SF Farmers Markets

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May 16, 2008

Tasting the Bounty of San Francisco Markets

By SHARON OTTERMAN

EACH morning, produce floods into San Francisco from some of the

nation's most spectacular farmland — Napa's hilly vineyards, the sun-

baked orchards and green fields of the eastern valleys, the Pacific

Coast's misty pasture lands. San Franciscans scoop it up with barely

a thought, as if excellent fresh food were simply a California

birthright.

Travelers, too, can share in the bounty. Nearly every day year-

round, there is a farmers' market to check out, offering not only

plenty to taste and buy, but sights, sounds and people-watching.

Even if it's not practical to construct a perfect salad back at the

hotel room or tote heirloom tomatoes home on an airplane, the

markets of San Francisco are worth visiting as a spectacle in

themselves.

The markets come into their full glory starting in May, with the

arrival of stone fruits like cherries, peaches and pluots — a juicy

cross between a plum and an apricot — adding to seasonal vegetables

and the year-round fare of olive oil, organic honey, goat and cow's

milk cheese, greens, walnuts, beef and more.

Because most vendors provide samples to taste, the markets offer

opportunities to learn some fine points — the difference, for

example, between a Seascape strawberry and an Albion strawberry.

They also offer a chance to mingle with San Francisco's diverse

populace — all of whom are united, it seems, in a common

appreciation for food.

The Ferry Plaza Market

A little advance planning can help stave off sensory overload at

what may be the finest foodie marketplace in the country, running

each Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and again on Tuesdays from 10

a.m. to 2 p.m. in a smaller version. If you've never tried lavender-

infused salt, or crunched crisp greens grown from farmers so

obsessed with soil health that they shun the word organic, this is

the place to do it.

Nearly 100 vendors under different colored tents cluster every

Saturday around the historic Ferry Building, which is situated where

Market Street, the city's main thoroughfare, meets the glimmering

San Francisco Bay.

For the best experience, try to arrive at about 8:30 a.m. and stay

for breakfast. Start off on the pier side of the building, where the

smell of rotisserie chicken rises above a saluting Gandhi statue and

the arching Bay Bridge frames the view.

Whet your palate with a slightly sinful sugar-covered doughnut

muffin from the Downtown Bakery. Then tour the stands. To indulge

fully, delve into asparagus fried in beer batter, spoon tangy-sweet

plum butter from June Taylor onto crisp bread, and don't miss the

blissful semisoft artisanal goat cheese from Andante Dairy. Sample,

sample, sample.

When the crowds start to thicken at 10:30 a.m., break for a

breakfast of Mexican eggs or smoked salmon at the ferry pier. Then

hit the homestretch — the row of vendors at the building's front and

the gourmet food purveyors with permanent shops inside.

If you make it to lunch, try to snag a pier-side table at the Hog

Island Oyster Company, where the fresh catch pairs well with a

grilled Gruyère sandwich and a bottle of California white. Just when

I thought I couldn't eat another bite on a visit this spring, a

friend offered me a tasty oyster baked with fresh oregano and bread

crumbs. As the sun burnt off the last of the morning clouds, I

barely resisted the urge to clink glasses with everyone in sight.

Alemany Market

At 7:30 a.m. on a spring Saturday, clusters of Chinese shoppers were

already jostling for the freshest bok choy and choy sum at the

market on Alemany Boulevard. Others headed for Maria del Carmen

Flores's grilled pupusas, a tasty El Salvadoran corn cake filled

with beans and cheese. Danny Grossman, a shopper, discussed his

morning finds — a bouquet of rainbow-stemmed chard for $1, organic

strawberries for $3 a pint.

If the Ferry Plaza is the prince of the city's markets, displaying

its produce like buffed jewels, Alemany is its down-home uncle — a

place where a panoply of fresh food and flowers are sold in a

bustling parking lot. " No porcini ravioli here, " Mr. Grossman

said. " There's still dirt on the leaves. "

The scene is San Francisco eclectic. As sweatpants-clad shoppers

mingled, the Prairie Rose Band, its lead singer dressed in cow-

pattered fake fur chaps, twanged bluegrass tunes on a banjo and

fiddle. Patrons in knit caps joined impromptu drum circles. Asian

grandmothers stared at a tattooed man with a giant iguana on his

bicycle handlebars. Hand-painted murals of produce, flowers and the

Buddha adorned the selling stalls.

Founded in 1947 and run by the city, the Alemany Market consists of

two parallel rows of light blue truck stalls and a third row of

vendors under white and green awnings. Sorting through the more than

100 stalls, you'll find tangy October-pressed olive oil, honey so

rich it won't fit through the squeeze bottle, navel oranges with an

unusually sophisticated flavor and fresh cheddar cheese infused with

sage. Don't miss Café GoLo's flaky, sugar-encrusted pastries, or a

loaf of its yeasty olive bread for a picnic, so weighty and warm it

feels like just came off a kitchen windowsill.

Open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. each Saturday, the market is south of the

city's Bernal Heights neighborhood, just off the junction of Highway

101 and Interstate 280. It is difficult to get to without a car, and

parking can be tight. If you have any questions, " just ask the

farmer, " said Carla Borelli, 43, another Alemany devotee. " It's more

like a community here. "

Heart of the City Market

San Francisco's downtown Civic Center district is often overlooked,

known as a place of grit and concrete, but on Wednesdays and

Sundays, there's an expanded oasis of green. The Heart of the City

Farmers' Market, founded in 1981 by Quakers as a community

improvement project, draws 30 farmers and food makers. Customers

include neighborhood residents, employees from nearby City Hall and

a smattering of tourists. The market is open Wednesdays from 7 a.m.

to 5:30 p.m. and on Sundays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On the Sunday of my most recent visit, a large western tiger

swallowtail butterfly landed on a purple orchid at the flower stand,

gracefully opening its yellow and black wings with turquoise and

orange tips. Nearby, a steady line of patrons picked up three-pound

bunches of fresh asparagus for $6. Early-bird shoppers purchased

live quail and chickens, which they took home to butcher themselves.

The busiest time at this market is Wednesday at lunchtime, when the

local office workers filter in to do their weekly shopping and enjoy

the sunshine at outdoor tables. Locals reverently unwrap corn and

green chili tamales from the popular All Star Tamales stand. A

devotional fan base mobs the Belgian Waffle Mania truck, which

imports its flour from Belgium. The tasty waffles are crisp on the

outside and slightly gooey within.

The market sits on the red brick expanse of United Nations Plaza at

Market Street between Seventh and Eighth Streets. Overhead, a flag

flutters to mark the location where the United Nations Charter was

signed in 1945. Just below ground is the Civic Center transit stop,

and the Asian Art Museum is across the plaza.

Crocker Galleria Market

Sandwiched between high-rise insurance offices and banks, the

Galleria, an upscale three-story shopping arcade, is an unusual

place to find farmers fresh from the fields. Indeed, the market

suffered a bit of an identity crisis when it opened in 2005, and the

first winter brought few customers.

Today, however, it has hit its stride. The 15 or so farmers who

stand under their sun umbrellas each Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

casually field questions from bankers about what would go well with

sinfully sweet homemade apple syrup. Pints of bright-red

strawberries and other easy-to-carry produce sells briskly, and

there are also prepared snacks ideal for visitors, like homemade

granola bars laden with almonds and pistachios and German-style

pretzels.

Instead of country music, there's light jazz from a one-man-band

player named Chaz. Vendors adjust to the professional vibe. Sahar

Ibrahimi, 23, who sells inventive Afghan breads and dips, replaces

the fleece jacket she wears at Alemany with stylish outfits and

gracefully styles her long black hair. " Have you had a quesadilla?

This is like an Afghan quesadilla, " she called out on a sunny

afternoon, sweeping some tangy eggplant dip onto a spinach-filled

piece of Afghan bolani bread and offering a taste to a customer.

Few tourists seem to know about this young market; to some, it's a

lucky find. It's right in the center of the financial district at 50

Post Street, near many hotels and above the Montgomery Street

transit stop.

Helen Kramer, a visitor from Florida, had caught a glimpse of fresh

salad greens from the street and wandered in with her husband and

son. They had just come from the Ferry Building, not realizing the

market there was closed on Thursdays.

" I wish we had known about this, " she said, as she tried her second

bite of Afghan bread. " It's actual farmers selling their products. "

She gave her son $10 to buy some garlic mint cheese and spinach

flatbread from Ms. Ibrahimi, and pronounced it satisfactory: " It

tastes very fresh. "

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company