San Diego Farmers Market Guide
Find out what farmers markets are available in San Diego County Monday through Sunday.
$40 at the Pacific Beach Certified Farmers’ Market
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’m exploring a new farmers’ market each month. This month I headed to the Pacific Beach Certified Farmers’ Market. with a $40 in my pocket.
The Farmers Market: Pacific Beach Certified Farmers’ Market
Location: 4150 Mission Boulevard, Pacific Beach, San Diego
Hours: Saturdays, 8 am–12 pm
The Vibe: Super friendly farmers stand ready to talk produce. On this particular Saturday, there were four farm stands tucked in the Mission Boulevard strip-mall parking lot. The June sky was gloomy from a thick and low-hanging marine layer, the background noise was traffic heavy, and the air smelled like the sea.
A Farmer-Focused Farmers Market
This month’s market stands in stark contrast to the markets I’ve visited so far this year. It’s one of San Diego’s original farmers’ markets, started by Mary Hillebrecht nearly three decades ago. Hillebrecht also manages the Coronado Certified Farmers’ Market, which follows the same singular rule: only farmers are allowed to sell.
Hillebrecht is a purist, holding true to the sentiment that a farmers market is a place for farmers to sell directly to the public.
I’d never thought about this distinction until I met her at the Coronado market earlier this year and she stressed the point to me. Since then, I’ve paid attention to the happenings at bigger markets.
Most resemble a weekly street fair, with a variety of vendors selling everything from arts and crafts to clothing to soap and beauty products to pet food and accessories. In addition to these smaller retailers, there has been a virtual tent-takeover by prepared and packaged food vendors.
I witnessed this at the Hillcrest market earlier this year, where the block dedicated to tentaurants has been added and marketed as an international food court. There is nothing inherently wrong with this setup, but what I have begun to notice is that there is often a disconnect between the food vendors and the farmers.
On my last visit to Hillcrest, the international food court was diverse, crowded, and exciting. Meanwhile, at the other half of the market, crowds were thin at the farmers’ tents, and there were murmurs about the slow day and reducing prices to sell off produce before the market closed.
I also began to take note of the boxes and plastic bags stacked under the food vendors’ tables. Packaging sheds light on where the food for these tentaurants is coming from, and what I’ve seen are bags and boxes from retailers like Smart & Final, Restaurant Depot, and Costco.
There is a dark irony in the fact that many of the shops in the marketplaces we frequent specifically to support local farmers and buy locally produced goods, might not be supporting local farmers the way we think they are.
I enjoy trying out all these interesting, convenient, and delicious finds at farmers markets as much as anyone, but I’ve just come to recognize that there might be barriers between some of these tents where there should be bridges.
And with these thoughts playing in my mind, the sheer simplicity of the four farmer tents at the PB market felt like a relief.
The distracting edible temptations were absent from the day’s shopping experience. My son wouldn’t be begging for something sugary-sweet. Nope. Today he would be begging for broccoli.
Reconnaissance
Heading into the height of the summer season makes this a great time to shop a farmers-only market.
It was easy to focus on the business at hand—there were only four tables to browse. We were able to check out all the goods in a matter of minutes while chatting with the farmers in the open air, and we had the market to ourselves almost the entire time we were there.
Despite the limited number of vendors this week, there was exceptional variety.
The Haul
If this was a race, I might’ve won. I filled three shopping bags with local produce from four regional farmers for $39.50 in under 10 minutes.
I kicked off the shopping spree at Quantum Microgreens, taking advantage of the two for $5 deal. If you haven’t tried these lovely little sprouts yet, I highly recommend them. The flavors are vibrant and delicious.
I selected a tub of micro-cilantro to garnish fresh salads with a peanut dressing I had made for myself earlier in the week. For the second option I selected a gorgeous little tub of pea shoots. (I will try to fry them with garlic in an attempt to mimic the pea shoots and garlic I grew up eating at Capital Tea Garden in Sacramento—a favorite Chinese restaurant when I was a child.)
These microgreen tubs allow for the flexibility of trimming off what I want to use when I want to use it for maximum freshness—and I can water the tub to keep the rest of the microgreens fresh and alive. You can also buy kits from Quantum Microgreens to grow your own sprouts at home.
From there, I went and dropped 20 large at the Yasukochi Family Farm tent. I picked out 3 pints of strawberries, 4 ears of sugar and cream corn, my first local watermelon of the season, a couple crowns of the best broccoli I’ve ever eaten, a japanese cucumber, and a big bag of arugula.
They gave me a pint of blueberries just because, and they might be the biggest blueberries I’ve ever seen.
I picked up a dozen jumbo eggs and a bunch of scallions from Meza Ranch for $8.50, and finished up our shopping with five avocados and two Eureka lemons for $6 from Hillebrecht’s table.
I admit that I was worried about how two people would get through three pounds of strawberries until I nearly ate half of them while cleaning them. They were so sweet and perfectly strawberry-y.
The sugar and cream corn was slightly sweet with an almost salty and buttered corn flavor straight out of the steamer. And my 12-year-old has been happily requesting broccoli for dinner past few nights, lightly steamed with a dash of pink salt and a little butter.
Seriously, the best broccoli—ever.
My $40 at the Pacific Beach Certified Farmers Market bought…
Microgreens: one cilantro and one pea, two for $5
Strawberries: three pints for $8
Watermelon: $5
Sugar and Cream Corn: four ears for $2
Japanese Cucumber: $1
Broccoli: $1
Arugula: $4
One dozen jumbo eggs: $7
Scallions: $1.50
Eureka Lemons: two for $1
Avocados: four for $4
And, bonus blueberries from Yasukochi Family Farms!
Getting There
I drove by it twice before I recognized where it was. This was in part due to a map guidance error that suggested it was located on the east side of Mission Boulevard. Look for tents on the west side, across the street from the Mission Bay Motel. The market is held in front of a strip mall that has two parking lots. You can find 30 minutes of free parking in the north lot marked with the farmers’ market sign. From there it’s a quick walk over to the tents in the south lot.
Market Note: Bring cash, because while many vendors do take cards, merchant service fees can cut into slim profit margins.
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