Finding the closest farms at market

The Saturday before the Eat Local Challenge began, I made my way down to the Grand Lake Farmer’s Market for the first time since I moved to Oakland.

This is absolutely ridiculous, because I’ve been hearing about how fabulous this market is since before I moved here. It’s simultaneously not ridiculous, because I’ve certainly managed to make better-than-do with the Old Oakland Farmer’s Market in the meantime. It’s hard to argue with being able to fall out my door and into the lap of a farmer on Friday mornings.

But I decided to try the Saturday market not just for its lovely, lakeside location, but because I had a feeling it would offer me a few things the Old Oakland market doesn’t. More meat options, for example, and definitely a particular kind of locally produced olive oil that I bought on my way into the state and wanted to stock up on.

Once I was actually at the market, I discovered how handy the iPhone could be. While it was a little obnoxious to be tap-tap-tapping away while shopping, the iPhone allowed me to figure out which farmers really grew their produce or made their goods within 100 miles of me, and which didn’t. I was surprised, to be honest, at how many booths quickly became off-limits, once I figured out where the town listed on their signs actually sat along the map of my still-new state.

My go-to produce vendor became Happy Boy Farms, an organic farm located in Freedom, CA, approximately 85 miles from me. I’ve bought their produce before, most recently at the Jack London Square Farmer’s Market a few weeks ago, but their booth at the Grand Lake market displayed far more produce than they’d even had when I bought from them before. Shallots, celery, a multitude of greens. Many kinds of tomatoes. Sweet potatoes, onions and herbs. I filled up one of my canvas tote bags with everything I thought I’d need for the week, then carried it up to the front, where I proceeded to unload it for the highly amused cashier.

“You guys are a great one-stop shop,” I said, trying to keep my bell peppers from rolling off his narrow table onto the ground. I kept myself from saying, like a breathless FanGirl, I’m doing the Eat Local Challenge, and you guys are in 100 miles of me, and…and…and…

“That tote bag holds a lot,” said the cashier, desperately trying to add everything up in his head.

My haul from that stand alone was a mere $35, and it covered every vegetable base I could possibly need for the coming week. In fact, as it turned out, I’m still eating from that very first shopping trip. I haven’t eaten touched the sweet potatoes, I still have onions and shallots left, and the rosemary and thyme I picked up that morning are still looking great in my crisper.

But that trip definitely made me start thinking a little harder about even the farmers who show up at the market. I always assumed they were all from pretty close, but was shocked when I started getting mileages closer to 200 and 300 miles away when I entered some of the towns into the map on my phone. Even though shopping at the Farmer’s Market is always going to be better than shopping at, you know, Safeway, I was amazed to find out how far some of the “local” produce traveled just to get to Lake Merritt on a Saturday morning.