Someone I'm friended to on Facebook posted about this awesome farmer's market in Oakland. I didn't pay too much attention because I'm not really into the farmer's market thing. I already go to enough supermarkets and I need to be able to get more than what's at the average farmer's marker. But then I read the word "indoor". Intriguing. So I read on.
It's in the shopping plaza where the DMV is housed. The awesome DMV where you're pretty much in and out at any given time of the day or month. Anyway, it's right in there. I decided to take the drive because I also needed to go to Shop Rite which is another few miles down the road there. My FB friend exclaimed about the low prices for good fruit and vegetables. How could I resist?
I went in and she was right. The first thing I saw was three packages of baby carrots for $1. Yup. I bought them. Downside- I didn't notice till I got home that the sell by date is August 15. I won't be able to eat that many baby carrots in that time but it's not like carrots go bad on that date so whatever- for $1, it's fine. E eats them with dip as his dinner veggie. I guess he'll be eating them all week.
Next was 6oz blueberry packages for $.99/each. And they look and taste great (I'm eating them right now). Driscoll's blueberries. I bought $4. B eats them in his cereal and E would eat them in place of raisins with his morning pancakes.
Cucumbers were 3 for $1, and while I don't remember the exact prices, the grapes, plums, and nectarines were cheaper than regular supermarket prices. I didn't get to taste those all yesterday but the grapes were the same brand as what I buy in a small, more local to me market and they were much cheaper.
The interesting thing was the rest of the stuff in there. It was really random. They had a decent amount of organic products, and obscure ones I haven't even seen in Whole Foods. But they didn't have gallon size organic skim milk. Only all the other fat-full ones- 1%, 2% and whole. So I didn't buy milk there. But they had Applegate Farms Organic Chicken Strips, which I have a hard time finding in regular supermarkets. And they were like $6.49 and if I can find them in Shop Rite or Fairway, they're at least $6.99-$7.99. They had the organic puree pouches- new flavors (from the same old brands) that I haven't seen yet in Target, Fairway or Shop Rite. But they were more expensive for those. Kashi frozen dinners were more expensive in Oakland Farmer's Market than in Target which I went to for my Lean Cuisine's later. They were like $5.49 vs like $3.99.
But on fruit and vegetables- it was definitely worth it. All the fruit looked really good and fresh. Sometimes it doesn't even look that good in the supermarket. I did want red and yellow grape tomatoes which may have been there but I didn't see them. I saw red ones but they were on a vine and I didn't want them like that. Plus, the one package of red ones I picked up were all shriveled.
The prices of the other products weren't bad- some were comparable to regular supermarket prices. They have interesting brands you might not be able to find easily elsewhere. They also have gluten-free products as well. I don't think you could do your whole food shop there but you could do a decent part of it and definitely great for some good organics in a pinch. They also had a full deli area but I'm not sure if they had any prepared food. I didn't have time to check it out and I don't buy cold cuts.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/giant-farmers-market-oakland-2
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