Back to SF | Part 6: Ferry Building & Farmer’s Market

Posted on April 24, 2015

If you ever find yourself in San Francisco on a warm and sunny Saturday morning, do yourself a favor: go to the farmer’s market at the ferry building. It’s the quintessential farmer’s market. The farmer’s market to end all farmer’s markets. The farmer’s market all other farmer’s markets strive to be The farmer’s market that was a farmer’s market before it was a ‘thing.’. It’s packed to the brim, lines are long, tables can be hard to find, but it’s so worth it. We used to come here all the time on the weekends, and when I worked on 2nd Street, we often walked here to grab a bite during lunch.

On weekdays, the ferry building is still a foodie haven, but on weekends — Saturdays in particular — it’s an explosion of food stalls: vendors selling every kind of food you can think of, flowers, rotisserie chickens, donuts, coffee, fresh seafood, goat’s milk cheese, sizzling sausages, hand made everything — and of course a selection of fresh local produce. It was here that I had my first gobba gobba (RIP) at the start of the whole twitter food stall/truck scene, and also here where I first discovered CSAs. A lot of what I know and love about food comes from years of eating my way around this market.

There are so many places to eat, so much food to sample, everything is a favorite, every bite a tasty memory. There are a million ways to explore the Ferry Building on market days. We typically start with Blue Bottle coffee then, after walking around a bit, maybe some cheese from Cowgirl Creamery, smoked fish from Captain Mike, a half dozen raw oysters from Hog Island Oyster Co, some organic bell peppers from one of the organic farm vendors eaten with Marin Gourmet’s baba ganoush. For dessert: white peaches or maybe a cupcake or gelato. And inbetween a sampling of everything else.

We weren’t quite as ambitious this go-round. After grabbing our coffee we walked around to the back where most of the food stalls were located, ordered a few plates of food along with some fancy sounding lemonade.. This is my definition of a 4-star Michelin dining experience: outdoors, amazing food, a street musician playing his heart out, a stunning view, and of course my hubs to share it with.