First Steps in Local Food

I'd like to start eating more local and organic food. I'm not ready to go 100% local since I don't know where to find everything I would need (especially grains). Also, if you need to know where all of your food comes from, it's very hard to eat out except at a few places. With my busy life, I eat at the cafeteria in our "office park" quite a lot and who knows where that food comes from. I don't know that I have time to buy and prepare all of my food. Still, a few steps in that direction would be a good idea.

Yesterday, we went to the Heart of the City farmer's market. Its located in the UN plaza in San Francisco, right across from City Hall. From what I'd read about it the prices are great but there isn't much organic food. Both of these proved to be true. The oddest thing about the market was that almost none of the farmers had signs to indicate the name of their farm or where they are located.

I found one certified organic farm. It was only from the organic certification attached to the stand that I learned that the farm was Ortiz Brothers and that they were from Santa Rosa (about 55 miles from the market). I happily bought some broccoli, bok choy and cilantro from the Ortiz farm for $5. He was friendly as well and didn't mind when I used a little beginner Spanish.

I bought a red cabbage from a stand not labeled organic since I love red cabbage and it was the only stand that had any of it. It was only $1. I asked the woman where the farm was. She got irritated, and said "everybody" asks that and that she considers anything within 250 miles local. She mentioned San Juan Bautista. When I got home I discovered that this is ~92 miles from the market near Hollister, so it was probably fairly local.

We also got red potatoes, garlic, onion and chile peppers from the largest stand in the market, closest to City Hall. Again no mention of organic or where the farm is. They were very busy so I didn't ask. When we got home we had a nice, home-cooked, fairly local meal.

In general, I was fairly disappointed with the market given the small amount of organic food and the difficulty in figuring out where it's from. I probably won't go out of my way to there; but if I'm walking by the Civic Center on a Sunday or Wednesday, I'll be looking for the Ortiz Brothers.