We were down at the Heart of the City Farmer's Market again today, and we were glad to see the sign above. Looks like the market managed to worm its way out from under the powerful Newsom thumb, and will continue to remain a nonprofit. Yay! But, the other side of the sign revealed a tougher, more insidious threat to the market. Find out what it is after the jump!......

Hey, are you doing anything tomorrow night? If you're like us and you love the Heart of the City Farmers' Market (Wednesdays and Sundays on UN Plaza), you might want to consider going to City Hall, sidestepping the throngs of happy marrying couples, and going to room 250 at 5:00. See, Mayor Gavin has introduced legislation that would turn the operation of the market over to the city's Real Estate division, taking it away......

We shamelessly stole today's photo of the day from SF Metblogs. It was reportedly taken at the Ferry Building's farmers market. And while we can imagine such a gruesome display occurring in more exotic parts of the city, we always thought this kind of scene was better hidden at downtown's farmers market. Tsk, tsk. Shameful. Credit: Richard Ault......

Hi, guys. What's up? Great. So...huh, how do we put this delicately without hurting anyone's feelings? Ahem, the next time there's a truck in the middle of Civic Center selling nothing but delicious waffles, and no one mentions it to us before said truck sells out of said waffles? We will go Carrie on all of you. (With you in the Betty Buckley role, of course, because you are the most caring readers.) Why,......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

This Saturday at the San Francisco Embarcadero Hyatt Regency from noon-4 p.m., you can join KGO Radio and the Mendocino Wine Growers Foundation in celebration of the wines and other good stuff from Mendocino County. The event, called "Wine By The Bay 2007,", is $35 if you buy your ticket now; it'll be ten buck more ($45) at the door. What's exciting to us is that Friend of SFist, Destination Dinners' Lisa Diamond, is scheduled to be interviewed by KGO's Gene Burns during the event for his "Dining Around" program....

We had a good time going through the recipes and eating stories in Street Food, the new book by wunderkind Tom Kine - that is, when we got over the insane jealousy. He got a book contract to travel for three months and eat all he could! How do we get something like that? We're excited to try his takes on bolani (Afghan flat bread) and Kadu (roast pumpkin paste), which he got from......

Yummy photo courtesy of Dinner Party -One new blog we're eyeing is Dinner Party, who recently put the jam in jammy by making strawberry balsamic jam. We like and find heartwarming the idea of family members sharing a love of food and cooking, what can we say? -Yee-haw! A slew of Bay Area food bloggers get down and dirty at Alemany farm. There are other volunteer opps at the farm, and you won't get......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Our favorite Bay Area foodie starchild, and Omnivore’s Dilemma author, Michael Pollan, was at it again Wednesday night. He moderated a panel to discuss the 2007 Farm Bill on the UC Berkeley campus. The Farm Bill -– which gets reviewed about every five years – has been under the spotlight this year. ...

When visiting your republican parents in Ohio for the holidays, it can be hard to have a satisfying conversation over the dinner table. Worry not, we found a fantastic ice-breaker at the Alemany Farmer's Market. ...

On Thursday morning, we bent our self imposed no-drinks-before-noon"guideline" and attended a fun food and wine event. What made this invite stand out was that the wine tasting, Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2006, was tied to an important cause, the San Francisco Food Bank. Had we known we would be able to witness and talk to a good natured young woman dressed in a gigantic Beaujolais Nouveau costume we would've RSVP'd even sooner. Oh, and did we mention we dig romantic French accordion music by Odile Lavault while we sip and nibble? ...

You won't find jujubes at your average farmer's market stall. If you want to buy the olive-sized, black and brown fruits, hunt out Asian-themed markets or tables selling Asian ingredients. We're not sure why Chinese dates, as they're also called, haven't made more inroads into Western cuisine, though some historians think that Homer's lotus-eaters were riding a jujube high. The chalky texture of a raw jujube isn't very appealing, but the flavor—a subtle mix......

There's a lot of tastiness going on tonight on both sides of the bay. Here in SF, there's the "Tastes of the City" event for young philanthropists - we're just giddy thinking that some of the Hot 20 under 40 might be there. Aiming at opening the designer wallets and handbags to kick down to charity, this party features food and beverages from the Bay Area's top restaurants and beverage companies including: Frisson, Vignette,......

Last week we were shopping at a local farmer's market and overheard two women discussing what to buy for dinner. "How about spinach?" said one. The other greeted her suggestion with a smirk and they both nervously chuckled before moving on to other vegetables in the stand. These days, it's not easy being greens. No sooner had newspapers tired of the spinach-borne E. Coli onslaught than another Salinas company issued a voluntary recall on......

A few years back we had to spend some time in Vegas on business. This was before they had a Whole Paycheck. We were determined we were going to buy at least some local vegetables and tried to search out the farmer's markets. Silly us, Vegas really is in the middle of the desert, so the produce that some poor farmer schlepped in from California for the markets--not so much. This experience did, however,......

Tomato crops haven't fared well in California's recent heat wave, which might explain why market stalls aren't overflowing with the iconic summer vegetables. We spotted some recently, and took some home for a tomato tasting in the SFist test kitchen. Honest, we came up with this idea before the New York Times ran an article about a similar tasting . We used tomatoes from the Grand Lake Farmer's Market and stored them at room......

As much as we enjoy planning dinners, sometimes we just want to assemble a quick meal from fresh ingredients at the farmer's market. How often do you get to the many markets here in the Bay Area? If you haven't been in a while, we'd like to urge you visit your neighborhood market and taste the treats on display. Scrumptious stone fruits such as cherries and nectarines are at the peak of their flavor......

We geeked out on garlic last year, so we instantly recognized the twisty garlic scapes at the Grand Lake farmer's market last week. A scape is the stem that shoots through the middle of a bulb of hardneck garlic, the more flavorful subspecies of that aromatic bulb, which we'll cover a bit more in July or August. Thin garlic scapes bend into graceful arcs as they emerge from the soil, creating a striking vegetable.......

We first learned about sorrel from our food writing idol Ed Behr, who devotes a chapter of The Artful Eater to the distinctive herb and its history. Behr takes his cue from French cuisine and uses it in salads, soups, and sauces.We've kept that essay in mind, and pounced on the vibrant vegetable when we saw it at the Berkeley farmers' market. The tapered point of a bright green sorrel leaf stands out at......

Any post that starts "I'm in a light, summery mood today," in spite of the weather, well, that deserves to lead off the round-up this week. The rain's affecting everyone, including Cookiecrumb up in Marin, so we can only imagine the impact this is having on larger farmers and growers. For us, when the weather gets too awful, we always like tea. We like the steam and sweets and the way it makes us feel......

The poor lemon. It's so common that you ignore it even in the midst of its high season. But we tend to agree with Chez Panisse Fruit, which lists this tart fruit as a cooking staple. No one will be surprised to learn that the book's authors dote on the low-acid Meyer lemons, which have become a defining ingredient in California cuisine. But nothing beats the mouthpuckering juice of a Eureka or Lisbon lemon,......

Ready, aim.... and look out for firebugs this Saturday at the Noe Valley Farmers Market, as the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) and the SF Fire Department highlight this month's safety theme, "Light My Fire And Put It Out Safely Month." (that's an awesome theme.) So along with your organic oranges and leafy greens, reps from the fire department will be setting fires in the parking lot and inviting local residents to put them out. You're encouraged to bring your home fire extinguisher so you can practice using it too. We're so intrigued by this combination of "what a great idea!" and "what a terrible idea!" that this represents that we've gotta check this out. NERT runs free disaster-prep training classes throughout the city and works with neighborhood groups to coordinate emergency plans. For instance, NERT, working with the Noe Valley groups, learned that their plans to use the James Lick Middle School parking lot as their post-disaster staging area was in conflict with the school's plans to use that same parking lot to gather students. It may not matter, though, because both NERT and the school then subsequently learned that city experts are saying that the parking lot's retaining wall may collapse in an earthquake anyways. Note to self: don't go into the James Lick parking lot after an earthquake. ...

Who Pays For 7x7? Suckers, that's who. A treatise on the quality of this magazine is perhaps best left for another day, and for other people to make. After all, what business do we, a ground-floor, citizen-based blog enterprise, have bashing our betters in the antique (i.e., published using "ink") media? However, we will say this: were we ever to actually want to read 7x7, we would never pay for it. It's free everywhere.......

I rely on a number of high-quality producers for the Kitchen column. Some I've written about in depth, some make frequent cameo appearances. Here are the unsung (at least at this site) producers I relied on in 2005. Fatted Calf Great charcuterie is hard to find. No wonder, then, that Fatted Calf has a cult following among cured meat connoisseurs. Taylor and Toponia, who started the business with their own savings, use top-notch ingredients to......

Boy--we sure love completely subjective awards, and we're super thankful for a chance to give out a few of our own. People who've been reading our "Trimethyldioxypurist" missives will not be especially surprised by the winners. For those who are strangers to our periodic ramblings about coffee and cafes around the City by the Bay, here are our favorites among the many, many cool, delicious, and often unique coffee choices at which we overcaffeinated......

Dark greens last week, turnips this week. If you need proof that winter is here, the produce at local farmer's markets drives the point home. On the other hand, Kitchen photographer Melissa spotted a late batch of strawberries at the Grand Lake Farmer's Market, and we've spotted tomatoes recently as well. And we wonder why other parts of the country envy our markets. Oddball summer produce aside, root vegetable season has returned, and carrots,......

When it came time to pick the best place to shop for food, we fretted over the decision. We knew the winner would be a farmer's market, since seasonal produce bought from local farmers beats virtually every store's fruits and vegetables. But which market to choose? The Bay Area probably has more farmer's markets per capita than anywhere else, each with its own personality and devotees. The Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market gets plenty of......

Though this column usually focuses on farmer's market finds, we want to occasionally offer some advice on common kitchen techniques. Great ingredients make great food, but so do great skills. Have something you'd like us to discuss? Send us an email or leave a comment. A freezerful of stock is a cook's secret weapon. Create buttery, flavorful boiled rice by using stock in place of water. Make extraordinary soups with homemade stock. Finish a......

SF Anglophiles, take those cozies off your pot of Lovejoy's tearoom blend -- Prince Charles and Princess Camilla (recently upgraded from "the Rottweiler" to the more august-sounding "Duchess of Cornwall") have announced the West Coast itinerary for their first joint official royal tour, of those rebellious American states. While in SF, Charles and Camilla are scheduled to: visit a farmers' market to learn about organic produce; give speeches about the environment; dine at the DeYoung with our own crown prince, the Viscount Gavin of Marina, and -- but of course! -- go see Beach Blanket Babylon. (We're sure their original first choice was the Buffy musical -- curse you, Fox!) This gives us a great idea -- hey Londonist! Any chance we could get some acerb commentary on the royals for us, in exchange for a post for you about your hereditary fox hunters trying to sneak into Trannyshack? Let us know!...