slowpoke_sf/Flickr

The underground market

​Health inspectors are holding the line on their decision to shut down the popular ForageSF underground food market, insisting in a meeting yesterday with ForageSF founder Iso Rabins that vendors obtain necessary licenses before the market can reopen.

Rabins tells SF Weekly that the meeting with officials from the San Francisco Department of Public Health "didn't go great. Basically what they're saying is that for them to be able to okay the event, I need to bring all the vendors up to code."

On Saturday, inspectors shut down the market. They had previously permitted it -- even though its vendors don't prepare their products in commercial kitchens, as is required by food regulations -- on the rationale that it was a private, "members-only" event. Patrons were able to sign up for a membership online, or pay a $5 fee to enter the market.

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Jake Poehls

Iso Rabins

​San Francisco health inspectors abruptly shut down the "underground" market run by wild-foods cooperative ForageSF last weekend, calling the future of the event into question as its popularity continues to grow.

ForageSF founder Iso Rabins told SF Weekly that he was issued a cease-and-desist order by two officials from the Department of Public Health at the market on Saturday. He said he will meet with health inspectors on Thursday to try to determine a way to bring the market into line with regulations governing food vendors, which it has so far managed to circumvent.

"I can't do it again until I meet with them and figure out how to do it legally," he said.

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Jesse Friedman/newtastemarket

Peter Gardner of Peter's Sausage.

​May New Taste Marketplace

Where: St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, 500 De Haro (at Mariposa)

When: Sat., May 14, noon-5 p.m.

Cost: Bring cash for food, and to donate to the Food Pantry and St. Gregory's

The rundown: Pop-up markets are the America's Got Talent of food startups, a booking agent list's worth of cooks, bakers, and coffee roasters, all hungry to become the next Ritual or 4505 Meats. At Saturday's May edition of the New Taste Marketplace, you'll get to vote for your favorites ― with your wallet. Candidates for your greenbacks: smoked pork shoulder with savory strawberry risotto from Misison Gastroclub, paired with SodaCraft's smoked strawberry vanilla soda; lamb merguez from Peter's Sausage; organic Nicaraguan coffee (in brewed and bean form) from Old Skool Cafe; and the Nutless Professor's nut- and gluten-free black rice cheddar crunch caramels with black rice and black rice crunch mix.

Albert Law

Duck confit gnocchi with wild cherry-brown butter duck jus, from SF Delicious.

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Albert Law

​San Francisco's monthly Underground Market took over Public Works in double shifts Saturday, when a couple of dozen food vendors held down the day shift, followed by another 30 or so for the Night Market.

Photographer Albert Law picked through the crowds to capture some images as the sun went down and beers were cracked.

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View San Francisco Farmers Markets 2011 in a larger map

Hey, remember when we said that if you wanted a farmers' market on Monday or Friday, you were SOL? Well, as of today, that's no longer true. A brand-spankin'-new market has bloomed in a public plaza at 50 Fremont in the Financial District. Its one-page website promises fresh fruits and veggies, as well as "lots of pastries, chocolates, flowers, organic vegan ice cream, agave ices, [and] music to lose the Monday blues." As of press time we have no information on which farms will be represented or whether this is intended to be a seasonal market or ongoing, but at any rate, it's a ray of light on the otherwise market-bleak Monday slot. Now, who's taking up Fridays?

Luis C./Yelp

​Mission Community Market

Where: Bartlett between 21st and 22nd Streets

When: Tonight, April 14, 4-8 p.m.

Cost: Free

The rundown: The Mission Community Market: It's not just for summer anymore. It debuted last year to much cross-cultural fanfare, and this time it's arriving early and running all year long. The centerpiece of tonight's market is the unveiling of a 200-year-old mural, but there'll also be hip-hop dancing, Latin music, and (of course) loads of tasty street food. Vendors include the recently controversial Chaac Mool, Dontaye Ball's Good Foods BBQ, Mission Pie, Arizmendi Bakery, and much more. You should probably leave work early; the event is starting right about now.

New York refugee Jesse Hirsch tweets at @Jesse_Hirsch. Follow SFoodie at @sfoodie, and like us on Facebook.

CUESA

Fava greens at the Saturday Ferry Plaza market, $6 per pound.

​SFoodie's countdown of our 92 favorite things to eat and drink in San Francisco, 2011 edition.

​As the winter rains fade and the sun finally shines on the city's farmers' markets, perhaps the last thing you want to fill your sack with is another mass of leafy greens. After all, the entire winter you've had chard, collards, chard, braising mixes, chard, dandelion greens, chard, and once in a while, a little chard. Spring brings the hope of nubile, tender greens like spinach and pea shoots to the Saturday Ferry Plaza farmers' market. Ready for a little secret? Our favorite spring green isn't a spring green at all. Tairwa'-Knoll Farms' fava greens evoke the brightness and freshness of springtime but have actually been at your fingertips all winter long.

Grower Rick Knoll introduced fava greens to Bay Area chefs more than a dozen years ago. He and his wife, Kristie, spotted favas growing as cover crops on farms in Southern Italy, a practice they copied back home in Brentwood in eastern Contra Costa County. "One day I was walking around the fields and just picked off a leaf and ate it," he says. "I thought, 'Oh my god, this is delicious.'" Paul Bertolli was the first chef to embrace fava greens, back when he was at Oliveto. Since then, Knoll says he's been trying to persuade chefs there and at Chez Panisse, Boulevard, and more recently at Gather, to stop thinking of fava leaves as a spring green and feature them when they're at their lushest, around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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Little City Gardens

If tomorrow's amended ordinance passes, it'll mean small urban farms like Little City Gardens will be able to sell produce without securing zoning exemptions.

​In February, S.F.'s Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve new rules for urban agriculture, allowing small growers like Little City Gardens to sell produce grown within city limits. The proposal (introduced by Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor David Chiu) passed the Land Use and Economic Development Committee last month, and tomorrow, April 19, the proposal faces its final vote before the Board of Supervisors. As it stands now, you need a special (read: expensive) permit to legally sell any food you grow in San Francisco (Ghost Town farmer Novella Carpenter has run up against similar rules in Oakland). After moving to a larger urban farm in the Outer Mission last year, Little City's Brooke Budner and Caitlyn Galloway learned they'd need to spend several months and several thousand dollars to get a conditional-use permit to sell. If passed, the new urban ag ordinance will allow commercial gardens smaller than one acre in all parts of the city, and allow those gardens to sell their produce. Eventually, that should make it easier for both restaurants and home cooks who shop farmers' markets to source foods grown locally -- like, city-and-county-grade local.

We're blessed to live in a part of the world where we have access to fresh, ripe, unadulterated fruit, plucked at local farms and brought to our very fingertips at a bevy of farmers' markets across the city. In fact, the handful of farmers' markets not open all year here is small. Now spring is springing, and those few seasonal markets such as Castro, Upper Haight, and Mission Bay are beginning to open up like the first crocuses of the season.

The last few years have seen a major proliferation of neighborhood markets, and even local hospitals have taken small markets under their wings. Consequently, the distribution is so broad it's no inconvenience to hit one up, even on a work day.

That said, note that the lion's share of markets is on weekends and midweek (pro tip: make that doctor's appointment for a Wednesday), so make sure you don't have an urgent need for stinging nettles on a Monday or Friday, lest you find yourself out of luck.

We've charted the San Francisco farmers' markets (above) for easy reference about days and locations, using a festive, Easter-esque pastel palette: pink pins for Saturday markets; purple for Sunday; yellow for Tuesday; turquoise for Wednesday; and green for Thursday.

Saturday
• Ferry Plaza: 8 a.m.-2 p.m., year round
• Noe Valley: 24th Street between Sanchez and Vicksburg, 8 a.m.-1 p.m., year round
• Fillmore: O'Farrell at Fillmore, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., year round
• Alemany: 100 Alemany, dawn to dusk, year round

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Sean Timberlake

Can a mess of avocados and you'll have access to green stuff all year long.

​One of the surest signs of spring at our markets is the appearance of avocados, starting with the smooth-skinned bacon variety and leading up to the more popular, creamy Hass, so well suited to guacamole. But what to do with an abundance of alligator pears?

Avocados famously brown almost immediately after being cut open, so storage is an issue. For short-term storage, a swab of lemon juice and a tight cover with plastic wrap will stave off the ugliness for a short time. For longer-term solutions, you might need to step it up and put it up. Then, you can crack open a jar of creamy, green goodness at your convenience.

If you want to keep it simple, can it in chunks or as a puree. Or why not jazz it up with some exotic Indian spices for a sexy avocado chutney? For that matter, why not just go for the gold, er, green, and can yourself some guacamole? Click to find out how!