Here are my recommendations for someone who is tight on cash and wants to eat fresh, delicious fruit:
- Learn which fruits are available at what time of the year. The best way to learn this is by going to a farmers market. In Oakland, I recommend the Friday farmers market in Old Oakland on 9th and Clay; it is open from 10 am to 2 pm. The farmers there are only selling what they grow and whatever produce and fruit is in season. You will not see bananas from Ecuador or Papayas from Belize. With time you will get a sense of what is in season, and prices also drop when the season for a particular fruit reaches its peak. My recommendation is to only buy what is in peak season, this will ensure that you will get the most nutritious fruit at the lowest price.
- Go to the Old Oakland farmers market at the end of the day, say around 1:30 pm. Most farmers are more than happy to drop their prices, and even more so if you buy large quantities, it helps if you have a large family or you eat fruit in large quantities.
- Prices at the Old Oakland farmers market are the lowest in my experience relative to the Oakland Grand Avenue farmers market, or any of the farmers market in Berkeley. The quality of fruit does have a wider variation, and you do have to know who is selling fruit that is closer to being ripe. Do not buy without tasting, if they refuse to give you a sample, then just buy one piece of fruit and eat/taste it. It is a matter of time before you get a sense of the different stands.
- What is in season right now: Strawberries, Apricots, Peaches, and Raspberries. The picture above shows what I bought last week for $17. This amount of fruit would cost an arm and a leg at Berkeley Bowl or Whole Foods, and the quality is much better than what you would find at any of those two stores, I would say not even close. The only exception would be few of the special stands at the Berkeley Farmers market, I am thinking strawberries from Lucero farm, or peaches from Kashiwase farms.
