San Francisco Food Blog

This Thursday, 4/30, instead of its usual wine tasting, 18 Reasons hosts the first in a series of presentations on seafood. This week, Marilyn Latta of the California Coastal Conservancy and Sumudu Welaratna of Bi-Rite Market will discuss the life cycles, habitats, and future of San Francisco Bay's shellfish. The evening will include a seafood pasta and hearty red wine. The event starts at 7:00 p.m. and costs $10 ($5 members).

Whether inspired by health-food notions, the "locavore" movement, Michael Pollan, or a simple desire to save money, these days lots of people are looking to buy their meat as whole animals, in bulk, and/or direct from the producers. If you're into bulk, here are some options:

Creston Valley Meats (3280 Calf Canyon Hwy, Creston, 805-286-7533): This plant processes beef, lamb, goat, rabbit, and llama (!) from ranchers in the Paso Robles area. They also have a large selection of bones, scraps, and innards they label as dog food. See the online store for current inventory or call for special requests or to arrange pickup in the Bay Area.

Nature's Bounty (5636 Weber Rd., Vacaville, 707-693-0908; no Web site): At this family-owned farm and halal processing facility you can pick your own naturally-fed, hormone-free lamb, goat, or cow, have it slaughtered and processed to your specifications, and take the meat home with you the same day. If you can't handle a whole beast, they'll match you up with other customers to share one. Nature's Bounty is open Friday-Sunday 8-5 or by appointment.

Inspired by health-food notions, the "locavore" movement, Michael Pollan, or a simple desire to save money, these days lots of people are looking to buy their meat as whole animals, in bulk, and/or direct from the producers. Buying networks and meat CSAs are two approaches:

Marin Sun Farms (Point Reyes Station, CA, 415-663-8997 x203): Following the same community-supported agriculture model used by many local farms, members of Marin Sun's Meat Club CSA pay in advance for monthly assortments of the farm's grass-fed, organic beef, lamb, mutton, goat, pork, veal, chicken, and duck. They offer ten different packages of from 5 to 24 pounds, and the cost varies from $30 to $198 a month, paid 6 or 12 monthes in advance. They say this saves members up to 20% compared with purchasing the same products at their shop or farmers market stands.

Janine Kahn

Samovar's third SF location is built into a Hayes Valley Victorian.

CNET reports that today is Square Root Day since the month and day (number 3) are both the square root of the year (09). The holiday is credited to a Redwood City teacher named Ron Gordon, and, according to the story, "celebrants are expected to mark the occasion by cutting root vegetables into squares or preparing other foods in the shape of the square root symbol." Get chopping those veggies today, folks, because the next Square Root Day isn't until April 4, 2016. The one after that: May 5, 2025.

Inside Outerlands (4001 Judah), a welcome new addition to an increasingly more charming collection of businesses on the last few blocks where Judah ends at Ocean Beach, the use of mixed wood helps continue the feeling of water, sand and salty air.

Soups, salads and sides are the name of the game (for the moment at least), with a focus on organic ingredients from Northern California; the salad greens come from Heirloom Organics in Hollister, for example. There's also a rotating beer selection as well as organic, biodynamic and sustainable wine from France, Germany and Ukiah.

Executive Chef Jonnatan Leiva of Jack Falstaff (398 2nd St.) has planned a whole new set of "Growers Dinners" for 2009 in order to bring diners closer to where their food comes from and the people that are responsible for it, from the farmers to the chefs.

We spoke with the affable Leiva back in November as he was preparing a bison and beer dinner. His passion for food, cooking and bringing people together is infectious.


The first event of the year takes place tomorrow night, followed by one Growers Dinner per month. The current schedule is as follows:

•Tuesday, February 24: Hamada Farms Dinner with exotic fruit and vegetable grower Cliff Hamada and chef Staffan Terje (Perbacco)

•Tuesday, March 24: Liberty Duck Dinner with Jim Reichardt of Sonoma County Poultry and chef Jen Biesty (Scala's Bistro/Top Chef)

•Tuesday, April 21: Pozzi Lamb Growers Dinner with Joe Pozzi and chef Jonnatan Leiva

•Tuesday, May 19: Wine Forest Mushroom Dinner with Jamie Lauren (Absinthe/Top Chef) and Connie Green of Wine Forest Mushrooms

•Tuesday, June 23: Bohemian Creamery Cheese Dinner with cheese makers Miriam Block and Lisa Gottreich and chef Dominique Crenn (Luce)

Growers Dinners at Jack Falstaff are $85 per person (excluding tax and gratuity, including wine pairings), and begin with a reception at 6 p.m., with dinner served one hour later. Call 836-9239 for more information and reservations.

When I visited Boccalone to try their new sandwiches, they also gave me a tub of their new-to-me pork butter, which I was too full to try at the time. This is a concoction chef Chris Cosentino came up with to use the renderings, tasty bits of meat, skin, and whatnot left over from making lard, that would otherwise be wasted.

The renderings are puréed with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary, resulting in a creamy spread that tastes a lot like rillettes (French potted pork), only lighter. It's delicious on crusty bread or crackers, even better on warm toast. At $5 for a one-pound tub, it's one of the few bargains in the Ferry Building.

Huddler's Green Home, an online community for the eco-friendly, will step out of the virtual land to host a real world event with "A Taste of Green." The 90-minute sampling (with gift bags!) of organic products, beverages (tea, beer, wine, cocktails) and snacks begins Thursday, February 19 at 7 p.m. at the sustainable living store Spring (2162 Polk). Admission is free; email cristina@huddler.com if you want to guarantee your personal admission in the event that it gets crowded.

Enthusiasm for local / sustainable / do-it-yourself meat seems to be hitting a new peak, with a slew of events over the next month and a half at which carnivores can study, taste, and feast on all things fleshy:

Saturday, 2/14, 8am-4pm: the Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology's Meet Your Meat series launches with visits to Devil's Gulch Ranch and Clark Summit Farm including a potluck lunch ($5 donation requested)

Thursday, 2/19, 7pm, UC Berkeley: Local Slaughterhouses, Local Meat, Meet Your Meat panel discussion with Sallie Calhoun (Cutting Edge Meat, Inc., Paicines Ranch), Sam Goldberger (North Coast Meats), Mac Magruder (Magruder Ranch), Mark Pasternak (Devil's Gulch Ranch), Paul Canales (Oliveto), Marsha McBride (Café Rouge), and journalist Heather Smith as moderator ($5 donation requested)