San Diego Farmers Market Guide
Find out what farmers markets are available in San Diego County Monday through Sunday.
$40 at the New Little Italy Wednesday Market
The Little Italy Wednesday Market launched this month, providing downtown residents and chefs with a great new midweek option for restocking on local produce. I headed over there with $40 in my pocket to see what the new addition had to offer.
The Farmers Market: Little Italy Wednesday Market
Location: On West Date Street from Kettner Boulevard to State Street
Hours: Wednesdays, 9am–1pm
The Vibe: Quintessential Little Italy, complete with the breathtaking bay view.
A Chef Driven Market
Last Wednesday was the premiere of the new Little Italy Wednesday Market at the Piazza della Famiglia. I drove into Little Italy around 10am and was delighted, and a little star-struck, to catch a glimpse of market manager Catt White crossing India Street with a small entourage that included Michelin star chef Jason McLeod from Born & Raised.
All of them smiled widely at their surroundings.
Both street and pedestrian traffic were much lighter than what I have typically encountered when heading to the Mercato market, which is held in the same location on Saturdays, and I was able to score a metered parking spot about three blocks away.
Little Italy resident, and one of our favorite Edible San Diego contributors, Olivia Hayo joined me for the quick shopping trip. She explained that this additional market day has already improved her grocery options dramatically.
Despite the affluence of the neighborhood and the vast number of dining destinations in the district, one thing that is lacking is a major food retailer.
We caught up with Catt White and she explained that one of the main goals of this Wednesday market is to create a midweek opportunity for more chefs (and residents) from the community to buy directly from farmers, fishermen, and local food artisans.
This means that we can look forward to chef-driven market tours on the future event schedule.
Reconnaissance
I took my first stroll through the market early, catching my breath at the top of the market at State Street to enjoy the view. I took note of the good mix of farmers, artists, crafters, and prepared food vendors as I made my way back to Frost Me Gourmet located in the Piazza across the courtyard from the new Little Italy Food Hall.
Olivia and I had a quick coffee, and she, a regular at the Saturday Mercato, commented on how excited she was to see so many new vendors amongst some of her regular favorites, like Maciel Farms.
We decided to start in the middle of the market, stopping for samples at the Yallitizer’s Greek yogurt tent. We sampled each of the authentic greek yogurts made with sweet and savory flavors that included strawberry, nutella, and tzatziki. Most flavors are unsweetened and have an incomparable smoothness.
I seriously considered buying all of them.
We went from the Yallitizer tent to sampling Cascaraa Sparkling Superfruit Teas, made from the skins of coffee cherries. Cascara, also known as coffee cherry tea boasts a lighter caffeine content than coffee, and the unique flavors like the rose-chili ginger made for a refreshing reprieve.
I contemplated a quick lunch at FaVe Tacos, but plant-based tacos would have to wait since I had some produce shopping to get done.
The Haul
My first purchase was at Maxota Raw, where I picked up two dried cod skins for my eager pug. They make his breath a little funky for a few hours, but his fur stays super soft when he eats one a week.
We wandered on until the sight of a sign for white sweet corn lured us in to the Rodney Kawano Farms tent.
I picked out two ears of corn while Hayo shared a tip for selecting eggplant
“Pick it up and feel the weight of it. You want an eggplant that feels much lighter than it looks, that way you are less likely to have an overabundance of unwanted seeds,” she said.
I selected a large eggplant for eggplant parmigiana using Olivia’s trick, which totally work. Later in the week, I breaded the nearly seedless eggplant steaks with Italian Nut Crumbs before frying them off in a skillet with olive oil.
I grabbed a few white nectarines at Smit Farms, my first stone fruits of the summer, followed by a three pound bag of golden nugget mandarin oranges from R & L Farms in Ramona and Kingsburg. These turned out to be incredibly sweet, at the peak of ripeness. And I couldn’t resist a few more stone fruits, picking out three deep-purple plums from Lone Oak Ranch.
We walked some more, running into friends and acquaintances along the way until Hayo found and introduced me to one of her favorite farmers at the Maciel Family Farms tent. There we picked out carrots, a massive bouquet of fresh chard, and bunches of fresh summer basil and dill.
Olivia left me here at the top of the market, and I realized I still had $12 to spend. I had my eyes on a big, gorgeous orange hard squash that I hadn’t seen before at the Tom King Farms tent, but my bags were getting heavy and I was running out of time.
Instead I decided to treat myself to fresh flowers, picking up four stems of hydrangeas and a small bouquet of red sunflowers.
There’s nothing quite like the faint, clean scent of hydrangeas. My grandmother had gigantic white snow-globe hydrangea bushes that ran along the back wall of her home in Minnesota when I was a child, and that scent would fill her little house in with every breeze.
I always get this endearing thrill when I perfume my own home with these fragrant flowers. Enjoying their aroma along with a dinner of with my grandmother’s favorite meal of eggplant parm felt like a tribute to her memory.
As for all that chard, it came in handy one evening when I didn’t feel like doing any serious cooking. I added it to bowls of Ancient Harvest pasta, which I smothered in cashew cream, a hearty sprinkle of za'atar, and a drizzle of Persian lime olive oil from Baker and Olive.
This midweek farmers market excursion served me well.
My $40 at the Little Italy Wednesday Market bought…
2 dried cod skins
2 ears of sweet white corn
1 eggplant
3 lbs golden nugget mandarins
3 white nectarines
3 plums
1 massive bunch of chard
1 bunch of carrots
1 bunch of basil
1 bunch of dill
4 stems of hydrangeas
1 red sunflower bouquet
Market Note: Bring cash, because while many vendors do take cards, merchant service fees can cut into slim profit margins.
With over a million households in San Diego County, if each one committed to spending just $40 each month at their local farmers’ market, it would equate to over $500 million in support of small-scale, local businesses each year. This year I’ve committed to exploring a new farmers’ market each month. Join the challenge and explore your local markets with us.
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