[Welcome, Nancy, from San Francisco, who is trying out for the writer position at The Kitchen. Her first post is a store review. Are you in SF's Castro? Kudos to the first reader who can send us a photo of Golden Produce!]
For those who live within a two-mile radius of San Francisco’s Golden Produce, the tiny but tantalizing fruit and veggie stand has an almost cult-like status. Partly, that’s because it’s located directly across the street from Safeway, where in-the-know shoppers who wouldn’t deign to buy the chain’s sub par produce often waltz in carrying Golden bags.
Unlike some neighborhood grocers, where you pay a premium for chain-avoidance, the family-owned Golden Produce offers a selection of seasonal fruits and veggies—the majority of them organic, many of them obscure—at very reasonable prices. It’s the poor woman’s alternative to SF’s hoity-toity Ferry Building farmer’s market.
In addition to the produce, which encouragingly changes daily depending on what’s fresh, the store stocks a variety of vegetarian and natural foods, complete with bulk grains and an olive bar.
This is hands-down my favorite little produce shop in SF. I make it a point to stop in whenever I'm in the neighborhood...places like this are what make SF grocery shopping such a treat.
I'm really glad to know about this market for when I am in San Francisco. I was very disappointed with my first visit last month to the Ferry Building market, alas. To much boutique food, too few hipster farmers selling their baby eggplants out of Oaxacan baskets.