The UrbanFarmJunkie Vacations

Greetings, Marketgoers. I'm currently typing this post on my mother's ancient keyboard because--yes--the family is on a visit to California. (Therefore please forgive the teeny phone photos and ill-formatted post.) Witness this postcard from our hike in the Stout Grove of Jedediah Smith State Park:

The Big Guys

But not to worry--food is never far from my mind. Today we made our annual visit to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco on a glorious sunny day.

 

Although Ferry Plaza isn't as big as our Bellevue Farmers Market, they had a nice variety, and the setting couldn't be beat. (I did miss our Market's usual musical accompaniment, but at least there was a bike messenger shouting complaints and existential musings at the top of his lungs as he wheeled past.)

 

The melons are in, in California as well as Washington. I would have liked to try one of these Sharlyns, but I didn't have the tools to deal with it and didn't want to carry it all the way back to Union Square, where we were parked.

 

I do appreciate how you can buy table grapes at the California farmers markets, and--oh, man--were they ever crisp and sweet. It seems like, by the time they ship our grapes from California, half of them have fallen off the stems already.

 

We bought some fresh-pressed apple juice to go with our Italian-sandwich lunch, with those grapes alongside and Brentwood peaches. I was tempted by the local honey, but the prize for beauty had to go to the pepper display. This eentsy thumbnail doesn't do it justice!

You just wanna jump right in

The good news is that local food is thriving. All up and down 101 I saw signs for farm stands and a market or two, not to mention one particularly tempting store called "Legend of Bigfoot" near Humboldt's Avenue of the Giants (Ewok territory, for you Return of the Jedi fans). If you're in town, pick up the freshest of the season at our Market. And if you're on the road, check out your destination's unique bounty!