Ferry Plaza Market

Of all the farmers' markets I attend regularly, Ferry Plaza has got to be the very highest in quality. The vendors seem to save their best produce for this market. How do I know? Many of them also sell at other markets in the immediate area and sell at lower prices reflecting the grade of the produce. I've seen them and made purchases.

But for the most part Ferry Plaza attracts small producers that are content to sell exclusively at the Saturday or Thursday market. The Thursday market is much smaller than the one on Saturday, and it's seasonal, not year round. New vendors are allowed to sell on Thursdays until they graduate to the Saturday market.

Some of the small producers sell specialty produce, much of it organic, not usually seen elsewhere.

But the market is not limited to fresh produce. There are meat and poultry producers

Bakeries

Several dairy operations providing yogurt, cheese, and butter

Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar producers

Flower growers and pizza vendors

Ranchers marketing preserves, nuts, candies and dried fruit

Smoked fish producers who also sell sandwiches

There are vendors selling fresh and dried herbs as well as flavored salt

The list goes on and on, but since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll be posting a slide show of Ferry Plaza Farmers Market soon.

Berkeley Bowl

Berkeley Bowl has to be the gold standard of super markets in the San Francisco Bay Area. When they announced a second store, many of us in San Francisco held our breaths and hoped it would be on this side of the bay; no such luck, but maybe the luck is in how close we actually are.

Can meat get any better than this? For the first time in 20 years, I made my grandmother's pasta sauce with a B.B. chuck roast from grass fed beef and it finally tasted like hers. As I forked over the money for it, I couldn't help but think that I could have purchased 2 from Costco for the same price. I could have but it would not taste the same. This says something very negative about agribusiness and their insistence on feeding cheap, subsidized corn to cattle )who cannot digest it properly), for better profit, not better animal husbandry or taste. 

The bakery department is also filled with products that are of better quality than we expect from a supermarket.

Just look at these photos for a sample of the variety of products available to a shopper for one particular item. The top left photo is just olive oil and vinegar, the top right shows the bulk olive bar. For someone who collects different types of pasta, this store makes it easy to purchase something new. And tomato sauce; the selection is so broad, it includes my grandmother's favorite brand "6in1" that I seldom find, except in specialty markets.
 

Produce at Berkeley Bowl is so special they even have multiple varieties of each fruit, and that is not limited to 3 or 4 Apples. I once counted 8 varieties of mangoes. Vegetables I have never even heard of before are abundant, but don't let me tell you, allow me to show you. I'm putting together a photo montage on the side bar of this blog. Here are just a few examples:

Pears and Apples

Cactus Pears

Mangoes

Black Apricots

San Leandro Farmer's Market, Worth A Trip

While visiting a friend in the area, we took a look at the Farmer's Market held each Saturday in the Bayfair mall parking lot. This was smaller and very different from the similar markets in San Francisco. East Bay centric is a way of describing it and there was a true sense of community at this market.

There was one vendor selling sweet potato pies and another selling Afghani specialties, neither of which I had seen in the West Bay farmer's markets. Since this visit, the Afghani products have made their way to Alemany Farmer's Market. Another vendor was making and selling unique breads, and of course there were vendors for vegetables and fruits, but many of them were only selling one specific product.

The corn was the freshest I have ever seen in our area, just look at how fresh the corn silk looks. The vendor had trucked it in today on ice, as it was fresh picked this morning and he took pride in delivering it fresh to the consumer. I liked the way the artichoke vendor lovingly displayed her "crop" in the small oval basket, set atop and alongside boxes of more artichokes. I can almost taste the Jalapeno Cheddar bread in the photograph above and look forward to trying more bakery goods from this market.

I was short on cash and had to carefully weigh all my options. The cinnamon bread in the photo on the left made it home with me, as did the syrupy sweet corn; who could possibly resist those?

Mi Pueblo

Another East Bay gem of a super market with a character all its own. The range of groceries and produce is excellent and one could spend the better part of an hour just perusing the menu at the take-out deli or in the meat and fish market section. Every city should be blessed with a Mi Pueblo for the range of products and the reasonable prices, as well as the upbeat atmosphere.

This colorful market sets the mood as you walk in; life is a fiesta at Mi Pueblo. I don't know how I was able to walk away from the prepared foods section with its homemade tortillas and classic Mexican entrees, aromas swirling around olfactory nerves like hookah smoke surrounding the caterpillar in Alice In Wonderland, but I did manage it and went on to the cold case section. Unique could describe this visually exciting area, since dairy products share the space with the butcher shop. This 2nd photo shows Mi Pueblo's flavored yogurts. Bulk yogurts and puddings were lined up in neat rows, like soldiers in a military parade. They came in a variety of pastel shades and were decorated with tattoos of various fruits, sliced and arranged into flowers and butterflies. Small children must certainly skip to this part of the store, it is just that fanciful and delightful.

The meat counter was especially colorful with a large selection of meats that were enhanced with spice rubs and marinades. What a nice way to introduce the uninitiated to Latin cuisine. Have you ever seen so many fresh squabs at a meat and poultry counter, in a modestly priced market or even a high end market? The low price encourages me to try my hand at cooking them. The unadorned meats (sans spice rubs) looked beautifully fresh in pink and red hues, sure signs of a quick turnover in the meat department.

Even the fish was decorated with cucumber coins and orange twists, while the pickled pigs' feet had to settle for carrots and red onions. Looking at this particular counter, I knew I had to come back when I had more time, to identify more of the selection and to fully comprehend all the unusual features of this store. As I walked by the diary cases on my way to the produce section I saw lots of bulk dried beans, fruits and vegetables that were neatly displayed, but my eye kept wandering to the large wooden crate of something yellow. Like a pirate on the hunt for a treasure chest filled with gold doubloons I made my way to the box that was filled to the brim with squash blossoms. At $4.99 per pound, these were definitely a treasure.

Saving the best for last, I snapped this photo of the tortilla team working at breakneck speed to keep pace with the tortilla juggernaut. What a place!

Farmer Joe's

The East Bay has another fine, family run market and it's name is Farmer Joe's. The name gives a nod to it's owner Joe Tam and helps in identifying itself as a place to buy farm fresh organic produce. My favorite aspect of this market is the bulk foods department where I stop from time to time for my occasional purchase. Living in San Francisco precludes me from becoming a regular customer, but if they ever decide to expand their small 2 store empire I'm all for a new location across the bay. We could use more family run operations in San Francisco.

First and foremost this store is known for it's produce department that was meticulously arranged on the times I visited the market. The variety was broad but not expansive and it was a delight to see quite a few varieties of tomatoes, beyond Roma, Beefsteak, and Cherry. That's a big plus in my opinion. The bakery aisle had old bay area favorites like Grace Baking Company and Semi Freddi so the quality was evident even with a cursory look, and the condiment section was a good size.

What attracted me the most, and what I will go back for are the bulk spices at good prices and the olive oils and balsamic vinegars at equally good prices. The variety was quite large for a store of this size and the oils came from several countries including Australia, as well as from California. I don't think I have ever seen Australian olive oils anywhere else. The best part is the fact that they sell small bottles, so you could easily buy several varietals and blends for taste comparisons. This is a great resource for anyone contemplating a "Tasting Party". Balsamic vinegars come in various fruit flavors that inspire ways to vary your salads from one meal to the next, and of course, the fruit flavors inspire the addition of dried fruits. They would make fine flavor elements in sauces for poultry too. I've included some of these balsamics in recipes for home made cranberry sauce and other fruit preserves. This section of the store is absolutely inspirational when you evaluate your options.
A broad selection does not end with the olive oils and vinegars, just look at this wall of eggs. It implys the importance of this single ingredient, so much so that I feel the need to purchase more eggs on a regular basis. A friend is always talking abut how good the fish is at Farmer Joe's and after looking at the case, I believe him. Every piece looked off-the-boat fresh and glistened like pebbles on a rocky shoreline.

http://www.farmerjoesmarket.com/

3426 Fruitvale Ave

Oakland CA 94602

(510) 482-8899