SF Underground Farmers Market

Thursday was the SF underground farmers market in the Mission

http://foragesf.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/527/

 My friend Julia from Pandora's Bread Box told me about it. 

It seemed like the perfect venue to début my veggies. I was quite nervous because I had never sold my vegetables before and wasn't quite sure I would have enough to sell. It is mid January after all - not the best time for farming, but I went for it.

Check out Pandora's review of the event here:

http://pandorasbreadbox.tumblr.com/

Farmers Market was on the same day as my grandmother's 85th birthday so I dedicate this to her and to my grandfather who was a real farmer. He had a ranch in Ahualulco, Mexico, there he thought me the joys of feeling the soil in my hands, running with the sprinklers on a hot day, eating a fresh picked tomato ripened in the vine, finding the huitlacoche mushrooms on the corn fields, and drinking fresh milk from the cows. When picking fruit from the trees he said I should always look for the ones that were bitten by birds because birds know the best riped fruit - he was right. 

It was a lot of work to set up for the market, but definitely the one who worked the most was Rob. He built me this beautiful table and smaller version to set the vegetables on. He also carved the sign for chicken cribs. The table is a larger version of the modular zome builder toy. It totally comes apart for easy transport and we assemble it on site, it took like 10 minutes.

Turns out, I had plenty of greens to fill the table and make it look like a legit farmer.

I brought: mixed greens for salad (that included about 7 different lettuces), a few kinds of mustard greens, Japanese spinach, Purple Kale, rainbow chard, beat greens (Horta - I learned to enjoy it in Greece), and Collard greens. I also brought herbs: rosemary, cilantro, chervil,  parsley, oregano. And some roots which were ready: daikon radishes and parsnips.

  

  

Veggie bounty even in the winter. I was very happy with how the table looked

  

I shared the table with Andreas and his chicken cribs, we also had information about the zome system as a greenhouse or any garden structure. It was really good to have him there and be promoting not just the vegetables but an entire  urban farmer system. Every body should be doing it themselves. And that really, was the main point of being there.

www.chickencribs.com

  

Even the Magic Curry Cart Guy "The Godfather of the street food movement" came looking for some Thai basil. Sorry Brian not till the summer. Look for Magic Curry Cart Guy on the food network soon. You can also follow him on twitter

http://twitter.com/MagicCurryKart 

I used one of the many zome models that we have in the house as a lemon holder. People loved reaching in to get their lemons-it worked perfect!

This picture is taken right before the event started.

 

  

So exactly at 5 pm when the event started, it got crowded and the crowd did not stop till the end of the event. It was so packed that you could not even walk. A coworker that tried to get in described it as a club scene, there was a line that went around the block, so just to get in you had to wait about half hour and then try to make your way through the narrow paths between the vendors.

  

The space was a warehouse above a motorcycle repair shop on 17th and Capp, which is one of the sketchiest corners in the city. Prime location for an underground farmers market, but honestly I think we need a space about 6 times bigger.

  

Tons of media and reporters- can you see Rob in the crowd?

The crowd was more on the foodie hipster side who came to the "farmers market" hungry after work and wanted instant gratification of the many delicious options of processed foods that were at the market. Not really the grocery shopping crowd. I was the only one with real vegetables and one of the few with unprocessed goods. However, it was very much appreciated and at the end of the day I sold out.

Here’s an article from the Examiner. Foodscaping and Pandora’s Bread Box were highlighted!

Check out the photo slide show on both links

http://www.examiner.com/x-35960-Oakland-Green-Living-Examiner~y2010m1d29-The-San-Francisco-Underground-Farmers-Market-small-food-producers-big-success

Also an article from KQED:

http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2010/01/29/underground-farmers-market/

  

Over all I thought it was a great experience. I only had one haggler, comparing my prices with those of grocery stores, and even after I offer him a discount he walked away with his nose in the air. Seriously, how can I quantify the love that I give to my plants, and the two years of labor to get the soils full of nutrients so that they can be productive. There was a girl who was upset because the kale had holes, didn't I had any with out holes, she asked. Some times I wonder if people really understand the concept of organic - no pesticides, no chemicals. Which means bugs, tons of bugs. And as much as I try to have an integrative pest management, which means even more bugs (beneficial's  that eat the not so welcomed bugs that make holes in your chard) we still have to share our crop with bugs. I tried to explain to this to the girl and told her that she should actually look for holes in her veggies this is a good indicator that there are no pesticides in your food.

I'm not going to get rich doing this, that is for sure, but I feel like this kind of event is a good place for education and I like to think that my example might get some people excited and bring some awareness to the local food movement and the importance of doing it at any level. We should all be growing food. 

  

Here's Rob at his shop working till right before the event. The shop bot is still cutting pieces for the table. 

www.zomadic.com

 

This are the miniature table stands, using the zome builder toy as legs and the table top is bamboo - which is food safe 

 

Rob wanted to make sure the table was strong enough to hold the vegetables... So he got on top