Parking alert: immediate lot closure

Due to public safety concerns, the Pier 1/2 lot adjacent to the Ferry Building will be closed this weekend, and possibly permanently. Be prepared to park elsewhere when you come to the market on Saturday. There will be parking lot staff on hand to direct you to other nearby lots. We do not yet know the long term fate of this lot, but we will keep you informed. An additional lot will be made available starting the following week (we'll provide details in the next e-letter). Click here to download a pdf with the locations and prices of other nearby lots >

Seasonal cooking classes ~ July and August

CUESA is partnering with the culinary team-building company Parties That Cook for a mini-series of hands-on cooking classes in our Dacor teaching kitchen. We are offering two types of classes—an evening, tapas-style format that includes wine (generously donated by tuttifoodie.com) for $45, and a lunch hour sandwich- and salad-focused class for $25. The two-hour Wednesday evening class focuses on five different tapas with a California-international flair: July 23, August 6 & 20, 6 - 8 pm. The one-hour Friday lunchtime classes highlight seasonal sandwiches and salads, such as lamb and pistachio burgers (or a veggie option of grilled portobella) with soft feta alongside a salad of watermelon, ricotta salata and pine nuts. August 1, 8 & 22, 12 - 1 pm. Click here to preview the menus for all 6 classes and to register >

The Commonwealth Club's "How We Eat" series ~ August

Don't miss a unique opportunity to feed your mind and your stomach at The Commonwealth Club's "How We Eat" series of lectures, hands-on classes, tastings, field trips and dining opportunities during the month of August. Hands on Gourmet and CUESA are teaming up to host a Locavore Lunch in our kitchen on August 6. The menu for this hands-on cooking class is built around farmers’ market produce, and CUESA will be there to tell the story of where the ingredients come from. Click here for more information >

Waste Wise tip of the week #7

Consider composting your food scraps at home. Even apartment dwellers can compost with an under-the-sink worm bin. Your houseplants will love you for it. To learn more, take a composting class at the Garden for the Environment. The next class is July 19.

Waste Wise volunteers are needed every Tuesday and Saturday at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. E-mail ashleigh@cuesa.org for details.

Saturday, July 5 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Meet the producer

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Amanda B. L. Saffir, local chef

10:00 am - 1:00 pm - Culinary information station
Featured food: purslane

Saturday, July 12 ~ Market to Table

10:30 am - Meet the producer

11:00 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Michael Dotson, Martins West (to open later this year)

Tuesday, July 15 ~ Easy Market Meals

12:00, 12:30 and 1:00 pm - Seasonal cooking demonstrations
Annie Somerville, Greens Restaurant

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

Waste is just a resource that's unrecognized. If we all looked at our stuff through this lens, we could have a future without trash cans—one in which everything is designed to be reused or recycled and all materials are too valuable to waste.

Compost is a beautiful example of this perfect cycle, one that’s easy to participate in. Say you buy some strawberries from Eatwell Farm. You cut off the tops, and instead of throwing away the carbon, nitrogen, and nutrients, you put them in the green bin. The strawberry tops and the rest of the materials in your bin are picked up at your curb, brought to Vacaville for composting, and turned into an organic soil amendment. Eatwell farm buys the compost, incorporates it into the soil, and the cycle starts again…

On Friday, June 13, CUESA organized a Waste Wise tour to the Jepson Prairie Organics composting facility in Vacaville and Eatwell Farm in Dixon. Eatwell uses compost from Jepson Prairie to enrich the soil. Click on the links below to go on a virtual tour with us.

Click here to find out how compost happens at Jepson Prairie Organics >

Click here to see what's going on at Eatwell Farm, where the people and the chickens eat well >

For other attendees' interpretations of the tour:
Marc writes about Eatwell Farm on the Eat Local Challenge blog >
Marcus summarizes the visit to Jepson Prairie Organics in his blog, Eats for One >

This is the most up-to-date information about which sellers will and won't be attending the market as of Thursday. If there are no changes to a seller's status, they will not be listed. To find out which farmers regularly attend each market, click here. Please understand that there are often last-minute changes--it's the nature of farming!

Saturday, July 5

In/returning: Payne Farms
Out: Marin Roots Farm, The Apple Farm, Bernard Ranches, Hidden Star Orchards, June Taylor Company, Elston Family Farm (for the season) Triple Delight Blueberries (for the season)

Tuesday, July 8

In/returning: Chue's Farm, Snyders Honey
Out: Hidden Star Orchards

Returning this month (weather willing): Okra, figs, plums, field-grown tomatoes, melons, dahlias, new potatoes, peanuts, shelling and Romano beans, tomatillos, crabapples, grapes

Plentiful: Summer squash, nectarines, peaches, pluots, radishes, basil, sunflowers, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, garlic, onions, lettuces, French and green beans

Winding down/limited supply: Hot house tomatoes, apricots, cherries, blueberries, dates (they will return in September), rhubarb

Farms that may be coming in this month (weather willing): Little Organic Farm, Hunter Orchards, Short Night Farm, Payne Family Farm

Seasonal vendor items not to be missed: Albacore tuna lox sandwiches from Cap’n Mike’s, strawberry rhubarb fruit turnovers from Downtown Bakery, picnic hams from Fatted Calf, fresh boysenberry yogurt from St. Benoit Yogurt

Recipes for July

Cocktail ~ Midsummer Dream from Erick Castro, Chicago Fire

Fresh Fig and Green Tomato Salad with Basil from cookbook author Marie Simmons

Grilled Skirt Steak Sandwiches with Salsa Verde from Sara Deseran, 7x7 Magazine

Peach Melba from cookbook author Jeff Cox