During our visit to the Ferry Building Marketplace, we paid attention to the individual shops, specializing in all types of goods, and it was soon obvious there was a pattern behind the entire place. Those behind this local, seasonal, artisanal mall explain their mission as not only to support the revitalization of the San Francisco waterfront and the use of local transit and ferries, but as a sort of exhibit hall for sustainable wares.

“We are creating a community of like-minded people that will:

• Showcase small regional producers that practice traditional farming or production techniques and who develop personal relationships with their customers.
• … serve and an incubator for artisan producers who are returning to sustainable methods of agriculture and production.”

Here, you can find everything from organic and antibiotic/hormone-free meats to caviar bars, but the focus is on knowing where your food comes from.

The family-owned Farm Fresh to You sells organic produce straight from their farm, specializing in heirloom varieties of produce, like 19th century Brandywine tomato that can be traced back to an 1800s Ohio farm family.

The cheeseshop, the Cowgirl Creamery, highlights cheeses from their own Point Reyes-based cheese-making facility as well as artisanal producers from other parts of the U.S., Canada, Italy, Spain, France and Greece.

There’s even a nod to wild products at Far West Fungi where you can purchase not only fresh or dried mushrooms for cooking, but also medicinal mushroom supplements, and mushroom logs to grow your own at home.

In this video, we take a walk through this eco mall, or perhaps more appropriately, this incubator for local artisans.