Alemany Farmers' Market is the Bomb

So many farmers' markets in the city now. I remember when Alemany Farmers' Market at the bottom of Bernal Heights was the only one (over 60 years old!). It's still the best because it's so unpretentious. Saturdays only, jammed with people of every economic and ethnic stripe. Zillions of kids. Women in burqas. That funny person playing the saw with the dancing wooden cat she moves with her foot. Shoppers crowded around favorite vendors carefully picking through produce that I can't identify. Murals of food and farmers painted on all the stalls (some now covered in graffiti, makes me sad). Free samples everywhere (I confess, I go there for breakfast).

Today at the market:

Strawberries
Last week of citrus - oranges still so sweet, seedless Matsuma tangerines
Greens of all sorts, including those I can't name
Tamales and tortas and huaraches (not the shoe, the delicious egg and chile dish)
Best breads ever (seeded Crowns for my family always)
Purple asparagus
Beets
Apples and apple cider
Avocados
Kumquats
Peanuts (boiled I think)

People love the Ferry Building Farmers' Market and I do too, but it's all organic and so darn pricey and all the implications of that. Alemany has organic produce too but not exclusively, so that works better for me. And I bought a gorgeous box of sweet strawberries there for just $2 today. At Alemany we get (relatively) local produce straight from the farmers who grow it. Beats buying produce at Safeway where everything tastes like it grew in a sunless warehouse and shipped from god knows where.

Here's a link to the Alemany Farmers' Market on the city's website:

http://www.sfgsa.org/index.aspx?page=1058