North Park Farmer’s Market

I loved this little farmer’s market. If anyone has ever gone to the little Italy one on Saturdays, this is like a smaller more personal version.
The size was deceptively large. It looks like only one isle of shops, but the vegetable area in the parking lot has a good 10 – 15 vendors. They all have awesome samples so I suggest hitting up all the great fruit stands. I always buy the «Bitchin Sauce» in little Italy so I was happy to see them at this farmer’s market as well.
I really recommend this market for people who love the feel of that «local vibe» with local organic produce and nice people. If you like farmer’s markets but don’t want to be bumping into tons of people then this is for you!

Great little neighborhood farmer’s market — wasn’t crowded when I visited, easy to get in and find what I wanted. Many of the same vendors you’ll find at the Hillcrest Market, but less crowded.

Support your local businesses!
Many of them have great signature dishes. The new hidden gem is «the Gumbo Pot» the owner has a great Vegan Jambalaya Style bowl, with Collard Greens, Okra, Spices and Rice. He is also at Pacific Beach farmers market on Tuesdays
It is amazzzzzzingggg!
And the Red Beans & Rice!
The Gumbo Pot is tied for # 1 on our SD Vegan top 10!
Check it out!

When I was a small child, my Mom would take us to the Farmer’s Market on a Saturday or Sunday morning. She would purchase primarily produce, dairy products, and fresh flowers.
To this day, I enjoy Farmer’s Markets. However, what I have noticed that you no longer see just these items. You see artists selling unique jewelry, hand crafted shirts, and of course organic creams, balms, and facial products. Not to mention food vendors, selling plates of Indian curry chicken and rice to empanadas. Plus, more!
North Park Farmer’s Market is a market that offers organic produce, organic free range eggs, Green Juice starting at $ 5 for 16oz., (Super yummy!) organic cheeses, fresh flowers (large selection), Bitchin Sauce, Ceviche, and fresh breads. And, that’s just the the section from Park Way Blvd. As you walk towards University Avenue, you will find all the food vendors and artists. But, be careful with your kids ears and your own. The musical performance is always loud. It’s too loud for me. And, you will need to pass by the music in order to reach the food vendors. (Unless your coming from University Ave.)
If you don’t live in North Park, and cannot walk here. Parking can be found at CVS. There is a small fee, I think it’s $ 2 for an hour. Plenty of time to go through the Farmer’s Market.
We walked here, and had the Green Juice, a must. Bought Shrimp Ceviche $ 10 (came with a frozen pack), and picked out fresh flowers for our home. Total spending $ 26.
Overall, this Farmer’s Market is not huge compared to the other ones around San Diego. But, it offers all the essentials. Should you not find anything, it is always refreshing to just walk around and enjoy the vendors and people.
Enjoy!

This is one of my more preferred Farmer’s Markets. The selection of fruits and vegetables are the best I’ve gotten and it’s always a pleasant experience. Vendors are nice too. Parking can be iffy at times but if you are free on Thursday evenings, you should come do your produce shopping here. It would be nice if it was bigger and I would like to see as much of a selection of meats here and/​or specialty items as the produce offered. But even without that, it still offers some of the best I see at a Farmer’s Market!

This farmers market is tiny, but it has all the essentials I need for a Farmers Market. I come here for the deviously sweet strawberries and fresh flowers. There is also live music and food vendors. It is not as big as the Little Italy farmers market, so I’m not even going to try to compare them. For what it is, it is great. I never have trouble finding parking, I like the convenience of the location and hours. I try to come here after work to unwind and listen to some music while snacking on some yummy fruits.

This is by far my favorite farmers market. Its perfectly small, has everything I need. And they have parking! I think its perfect! Not a big jumbling mess of crowds, just a great weekday market to get fresh bread, hummus, organic produce and flowers. And they have great hot food vendor s also!

The North Park farmers market doesn’t have nearly the size, crowds, or frenetic energy of its farmers market brethren elsewhere in SD (see: Hillcrest farmers market, Little Italy Mercato, etc.). But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in charm.
Most of SD’s other farmers markets are located along one of the neighborhood’s main drags. Not so with the North Park farmers market. You can find it open for business on Thursday evenings, along Herman Ave (not exactly a high-​traffic area) and overflowing into a parking lot behind the CVS. If you’re cruising along University Ave and ignoring your surroundings, you might never know that a farmers market is even there.
All the usual farmers market trappings are there. Food trucks serving up roadside treats? Check! A large selection of fruit and veggie vendors? Check! Gorgeous arrays of fresh flowers? Check! Freshly prepared desserts and sweet goodies to go? Check check check and quadruple-​check.
Seemingly endless free samples? Well, duh — isn’t that the *real* reason we all go?
The strength of the farmers market is the variety. It’s the only place in town where you can buy a neon-​green head of Romanesco broccoli, and then, 10 seconds later, be noshing on a delicious PubCakes cupcake or a freshly baked pistachio macaron.
The Hillcrest farmers market will always be the gold standard against which I compare all other SD farmers markets, but North Park’s iteration is probably a close second. And when I need groceries on a random Thursday, it does the trick nicely.

I quite enjoyed this compact little farmers market, which included food trucks extending down the street. I got there pretty close to closing time, so had to make a few quick rounds and do a few quick tastes. Friendly, helpful vendors. I hope to return, though it is not my neighborhood.

A perfectly small, complete farmer’s market.
There are few surprises, save a street food vendor or two, but if I had to list all the vendors I’d *need* from say the multi-​block Saturday Little Italy extravaganza market, they’re all here. Lots of organics, meat, eggs, flowers, almonds and cheese. Done.
So happy to have this market close to my new digs!

This market is great to stroll through if you happen to be in the neighborhood. It is probably ¹⁄₃ the size of other farmers markets in sister neighborhoods but you can get some of your grocery needs met and browse the shops a few blocks over. If you’re looking for more selection and variety definitely consider a different one!

This market is great when you just want to get in and out on a week day and get the bare essentials. Actually, not just the bare essentials. This market may be small but it definitely has it all! It’s small enough to navigate on a week night when you’re trying to quickly pick up items for dinner and you’d rather not spend an arm and a leg (in parking fees and time) down at Little Italy. I can usually find street parking, but if I can’t, I don’t care because it’s only $ 1 to park all day. J R Organics and Da-​Le Ranch totally make this market worth my time. I have CSAs with both of them and everything is ready, packaged to go when I arrive. Makes grocery shopping SO much easier and convenient. I love the freshness of farmer’s markets, HATE the busy-​ness of markets on weekends! Get in and get out. Love it!

Very tiny and unexciting farmer’s market. This is located in San Diego’s hipster neighborhood and this farmer’s market doesn’t do them justice since you know, hipsters love farmer’s markets: p

I’m going to sound like a jerk but with the exceptions of the vendors, I don’t like this location. I’ve never been to North Park Farmer’s Market until yesterday. I’m not from the area and I’m used to the Farmers Market locations in UTC, Little Italy, Hillcrest, Pt. Loma, the former Mission Valley one… you get the idea. I felt the location was cramped and a bit small for a Farmers Market. I didn’t feel that it did the Vendors any justice.
Its not that it was on the side of a CVS location that got me, but I didn’t feel like I was in a «safe» location. When you park, I wasn’t sure if I REALLY had to pay for the parking spot that I parked in which was at the CVS parking lot. My kids and I were like, «Really?» The cameras around CVS were off putting and I’m sorry if I’m offending any neighborhood peeps, but I didn’t feel like I was in a safe neighborhood. Obviously, I’m not from THIS neighborhood and I don’t typically go out of my way to drive here. I’m just being honest.
At least the vendors are consistently seen at other Farmers Market locations and I’ll just do my business there from now on. The only reason why I went to this location was because my favorite foods ran out, I didn’t want to wait for the weekend, and I wanted to experience another Farmers Market location. In the end, as the saying goes…“Good things happen to those who wait”.

Just relocated back to the North Park area and checked out the local Farmers Market. Hands down my favorite one to date. Yes, it is extremely tiny, but it is to the point. Fresh, local fruit, vegetables, and meat from extremely friendly vendors. Delicious snacks, just a small selection of arts and crafts, and live music. Best part of it all, extremely chill! To all the farmers market lovers out there, you won’t want to miss this one!

I wish I had enough money because I love the fresh flowers, the unique eats and the awesome art. Just walking own the street I an smell the amazing scent of pupusas and empanadas. I really wanted to try the sweet potato hot pockets things.
Loved the infused flavored garlic too but didn’t get to bring any home.

I think this is my favorite farmers market. I’ve been coming here to buy my food for a decade. Even though I’ve gone to the O.B. one more to hang out, I just still love this little market here. Only complaint too much meat. But I come for the fresh organic produce, from all these wonderful farms around here, everything is so vibrant and fresh, and you can meet the people who make your food. What a great way to get some food. Also, shout out to the vegan gluten free tamales.

this place is aight.
it’s not that i can’t get any of this stuff. on any other given day. lets say. like at a ralps. or at sprouts.
because i can.
but i usually go here to get my greenfix smoothie. and it’s the only place i know that has the bitchin’ sauce. btw. that sauce is bitchin’.
they also have these guys that sell. hummus. and pita bread.
they have produce. and stuff too.
really. i’m really not sure why i go here.
and the food trucks. well. there are like two.
yeah. if it weren’t for the smoothies. and sauce.
i’d probably end up at sprouts.

I have to admit, I was expecting more from this Farmers Market. I mean, it was fine, but I was expecting more food vendors. They had a nice amount of produce stands and couple of meat stands, but very few specialty shops.
The good thing was that every vendor I spoke to were very friendly and informative. I picked up some fresh strawberries for smoothies (
) and some organic brown cage free eggs for omelets. (
) I had a few of the strawberries and they were great.
Overall, I was hopping for a bigger variety of places to eat. I settled to for some sweets and a had a yummy waffle at Wow Wow Waffles. Very yummy. (
)

Those who complain about this farmers market may have their own reasons, but if they were to visit a small one of a similar size, like … Belmont Farmers Market in Northern California, NPFM clearly kicks Belmont FM’s ass (and others) to the curbside and into the gutter.
Perhaps it is because San Diego county just has generally better quality produce… fruits and vegetables. Just cannot explain it. If you stay in SD for a week and visit some of the bigger farmers markets, you’ll see the same faces and brands there too. e.g. Little Italy, or the other smaller one in Mesa. Each with its own unique flair. Can’t resist sampling the delicious local varieties of greatness.
I was never really a fan of dried dates, until I tried a sample from the dried dates vendor (dates grown in Santee, CA) here. Quite simply put, packed with a ton of flavor, and the drying process kept all the good stuff inside. The texture was similar to that of a prune, sweet, but not overly sweet. Anyone tried the dried dates from College of San Mateo Farmer’s Market in NorCal when available? All sugar, no date flavor, and somewhat… smokey. No contest. Maybe David Chang would like some Santee CA dried dates on a plate for a change instead of figs with his pork buns and bastardized overpriced instant noodles with pork berry?
The special organic green juice (from a vendor who sells at the other FMs in the area) that is loaded with goodness, including locally grown kale, apple, carrot, yada yada grows from the ground & trees type of stuff, extracted/​juiced to order? It’s not just for environmentalists, vegans, and raw foodies anymore. It’s quite tasty. Who knows, drinking a few of these a day might make you look like a nubile 21 year old again.