How to Shop at a Downtown Farmers Market

Step 4: Make a full tour of the market

Seasoned farmers market shoppers get to know the best vendors at their local markets. But you won't. Vendors tend to sell some of the same items, especially apples, tomatoes, greens, baked goods and other staples. So take a tour of the entire market before you begin buying. As you look around, make a mental list of the items you both want and will actually eat. It's really easy to buy stuff you'll never eat -- like produce that requires a lot of preparation (beets, complicated squashes, etc.) or too much of something you like. Rotten vegetables or fruit in your fridge is depressing.

One of the benefits of taking an initial tour of the market is that a lot of the vendors give out free samples. Definitely take advantage of this!

I also recommend observing which booths appear to be the most popular, and what people are buying at these booths. Keep an especially sharp eye out for any chefs. If you see a chef or cooking school student at a booth, follow her around and see what she's buying. It's like a free class.

If you haven't been a fruit or vegetable aficionado your whole life, then you may encounter a very basic problem of not knowing what a lot of stuff is. Apples and carrots are easy to recognize, but you may never have seen a winter squash or various fancy mushrooms. So don't be afraid to ask the vendors or other people milling around the stand. I'm a huge fan of fresh spinach, but I still have trouble recognizing it when it's not labeled (the various kinds of lettuce completely mystify me), so I had to ask some vendors to point it out to me. Sad but true.

Finally, if you're concerned about eating organic food, then use your tour to note which booths sell organic.

Comments

[hilbertastronaut]

Don't be scared of squashes! The firmer ones submit well to thin slicing and sauteing in spicy black bean sauce (available at Asian markets -- you're in SF, right? ;-) -- walk along Irving west of 19th Ave., or go to the grocery store on Clement St., for example). The softer squashes cook up well in a soup: add random veggies and a boullion cube (or a whole chicken, if you eat meat). Neither of these require a lot of labor over the range -- about 5 minutes of prep time and 10-15 minutes of sauteing, or longer for the soup (but unattended cooking is ok).