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The Wonderful Wonderful Ramp

May 142011

May 14, 2011 Posted by iso at 8:57 pm cooking, foraging, home canning, iso rabins, pickled ramps, pickling, preserving, ramps, spring, toothwort, vegetables, vermont, wild edibles, wild food 2 Responses »

Ramps are special. We have wild onions in California, but they don’t come close to the taste, texture, and versatility of ramps (don’t get me wrong, we have wild mushrooms that East Coasters would kill for). Since all the wild ingredients I use for The Wild Kitchen are local, the closest I ever get to using ramps is the wild onion. Our wild onion is essentially a scallion, which is how I treat it. Good chopped up and sautéed, with nice white flowers that I use for garnish. A ramp is a whole other animal.

The roots have a biting onion flavor, and bulblike crunch that begs to be pickled. The greens, which can be grilled, broiled, sautéed or seared, have just the right amount of the bulbs onion aroma, but a great texture that really rounds out a plate. They are a perennial (grow back each year), and the plant that gave Chicago its name. Chicagou was the word for ramp in the local dialect, and an abundant plant in the area when the city was being settled.

I’m back for a week visiting my mom in Plainfield, and wanted to take advantage of the best foraging season on the East Coast. The prime focus for me was ramps. The woods are amazing in Vermont. The smell of the trees, moss, gurgle of creeks, shade of the maples. All with the bonus of an abundance of plant and animal life on the forest floor. I love California, but you just don’t get the same experience in our woods.

I grew up in Vermont, but my foraging career really started with wild mushrooms on the west coast, so I enlisted the help of a local expert to help me find my prize. Annie is a local gardner/naturalist/friend of the family, who was nice enough to show me one of her prime spots. Not that they’re hard to find in VT. Ramps (or wild leeks as they’re called here) are everywhere. It would have taken me days to pick even half of what I saw. Along the way she introduced me to some edibles I’d never heard of.

One was toothwort. It’s a 3-leaves low growing plant. It has thin dull green leaves with serrated edges. The roots (and leaves to some extent) have an uncanny horseradish flavor. It’s pretty amazing actually. If I do a dinner in Vermont, this is definitely going to be included on the menu. Maybe a toothwort wasabi with local freshwater trout sashimi….Another thing that Annie introduced me to was the edibility of violet flowers. They don’t grow in abundance, so I would feel uncomfortable collecting them for a Wild Kitchen dinner, but they were great to try. They taste like wintergreen. Pretty cool. Another plant that grows here in abundance is wild ginger. We have this in CA, but I don’t see it much where I forage. There was a bunch on our walk, so I grabbed some of that too.

There’s been some recent press on the over harvesting of ramps on the east coast, given their sudden spike in popularity. As far as I can tell it’s more theoretical than realistic. People see them in stores, so immediately assume they are being decimated. From people I’ve talked to up here, it hasn’t become a problem. I always live by the motto of never taking more than a third of whatever plant I’m harvesting, that way I can be sure it will be there when I return next year.

I dug ramps for about 15 minutes and had almost more than I could carry, so I headed home. I washed them and cut off the bulbs, and for the next 3 days I ate the greens at every meal. Tossed in garlic and olive oil and wrapped in tin foil on the grill, sautéed with salt and garlic with my eggs in the morning, and cut small and used raw to spice up potato salad. Even then I had a ton left. Since there was no way I could eat them all before I left (and because I wanted to bring some back west), I decided to pickle the bulbs. Most of the pickles I do are what are known as quick pickles. Basically hot brine that is poured a vegetable, and used within a week or so. I wanted to try something different with these, so I decided to do a proper can.

If you’re reading this blog, I imagine you have some experience canning, or at least understand the fundamental ideas behind it. If not, also cool, we’ve all got to start somewhere. The basic idea of canning is to submerge a veggie (or meat) into a hygienic environment (often vinegar), then boil the jar to create a vacuum that will push out any excess air. This creates an anaerobic environment where bacteria cannot grow, so preserves food longer. These pickles will last at least a month, or until you’ve eaten them all (which will probably be sooner):

You’ll need:

Food:

2C white vinegar

4C water

1C white sugar

2T mustard seed (“T” =Tablespoon and “t”=teaspoon)

1T fennel seed

2T black peppercorns

4 piece wild ginger root

2T kosher salt

4 piece toothwort root (both optional of course, but if you don’t use them add a small piece of fresh horseradish)

2 lb fresh ramps

Equipment:

4 – 12 OZ canning jars

Water bath canner (if you have it. If not a pot large enough to fit the jars will suffice)

Tongs

1 medium pot

Baking pan or Pyrex casserole

First you want to get your liquids boiling, while they heat up you’ll have time to clean your ramps. Fill your pot with all your picking ingredients (minus the ramps). Bring them to a boil, then turn off heat. Fill your water bath canner up 3/4 with water, and boil. If you are using a pot, fill with water (leaving room for the area the jars will displace). Preheat your oven to 350F
Sterilize your jars: An easy way to sterilize jars is wash them with soap and water, then bake them on sheet pan in the oven at 200F until you’re ready to use them. Got that tip from Slow Jams. http://www.chow.com/food-news/59073/the-easiest-way-to-sterilize-jars/
While those are heating up, clean your ramps. First give the ramps a good wash, peeling off any discolored skin on the root, and snapping the root (not the bulb) off. Then cut off the bulb just above where the green of the leaf begins. Save the leaves. I personally think they’re just as delicious as the bulbs. You can sauté them up for a side dish, or put them on sandwiches. Really delicious.
Now you want to fill your jars. I try to stand the ramps up, with the bulbs all facing down, but that’s really just an aesthetic choice. Just make sure there’s an inch clear below the rim of the jar. Pour over your nearly boiling pickling liquid, adding a root of ginger and toothwort, as well as a spoon of spices, to each jar. Screw on the lid.
Now for the can. If you’re using a regular pot, you’ll want to make sure the jars stand up straight, but that they don’t touch the metal bottom. There are fancy grills they sell for this, or you can do what I do, and put a dishtowel in the water to line the bottom of the pot. Just make sure it’s as flat as you can make it. Place the jars in the water, turn down to a simmer, and “cook” for 15 minutes. Make sure the water covers the jar (this is how you force out the air), add hot water from the tap if it needs it.
Take jars out with tongs, allow to cool, and you’re done! A lot of words for what is actually a pretty simple process. Clean veggies, put in jars, cover with vinegar, and force out air. As they cool you should hear a popping sound of the lid suctioning down. You might not hear the sound, but check to see that the lid is pressed in, that’s how you know the can worked.

If you make this recipe, give me a comment and let me know how it went. I haven’t tried it with the toothwort yet, and I’m definitely excited to see if the wasabi/horseradish flavor comes through. Also, if you’ve ever pickled the greens, let me know how that went. That’s what I’ll try next. Ramps!

Iso

February 5th Underground Market Vendors

Jan 312011

January 31, 2011 Posted by iso at 5:34 am california, cheap, cooking, diy, edible plants, farmers market, food, food movement, forage san francisco, foraged food, foragesf, foraging, iso rabins, sf underground market, somarts, street food, underground dinner, underground farmers market, underground market, wild food No Responses »

The market is at SomArts, at 934 Brannan St, in SF. Starts at 11am, ends at 11:00pm.

DAY VENDORS:

Sasonao latin Cuisine – Tony Ulloa – Nicaraguan cuisine
Fresh Bite Bakery – Cindy Tsai Schultz/Terry Betts – http://www.freshbitebaking.com/ — baked goods
Todd Masonis – bean-to-bar chocolate
mo foods – Caterina Rindi/Jae Brim –   www.mo-foods.com — foraged/gleaned pickles & preserves
Epicurean Solutions – Moira Tocatium – Veggie Deli Salads
Starter Bakery – Brian M. Wood – www.starterbakery.com — bakery
Three Bowls – Indu Kline – Ambrosia – food of the gods
James Saltzman’s Smoked Bacon – James Saltzman – smoked bacon & brownies
Rokas/Kelli Armonas – honey & mushrooms
Beet Freaks – Sharon Salmon – pickles
Earth Alchemy Chocolate – Susan Marjanovic – earthalchemychocolate.squarespace.com/ — raw herbal chocolate
Bread Project – Diedre Linburn – chocolate chip cookies
The Chai Cart – Paawin – hot chai & chai packets
Canvas Underground – Peter Jackson   www.canvasunderground.com — meats & gumbo
Raja Sen – dal and balsamic vinaigrette
Quackery – Scott/Ramona – kombucha
Ben Sawicki – flavored kale chips & veggie curry
Josey Baker – bread
Dehesa – Edward Lekwart – artisan sausages
Tamales By Rudy – Rudy Santiago – burrito-sized tamales
German Bread – Katrin Staugaard/Daniela Busse – traditional German bread & foraged plum jams
Le Chaudron Magique – Isabelle Sin – seasonal jams
Kirsten Roehler – seasoned goat cheese, seasoned salts & pickled lemons
Yaella Frankel – chutneys, relishes & salsas
Telegraph Hill Coffee Roasters – David Oliver –   www.telegraphcoffeesf.com — coffee

NIGHT VENDORS:

Flosa Creamery – Jordan Grosser – bacon-wrapped mochi
CoCoTutti – Elyce Zahn – http://cocotutti.com/ — caramels, chocolates
Jilli – Will Schrom and Jacky Hayward– www.jilli-icecream.com — sarsaparilla and raw ice cream!
Whole Beast Supper Club – Kevin Bunnell – pig products
Lan Kulapaditharom – Tawainese: beef/chicken slider & shrimp wonton
Lelajay’s Ridiculously Good Gluten-FREE – Lila Akhzar – gluten-free brownie bites
Aaron’s Almost Better Than Sex Cake – Aaron Keller – chocolate oreo-toffee cake & beer dogs
Sidesaddle Kitchen – Laura Miller – www.facebook.com/SidesaddleKitchen — raw vegan pies
Mama’s African Kitchen – Dupe Bello – traditional African curry dishes
JazzyB’s Recipez – Jasmine Ball – mac n’ cheese-veggie & w/pork belly
A Humble Plate – Rathsamee Ly – Laotian Food
Saucy Dumplings – Michael Lee – pork & vegetarian dumplings
Hella Vegan Eats – Sylvester Chitica/James Raushenberg – www.hellaveganeats.com — Vegan deliciousness
Luscious Liquids – Kathy DeWitt/Tracee Raptis – elixirs and such
Sajen Foods – Morisinah Katimin – Gado-gado & satay burger w/peanut sauce (Indonesian street food)
Laksa Pho King – Stephen Backer – Vietnamese Pho & Malaysian Curry Laksa
The Occasional Macaron Shop – Katie/George Wang – www.facebook.com/macaronshop — macarons
Angry Man Eats – Paul Midgen – chicken & waffles
Tamale Nation – Alison Greenwood/Maria – tamales & empanadas
Eric Eberman – veggie empanadas
Bake It Banana – Courtney Dougherty – banana desserts

OUTDOOR NIGHT VENDORS:
Kitchen Sidecar – Katie Kwan – www.kitchensidecar.com — banh mi burger
Pizza Hacker – Jeff Krupman – pizza
The Grilled Cheese Guy – Michael Davidson – grilled cheese
Sataysfied – Feldo Nartapura – www.sataysfied.com — Indonesian satays
Boffo Cart – Rhasaan Fernandez/Crystal Williams – hot sandwiches & paninis
Panguita – Andre Joffroy – beer battered fish tacos & beef tostadas

Out of Chicago and into hell

Jul 052010

July 5, 2010 Posted by iso at 10:08 pm ava chin, edible plants, feral kevin, foragesf, iso rabins, kevin feinstein, milk weed, nyc, san francisco, taste of chicago, time magazine, travel, wild food No Responses »

Hello. Chicago was good. Mainly because I had never really been there before. That sounds negative but isn’t. I would have liked more time in Chicago, to really check it out. I spent most of my time foraging (more on that later) and at the taste of Chicago. The Taste is a festival put on for the last 30 years in Chicago that means to….Im not honestly sure what it means to do. It certainly doesn’t mean to show the people of Chicago anything interesting about food. Think 40 vendors all selling the leftovers from the Des Moines county fair, and you get an idea of the culinary virtue that is The Taste. Perhaps unfair ( I did have grilled turkey ribs that weren’t too bad), but pretty apt. Its interesting to me that you would put on an event focused on food, and have so little diversity. Or maybe I’ve just become a food snob in these past years. Ok, onto the interesting stuff….

There were an amazing amount of new (to me) plants in Chicago’s parks. I grew up in VT, so many of the plants ( like milkweed, pictured here)

you can eat the unopened flower buds like broccoli,

It was great to walk around with Sunny, that I saw in Chicago we had back home, but this time I saw them with new eyes. I really only started foraging when I got to SF, so it was really enlightening to learn from Sunny who’s knowledge of wild foods definitely surpasses my own (Sunny Savage has a TV show on the Veria network about wild food. She’s the reason I was in Chicago, to help her forage and cook). Mine is very SF specific, so I was lost in this new environment.

Overall a good trip, Im in NYC now (where it is 96 degrees,hence the “hell” in the title), but will be back in SF on the 7th. We just posted some new wild food walks on foragesf.com, and look out for an email about some upcoming dinners we’re doing mid July.

Also….we’re starting the CSF back up! A friend of mine, Kevin Feinstein, who is going to be managing the workings of it in the months to come, so look out for an email about that too.

Well I’m off to meet Ava Chin, a NYC based forager, who writes a column for the NY times.

Also….Just got interviewed for a Times magazine article, so look out for that! Very Exciting. Ok, enough talk.

June Wild Kitchen pics

Jun 302010

June 30, 2010 Posted by iso at 8:28 am food, foragesf, foraging, local food, mission, pop up restaurant, san francisco, underground dinner, wild food, wild kitchen No Responses »

Here are some pics from our last Wild Kitchen dinner. If you’re interested in coming to the next one, sign up in the “subscribe” box at foragesf.com, and we’ll send you an email when its coming up. Thanks to everyone who came to the dinners this past Thursday and Friday. It was our first attempt at doing two in a row, and it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Thanks!

photos by Robin Jolin: robinjolin.com

Nettle Is Great…Wild Nettle Soup Recipe

Jun 282010

June 28, 2010 Posted by iso at 9:37 pm foragesf, recipe, wild food, wild kitchen, wild nettle soup No Responses »

Nettle is great. Its all around, good for you, plus there’s the element of danger when you’re harvesting. It’s like collecting sea urchins. Will it get you? Are those gloves really thick enough to ward off those spiny stems? A question Ive been forced to answer in the negative far too many times. For those of you that like a bit of danger with your foraging, but aren’t quite up for wild mushroom collecting or boar hunting, the nettle is a good bet.

There are two kinds of nettle that grow in our area (that area being Northern CA).Urtica diocea, which is also known as river nettle, and Urtica urens, which I call farm nettle, its more often cultivated, and much less intense, cousin. River nettle is what grows most often in the wild, so that’s what I end up using most of the time. You find it often growing in stream beds and in other moist nutrient rich environments. “Farm Nettle” can also be found wild, although much less often, in what are referred to as “disturbed places”. Areas where the earth has just been upset for some reason (hint: there’s some in Golden Gate park if you know where to look).

River nettle (diocea) is much more intense than in both sting and flavor. Whereas farm (urens) will give you a bit of a prick to let you know its nettle, river nettle will bite you, a searing pain that, instead of going away after several hours of throbbing, actually seems to turn into a general numbness/tingle for as much as 48 hours (hint: use vinegar to get rid of the sting, or if you’re near a marsh, the goo from the base of cattails works too). If you’re using it in soup, river nettles are really the best. The intensity comes through in the soup in all the best ways.

With that said, lets get on with it. Go collect some! I wont tell you my spots, but I will tell you that they like to grow in moist, nutrient rich soils. Try to harvest them before the plant has gone to seed. As in all plants, you want to collect them when they’re putting the most amount of energy into the part you want to eat…perhaps confusing, but a good principle. When plants are flowering, eat the flower, when they’re shooting up out of the ground in spring, eat the shoot, when they’ve gone to seed, eat the seed (although I havnt heard of people eating nettle seed, I don’t see why not). Enough talk, on to the recipe.

This soup is a real standby for The Wild Kitchen (my underground restaurant). People love it, so it keeps coming back from month to month while nettle is in season.

You’ll need:

Food:

-1 lb nettle (collect it, or you can often find it at farmers markets in season)

-1 lb russet potatoes

-1 lb leek

-6 Cups chicken stock

-2 Tbsp butter

-Salt/pepper to taste

-Small tub crème fraiche

Equipment:

-Heavy gloves (seriously. If you’re using the thin latex kind, so popular in restaurant kitchens and the nether regions of the airport security line, wear double, or even triple. A good thick pair of dishwashing gloves works perfectly)

-Heavy bottomed soup pot

-Stand up or hand (immersion) blender

-Wooden spoon

-Scissors

-mixing bowl

1.First, you’ve got to deal with the nettle. Put a pot of salted water on to boil. With your gloves on, use scissors to cut the leaves from the woody stem, discarding any brown leaves. Wash under cold water. Get a mixing bowl, and fill it with iced and salted water. Throw nettle into boiling water for 5 minutes, drain, then immediately place in ice water. This is called blanching and shocking. The boil gets rid of the nettle sting, and the ice water helps it retain its vibrant green color. Once they’re cold, squeeze water out of nettles, and reserve.

2. Cut off the white section of the leeks, slice them lengthwise, and wash very well. Tons of dirt likes to get stuck in leeks, and it’s the last thing you want in your soup. After they’re clean, chop them and reserve.

3. Dice potatoes.

4. Melt butter in pot over medium heat, making sure not to let it burn. When it begins to bubble, throw in the leeks, cook 5 minutes (if they start to brown, turn down the flame, you want them to sweat). Add potatoes, cook 5 minutes. Add nettle, cook 5 minutes.

5. Pour in chicken stock, mix, turn up heat until it comes to a boil, then turn down to a simmer.

6. Allow to simmer 20-30 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Turn off heat and either blend with you immersion blender, or if using a stand-up, blend in batches with a ventilated blender (take that little plastic thing out of the middle of the lid), and a towel on top. With the danger sounding too much like you dad, BE CAREFUL!. Hot soup on the face is not fun.

7. When its blended, add two spoonsfulls of crème fraiche, mix. Serve hot with a drizzle of crème fraiche on top. This soup will taste quite “green”. Crème fraiche will balance it to your liking.

8. Enjoy! And regal your friends with your daring tales of nettle foraging, they’ll be impressed.

Should the SF Underground Market be bigger?

Jun 152010

June 15, 2010 Posted by iso at 8:57 pm community, events, farmers market, food, iso rabins, local food, organic, san francisco, sf, sf underground market, somarts, vendors, wild food 62 Responses »

around the block

The first and most obvious answer to this question is yes. If one throws an event that draws more people than your space can fit, you move up. Bigger is of course better, and in all things, we want to be as big as we can get. Right? I’m not so sure.

It’s a question I get a lot. People tell me that we need a bigger space, and the running joke seems to be that we should move it to the Cow Palace. Its definitely something we think about not the Cow Palace – when I see the hour and half wait to get in, get angry emails from customers (actually just got my first one a couple days ago), and patiently explain to vendors for the 20th time that in fact we can’t let anyone else in at the moment, lest we all die fiery deaths as martyrs for the local food movement (translation: we’ve reached fire code capacity).

We’ve done our best to make the market accessible to as many people as possible. We started this past December in a small Victorian in the Mission (seven vendors and 150 customers), and moved to a warehouse on Capp St. (30 vendors and 700 customers)— both still not big enough. When we approached SomArts I thought that was it. There was no way we could overfill that space. This of course hasn’t proven true.

The space we have now, SomArts, is in the range of 5000 feet. That’s 35ft wide, and 144 feet long. It’s a large space by any measure.

We pay several thousand dollars to rent SomArts for a night and by SF standards, that’s very cheap. The next space up in size is about $10,000. That’s before shelling out for a cleaning staff, security, insurance, alcohol license, the band, equipment, and all the other less obvious costs that go into creating an event for 2,000 people. I don’t say this to complain, but to set the stage for a fact: If we got a bigger space, we would be forced to raise the vendor fees. As it is, the vendor fees don’t cover the cost of the space, which is why you paid $2 to get in this month. In May, we lost money on the market because the event was free. We don’t need to make a killing, but a market that loses money every month will not be around very long.

“But wait,” you say, “a bigger space would mean more people, more people equals more money, so no need to charge the vendors more.” Not necessarily. A larger space would definitely let more people enter at the same time, but the number of people coming in would not be guaranteed to go up by the amount we would need to make it worth the costs.

The current vendor fee is $50, a very low bar for entry into a commercial sales space like ours, but for some of our vendors it’s a stretch to pay that cost. Our vendors are making products that they are passionate about, but are also very expensive to produce. The profit margins are already slim, and it wouldn’t feel right to charge the $100-$300 per stall that a larger space would require.

I like the size it is. The market feels more like a big party, rather than a vast trade show. I like that we can fit upwards of 40 vendors inside and still have room for a couple hundred people, while at the same time being able to see the whole space in one sweep.

I like SomArts. We have a good deal of freedom at SomArts and the people who work there. They are very supportive of our ideas, and seem to genuinely want to make things work for us. No one working on the market has much professional event organizing experience; there are a million random things to think about when planning a market, so getting some help along the way is key. A larger commercial space probably would not offer that kind of support.

I like the idea that in creating a market for the SF food community to come to together, we are at the same time supporting a venerable SF non-profit event and art space. A space that hosts the kind of events that make SF what it is. They go out of their way to court and support burgeoning orgs (like ours) that would otherwise not be able to afford such a professional space, and for that they deserve our support. Every person that walks through their door helps them to get funding from grants as well as the city, so 2,000 people coming through each month at our market gives them some real leverage.

People do have to wait. I don’t feel good about it (although most people I talk to seem pretty happy with the whole experience, meeting fellow food obsessives in line is always fun). It’s great that people come out to show so much support, and ideally we wouldn’t make them wait so long to show that support. Note: If you want to miss the lines, come during the day next month, there will be tons of room.

Next months SF Underground Market will again be at SomArts on July 24th(this time on a weekend!). Although there is often a wait at night (hint: for a more relaxed time, come during the day). I want to say that I really do appreciate that people wait as long as they do. That kind of support shows the vendors that there is a market for what they make, and encourages them to keep getting better at what they do. I do believe that bigger is not always better, and there is a really intimate vibe now that I feel like we may lose if we expand. This doesn’t mean it will always be there, but for the time being we’re staying put. Let me know what you think. You think we should move? Did you see anything at the last market that needs changing? Thanks for reading, and thanks for coming, see you all next month!

Thanks,

Iso

photo by Robin Jolin: robinjolin.com

On hunting

Apr 252010

April 25, 2010 Posted by forageSF at 11:04 pm experience, hunting, san francisco, wild food, wild meat 3 Responses »

Friday I did something I’ve been wanting to do since I started forageSF, I went hunting….well, seeing as I didn’t have a gun, or a hunting license, I suppose hunting wasnt exactly what I did. To be more exact, I went on a hike with some people who were hunting. Just so you don’t get excited, just to be let down, we didn’t get anything. We actually didn’t even see any in season animals until we were riding home in the car (one of my blood thirst comrades was close to jumping out of the moving car). In a lot of ways it was hunting though. It was hunting in the way that I felt when I was in the forest.

I talk a lot about the way knowledge of wild food changes the way you experience nature. That it gives you a new connection with your environment, and an awareness that a simple walk in the woods doesn’t necessarily attain. Its was the same way on friday, but magnified.

We woke up at 3:30am to drive to Napa ( a friendly vineyard owner had given us permission to hunt on her land). As soon as we entered the woods, it was in a different way than I’ve even done so before. I could hear everything. The rustle of a salamander crawling across our path at 10 ft pounded my eardrums. I walked with a quietness and awareness that I’ve really never felt before. Even though I wasn’t going to shoot anything (hunting license issues), I still felt it. That higher awareness of “getting your eyes on” that we talk about with mushroom hunting. A focusing of the senses, hearing and seeing with an awareness that many of us never experience.

I of course don’t miss the irony that this awareness comes at the cost of killing something. That the connection to my environment is attained through death. This doesn’t bother me though. We are animals, and animals survive off other life forms. Be it a carrot, an apple, or a pig. One doesn’t have more or less value over the other, and the “nothing with a face” argument has always struck me as strange.

I will hunt again. I will hunt because I like to eat meat. Because I feel like hunted meat is one of the most honest meat to eat, but also to feel the awareness again. The fine tuned sense of place that comes with hunting.

and the third market is done!

Mar 172010

March 17, 2010 Posted by forageSF at 8:42 pm food movement, home made food, iso rabins, local food, san francisco, sf underground market, underground food, wild food 1 Response »

The SF Underground Market has turned 3 (in months, not years). It began with me and 7 other vendors selling wild mushrooms, jams, pies and corned beef sandwiches in a mission neighborhood home. The first market had about 200 people attending. By the third, amazingly, it has grown into a warehouse sized behemoth of 47 vendors selling everything from salami to ginger beer to pickled grapes to wild boar, with over 1,200 people lining up outside to get in.

At this market I made salt and sugar cured pork belly buns. People really seemed to like them, which was nice to see, although I need to figure out how to make them faster (some people waited for 20 minutes for a bun). That’s what’s cool about the market; there is this great public that shows up willing to wait a bit longer for something. Almost all the vendors at this market sold out of what they brought; the hot vendors seemed to be the most popular.

The SF Underground Market is a pretty straightforward idea. It was created as venue for all those of us who make stuff. Maybe its jam, maybe its pulled pork sandwiches, maybe its. It’s a space for those of us without the resources to jump through the increasing maze of regulatory hoops that have been imposed on food producers in this great city. I’ve given a lot on thought to why so many people come to these markets. Not that I’m complaining, any organizer loves to see people lining up for their event, but people throw food events all the time without this kind of draw.

I think people love the idea of coming out to support people like them. People who love to make food, have been making it for years, but have never, for whatever reason, been able to make that leap to selling it. The vendors at my market don’t have business licenses or commercial kitchens. Many of them are 9-5′ers who have had an interest in starting a small business for years, but need a jumpstart to get it going. Anyone can be a vendor at the SF Underground Market, all you need is a skill and focus.

If you want to be a vendor at the next market, go to http://foragesf.com/market/vendors/faq/

SF Underground Market March 6th

Feb 272010

February 27, 2010 Posted by forageSF at 12:16 am disposable film fest, farmers market, film, food, foraged food, foragesf, party, san francisco, saturday in SF, screening, sf underground market, wild food 30 Responses »

The next market is here! The date and location are set..

When: Saturday March 6th from 5-11pm

Where: 9 Langton st (near 7th/Howard) in SF

How: Sign up here for a free membership

This time around we’ve got twice as many vendors, 3 times as much space (so the lines should be shorter), and more great music and workshops. Come early to avoid the lines, leave late to catch the party.

Vendors:

Pearls Kitchen- Jewish deli fare

Dontaye Ball- pulled pork

Morgan Woolley

greenheartsfamilyfarm- pastured meats

Elianna Roffman & Morgan Lee Woolley -Hawaiian baked goods

Dafna Kory -Jams from locally foraged fruits

Paawan- TheChaiCart- Hot Chai, Chai Mixes, Chai Blends

Dirk -Traditional Veggie German Sausage

James Grossman- “Salumi”

Alice Wilson -Jams, sweet breads, foccacia

Katy McLean & Christopher David -Macaron Parisian macaroons

Michael Christie- Real French artisinal warm Quiche

Kathy Dewitt -Herb & spice blends, sea salts

Jeff Tidwell -Krauts, kimchi and preserves

Margaret Wong -Mushroom spread & dark chocolate almond date balls

Jackie Woods -“delightfully tasty cakes” and cupcakes

Claudia Comerci -Flower & Healing Essences

Valerie Johnson -Multi-grain artisinal gluten free breads, granola, scones, etc

Becky Spencer- (Urban Preserves Jams & Pickles

Erik Kamprud -Fried Chicken & Andouille Sausage gumbo & vegan gumbo

Rathsamee Ly- Laotian sausages & Nam kao

Marisol Kim -100% grass-fed organic beef jerky

Shakirah Simley (Slow Jams) -Jams, preserves, marmalades, spreads & relishes

Katherine Kirby- Granola

forageSF – wild mushrooms and other foraged goodies

Sybil Johnson (Heartbaker) -Baked Goods & Pastries

Jana Blankenship -Soaps, bath salts, scents, balms, candles, etc.

Roger Freely -Indian Street food & Regianal Mexican specialties

Robin Jolin -Peanut brittle, lemonade, sparking lemonade

Linh Nguyen -Vietnamese foods

JD Collins -Salsa dos gringos

Kitty Myers -Jams, marmalades, chutneys, flavored olive oil, etc

Kevin Bressani- Beet kvass

Gabriel Mitchell -Truffles, tarts, caramels

Christina Yu -Cheescake-sweet & savory

Alexis Mian & Elena Herting -Raw, vegan, organic meals, snacks & desserts

Francisco Grajales -Vegan (and some gluten-free) Baked Goods

Erin Murray -Fermented Veggies

Ruza Markov- scones and such

wiley rogers-honey

Rana Chang-kombucha

Ariana Montemayor

Boris Price-demi glace

kate thompson-granola

kim Nguyen

susan marjanovic -Raw Chocolate

Mary Powell

This months CSF

Feb 022010

February 2, 2010 Posted by forageSF at 7:46 pm chanterelle, cooking, csf, san francisco, wild food, wild mushrooms No Responses »

With all the rain we’ve been getting, there are an insane amount of mushrooms around, as well as some really nice wild greens. Below is what came in this months CSF box, as well as a recipe:

Golden Chanterelle Mushrooms (Northern CA)

Chanterelles have a wonderful nutty apricot flavor that tastes like fall (at least to me). Think about the misty mountain oak forests where they are foraged when eating them, it really does make them taste better.

Black Trumpet Mushrooms (Northern CA)

Black trumpets are some of my favorite mushrooms. They have a really subtle smokiness and great texture. I like to sauté them with butter and garlic and eat them straight, but they’re also great in soups. To clean, wash them under cold running water.

Black Cod (Northern CA)

This is a really great, very fresh fish. Sauté each side for a few minutes with lemon and butter, this lets the natural taste of the fish shine through. There are some pinbones in this fish, but they come out easily with tweezers.

Miners Lettuce (Santa Cruz)

With all this rain we’ve been getting, the wild greens are going crazy. This is one of my favorites, named for the gold rush miners (who ate it for its high vitamin C content). Miners lettuce is great in mixed salads or all on its own.

Wild Ginger (Santa Cruz)

Wild ginger has a milder flavor than its cultivated cousin, but can be used in any recipe that calls for ginger. I also really like to make a tea out of the finely chopped root, which helps cure stomaches or motion sickness. Along with the miners lettuce, this also came from a forager down in Santa Cruz.

Oxalis Flowers (San Francisco)

You may know these flowers from the incredibly invasive clover-like plant that runs rampant in San Francisco. Well now you know a way to get rid of it–eat it! This plant is named for its oxalic acid, which is what makes it taste sour. Eat too much (meaning pounds), and it will mess with your digestion, but throwing a couple of these flowers in a salad adds a really great sour note (and of course, makes it look cool).

Ginger Curry with Pork

If you don’t have dried apricots on hand, you can substitute golden raisins instead. Wild ginger livens this dish and gives it a mild, peppery heat.

Yield: 2 servings (serving size: 1 pork chop and 1 cup rice mixture)

Ingredients

2 (4-ounce) boneless, center-cut loin pork chops

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Dash of salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil, divided

1/2 teaspoon grated lime rind

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 1/2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon red curry paste

1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons chopped dried apricots

1 teaspoon honey

1 garlic clove, minced

1 1/2 cups hot cooked basmati rice

2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions

Preparation

Sprinkle pork with pepper and salt. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork; cook 2 1/2 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove pork from pan. Combine rind, juice, and ginger in a shallow dish; add pork, turning to coat.

Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in pan over medium heat. Add onion and curry paste; cook 2 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring frequently. Add pork mixture, broth, apricots, honey, and garlic; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until pork is done. Remove pork from pan. Increase heat to medium-high. Add rice; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring frequently. Serve rice mixture with pork, and top each serving with 1 tablespoon green onions.

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