Former Zuni Cafe chef's secret: This decades-old SF farmers market
On a recent Sunday morning, a chilly fog blanketed San Francisco's Civic Center. At 7 a.m., the surrounding streets of Polk, Market and Van Ness Avenue were totally quiet. But walking toward Larkin Street, through the Civic Center Plaza , toward Fulton Plaza, you could hear hustle and bustle. The rustle of plastic bags, the banter of customers, the smell of hot food and fresh flowers. The Heart of the City Farmers Market was just opening up to feed not only the underserved community of the Tenderloin, but anyone shopping for fresh produce. Including chefs .
"You can get anything here," said Ken Turner, owner of Turner's Kitchen in San Francisco. The former Zuni Cafe chef shops here every Sunday and Wednesday morning, the two days the market is open, and buys all of his produce for the chef-driven sandwiches that he makes. "What I love about this market is the availability of great produce and that it's so affordable," he said.
As he walked from stall to stall, he chatted up the farmers that he has gotten to know over the years. He pointed out the unboiled, raw peanuts, Indian bitter melon and Earliglow strawberries, ingredients not often found at places like Whole Foods, and certainly not for "half as much." He picked out some figs, which are just coming into season, and took a bite. "You just can't beat this quality," he said with a subtle grin.
Turner has been shopping at Heart of the City Farmers Market since he opened his shop, back in 2015. But the market itself, which has been in the middle of the Civic Center since 1981, is known for its remarkable Market Match program , just as much as its chef-approved produce. Despite the challenges that face the Tenderloin, the state's largest food access program is a bright ray of light beneath a gray cloud of media fear-mongering.
After surviving "trying" times, like the early part of the pandemic and other challenges — including a relocation earlier this year — HOTC is "currently in a good space," said Steve Pulliam, executive director of the market.
"We've proven to be one of the only ones that can activate that plaza," he said. "You'll find that really the only time that it's really occupied is when we're open."
The market, a joint project of the American Friends Service Committee and the Market Street Association, debuted on June 14, 1981. From the get-go, its mission was to help feed the underserved members of the community.
"We're in an area that has very few options to get produce — it's a lot of liquor stores and convenience stores," Pulliam explained. "It was like that back then and, to be honest with you, it hasn't changed much today. It certainly is a much-needed service in this community."
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Tony Mellow, owner of Mellow's Farm and Nursery in Morgan Hill, has been coming to HOTC "since the day it opened." Wearing a large cowboy hat and a mustache just as big, Mellow explained that his family has been farming in the South Bay since the late 1800s. He transports his produce, such as plums, peaches and pears, in old, dark, wooden crates as opposed to the more common industrial plastic crates. He has over 5,000 of them and some of them were used as far back as the 1950s, he said.
The Heart of the City Farmers Market is unique in two ways. As the largest food access program in the state, through the Market Match program, a state initiative that matches customers' CalFresh EBT benefits, HOTC distributed over $2 million in food assistance.
If a customer spends up to $30 using their EBT card, they receive a matching amount in voucher "money" to spend at the market ($30 is the monthly maximum). HOTC matched nearly $2.5 million in EBT card purchases last year, which is by far the largest amount in the state, according to Pulliam.
That money goes directly to the farmers. "That's an extra $2 million that they wouldn't have otherwise," Pulliam said. "As you can imagine, it's [also] quite a savings for people that are struggling to put food on the table."
As an independent, farmer-operated market, HOTC runs a bit differently than other farmers markets. Every two years, the 30 farmers who make up HOTC vote to select a council of five of their peers to govern the market. It was founded this way and is still the only market in San Francisco to run this way. It makes for a farmer-first organization. For example, in some markets, if a farmer doesn't show up they still have to pay a fee for the stall. Not at HOTC. For that reason, many of the farmers who come to the Civic Center have been doing so since the beginning. The newer farmers love the market, too.
Second-generation farmer Rudy Jimenez, owner of Green Thumb Farms in San Juan Bautista, appreciates the role education plays in the market's mission. He launched the farm in 2015 after taking college classes in organic farming. He has been selling an array of vegetables like rainbow Swiss chard, purple broccolini and Redbor kale, at HOTC since at least 2020 .
"We want to provide an education for people who see the value in their health," he said.
Education has been part of Pulliam's work from the start. Early in his career as a compliance officer, he participated in the outreach program that would meet at nearby single room occupancy buildings to educate Tenderloin residents about the importance of eating fresh food — and finding it at HOTC.
"One thing that really makes me proud is that some of those same people that I was giving talks to 10 years ago, I got them to come to the market and they still come," Pulliam said. "I still see them today and I get to say hello."
