Fascinating Foods: Exploring Farmers Markets in San Francisco

Years ago, I suffered from extreme boredom with my diet despite the fact that my job included lots of networking with local businesses and restaurants. I tried the tastiest creations in San Francisco’s newest restaurants and enjoyed the most eccentric happy hour offerings. While the food was always great, I could never re-create those dishes at home, so my diet after work wasn’t so tasty. Nothing I ate on my own sparked the fire of excitement in me towards food.

During that time, I came across an interview with an Ayurvedic expert, Dr. John Douillard, who spoke about the mistake people unknowingly make by eating foods out of season. A lightbulb went off in my head. Was the reason I wasn’t enjoying my food because I wasn’t eating the right food at the right time? I found a challenge in Dr. Douillard’s words and decided to discover my local farmers market to bring the spark back into my loveless relationship with food.

There was only one problem: I was scared of farmers markets. Growing up an East Coast city girl, my only experience with a fresh market was the opening of Whole Foods in NYC. So, I did what any East Coast gal would do at a farmers market and walked right up to the strawberry vendor with this request: “Sir, please give me the sweetest strawberries on this table.” I had a serious mission, reminiscent of that famous Seinfeld soup episode. I didn’t smile and I didn’t flinch. The gentleman laughed and said “well, they’re all sweet; they’re French strawberries!” It was May and strawberries were in season, and I became a loyal fan of French strawberries and Dr. Douillard in one fell swoop.

Recently, I decided there was no better time than the present to boost my immunity. I headed off on an excursion to explore the western food equivalent to the Middle Eastern “souk,” and picked the Fort Mason Farmers Market on a Sunday morning.

My first stop was Rusty’s Honey stand, where I found many varieties of raw honey, including a lavender-infused variety, and ended up buying a jar of the wildflower honey. For those interested in local, raw honey, Rusty’s Farm is located right here in the Bay Area in Daly City. I mentally checked off the first item on my grocery list, happy that honey was allowed in moderation in an Ayurvedic diet. Dr. Douillard would be proud.

I strayed from the course, however, as I wandered to another sweet treat. This time it wasn’t only a raw honey stand, it was an array of honey-inspired treats at the AmaiRaw table. Janice creates all the Amai Raw products (with her husband’s honey from Rusty’s), and approaches her endeavor with passion and creativity. Her table was beautiful, along with an equally beautiful Instagram page at #amairaw_janice. Unique is an understatement to describe her products, which include jars of honey-infused fruit combinations, craft chocolate, and matcha honey with or without chocolate. I couldn’t get my eyes off the bottle of Meyer lemon-infused honey, so I bought it.

I would later discover that it wouldn’t disappoint when I paired it with my findings at the next stop, Soturi Kitchen. Wholesome, holistic, and nutritious are words that describe Soturi’s offerings. If you want the technical terms, they would be: gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and corn free, but those words aren’t so fun for rule-breakers like me who shouldn’t eat these ingredients but still do. Sway Soturi, the creator of this allergen friendly bakery, highlighted the many nutritious ingredients behind her products and sold me on the lavender lemon bread. The smell was divine. (*Tip: For the dairy free folks, toast the lavender lemon bread to bring out its rich flavor, and pair with a berry jam and a drizzle of Amairaw’s Meyer lemon-infused honey!
For cheese aficionados, substitute the jam for a nutty cheese, like Toma, and drizzle the Meyer lemon honey.)

I looked at my big canvas bag filled with treats and started to worry. There was no trace of fruits or vegetables anywhere in it! Thankfully, I was a few feet away from the colorful Fall-inspired display of the JSM Organics table. Ok, so it wasn’t the summer and I was buying strawberries in November! My experience strawberry picking (yes, that’s another blog for another time) taught me that the smallest berries pack the biggest flavor, and in front of me lay endless green baskets filled with tiny, fragrant strawberries. This time I wasn’t going to ask anyone to pick them out for me. I grabbed them confidently and happily.

At this point, I knew I still needed to find the queen of fall and winter fruits: the apple. Friends, there is no other fruit that is more near and dear to my heart than the apple. Apples were my first introduction to healthy eating when I suffered from poor eating habits years ago, and I’ve developed an affinity towards them. They contain important phytochemicals like quercetin, a plant chemical known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities, and pectin, a soluble fiber which has possible health benefits for our cholesterol and digestive health. With or without health benefits, I simply love the sweet taste of cold, crisp apples!

I approached Billy Bob’s Orchards, where a gentleman named Ryan cheerfully welcomed me to a wonderland of apples. I wish I had arrived earlier. By 1pm I didn’t have my pick of all the varieties, but I was presented with delicious and organic Braeburn, Pink Lady, and Jonagold apples, which were more than enough for me. (I had been seriously contemplating buying a little red wagon to pull my fruits and veggies, and to have my friends pull me in one, so after lugging pounds of Billy Bob’s apples home, that wagon didn’t sound like a bad idea.)

After all that hard work having exhausted my senses, I deserved a treat for that evening. It didn’t matter that my treat was fermented and had a name like “You guava be kidding me.” I deserved a little Far West Cider in my life, and so I wrapped up my excursion there. I’m not a cider kinda gal, but my eyes caught the word “guava” and I knew it was going to taste of guava. It was going to taste real, and it did. It was the perfect drink to unwind with at the end of the night.

Everyone deserves an experience like this. Farmers markets are not about just buying fruits and vegetables, they act as a bridge between nature and the community. We get the opportunity to buy food that was recently pulled from the earth, and there’s something powerful in that. It is profound to know that the land we inhabit nourishes us with a myriad of nutrients, some designed for one season, others for another. Farmers markets are also a time to socialize in a safe way outdoors, and these days, that opportunity is priceless. Lastly, as I recently discovered, the markets have evolved to meet the innovative needs of the community. Creativity sparks an idea to put lavender in a loaf of bread and the rest is history.

Friends, I hope all of you traveling through San Francisco take the time to appreciate the food, not only in our top-notch restaurants, but also directly from the farmers and vendors who tire endlessly and creatively to curate food that is of the utmost quality.

For updates and news about the Fort Mason Farmers Market, please check their website. The market is open every Sunday of the year, rain or shine, from 9:30am to 1:30pm.

And for the apple enthusiast who wants a good introduction to its health benefits, this article by Harvard’s T.H. Chan’s School of Public Health is a helpful resource.

Join me in my next post about this year’s Farm Trails vendors and my lovely journey in Sonoma County which begins with homemade jam at LaLa’s Jam Bar and Urban Farmstand.

I’ll be exploring more undiscovered farmers market delicacies in early January 2021 as I venture into San Francisco’s famed Ferry Building and its Saturday farmers market. At the time of this writing, the Ferry Building is open for take-out only and so I will wait to bring readers the full experience of this sensory market. Until then and as always, stay healthy, my friends! And if you see a woman pulling a little red wagon overloaded with apples, it could be me! Say hello! :)