What’s that line around the block for? The Underground Farmer’s Market, of course!
Wow, so last night was the Underground Farmer’s Market, organized by ForageSF. For those of you unfamiliar with it…its a organized venue in which small, local and home producers and urban farmers can sell their goods. Vendors seem to be people who can’t or don’t produce on a large scale (ie providing economies of scale that might allow them to go legit) and in that vein, many are artisan or slow food producers…all organic jams made from seasonal ingredients found at local farmer’s markets, homemade kimchi and sauerkrauts, vegan flaxseed biscuits, etc. Pandora’s Bread Box fit right in…
My day began at 5:55 when my alarm went off and I realized whilst brushing my teeth that it was not 4:55 as I had wanted to get up at, but an hour later. Whhaaaatt? Had my subconscious mind tricked my hands into setting my alarm an hour later? Was I just a moron? Whatever the reason, it was an hour later, which meant I couldn’t produce all the baguettes I wanted to for the market. I was fuming, muttering to myself, kicking myself and feeling what an awful way to begin a day I’d been looking forward to for awhile now. And then I began thinking of how no good bread ever came from an upset body; my hands would just transmit my anger from my brain, down my arms and into the tender dough…mistreating it and resulting in a bread that was overworked and clearly under pressure. I mean, what was the point of the UFM? To connect people with their food directly; sell right to the customer, someone you knew was going to go home and eat your baguette or multi-grain loaf with dinner, and they know who you are, who made their bread, what is in it and how fresh it is. It wasn’t money or profit; the pace I work at and the scale I can produce guarantee that. So why be upset about not having 4 extra baguettes to sell? And I wasn’t.
So from then it was the steady stream of mixing (multi-grain), zesting, chopping, baking (currant oat scones), boiling (bagels), preshaping, shaping, proofing, baking, repeat….repeat….repeat. 10 multi-grain batards, 10 baguettes, 24 bagels, 36 scones and 30 biscotti.
By 3:30 we were out the door, heading over the bridge and I was exhausted. I couldn’t believe I had to stand for the next 5 hours selling; but we arrived and set up the table. Patricia and her crew arrived shortly afterwards with super-awesomely designed table made by Rob, and more fresh vegetables and greens than anyone knew what to do with. Their table looked amazing and the vegetables are delicious (mmmm…baby mustard greens, rosemary and meyer lemons). Thanks to them, the Underground Farmer’s Market actually had a “farmer” there.
You can check out Patricia’s great blog post about the market here:
Everything was pretty calm until about 5:30 and then the place got packed. There’s a word that is used to describe things like wildebeest stampedes, ants converging on a drop of honey, flocks of birds that block the view of the sky, the I80 in Berkeley at 4:30 on a Friday…such droves did these people come in that the crowd was at a virtual standstill for most of the night.
Given the crowds, Pandora’s Bread Box was sold out by 8pm except for the scones. Turns out, not unexpectedly, that people don’t really want to eat scones (except as tasters!) in the evening. There were lots of things like that that will help me recalibrate the offerings for the next market. The Multi-Grain Batards and Baguettes were sold out within the first hour and a half, so more of those next time.
Getting out was a mess, with Steven making multiple small trips down to the car throughout the night. I think the highlight for him was being able to walk to the front of the line to get back into market (Quote: “I’ve never been on the inside of something that many people wanted to get into…I feel so cool”.) For the last trip we had to take the table out; not easy given the crowds. But we got a little help parting the crowds; as Steve carried the table a guy yelled out “Hey, Ladies, Beep Beep, Cutie coming through with a table.” Come to think of it; maybe that was the highlight of his night.
So anyways it was lots of fun; really exhausting but I think we’ll do it again next time.
Here’s an article from the Examiner. Patricia is mentioned and check out the photo slideshow at the end…Foodscaping and Pandora’s Bread Box were highlighted!
Try-Outs for the UFM
Today were the try-outs for the Underground Farmer’s Market (UFM), designed to test whether our goods are really up to snuff. As always I veered towards overkill, baking 4 types of bread by 2pm (French Sweet Baguettes, Multi-Grain Batards, Dutch Crunch Rolls and Bagels).
I drove the still-warm bread lovingly packed into my “delivery box” to San Francisco only to knock on the wrong door and be brusquely told I was definitely at the wrong house and not one of the neighbors had the name of the guy I was looking for. Luckily I had seen a fellow friend and vendors car parked on the street so I knew I wasn’t crazy. Feeling incredibly hip to be pulling out my iPhone in the Mission on my way to a try-out for an Underground Farmer’s Market, I found the correct address and made my way.
The try-outs were more “Sit at my table, let’s talk about whatever for a little, I’m not going to try your stuff but leave it here and I’ll try it later and get back to you.” Incredibly anti-climatic as I’d brought a cutting board and knife to sample the warm bread and had expected more than a super-casual guy, sitting at his kitchen table with piles of home-produced goods all around him. But, that’s the thing of it; there can’t be any expectations for this kind of thing, it’s all new, its all evolving and changing as its being created. And we’re all changing it, by adding to it and contributing to it; it’s completely organic and like a breath of fresh air.
So we’ll see if I make it in. I want to be apart of this more than just to make a few extra bucks, but because I really believe it’s a great idea and finally I too have something to contribute to a great idea. I’ll keep you posted…
What are your thoughts? Any home-producers out there?
