I second the Madison, WI farmers market. Great deals, plenty of organics, and a great location.
http://www.madfarmmkt.org/

There are also many great, real farmers markets in Milwaukee.
http://milwaukee.about.com/od/shoppi...ersmarkets.htm

I miss the midwest farmers markets. In south Florida where I live now, a farmers market is more like a flea market.

I loved the one in Davis, CA when I went to school there. Great quality fruits and veggies, and sticky buns that were to DIE for!

Farmers' Markets
 

I thought we had a thread on this, but I ran a search and couldn't find one. Mods, feel free to combine if I'm mistaken.

I stopped at our local Farmers' Market this morning on the way to work. I was there 90 minutes after it opened and it looked like a lot of produce had already been sold. I was disappointed with the number of farmers (maybe 10) and the lack of organic products. I also thought I saw a table of cheese, but it turned out to be soaps. Maybe I feel let down after experiencing an excellent farmers market where I lived in CA 10 years ago. It stretched for blocks and sold anything you could imagine - all highest quality and reasonably priced.

Best features: Peaches! Glorious fresh ripe local peaches. Heirloom tomatos. A few unusual varieties of squash and cucumbers. Corn, but I'm going to wait a week. At least it wasn't $10 a dozen.

Worst features: Politicians. It had an old fashioned feel, listening to local runners-for-office tout their qualifications to the crowd, but I can't stand politicians. Crafts. More tables selling handmade crap than vegetables.

How's your local Farmers' Market?

We have not had a chance to check out the major farmers' markets in NYC yet. When we were looking for an apartment, one of the places we looked at mentioned one near the building. Turned out to have 2 stands :) A far cry from what we were used to with the many great markets in San Francisco. I think we'll be happier once we check out Union Square and others!

Farmers' markets (as well as farmers who sell directly to folks who stop to visit) are becoming really popular around here and I wonder if that's diluting their quality and size. I know there are at least two in Durham, one in Chapel Hill, and one in Raleigh; seems like it would be preferable to have one big farmers' market rather than four or more smaller ones running consecutively. I dunno if that's the problem that your area is seeing, though.

I love the local farmers markets. In New York there's one a couple blocks from the office once a week. Year round there are some meats, a guy selling fish he caught yesterday, mushrooms to die for, and things like apples and potatoes that can be stored over the winter. This time of year, there's just about everything you could want.

Where I live, there's a farmers market within 15 miles every day of the week, usually the same group of farmers going market to market. Within a couple miles is pick your own farm, where you pick whatever is available, and they just weigh the bags on the way our ($2 a lb, not so many tomatoes, but that's like a sack of jalepenos). There are also several other markets neat by all selling local stuff for totally incredible prices, and several peach and apple orchards very close by.

We really don't buy much but local stuff through the first or second week of November now.

There's a small farmer's market near my workplace that's open on Saturdays. It offers a lot of fresh produce at prices similar or a little cheaper then the local grocery store. They also offer a lot of local speciality foods and items I can't find anywhere else. It's a nice way to relax and spend an hour in one of my favorite parts of town.

When traveling, does anyone make an effort to check out the farmer's market in the city they're visiting? I like to do that when I can and it's a nice way to get off the beaten path and go hang out with the locals.

Is there ANYTHING better than a good farmer's market in August/September? It's food heaven! I'm lucky enough to live close to Jean Talon Market, and there's nothing better than a lazy Sunday spent amongst the fruit and vegetable stands.

And that doesn't even begin to touch the little specialty shops around the market! Spice shops, Polish doughnuts, wild game, the butchers selling $1 meat on a stick in Butcher's Row, the gelato shop, locally made milk and butter, just so amazing.

If anyone's heading up to YUL, I highly recommend checking it out.

San Francisco Farmers Market @ Ferry Building
 

Good subject! We were in San Francisco for the weekend and went to the farmers market. Hundreds+++ booths, and I would say a few thousand shoppers. Amazing market, everything you could want, but corn is not ready here. My favorite thing from the farmers market.
Meats, fish, produce, you name it, plus many food booths to biy lunch.
Love the farm markets.
Bob

Several Farmers markets throughout the San Francisco Bay Area; SFgate did a good job posting the events here.

Information for the popular Ferry Farmers Market, held at the Embarcadero can be found here:
http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace....ers_market.php

The Atlanta area has lots of local farmers' markets on different days all around town.

Growing up my parents would take me to the Allentown (PA) farmers market a couple times a year. Haven't been in many years. Now I've got to plan a trip. ^

We have a few local farmer's markets, but to be honest they aren't very good. Farmers Markets work well where you have the climate to grow stuff and the farmers have the ability to profitably spend time farming. But up here in the North East, nothing grows too well and farmers honestly don't earn enough to make this type of thing worth while.

What we do have in Boston, however, is a good produce market. Stuff is obviously shipped in, but you can still find some good deals and pretty good quality stuff. But I wish we were able to run markets here like they do in Europe.

Perhaps we should start a list of good markets around the world. I will start by saying Boston's Haymarket, though not what it once was, is pretty good for your veggies up here.

I've seen the same thing in New York. Some of the fruits and vegetables are
fresh off the truck from Florida, California, Mexico etc..

Corn
 

I just rec'd email from a local organic farm that has a market on the farm...First of the corn is in today. I hope they have enough to still have some this afternoon when I can get some.
Bob