Education is
in Season at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market
CUESA’s Enterprising Market-based Programs
Highlight What’s Best in the Bay Area
![](rear%20plaza%20from%20Coit%20vista.JPG) |
San
Francisco’s Farmers’ Market seen in all its
glory from atop Coit Tower. |
By Paul Redman
There are over eighty farmers’ markets
spread across the entire Bay Area, and many look alike. But
since the newly refurbished Ferry Building in San Francisco
has become the veritable ground zero for enlightened
gourmands and politically-correct shoppers in the Bay Area,
it should come as no surprise that the San Francisco Ferry
Plaza Farmers’ Market sets itself apart, most notably on
Saturdays.
The market operates from 10:00 am to 2:00
pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:00 am to 2:00 pm on
Saturdays, and the Sunday Garden Market is open from 10:00
am to 2:00 pm. The market runs all year round, rain or
shine.
“The Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market could
serve as a model for how other markets should be run,” says
Julia Griffin, who, along with her husband Andy, owns
Mariquita Farms, located in Watsonville. Mariquita Farms
used to attend as many as twenty-three markets every week
just to make ends meet. Now the only market they go to is
the Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market.
Not content to just feature some of the
most well-known growers from Northern California, such as
Star Route and Frog Hollow farms, the Saturday Ferry Plaza
Farmers’ Market offers up a plethora of free educational
programs open to the general public, many taking place right
in the midst of the market.
The market is operated by CUESA: the
Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, a
muscular organization located inside the Ferry Building
Marketplace whose board of directors includes Alice Waters
and Patricia Unterman, both well-respected heavyweights in
the world of food. All of CUESA’s educational programming
takes place in the South Arcade of the Ferry Building from
10:30 am to 12:30 pm every Saturday.
Perhaps the most notable program offered
is “Shop with the Chef,” in which a local and sometimes
nationally renowned chef (see schedule of July educational
programming events on this page for details) walks through
the market and selects ingredients from vendors, and then
passes out both samples and recipes to the market’s
visitors. This program is beneficial to all involved
parties; the chef receives free publicity, the customer is
exposed to the chef’s expert opinion on what to buy and what
to do with it, and sometimes the farmers themselves even
benefit from it.
“I love CUESA’s educational programs,”
Julia Griffin says. “If the chef decides to use our basil
during ‘Shop with the Chef’ and says it comes from Mariquita
farms, all of a sudden people come running to our booth to
buy basil from us.”
Other programs presented by CUESA at the
Saturday market focus more on the farmers. “Meet the Farmer”
features a half-hour long interview with a farmer in which
they discuss real-life issues confronting local growers.
“Real Meals Real Fast” is a lesson in how to prepare a quick
meal using the fancy ingredients found in the market; and
“Farmhouse Cooking” involves an actual farmer preparing one
of their own recipes, using ingredients they have grown
themselves on their farm.