| Friendly local markets offer green greens (11/07) | | Print | |
| Written by Rachel Hwang | |
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Imagine shopping for groceries without the hum of florescent lights overhead. No familiar chill of the blasting air conditioner. No wax-coated apples and no crates of green-tinged oranges shipped from across the country or even the globe. San Franciscans have the good fortune of being able to choose from several farmers’ markets scattered throughout the city. (For a complete list, visit http://www.sfgate.com/eguide/food/farmersmarkets.) Among the best known of these are markets at Alemany and Bayshore, the Civic Center and, of course, the world-renowned Ferry Building. Alemany market, the oldest running farmers’ market in California, is rich with California culture, from the multiracial mish-mash of crowds to the steaming tamale stands. The market is arranged into one long street of stands painted with colorful murals, outshone only by the rainbow-colored produce they house. Although there may be two, three or four different stands with exactly same offering, business booms and farmers must continuously heave crates of fruit out of trucks to replenish dwindling pyramids of organic apples. By mid-morning, the sun is out and the long aisle of stands is packed. Shoppers must watch their elbows, lest they topple someone’s carton of strawberries. Latecomers slink away without their favorite raisin buns. They seem to be everyone else’s favorite too. Many shoppers flock to Alemany seeking organic foods that are generally pricy at super-markets. Organic heirloom cherry tomatoes, for example, are two or three dollars a basket at the Alemany market, as opposed to five dollars at Andronico’s. “Farmers’ markets are usually cheaper,” said senior Kimmie Eng, a regular at Alemany market. Eng added that, considering the cost the environment pays for commercially grown food, even the somewhat more expensive organics are a better value. At the Ferry Building, however, organic products are expensive again. But shoppers who shell out enough for artisan cheese and herbed olive foccacia realize that window shopping really isn’t limited to clothing. While imagining what they might make with those $24-a-pound chanterelle mushrooms, they pass museum-quality fruit displays — almost too pretty to be edible — pastries and caviar-tasting. While shoppers’ pocketbooks might be smarting afterwards, quality at the Ferry building is impeccable. They certainly know how to put organic on a silver platter. The benefits of eating local and organic foods are numerous, taste included. The aptly named Philip Groves, a worker at Hooverville Orchards who runs a produce stand at the Alemany market, explained that chain supermarkets often receive fruit from hundreds and thousands of miles away. Fruit is picked unripe then gassed for preservation to prevent spoilage over this long journey. It is later ripened in a storage room, creating a bland, less nutritious version — literally a pale imitation of the real thing. Most farmers and loyal customers will tell you outright that the taste of locally grown produce is incomparable. “Everything’s fresher,” said Nibby Bartle of the family-owned Two Dog Farm. “You get better flavor!” This idea is nothing new to Alice Waters. A cookbook author and chef legendary for her four-star restaurant Chez Panisse, Waters bases her cooking on the belief that the best food comes from the best ingredients. As stated on the Chez Panisse Web site, (www.chezpanisse.com), their philosophy, “environmental harmony and optimal flavor,” is not only a culinary art, but also a way of life. Waters personally shops only at farmers’ markets or plucks the foundations of her meals from her own garden. In addition to offering incomparable quality and flavor, farmers’ markets are both ecologically and economically friendly. Because they often eliminate the middleman and slash fuel costs, supporting farmers’ markets and, by extension, family-owned farms “helps the local economy,” according to Alemany Market tomato stand proprietor Chris Tuohig. “We get 100 percent of the profit.” According to Groves, the average mileage on American produce is 2,000 miles from tree to table, compared to a mere 71 miles in Italy. “Talk about quality,” Tuohig said. “Your produce shouldn’t travel.” In fact, according to AP Environmental Science teacher Cathy Melvin, shipping food from other countries causes a plethora of problems. Produce is shipped either by boat or plane, neither of which are good for the environment. Consuming large amounts of fuel, airplane travel is expensive, thus raising produce prices. Boats have a more subtle problem: the stowaway species they carry with them. As these invasive species sometimes have no natural predators in their new area, they have the potential to upset food chains. “If I say I’m only going to eat food from within 100 miles of where I live, I’m essentially rejecting a part of modern life,” Melvin said. ”I don’t want fossil fuels burned to ship mangos from Manila.” Yet another advantage of locally grown foods is the protection it offers. According to Melvin, laws regulating food standards are only applied to food grown in that area. “If I buy grapes now, California and San Francisco have certain regulations regarding the types of pesticides used on my grapes,” Melvin said. “But if I buy grapes from Chile, I don’t know what is on those grapes. Any imports, and we’ve lost legislative control.” Awareness of such health and environmental issues has increased these days, sparking interest in farmers’ markets, reusable bags and green greens. “The crowds have increased unbelievably,” Groves said. “People are asking about whether produce is organic or not. People are becoming more educated about their food, where it comes from, how it’s grown.” Groves attributed this change to “the pesticide scare and global warming.” Trends such as “This is not a plastic bag” bags and organic Trader Joe cookies are slowly leading the way to a better, greener community, and San Francisco is leading the charge. Local produce is “a lot more accessible in San Francisco,” Rachel Muhlstein, an Alemany shopper said. “It’s California. The culture is more accepting of it. People like it.” And, judging from the crowds, Muhlstein is right. According to Tuohig, the Bay Area boasts over 60 farmers’ markets, considerably more than other urban areas of the country. “I would not be able to do this anywhere else but in the Bay Area,” Tuohig said. “It’s the people. The people here are well informed and understand the importance of locally grown produce.” Kathleen Bruno, who has been shopping at Alemany farmers' markets for over 40 years, agreed whole heartedly. “I think (food) tastes better,” Bruno said. “It’s much better for the environment. I really don’t see a downside to it, apart from the convenience, but I love coming anyway.” Farmers’ markets may be slightly less convenient than grocery stores that offer one-stop shopping, but many shopper find that the markets’ many perks more than compensate. “You find uncommon produce there; stuff you wouldn't find at a regular supermarket, and they give you advice about how to prepare it,” Eng said. “I'm always learning about new vegetables, fruits, etc. there. Also, the tasting! You get to sample food before you buy it. Like the melon lady. She'll tell us which of the 10 different kinds of melons are particularly good that week, and she'll let us taste them.” Michael Pollan’s non-fiction book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the New York Times’ top 10 books of 2006, stresses the value of this sort of interaction. “The only meaningful guarantee of integrity is when buyers and sellers can look one another in the eye,” Pollan writes. In of the book’s many interviews, Joel Salatin, a family farm owner, questions American shoppers’ tendency to put so little thought into where their food comes from. “Don’t you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person that grows their food?” he asks. Many local farmers’ market shoppers are resisting this tendency. “It takes a push to come down here on a Saturday morning after working all week, but it’s worth it,” Muhlstein said. “You feel better about yourself and its fun.” Shopping outdoors is nice. It’s a very down-to-earth experience waking up in the morning and going down to the market with everyone else, farmers and shoppers alike. |
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