Becca S.
Yelp
If you live in the Inner Sunset and have not been to this market, you really should...well, go to this market. You'll be glad you did!
A mere hop, skip, and/or jump (depending on how funnily you want people to look at you) from my apartment, this is the one aspect of the community in which my boyfriend partake every single week without fail. I think we've barely ever missed a weekend since moving here and we're not really the types to make commitments, particularly when money's tight.
Fortunately, we gotta eat! And the farmer's market helps us get the goods to do so easily, ethically, and really not too expensively. It's certainly possible to drop a lot of money on the myriad of fruits, vegetables, and hand-crafted artisan products, but there's enough of a selection that, depending on your situation that week, you can either come away with a few pricier things of mind-bogglingly amazing quality (honey, jam, granola, soap), or some of the cheaper stuff...that's still of mind-bogglingly amazing quality (tomatoes and nectarines in the summer, apples in the fall, big bunches of herbs and greens pretty much all year round).
All the vendors are really knowledgeable, helpful, and just goshdarn nice people. The Home Maid pasta guy has an awesome auctioneer-type voice that beckons you towards his delicious samples, the Mediterranean food people also have samples, and remember which products we've tried and always remember to tell us what's new. The jam man will very patiently remind us week after week that the kumquat marmalade will be here in the winter but would we like to try some caramel sauce in the meantime. The Asian greens people always have cheap and delicious produce all year round, and even carry obscure stuff like Thai and Indian eggplants! And now there's a really sweet tamale lady who just makes me want to buy a lot of tamales. Even more than I already wanted to buy a lot of tamales.
And that's just the half of it. For what's really kind of a small farmer's market, there's a lot of good things to be said. The only downside to the whole thing is that your favorite vendors might not be there every week. I'm not complaining - that's the nature of the farmer's market! But I greatly miss seeing our favorite granola people, who have been MIA for a while, and though there's a really awesome new cheese stall, I got so attached to Spring Hill cheese that it kind of breaks my heart that they're not around anymore.
I think I'll have to let the Bakers of Paris drown my sorrows in buttery croissanty goodness.