Heart of the City Farmers Market located in the Civic Center.

In 2006, I reported here about the Heart of the City Farmers Market, the oldest farmers market in San Francisco. Heart of the City has been in existence for 26 years, and is held each Wednesday from 7:00 am to 5:30 pm and each Sunday from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. Even the hours of the market give you the clue that this is not the normal market that we have in the city -- most other markets run for half days or a few hours each week.

There are several reasons to specifically attend the Heart of the City Farmers Market, which I remembered when attending both the Wednesday and the Sunday markets last week.

1) It's a bargain. At Heart of the City, you can expect to leave with bags of produce spending very little money. The market location is a low-income area, and fruits and vegetables are priced to attract the neighbors. As a result, you will find very little organic produce, but you will find great produce from hard-working, local farmers.

Green garlic available in abundance this week.

2) Phan Farms. This is a farm that grows Asian produce in Sacramento. Recently, a friend mentioned that we have local dragon fruit available to us. I somewhat incredulously asked her what farmer was growing it, as it's pretty unusual in our part of the world. When she told me Phan Farm, I wrote, "Thanks - I should have known. When in doubt, the answer is always Phan Farms." Phan is the place you go when you need specialty Asian fruits and vegetables, or just to see produce that usually can't be found at local farmers markets. This week, I picked up some young ginger from them. Phan Farms attends the Heart of the City Market on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Rare bergamot lemons from De Santis Farm.

3) De Santis Farm. This is a farm out of the Central Valley that grows many different varieties of citrus. Over the course of a year, I buy green walnuts, Buddha's hand, pomelos, delicious Satsuma mandarins, and any variety of specialty citrus from this farming family. Last week, De Santis had bergamot lemons. They set me back a whopping $9 for two, but it was fun to try out this unusual fruit. De Santis attends the market on Wednesdays only.

4) Waffle Mania. There is quite a stir happening on the Internet about a waffle maker who drives his truck into local farmers markets and serves up delicious Belgian waffles. When I tasted the waffles, it took me back to the same delectable that I'd eaten walking around the streets of Europe many years ago. The only time you can have these waffles in San Francisco proper is Wednesday mornings at the Heart of the City Market.

If you are a farmers market shopper, I can't recommend this market enthusiastically enough. It's a part of San Francisco's history, is a vibrant market full of a representative cross-section of San Franciscans, and an enjoyable place to shop.

Heart of the City Farmers Market
Market Street
(between Seventh and Eighth streets)
(415) 558-9455
Wednesdays, 7:00 am - 5:30 pm
Sundays, 7:00 am - 5:00 pm

Huckleberry Potatoes, Little Organic Farm

Open many books about fresh vegetables and you will find a section in which the author laments about the commonality of the term "new potatoes." We've all seen new potatoes referred to on menus and in supermarkets across the country, but the truth is that what we find are rarely true new potatoes.

"Real new potatoes are harvested from the plant's trailing underground roots while the plant is still growing. They tend to be small and their skins are thin and flaky. They are prized for their fine, delicate flavor, so if you find them -- usually when the first early summer crop is still weeks from harvest ... nab them. I've never seen them sold anywhere but at the farmers' markets and roadside stands, but they may start appearing in specialty markets."

-- Jeff Cox, The Organic Cook's Bible

I smiled this week as I read in the CUESA Newsletter that Little Organic Farm would be returning to the market for a new season. Dave Little farms in Marin County and brings some of the best potatoes you'll ever have to our Bay Area Farmers' Markets. I buy his potatoes from the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market or the Sunday San Rafael market.

Dave Little in his field, Tomales, Ca

"This year's crop looks really good. The taste is going to be very good, though the drier spring may mean lower yields," says Dave Little about his potatoes. Little Organic Farm practices dry farming, a method of growing in which the farmer plants in wet soil and then does not typically add additional water to the crop as it grows. When potatoes are grown this way, the resultant product is a potato that is high in sugar content and wonderfully flavored. The potatoes have a lower water content and therefore a higher concentration of potato flavor. The trade-off is a very low crop yield. "Farmers who water their crops get a yield of 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of potatoes per acre. We're lucky to get 10,000 pounds," said Dave Little in a phone interview.

Bay Area chefs also love the flavor of Little's potatoes. Range, MarketBar, and Greens are among restaurants that buy Little Organic Farm potatoes for their menus.

All of this potato goodness is made even better when you can buy new potatoes that have been freshly dug. The potatoes that Little had at the market this weekend had been hand dug on Friday and obviously had never been put into storage. If you get a chance to taste them, you will quickly understand why these potatoes are so prized among those of us who seek out new potatoes.

Warm Potato Salad with Bacon

To celebrate the new potato harvest and in honor of the Fourth of July, I made a warm potato salad with bacon that was inspired by a recipe in this month's Gourmet magazine. The recipe seems to be very forgiving to changes. First of all, use your judgment with their suggested cooking time. I found 30 minutes to be too long, and pulled the potatoes out after about 20 minutes. While I followed the general idea of the recipe, I added shallots into the vinegar and tossed them with the warm potatoes because I didn't have chives. Then to add a bit of green in at the end, I chopped up some Ancho Cress -- a spicy green that I picked up this weekend from Marin Roots Farm.

The result was delicious, and a great way to show off the amazing flavor of new potatoes.