Haymarket

This week has been full of exploring. Some of it the standard museums and touristy stuff like the Museum of Science (nearly identical to the Pacific Science Center... but with a better view and a much smaller butterfly exhibit) and the aquarium (they had a funny jellyfish exhibit that starts off saying how cool they are, but you end the exhibit thinking they are horrible because of their environmental impact in response to human activity). But I've also done a bunch of just random wandering around town which has made for great people watching.



But, the nuttiest experience of the week was yesterday when I went to Haymarket.





Haymarket is NOT a farmers market. The produce isn't local and the vendors are certainly not farmers. I had been advised that Haymarket was about quantity and not quality. Even so, I went with bag in hand, certain I'd find something to buy. I came home with an empty bag.


Now, don't think that means I was disappointed by my visit. Not in the least. This was a market to be seen for sure. The food just isn't of the quality that I want. What I did see was a market that was loud, obnoxious, and even a bit vulgur... apparently, if you spend a little too much time deciding on which produce to buy, the vendor may just start cussing you out (didn't happen to me, but I saw it on numerous occasions).


So, what is the market all about? Well, I did a little poking around and it turns out that there is a produce exchange where all the supermarkets get their stuff (basically all the food that is shipped in). This exchange turns over its produce at the end of the week, so what's left from the previous week would just be garbage - but they sell it cheap to these vendors (and others I suppose) who in turn sell it dirt cheap to customers. The food isn't necessarily bad, but it is at the end of its life and you're buying stuff that is on the verge of rotting (it's advised that anything you buy at Haymarket be eaten that day, or the next at worst). So you get things like $1 pints of strawberries, 50-cent avocados, limes 10 for a $1 (or a case for $2), peaches 6 for $1. The deals are incredible, but let me give you an example of what your up against:


Here is corn 6 for a dollar (notice it used to be 4 for a dollar earlier in the day) but check out the quality

Not sure this is a deal even at half the price

I read stories of how the vendors will swindle people, putting the good looking produce out front, but they won't let you pick your own stuff, so when you buy it, what they put in your bag is the rotten stuff from behind the counter. I didn't see that, but I wasn't looking for it either. I think I may go back and even spend some money just to see such things in action. I'm also super curious about this produce exchange. I need to get someone who knows about it to tell me how I can go see that too. I'm fascinated by how this all does down.

This was certainly one of the most interesting things I've seen so far. I never saw anything like this on the west coast and I'm almost amazed that such a market can even exist. But I guess it serves a purpose - if you shop wisely I suppose you could feed a family reasonably well for dirt cheap. But me, I think I stick to the actual farmer's markets.