There was a marketing moment this morning at the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market. See, on Wednesday I spotted a new vendor just off the entrance who had little okra so fresh-looking and so gorgeous that even the fussiest Chinese grandmother would just scoop it up by the handful rather than selecting perfect pods. And at $2/lb.
But since it was on the way in, I postponed the purchase until my exit and then, even though I’d picked up the pasillas and jalapeños and Early Girls to go with it, forgot it.
So today I stopped by, and the magic moment had passed. Yep, the vendor’d looked around and seen that hers was too much better at too much less, so she’d jacked it up to $3/lb. And it didn’t look quite as nice today, either.
Get it while you can.
The other market observation today is that now that I’m shopping mostly at this market and am there nearly every day it’s open, more and more of the vendors are getting to know me….and I, them. And what I’m getting real clear on is that you don’t need to go to the Information Booth to learn who’s got what. Oh no.
The vendors take little breaks and wander around and socialize….and while they’re at it, track each other’s offerings like raptors circling above a prairie dog town.
I was at that big fat farmer’s big fat stall and noticed that he had the first of the season’s cranberry beans. Woulda considered getting some if I hadn’t already picked up a bag of Yerena’s romanos, but as I was looking at ’em, my favorite vendor of French prunes (those little heirloom plums) appeared at my side and asked me what the beans were. I told him … and suggested waiting until next week because the shells weren’t showing enough red to suggest that they were fully ripe.
A couple of minutes later in front of Yerena’s I encountered that cherry vendor I’d described in an earlier tale as cranky. I got a smile out of him when I asked him with a grin, “Checking out the competition, Mohammed?”
And OK, I try not to do tourist shots in any country, but here’s the ruins of the Sutro Baths on a sunshiny summer day:
