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

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.