recipes on there that I am finding.
I love your blog, and am going to write a post this week about your full spectrum light article. Really it will just be a picture and a link to your post. Many people know about vitamin d, but not about the full spectrum of light that you get outside, and how it is important for us.
Thankful for your work!
I have a sister in law who lives in the bay area primarily for the awesome food. I'm always jealous of the quality. She will lug a suitcase full of vegetables and meat all the way from her favorite farmers market to our house (an hour or so by plane) just to cook us a fabulous meal! Skip, have you found a good farmers market in the south orange county area?? Thanks for the post.
I love farmers' markets. I don't know if alone they will solve the Modern American Diet (MAD), but I believe what they will do is create gathering places for strong communities to thrive. They will interest the general public to buy a couple artisanal products to take home as a novelty. And when they get home the public will probably want to enjoy that product with friends or family in a special meal. Farmer's markets could act as a gateway drug into the addicting world of gastronomy.
Farmers' markets can be expensive but not always (I need to stay away from the expensive handmade salted caramel sauce vendor). Some things to remember: you will be buying directly from a human being that you can talk to; don't be afraid to negotiate on prices. Shop near the closing of the market; many vendors would rather sell their product at a discounted price than not sell them at all. This is particularly true for markets held on Sunday, the end of the marketing weekend.
Elizabeth you have voiced my same sentiment: “it felt wrong to be providing such poor nutrition as an act of kindness and love”. I also feel this way when I might skimp on quality (organic or grass-fed) when buying quantity for a dinner party. Thanks for sharing.