Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market

Saturday we went to the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market in San Francisco. It doesn't seem extraordinarily large until you walk from one end to the other and then realize it turns the corner and continues on to fill all the available space behind the building as well.

I noticed there were a lot of people there taking pictures...they didn't look like tourists, though, they looked like bloggers. Dang, and me without my camera. While others are posting their pictures to blogger and Flickr, welcome to my photo-free post! How refreshing!

Okay, I lie...it's not refreshing. I want a new camera...something cool that will take pictures that show up all those OTHER bloggers.

There is certainly a huge selection here, although I must say it seemed quite expensive. Not everything maybe. I'm sure a careful bargain shopper could find some great deals, but for instance we bought a ten pound bag of oranges for ten dollars and it would have been five dollars at my local RWC farmer's market. They also had UNPASTEURIZED raw almonds, so of course we got some of those but they are $14 a pound! If we'd have arrived in the San Joaquin Valley at the right time, they would have cost half that much. They had unpasteurized pomegranate juice, so that was cool although now I think I know what the guy at the Santana Row farmer's market was saying about people that press the seeds too much to try and get the last few drops of juice out and end up making it taste bitter.

We also got some lavender salt scrub from Eatwell Farm, which is the CSA I had joined earlier this year. The one I don't think I blogged about. Oops. Maybe later. Like, after I tell you who can go to hell.

And what else? Several peaches. My bf is either a genius at picking perfect peaches or else maybe it's really easy and I'm just ripe peach picking challenged.

They also had a few booths serving up raw food. By the time we sampled our way over to them with peaches and plums, bread dipped in various olive oils and strange exotic fruits I've forgotten the names of already, we weren't that motivated to take advantage of them. Plus we had been eying the Slanted Door for lunch. I did get a container of live/raw/vegan chocolate mousse topped with raspberry cheesecake which piggy me ate in its entirety the next afternoon and which I suspect is full of all sorts of high fat stuff like coconut oil and avocado because it was extremely delicious. Next time I'm there I think I'll try a smoothie or something instead.

I've read that in about two years time almost every cell in your body is replaced. I have this fantasy that no animal product will pass my lips in all that time. I despair of that ever happening in reality, though, thanks to people like this guy who forced a sample on me at one booth and I asked him what it was and he said "just a samosa with potato and peas". He forgot to tell me he dunked it in a yogurt sauce before giving it to me. Ugh. Trying to be vegan is SOOOOO hard sometimes (like any time I leave home.) We had lunch at the Slanted Door and the first time they brought our spring rolls we could see big fat shrimp bulging out against the rice paper wrappers. After we sent THOSE back, they brought us a rice noodle dish that had egg in it. So we sent that back, and next time it came back it had...I forget...shrimp or something on it...so we had to send it back TWICE. Who knows what else it might have had in it? Maybe some fish sauce or something? very frustrating.

Oh and OF COURSE we waited in line for Blue Bottle coffee, because I think that's just what you're supposed to do. I suggested to my bf that he buy a half pound of beans because if he likes the coffee it would be a shame if he had to wait in the line ALL OVER AGAIN. I don't think he really believes he will find a coffee he likes better than Peet's, but after I suggested it about a half dozen times (we were in line for a while) he finally said he would. He got a cafe latte and I got the New Orleans style iced coffee with chicory, and while I enjoyed them, I couldn't really tell you if it's great coffee or not because my main impression was that the soy milk was particularly beany tasting and I couldn't get past that. Why doesn't anybody use ALMOND milk? That would be sooooo much better. Next time we go there (someday) I imagine we'll just go to Peet's since it's right there and probably has a much shorter line if any. I'll even bring my Peet's travel mug!

I was impressed with the huge selection of stuff to be found here compared to my local farmer's market. They had EVERYTHING from Rancho Gordo beans to grass fed organic beef, and of course all the truly raw and unpasteurized stuff. Not sure when we'll be back, though...there are plenty of other markets still to be checked out, and there are two Farmer's Market's right here in RWC, plus Sigona's Farmers Market (not exactly a farmers market, but a gourmet grocery that features huge amounts of seasonal, locally grown produce.) Maybe once winter is here and some of the markets are shut down for the season we'll be back. With a credit card. And a stop at the cash machine.