05 Jun 2013

Online farmstand to open alongside Pescadero Grown! Farmers’ Market, June 27

June 27 brings two major developments to Pescadero’s burgeoning local food scene: the opening day of the third annual Pescadero Grown! Farmers’ Market and the launch of the Pescadero Grown “Webstand” on GoodEggs, an online market for the freshest small-farm produce, meat and cheese.

When it launches, the Pescadero Grown Webstand will give eager eaters – in San Francisco and beyond – the chance to order an aggregated box of freshly prepared farm food from seven Pescadero-based producers, and have it delivered directly to their homes, or to a pick-up point nearby.

“Good Eggs is a platform that brings us together, a platform to celebrate Pescadero,” says James Reid, Director of Marketing and Promotion for Harley Farms Goat Dairy. “What a great thing it is that if you live in Berkeley, it can all come straight to your doorstep.”

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Harley Farms joins an all-star roster of farms and ranches uniting forces on the Pescadero Grown Webstand. The others are Blue House Farm, Early Bird Ranch, Leftcoast Grassfed, Markegard Family Grass-Fed, Echo Valley Farm, Tunitas Creek Kitchen, and Puente’s own in-house brand of homemade salsa and jam products. The Webstand will also have a section devoted to local events, allowing farms and ranches to sell tickets to special farm tours, workshops, and dinners.

It is the first time an entire group of food purveyors has joined together to offer a cornucopia of regionally-branded products on GoodEggs, which typically helps individual producers market themselves to a wider audience.

“The idea is to create a brand for the region itself,” says Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel. “With the globalization of food, we have to find every way we can to feature local growers and producers.”

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One major perk for farmers and ranchers is that with GoodEggs, they can focus more on growing the farm and less on chasing after the consumer at farmers’ markets in distant cities. None of the small farms in Pescadero have any staff to spare.

“Historically, we’ve all been very independent. As economics change, you realize, ‘I didn’t get into this business to drive to every corner of California to sell seven days a week,’” says Doniga Markegard, who owns Markegard Family Grass-Fed with her husband. “Now we have all this new time that we can devote to growing and becoming more profitable.”

GoodEggs users will also be able to order a customized box of food and have it held for them at the Pescadero Farmers’ Market. To find the Pescadero Grown Webstand, visit http://www.pescaderogrown.org/order after June 27.

 

Pescadero Grown! vendors in person, in Pescadero and San Francisco

Of course, the original meet-the-farmer relationship experience is still available at the Pescadero Grown! Farmers Market, which opens on June 27 and occurs at 251 Stage Road in downtown Pescadero every Thursday through October 31. The June 27 opening event will feature live music by Mariachi band Los Cachorros as well as entertainment from DJ Larry, face painting, ribbon cutting by Supervisor Horsley and other surprises.

Most, if not all if the featured Pescadero Grown Webstand vendors will be there in person, along with many other locally beloved flower, fruit and vegetable farmers, like Farmageddon and Fly Girl Farm.

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Puente continues to be mindful of the fact that many families who live on the South Coast and harvest our produce often can’t afford to buy the same fresh fruits and vegetables they help grow. To that end, this year Puente will continue to offer Market Match incentives to help low-income Coastsiders qualify for discounted Farmers’ Market products. The program, funded through the California Farmers’ Market Consortium, matches existing discounts offered through WIC and CalFresh (food stamps) programs. At the end of the day, shoppers save $20 or more on fresh food.

Friends at the Coastside Farmers’ Markets in Half Moon Bay and Pescadero offer both CalFresh and Market Match Discounts, as well.

New this summer, starting in August, some Pescadero farmers will also sell their products at The Second Act on Haight Street, home of the former Red Vic Movie House. The iconic San Francisco gathering spot, which is owned by Puente friends Betsy and Jack Rix, will be reborn as a community event space with a small collection of food stalls.

More details to follow later this summer. Stay tuned!

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For more information, visit www.pescaderogrown.org. 

04 Oct 2012

Puente products gain cult following

Jose Castro remembers the day he realized that his Puente brand tomatillo-lime salsa had drawn a critical mass of acolytes. A customer at the Pescadero Grown! Farmer’s Market in La Honda wanted the salsa, but he was sold out—except for a jar he’d saved to give to his mother. The customer went home with the salsa.

“How could I say no?” laughs Castro.

Chefs Amy and Jose

Launched this summer, Puente’s new line of fresh jams and salsas have gained a steady following among shoppers who visit Puente’s two local farmer’s markets, looking for a taste of home.

The products – which include strawberry hibiscus and tomatillo lime jams, barbecue sauce, spicy charro beans and Castro’s signature fresh tomatillo salsa – were the brainchild of Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel and gourmet chef Amy Glaze. Glaze taught an after-school cooking class to middle school students earlier this spring, and began a new class in mid-September. Students will continue to learn basic cooking and baking techniques, but with a twist – they will have a chance to sell items they make at the farmer’s markets. Perhaps their salads, breads and cookies will inspire their own cult following.

Roasting tomatillos

“When a student cooks for themselves, that’s one thing. But when a student cooks for somebody else, that takes it to a whole new level. You’re getting feedback from your community,” says Glaze.

Certainly Jose Castro has been Glaze’s most avid student, and she his most enthusiastic fan. Castro, a 20-year-old aspiring chef, helped Glaze inaugurate the first generation of Puente products after she tasted his tomatillo salsa.

“His salsa is off the hook. It’s exciting to watch a chef put out his products and have them be so well received,” she says.

Tomatillo Salsa, part of Puente’s new line of products

Puente’s product line sells up to 130 jars a month, though the returns are minimal.

Castro is manager of Puente’s farmer’s markets. He loves food more than anything else. All of a sudden, he finds himself collaborating with a gourmet chef. Two days a week, he and Glaze meet at a community kitchen. He’ll dice and roast the tomatillos; she’ll prepare a vat of charro beans, or make the barbecue sauce. He’s learned a lot already.

“For me to have a chef like her say it’s really, really good – it kind of raised my hopes for being a cook,” Castro says.

01 Jun 2012

Access to land and housing top concerns for South Coast food producers

Driving down the San Mateo County coast in springtime, motorists are likely to admire the verdant row crops and fields of grazing cattle that dot the roadside vistas near Pescadero. Few people know the South Coast’s sad little secret: finding land to farm and live on is so expensive that the lifestyle itself is in peril.

That’s what South Coast farmers and ranchers told Puente in response to a recent South Coast Agriculture Survey. Puente sought to identify ways it could help sustain food production and support a farm-based economy, the most important industry on the coast.

More than 50% of farmers in the area are first-time food producers, according to the survey. They quickly discover the struggle to hold on to valuable farmland. Property values reflect the greater Silicon Valley market, pushing land values into the range of $3 million for just a few acres of ranchland real estate. Buying is out of the question, so some operations lease their land from private owners or open space preservation groups like Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District or Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST).

But finding an affordable, long-term lease is one of the biggest challenges on the coast. Of 43 survey respondents (out of 120 surveyed), 75 percent said leases are not long-term enough, which acts as a disincentive to stay and invest in the land.

“How can we pass along our ranching opportunity to our kids? We need longevity. After all the work we’ve put in, we’d like to pass the lease on to our kids,” says Doniga Markegard, who owns Markegard Family Grass-Fed with her husband, Erik. Markegard conducted the agriculture survey for Puente and says many farming and ranching families have the same concerns.

The family raises grass-fed beef, lamb, pastured pork and free-range chicken eggs on a 3,000-acre rolling coastal range above San Gregorio. They rent the land, and the house, from POST. But the lease is short-term. Other farmers fear the land they lease may be sold.

This is where Puente has identified one of the biggest opportunities to help build relationships. Overwhelmingly, the agricultural community responded to the survey by asking Puente to help keep farming alive on the South Coast – a process Puente kicked off at its weekly Pescadero Grown! farmer’s markets. Now local food producers are looking to Puente to help with other challenges, such as the fact that rental housing is so expensive that it makes it impossible for farmers to live on their own land.

“The connection that Puente makes between food, farmers and farm workers is essential to the survival of the economy on the South Coast,” says Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel. “The Farmer’s Market is the biggest step so far, but only the first one.”

Puente put local farmers on the map last year – literally – by creating the area’s first Foodshed Map, thanks to Doniga Markegard. Puente connects farmers with farm workers looking for jobs. It helps bridge the language gap between managers and workers with its Spanish classes for English speakers, a program popular with the agriculture community. And bilingual Puente youth are on hand at farmer’s markets to help Spanish-speaking customers speak to vendors.

Going forward, Puente sees a new role for itself to help form mutually beneficial relationships between landowners and the agricultural community. Puente is thinking about hosting a land-linking mixer and will encourage open space agencies like POST to extend long-term leases to tenants.

San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley’s office, which includes the South Coast, is hard at work trying to make it easier for farmers and ranchers to build farm labor housing on their own land by addressing sticky permit issues and problems like the need for new septic tanks.

Horsley also wants to repair deterioriating farm worker housing, which often dates back to the 1960s or earlier. He has asked the Housing Department to set aside money for a low-interest loan program to give owners an incentive to update their housing stock.

Pescadero’s fertile fields won’t be enough to retain food producers if people are worried about housing and land succession, says Horsley.

“How do we get a new generation to take over and make sure the land stays in row crops and agriculture?” he asks.

 

To learn more about Pescadero Grown! and Puente’s connection with local farmers, visit www.pescaderogrown.org.