Spotlight: Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market: A Photo Story

Though the farmers’ market I usually shop at is the Heart of the City, I stop by the Ferry Plaza a few times a year. This is not so much for the produce, as I find that the fruit and vegetables at the Heart of the City are quite fabulous and much less expensive, but for the items that are harder to find, The Ferry Plaza Market is great!

Since today was such a lovely San Francisco day, I decided to head out early to see if I could get to some of the market goodies that tend to vanish before 10am, beat the lunch crowd and take some photos.

I am also starting to keep a list of the farms that I learn about and how far they are from San Francisco. To see a map of North California farms that travel to or sell in San Francisco markets click here: Northern California Farms

http://www.massaorganics.com/ Chico, California

Massa Organics

I have been a fan of Massa Organics since I first encountered them. They are one of the few grain producers in the area (currently brown rice and red wheat berries) and their almonds are wonderful too! You can even follow them on twitter now @MassaOrganics and get updates direct from the tractor. Which, if you are an agro-nerd like me, will make you giddy. But maybe that is just me. ..

Summer Observations

This is most definitely the best time of year for produce at the farmers’ market. Just about everything that is available at any time of year in the Bay Area is in season. My favorite things available right now are the fresh beans (black-eyed peas, cranberry and edamame) the wonderful berries (blueberry, strawberry, blackberry and raspberry,) fresh mission figs and dry farmed heirloom and early bird tomatoes. There are plenty of squash varieties too and lots of interesting melons. I love keeping track of when certain things are in season. Blueberries, edamame and figs tend to have a relatively small window of availability and I look forward to the different seasons of produce.

This is also the time of year for tourists. The city is full of visitors right now and, as I live in one of the most visited parts of San Francisco, I run into them frequently. It is interesting to see the different kinds of tourists, where the are from and how they respond to the small mountain of steps they must walk up or down when visiting Coit Tower. The gardens on Telegraph Hill are in full bloom right now, and continental Europeans walk up and down the hundreds of steps with ease, while British and American tourists voice there disbelief at the thought of anyone actually living here. How do people go shopping? Do they have to CARRY everything up and down these steps? How much further is it? What do you do if you need to run and get some milk?

Sometimes I feel like a bit of an oddity as I turn towards the building I live in and away from the people-filled steps as they watch me carrying groceries or household items. My cat is fond of following us up and down the steps as well and sometimes I catch her posing for photographs with the tourists. It’s terribly adorable and I often get the urge to tell people that she is my cat. She walks around like she owns the place.

Now, back to the food! Below are the recipes that I have made today, using the wonderful local ingredients that we picked up today.

What Is This Herb? – Revisited

Some time ago I wrote about a strange herb that I acquired at the farmers’ market. I was told that it was called water mint, but all the photographs and information I found online could not confirm that. Thanks to a blog post over at Pinoy Cook, I think I have discovered what this plant actually is: Water Spinach!

Now to start searching for recipes!

Some interesting historical information about the water spinach here.

Farmers’ Market Excursion and a New Recipe.

So I was finally able to meet up with a good (and busy) friend of mine and took him to the farmers’ market. He brought his 3 year old son, who is adorable and smart and calls his father by the nickname of Gravel Balloon Face. How can you not love that? I recorded most of the trip and, assuming it all sounds pretty good, will be putting together my first podcast.

The weather has been really warm this weekend and I got a pretty good sunburn while walking around today. Due to the heat and not wanting to stand over a hot stove and cook dinner, I made a chilled soup which turned out great. The recipe is below.

Chilled Pea Soup
This recipe gets 4 Purkle Stars

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups steamed fresh English peas
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 cup fresh lettuce/mixed salad greens
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1-2 Tbs
• salt and pepper to taste

Cut the zucchini into a few pieces and put in food processor. Put all other ingredients (leave the salt and pepper until last) into processor and blend until creamy. This recipe is similar to others out there but has less liquid and is lower fat so it won’t get perfectly smooth. You can add cream or stock if you are going for that texture. Otherwise, this is a pretty bright, crisp and fresh soup.

Serves 2-3.

A Pantry Examination

I am keenly aware of the fact that many of the spices and seasonings I have in my cupboard are not organic and definitely not local. I’ve started buying and drying my own herbs from local sources, and buying herbs, spices and staples when available. So I’ve decided to do a bit of research: look at what is in my pantry, see where it was made and see if I can find some local options.

What is this plant?

So, a couple weeks ago, I started saving coffee grounds and tea to use as compost for my plants. Lat week, I started sprinkling the coffee around and noticed that there was something that had sprouted in the can. I looked around a bit more and found 2 others as well. I knew it couldn’t be the coffee, and I also knew that I had only put one bag of tea in there. I found what was left of the bag and it smelled of Earl Grey tea. So, these three little sprouts have now been planted and are happily growing in the back window. I imagine that they either have to be tea, or bergamot. It’s quite suprising to me that they sprouted in that dark can. But it was warm and damp and full of nutrients – and after steeping in very hot water as well. I look forward to finding out what the heck these 3 little guys are.

What is this herb?

I bought this herb last week at the farmers’ market and was told that it was water mint but, as you can see, this does not look like any photo of water mint I’ve seen so far. The smell is well, frankly, kind of grassy and a bit watery. If that makes any sense! It’s not terribly fragrant unless it’s very close. The taste is a tiny bit minty but, again, kind of grassy! The leaves are very tender and wilt easily. I’m just not sure what this is.  If anyone knows, please leave a comment!

And, yes, I know what grass tastes like…

Don’t blame it on the food, blame it on the chef!

Though I am not strictly vegan, I certainly tend to cook only vegan meals at home. I also don’t generally have relationships with people that are vegan, or even vegetarian. So, cooking for two or more can certainly be a challenge – not without the occasional sigh or disappointed pout.

I am currently in a a relationship with an amazing person and though he is not vegetarian or vegan and does enjoy his processed foodstuffs (for now!!!) he is quite a good cook and has an appreciation for good food.  At first, he was decidedly wary about what kinds of ‘vegan food’ I might make him eat. He’d lived with vegans in the past that made “awful  shit”. So naturally, he wasn’t expecting the food to be very good.

The following recipes have resulted in various swears and obscenities mainly because “It’s not supposed to taste good! It’s VEGAN!” I hope you will find them tasty and useful and if we’re lucky you can freak out some meat-eaters too!

The start of a new recipe…

Since I am currently in the process of moving and have been splitting my time between two places, I haven’t really been keeping too much food in either place. I can’t wait to have the move done with though as the stability will really allow me to dive back into cooking. So, hungry for a late lunch, I realised I only had 5 major ingredients with which I could make something edible.

1. cornmeal
2. dried navy beans
3. cooked delicata squash
4. fresh basil
5. whole wheat pancake mix

Hrm.

So I took about 20 of the basil leaves and julienned them, approximately half the squash and smashed the meat up with a fork and added both to a large bowl. I then added about 3/4 cup of the pancake mix and added some salt and enough water to make sort of a thick, fritter batter. I fried the fritters until golden brown and ate them with some hot sauce. They were awesome! Though looking back I wish I had added some of the cornmeal to this mixture. I think that perhaps adding some pieces of corn might be a bit much (as with the more traditional corn fritters) and could overpower the delicate taste of the squash as well as change the creamy texture quite a bit. Adding cornmeal might give it another, more suitable layer of texture and flavor. I intend to mess with this combination until I come up with something that I can consider a solid recipe.

I suggest trying it for yourself though. It was super yummy!

Starting a garden…

I’m going to be moving soon. My current apartment, as well as the new one, doesn’t really have a space outdoors where I can grow vegetables. The new place has a small deck so there’s definately room for some pots and I’ve decided to grow some herbs. I’m going to concentrate on just a few plants, some things that I love, and some things that are somewhat difficult to find:

• coriander / cilantro – I adore cilantro. that’s really all there is to it
• basil – I’ve had mixed feelings about this herb for a while. sometimes I get annoyed with pesto (I’m quite picky about it) which is maybe why I’ve ignored basil for so long. But I love it when it’s fresh, and recently found some organic bunches from Two Dog Farm at my favorite farmers’ market and they still had the roots! I’ve got it sitting in some water right now and I hope it sprouts some new roots!
• shiso – I always love when shiso leaves are used in sushi. its got an amazing, minty, peppery flavor and I’d love to experiment with this herb!
• curry – this would just be awesome.
• chives – it’s good for keeping insects away from the other herbs and also very tasty…

*EDIT: argh! Rosemary! Beebalm! Flax! Mustard! I want to grow these too. Also I thinking about getting some space in a community garden. I’d love to grow potatoes and delicata squash!

I’ll give updates as I have them. Wish me luck!