SF Underground Farmers Market
In an article published in the April 10th, 2011 New York Times Sunday edition of the travel section on page 4 entitled “A Renegade Market Opensâ€, author Brendan Spiegel writes about a group of new bee cooks, people with a knack for cooking and a passion for taste who are meeting at a monthly underground market gatherings around the city of San Francisco.
Leave it to the city of San Francisco to sprout such a wonderful idea and the people of San Francisco to make it all happen. The SF Underground Market as it’s called is a monthly meet-up group that allows its members to come together and for a small entrance fee ($5 dollars) to bring their take-home products and sell them. The space that they use provide commercial kitchens and licenses where people interested in selling their cooking delights can become a part of the growing number of vendors we find at regular farmers markets. The article describes how many vendors are finding this to be a way to get them established and grow into larger mainstream market places.
Such grass-roots initiatives are ones that I find particularly attractive as places to not only find a delightful new way to cook up a hearty helping of kale or perhaps a good chunk of squash, but also a way to reconnect and support your community. I like knowing that the dollars I spend at local market can be seen going to people who I recognize weekly by face and name and whom I take time to have a conversation or two about how life is going. It’s also an opportunity to try out a new recipe and see if your taste buds lend themselves to others and perhaps you may find yourself wanting to cook up more and take up a new hobby, or better yet a new entrepreneurial adventure. If you attend the SF Underground Market or any of the other wonderful events listed at the website such as “wild edible food walks†or “underground dinners†let me know what you dig up and hopefully you will come out belly full and chef inspired.
