Dear Friends,

Every summer, many people around the country spend weekend mornings at farmers' markets–sampling ripe, local fruit in season, stuffing canvas bags full of bright leafy greens, comparing the merits of vendor's vine-ripened tomatoes, and watching intently as farmers pull back the husks on ears of fresh corn to show its perfection–before heading home to steep in inspiration (and to fix lunch and dinner). It's farmers' market season again, and time to count this burgeoning movement as one of our greatest blessings!

In her terrific book, "Fresh from the Farmers' Market" (Chronicle 1997), Janet Fletcher, a San Francisco-based food writer, talks eloquently about farmers' markets. In her words:

Around the country, similar scenes play out each week at the nation's nearly 2000 farmers' markets. Tired of mass-produced food and sterile supermarket settings, more people are discovering the pleasure of buying direct from the grower. Farmers' markets have grown exponentially in the last decade, a reflection of the public's desire for food that is fresher, tastier, and possibly safer. City dwellers have seen markets revitalize downtowns and build and old-fashioned sense of community in urban areas...

In some parts of the nation, the markets stay open year-round, changing aspect with the changing seasons. The vivid yellows, reds, and greens of summer give way to burgundy, forest green, and burnt orange in autumn as the market fills with butternut and acorn squashes, persimmons, and apples. In winter's white light, farmers with mitten-covered hands sell rutabagas and parsnips, wild mushrooms, broccoli rabe, and thick, sturdy bouquets of kale and collards. Spring paints the market green, the farmers' booths filling with asparagus, artichokes, leeks, peas, fava beans, and herbs...

In my experience, you can't find fresher food unless you grow it yourself. Many growers harvest for a farmers' market the day before, even hours before. In contrast, produce intended for the supermarket often goes to a packing shed first; then it's trucked to a broker or wholesaler, then to the supermarkets' warehouse before it ever makes it to the retail produce department. One government study estimates that the nation's fruits and vegetables travel an average of 1300 miles before reaching the consumer.

If you care about quality and nutrition, freshness matters. In the hours and days after harvest, produce undergoes change, almost all undesirable. Moisture begins to evaporate; nutrients dissipate quickly. Broccoli loses 34% of its vitamin C in just two days. Asparagus making the refrigerated trek from California to New York arrives with only about 1.3 it's initial vitamin C.

What's more, the farmers' market offers variety unmatched by the supermarket. In season, I may find 20 different tomato varieties among the growers at a farmers' market, or a dozen different apples or a half-dozen different cucumbers. Supermarkets value uniformity; farmers' markets encourage diversity.

Other advantages of shopping at farmers' markets:

• Heirloom vegetables and legumes (those grown from experimental seeds from century-old varieties, once threatened with extinction) are being brought back by small farmers. This helps preserve a more diverse gene pool–an essential foundation of a healthy sustainable agriculture system.
• You get to taste before you buy.
• You have the opportunity to meet and talk with the growers–an exchange that never occurs at the grocery store. Farmers are rich sources of tips and recipes. And often, if you have the time, they have stories to tell!
• If you are an urban dweller, by buying direct from the farms that trade at your local markets, you are supporting the outlying greenbelt that makes life in urban regions more pleasurable. Without the farmers' market revival, many of these small farms would now be condominiums or shopping malls.
• Farmers' market shopping has become a social activity that connects people with their community, like the town square of earlier times.
• Farmers' markets restore a sense of the seasons that supermarkets, especially in this era of free trade and out-of-season imports, have all but erased.
• Many farmers' markets offer more and better organic or unsprayed produce, and at better prices.
• Don't forget that by shopping the farmers' market you are contributing to the existence of the farmers' market– and to the livelihood of the farmers. By being there for the farmers, you are ensuring that they can continue to be there for you! It's a real, mutually sustained relationship to be nurtured, enjoyed and appreciated.

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Going to Market: A Grower's Perspective
by Andy of Mariquita Farms
www.mariquita.com

When I leave the house at 4:00 am to load up my truck and go to the farmers' market, it is very quiet outside. If the sky is clear I will stand for a moment to take in the constellations as they sparkle overhead. Sometimes the night is foggy and I just listen to the water dripping from the leaves of the oak trees. I might hear an owl hoot or a fox bark. An hour and a half later, sweeping into San Francisco on 280, I see the city skyline glitter in the mother of pearl dawn. The day is full of promise

Having a successful day at market is very important to me, as my livelihood depends on it. But the Saturday market has come to mean a lot more to me than the sum of the income it can bring to the farm. Looking across the bay as I'm setting up my stall I can see the Campanile Tower on the University of California campus, and I'm reminded of my father's father who went to school to study agriculture there in 1914, when there were still cows going "moo" in Berkeley. Looking up at the Bay Bridge I remember my mother's father who moved his family to California from Arkansas in the '30s for a job as an ironworker on the bridge. We have a picture of him, lunch box in hand, standing casually on the very top of the bridges last tower right behind the Ferry building, with the whole Embarcadero spread out underneath like a movie back drop. "Look Ma, no safety net."

I meet many interesting people at the market. Folks will pass by the stall and be prompted by what they see and smell to remember life in the old country or a vacation they took to someplace exotic. Besides the friends I've made at market, I also get a chance to visit with my neighbors. Farmers like Brandon Ross of Ella Bella Farm or Jeff, Joelle and Pom of the Jeff Young Farm are my close neighbors, but we are all so busy farming during the week it seems we only have time to visit in San Francisco.

Fighting my way home through heavy peninsula traffic is the hardest part of the day. I arrive home feeling pretty much cross-eyed. The kids rush out of the house to see what kind of goodies I've brought home, and I collapse into the sofa. With a struggling farm and a young family to support, now is not the time for me to be thinking about taking a rest or a vacation. But if I can't get out to see the world, at least I can look forward to the world coming to see me, and it does, every Saturday, rain or shine, in a parking lot below the Coit tower on the Embarcadero.

I'm fortunate to have a space in the market to sell my produce. IN the eight years that I have participated I have learned not to take that privilege for granted. The politics of real estate development on the city's waterfront is a labyrinth. It has taken a lot of effort behind the scenes by dedicated community-minded volunteers to sustain the initial dream of a viable and permanent marketplace for small family farms downtown. The future of the market has not always been rosy. We find ourselves now making some real progress towards establishing a permanent site. Your patronage is always appreciated but if you can help us now you'll really be helping yourself for years to come. Thanks!