OB FARMERS MARKET

Where I’m from in New Jersey farmer’s markets usually consist of your basic fruits and vegetables shipped in from a farm somewhere at least an hour away from where you’re purchasing them. They happen once a week if you’re fortunate enough to live somewhere either near the beach or a small town that happens to have one once a week at most. With that being said, moving to this area of San Diego has been a wonderful change and an eye opening experience in the sense that there seems to be a different farmers market for every day of the week. Everyone I talk to has a different market that they love and attend frequently for their vegetables, fruits, art, spices, granola or anything else that they might need. With all of the hype, and the fact that it’s Wednesday, Amanda and I headed to the Ocean Beach Farmers Market located on Newport Avenue, only about a block from the beach. The market takes place from 4 – 8 pm every Wednesday in the summer and ends at 7 pm in the winter months. We spent the day running some errands and picking up small things from places like Target and then decided to head to OB to see if we could get everything else we really from there instead.

Once we got to OB all we had to do was follow the crowds of people making their way towards the few blocks lined with different tents and vendors. Parking was a little difficult to find, but since we’re from an area where traffic and a daily parking struggle are common we expected it. After a few minutes of driving around the block we got lucky enough to find a spot and then walked towards the beach and our first California farmers market. The streets were crowded with a lot of people walking around and checking out all of the different items that were being sold by each of the vendors. We were amazed at all of the different food trucks and distributors present in such a small area and I immediately wanted to dive in and try everything in front of us.

 All of the vendors seemed to be local farmers and people who had come up with their own recipes and companies and were now going from market to market trying to share their goods and make a living off of their talents and products. Within the first couple of tents that we visited we saw stands full of different olive oils, homemade granolas, different flavored peanut butters, handmade soaps and an entire stand of every flavored jam that you could imagine. This caught our eye so we wandered over to try a couple samples and make our choice of which one we would be bringing home with us. It was called “Jackie’s Jam” and the flavors were endless and delicious. As boring as it sounds Amanda and I settled on Strawberry and vowed to try a different flavor every Wednesday, since it had already been decided that we would be back.

As we continued walking we reached the art section of the market, which was filled with all different kinds of painting, prints, t-shirts, jewelry and more. We admired all of the work these artists had done and were looking for something we could hang up in our new room when we saw something that caught our eye. There was a beautiful painting of a lotus flower with different blues and oranges that we instantly knew we had to have. We paid the kind man, chatted for a while and then went off to purchase some vegetables for dinner. It wasn’t just the shopping that was fun about the farmers market, but it was a beautiful day and it felt good to walk around near the beach and explore something new. We left with our items ready to go home and cook a fresh meal with all of new purchases and with another California experience behind us. Now I can’t wait to check out all of the other farmer’s markets in the area on their designated days and come back to OB next Wednesday for a brand new flavored jam!