It's a dilemma for those of us hoping to support local(ish) farmers of fresh, organic produce in the Bay Area: However much cash we bring to our Farmer's Markets, we're commonly left scrapping for pennies before we've purchased our last bunch of arugula or bag of purple heirloom beans.
To remind us how often we're near-bankrupted by this guilt-the-green-liberals borderline extortion racket, the Palo Alto Saturday market last week kindly laid on the excellent celtic duo, Four Shillings Short to serenade us as our wallets rapidly drained.
Generally, I'm resigned to paying $6 a pound for salad mix, $3.50 a pound for peaches or $5 a pop for a tiny cheese. After all, you are getting the freshest, highest-quality Californian produce possible shy of growing it yourself. And farmers usually know how to walk the fine line between asking all they can of an affluent community and thumbing their noses at them.
At today's Palo Alto Sunday market, though, I felt well and truly thumbed when I encountered my all time outrageous Farmer's Market ask: the $10 pot of jam. This for a mere 6oz of the stuff. I was so stunned, I forgot to snap a picture of the Blue Chair Fruit Co. booth.
It was perfectly acceptable jam (although a little heavy on the sugar). The lady selling it was a delight. The flavor combinations were interesting -- but when the going rate is under $5 for a 16oz jar, that jam would have to be life-changing, the seller a mermaid (Michael would have insisted we have some), the proceeds entirely donated to the world's poor or the local PTA for me to buy.
Unless we somehow hit Silicon Valley start-up gold, $10 jam will not -- I fear -- be in our future. Still, so long as there's music at the markets, we can always just dance.