A Day at the Market

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Saturday we visited the Santa Barbara Farmers Market. It runs across two perpendicular streets downtown Santa Barbara. It used to be held in a school parking lot. I found that much easier because all the stands were in a large rectangle and I walked up and down the aisles knowing where my favorites were located. Now it’s spread out over blocks and blocks.

I took my Nikon camera and 105 mm lens because it does close-ups from 1.3 feet to normal range photos like above. Also the 105 mm lens isn’t as cumbersome to carry as my telephoto lens that weighs a ton!

Here are photos of people, veggies and flowers from the Farmer’s Market:

One of the many gorgeous flower stands.

Squash blossoms. My friend who lives near Santa Barbara stuffs zucchini squash blossoms with ricotta cheese and sautés them. Delicious!

There was live music which added to the festive atmosphere.

I love cauliflower.

This is a closeup of the blue flowers that were in the flower photo above.

Interesting spelling of garbanzo beans.

One of the flower stands was all orchids.

Another was all mushrooms. I’ve never seen mushrooms like these in clumps. Have you?

The couple in the center look like they’re enjoying themselves.

A closeup of rich purple blossoms.

Lots of veggie stands feature beautiful tomatoes.

I like the name Tutti Frutti Farms.

It was fun to take people pictures, because I haven’t done that since my college days as a journalism major. I was surprised when I loaded the photos onto my laptop and saw interesting interactions.

I hope you enjoyed my day at the market. Our objective was to buy a homemade pie at a pie stand for a friend’s BBQ Sunday. We found the stand and bought a cherry crumble pie. Yum. Then with mission accomplished I wandered around with my camera.

What photos do you like best?

Do you go to farmers markets near you? What do you like best from farmers markets?

51 thoughts on “A Day at the Market”

  1. There’s a market downtown every Saturday but they really need to move it. It’s much too crowded and anyone not within walking distance usually doesn’t stand a change of finding parking anywhere. Those veggies are outstanding!

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    • This location is tough too for parking. Last year we parked in a bank parking lot because banks are closed on Saturdays. But the bank hired a guard to not allow you to park there. Doesn’t make sense to me.

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  2. Wow, that’s a huge farmers market! I would enjoy it just for the people watching, Elizabeth. Your choice of lens is perfect. In the last photo, the ginger gal with the eBike has the exact same bike as mine! An excellent carbon fibre bike. I’m glad you guys are having a wonderful trip!!

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  7. Nice market. I have found that all the pop-up markets here are nothing more than people trying to pitch their homemade knick-knacks. The kind that find their way to a box and are never seen again.

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  9. Looks like an interesting crew! We do have farmers markets near us that we have to return to in Plant City, Thonotossa. I am hoping we can get there again in the future.

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    • This market is so busy and huge. There’s another market in the town of Carpinteria that is closer to the beach rental we’re in. It’s so much smaller and less crowded. We visited both this week. They are both good to visit in their own way.

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  11. A fun day it looks like. We enjoy going to farmer’s markets when we can. Ahh! Cherry crumble pie sounds delish!
    Great shot of the tomatoes. Looks like you could pick one up right out of the photo. 🙂

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  13. I don’t often go to the farmers market, though I do visit a regular farm stand sometimes. The farmers market usually is in a parking lot, but on the 2nd Saturdays of the month, they spread out on Main Ave. and some side street blocks. Lots of non-farm stuff to peruse. I don’t buy much.

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Kind Comments Are Always Welcome!