Certified Farmers' Markets near 1105 Altschul Avenue

Markets are shown in approximate order of distance from our house.

Menlo Park

Sundays, year-round
Where: Downtown parking lot bounded by Crane St., Chestnut St., Menlo Ave., and Santa Cruz Ave. One block to our side of Trader Joe's.
Hours: 9:30 am - 1:00 pm.

Palo Alto - VA Hospital

Wednesdays (May - Oct.)
Where: 3801 Miranda Ave., NE corner of Foothill Blvd @ Arastradero Rd.
Hours: 10 am - 2 pm

Palo Alto (downtown)

Saturdays (mid-May, to mid-Dec.)
Where: Gilman Street between Hamilton and Forest. This is between City Hall and the post office, a block-plus south of University.
Hours: 8 am - 12 noon.

Palo Alto (California Ave.)

Sundays, year-round
Where: California Ave. shopping district, between El Camino Real and Ash St.
Hours: 9 am - 1 pm

Redwood City

Saturdays (Apr. - Nov.)
Where: Downtown next to the Century Redwood City 20 multiplex, 850 Winslow near Broadway.
Hours: 8 am - 12 noon.

Redwood City - Kaiser

Wednesdays (Apr - Sep.)
Where: 1150 Veterans Boulevard @ Maple parking lot
Hours: 10 am - 2 pm

Los Altos

Thursdays (May - Sep.)
Where: State Street at 2nd Street (one block N. of Main).
Hours: 4-8 pm

East Palo Alto

Saturdays (June - Sep.)
Where: 2415 University Avenue, City Hall and Library
Hours: 2 - 5 pm

San Carlos

Thursdays (May - Sep.)
Where: Laurel Street between Cherry and Olive Streets
Hours: 4-8 pm

Mountain View

Sundays, year-round
Where: Downtown Caltrain parking lot, 600 W. Evelyn nr. Castro.
Hours: 9 am - 1 pm

Belmont

Sundays, year-round
Where: Caltrain parking lot, El Camino Real @ O'Neill Ave.
Hours: 9 am - 1 pm

San Mateo

Wednesdays and Saturdays, year-round
Where: College of San Mateo campus
Hours: 9 am - 1 pm

Sundays, year-round
Where: NewPark Mall parking lot, Mowry just west of I-880
Hours: 9 am - 1 pm
Note: Large, bustling market. Both vendors and customers are very ethnically diverse, with some unusual items offered. Produce tends to be unlabelled. There is also quite a bit of prepared and hot food served.

Santa Clara - Kaiser

Thursdays, year-round
Where: 710 Lawrence Expwy @ Homestead Rd. parking lot
Hours: 10 am - 2 pm

Santa Clara

Saturdays, year-round
Where: Jackson St. at Homestead Rd., S. of downtown, W. of Santa Clara U.
Hours: 9 am - 1 pm

Sunnyvale

Saturdays, year-round
Where: S. Murphy Ave. at Washington Ave. (downtown).
Hours: 9 am - 1 pm
Note: Until at least April 2010, the market will be in temporary space at the nearby CalTrain parking lot on Evelyn Ave., because of a street/sidewalk improvement project on S. Murphy Ave. Also, the market was closed with no disclosure on the Web site on Saturday, Dec. 26, 2009, with only a sign on-site, the day of the market.

Half Moon Bay

Saturdays (May - Dec)
Where: Shoreline Station, 225 Cabrillo Hwy, CA-1 @ Kelly Ave., just S. of CA-92
Hours: 9 am - 1 pm
Note: Fresh fish from local fishermen! Local dairy! Local berries! Local artichokes!

Atherton

Ha-ha. You thought Atherton would have a certified farmer's market? Atherton?

Alemany Farmers' Market

Saturdays, year-round
Where: 100 Alemany Blvd. @ Peralta Ave., south side of Bernal Heights, San Francisco (US-101 North's Alemany Blvd. / Bayshore Blvd exit, right near where US-101 and I-280 cross). Listed not because it's close (it's 30 miles away), but rather because it's awe-inspiring.
Hours: 6 am - 5 pm (but winding down by noon; typically, all vendors are open for business around 7:15 am)
Note: The main vendor area is two partially roofed concrete rows of structures, furnishing about 50 vendor stalls per row. Parking is problematic: Earlier is better. If you don't arrive early, you're better off cruising around the neighbourhood for street parking, rather than waiting an age for the ~500 inside-the-market-lot parking spaces.

Inner Sunset Farmers' Market

Sundays, year-round
Where: South side of Irving, between 8th & 9th Avenues, Sunset District, San Francisco
Hours: 9 am - 1 pm

Sites about Farmer's Markets:

Certified Farmer's Market Program, California Dept. of Food and Agriculture
California Federation of Certified Farmer's Markets (trade group)
Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association (non-profit corp., operates many of the markets)
LocalHarvest (non-profit nationwide information site for the "Buy Local" movement)
LocalHarvest Zip Code search

Gardening (you know you want to -- and can if you have only a 4'x4' space or apartment):

My Bay Area Garden: Strata Rose Chalup's gardening blog
Common Ground organic garden supply and education centre in Palo Alto (non-profit)