Field to Food

Farm Fresh to You - The Interview

Not only did Sarah and I visit the Farm Fresh to You farm, we asked Moyra, the head of FFTY Marketing and Thaddeus's wife, a few questions about the operation of the farm.

How many customers do you serve through your CSA?

We do 8,000 deliveries per week and have 15,000 active customers in the greater San Francisco Bay Area (the 15,000 total includes customers who get every-other-week, every-third-week and every-fourth-week deliveries). We do 1,000 deliveries per week and have 2,500 active customers in the greater LA area – we just started deliveries in LA in September based out of our new Anaheim warehouse space).

San Francisco Ferry Building

Sarah and I spent some time in San Francisco the other day, and we traveled to the Ferry Building.  The building was renovated in 2003 to feature food shops on the inside, with regular farmers markets on the outside.

 

Pachamama Coffee Coop

We love the Pachamama Coffee Coop, which provides the best coffee to the Davis Farmers Market. Pachamama is a cooperative of small scale coffee farmers.  It's an attempt to make the economics of coffee production more just for the producers.  The producers ship the beans to California for roasting.

Of course, there aren't really locovore alternatives for coffee drinkers.  Unless you live in Hawaii, there isn't a lot of local coffee produced within 100 miles.

Setting the social justice aside, we love that they prepare individual drip coffee.  It's the easiest way to get a really tasty cup of coffee.  You boil water, place grounds in the filter, the pour and stir.  Unlike a coffee machine, your water will get hot enough to get the good stuff out of the grounds.  Plus, it's really simple to do.  Pachamama uses the fancy porcelain type filters, but you can get a $5 plastic filter that will work equally well.  This is the coffee making choice of Blue Bottle in San Francisco.

Michael Pollan on Competition?

Do you think that cooking competition shows allow people to cook vicariously so that they have no need to cook at home?  Michael Pollan seems to suggest that in this interview. 

Farmer Market Design

Good magazine has a great article about how design impact the experience at farmers markets.  It's a great article because it hints at the challenges of food distribution.  There is a need for a critical mass of farmers in one location to achieve a certain density of shoppers.  When you layer in the different income levels of shoppers and the role of public transportation, delivering fresh food to urban locations can be complicated. 

BTW, Good is also running a contest to redesign your farmers market. 

Berkeley Farmers' Market

Last night, we stopped by the Berkeley Farmers' Market (yes, the name has a possessive apostrophe).  The market has a great atmosphere.  People sit on the grass covered median and eat grilled corn on the cob from Flacos.  As we waited for our corn, we noticed that Flacos will bring fresh masa to the market with advanced notice.  Matt and I have been making our own corn tortillas all summer, but we have never used fresh masa.  We quickly added this to our to-do list: track down fresh masa. 

I would argue that if Flacos is the most popular stop, judging from the number of people juggling corn in one hand and purchases in the other, the second most popular place to visit is the sample bar at the Frog Hollow Farm stand. 

The peaches, pluots, nectarines and plums from this stand were phenomenal.  Choosing stone-fruit is a balancing act between immediate desire to eat everything in sight and to save some for a rainy day.  Then, there is the challenge of choosing less ripe fruit that will mature nicely by the time it is eaten in an hour in two days.  I need to talk with a farmer about this one!  

With heirloom tomatoes on the mind, I had to take a photo of this display at the Happy Boy Farms stand.  Just look at the those green zebra tomatoes! 

Davis Wins!

The votes are in and the Davis Farmers Market won the America's Favorite Farmers Market contest.  I can't tell you how happy I am.  Of course, I love just about any farmers market, but I have been going to the Davis market most of my life, so it is dearest and nearest to my heart. 

Apparently, Davis won the large market category.  I wish I realized that there were size categories, so I could vote for a tiny favorite, the Fitler Square Farmer Market in Philadelphia.  Until recently, we lived near this market and it never disappointed.  In addition to delicious fruit and veg, a vendor sells apple cider donuts. 

Davis Farmers Market

We have been lucky enough to shop at the Davis Farmers Market most weekends this summer.  During the summer, the market takes place on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings.  The mid-week market is more of a veggie purchasing party with live music and picnicking.  The market is a great community gathering place.  We are excited that we will make it to Wednesday market this evening-- the first time in ages.

At last weekend market, the Cherokee Purple tomatoes were stand outs.  Beautiful and tasty.