Well, knock me down with a feather—those are not results I was expecting.  On the flip side, Sam didn’t buy any eggs, bread, meat, or dairy products, all of which would probably have been of unimpeachably superior quality and in undeniably better shape from the farmer’s market, but also likely (much) more expensive.   Not that that’s unwarranted: food produced conscientiously on small farms costs more to make, so it follows that it would merit a higher price point.   I’m certainly not the first person to point to the fact that Americans proportionally spend less money on food than they used to (from 25 percent in 1930 to 11 percent in 2000, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, although, Engel’s Law coming into play here, part of that difference can be blamed on incomes rising faster than the price of food.  Still, that means people can afford to spend more on food, and aren’t.)   Furthermore, Americans, with all their riches, still spend proportionally way less on food than citizens of other countries; Europeans, for example, typically spend 18-20% of their income on eating. 

Why do farmer’s markets have this merciless money-sucking reputation?  Is it deserved?  Whenever I’ve hit up the Ferry Plaza I’ve always left forty bucks lighter and all the food is gone by the end of lunchtime.  Either way, money spent at the farmer’s market is money well spent for food that tastes good and is good, so even if sometimes I can actually HEAR my wallet saying “Stop it, fatass Ouch!” I know the sacrifice is worth making.  And as Sam’s shown to my great delight, sometimes, the farmer’s market is actually a better deal. 

*  Not a typo—for those of us not from California, these are hybrid apricot-plums.  Whereas a Pluot (very similar) is smoother-skinned, an Aprium is fuzzy and shows off its predominantly apricot parentage.