Preparing for the Farmer's Market

So says Michael Pollan in his Unhappy Meals article:

4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market; you also won’t find food harvested long ago and far away. What you will find are fresh whole foods picked at the peak of nutritional quality. Precisely the kind of food your great-great-grandmother would have recognized as food.

The Farmer's Market, man!  I'm actually going to be doing a lot of produce shopping there as opposed to getting snacks and those yummy grilled sausages that I have gotten in the past.  Living in California, it seems like there's a Farmer's Market on every corner.  Well, I exaggerate a tad...

But here's a list that I found in the LA Times.

At first I was a little annoyed - several markets that I'm closest to operate during working hours, and sometimes during the middle of the day (Century City - 11-3pm?  Really?).  Some of us in Los Angeles actually have 9-5 job that require us to be at work Mon-Fri.  I know that's not the norm in this town, what with the camera operators that work 4 months out of the year and make six figures or the SAHMs or the "producers" - but there are at least a dozen of us poor bastards.  

But once I really looked at the list closer, there were tons of markets that were open during my off-work hours that were nearby.

Places that are closest to me (most are under 5 miles) are the Culver City Farmer's Market (Tuesdays, 2-7pm), Westwood (Thursdays, 1-6pm), Santa Monica Organic (Saturdays, 8:30-1), Santa Monica regular (Saturdays, 8:30-1), Beverly Hills (Sundays, 9-1), Westchester (Saturdays, 8:30-1),  Santa Monica (this makes three in that city alone) (Sundays, 9:30-1), West Los Angeles (Sundays, 9-2), Westwood (Sundays 10-3pm), .

Eight farmer's markets...not too shabby.  I think a field trip is in order for me to get an idea of the inventory (although I'm sure it changes on a weekly basis).  I've been to the Culver City market and know exactly what to get (oh hummus guy - I'm thinking about you!) - maybe some artisan chocolate as well... some honey for my morning oatmeal, etc. etc.  However, I've never been to the Westwood one.  So I'll check it out next week.  And maybe swing by one of the Santa Monica ones this weekend.  In the past when I've gone, I've eaten breakfast there and looked at letterpress stationery.  This time it'll be about business.  All fruits.  All veggies.