Best Places For Fresh Fruit In San Francisco

By Melanie Graysmith

California is the nation's agricultural basket, known for growing the best fruits and vegetables, hands down. This is particularly true of Central and Northern California farmers and growers who take pride in their produce and what they sell, whether as vendors themselves at local farmers markets or working with quality grocers who sell only the freshest local fruit straight from the farm. Read on for five places to buy fresh fruit in San Francisco.

The Fruit Guys
490 Eccles Ave.
South San Francisco, CA 94080
(877) 378-4863
www.fruitguys.com

Self proclaimed "America's #1 Original Office Fruit Provider," the Fruit Guys has been a family owned and operated business since 1998. Begun with the simple idea of helping companies provide healthy snack options to employees during their workday, The Fruit Guys have created a powerhouse of anticipation and good will in America's offices as The Fruit Guys now operate nationally. Virtually everyone needs a snack boost around 3pm, and dependence on candy bowls or salty chips often comes with a groan as hands reach in anyway since nothing else is available. Fresh fruit delivered straight to the office is an excellent part of a company's wellness program that can be the gift that keeps on giving. Employee morale is high and productivity soars as fresh, farm fruit brings healthy energy snacks to the office. According to The Fruit Guys, "Studies show that healthy eating leads to better productivity and a happier workplace. When choosing snacks, consumers want variety, according to the Nielsen Global Snacking Report." To learn more, including the weekly fruit box cost and particulars, visit the website for all the details. Check out basic fruit box delivery cost here.

Related: Best Places For Organic Produce In The East Bay

Alemany Farmers Market
100 Alemany Blvd.
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 647-9423
www.facebook.com/Alemany-Farmers-Market 

California's first farmers market opened in 1943 as a way for farmers to sell their excess harvests when wartime transportation needs took priority, and farm harvest distribution became limited. This is the "people's market," with its basic, rough corners look and non-upscale atmosphere along with welcomed, sane prices. There is a ton of produce variety and lots of samples too. Fruit, vegetables, nuts, flowers, bread, and more are here, with heavy emphasis on an incredible range of fruit and all sorts of veggies, including pan Asian and Latino favorites, so no excuses for not trying out those cooking skills on some ethnic classics at home. If hunger hits, and it should, there are food stands with some seating, selling the usual tasty take away fare.

Heart of the City Farmers Market
Union Nations Plaza, between 7th and 8th Streets
Above Civic Center BART
San Francisco, CA 941…
(415) 558-9455
www.heartofthecity-farmersmar.squarespace.com

This wonderful, right-priced, and wildly popular market is San Francisco's only independent, farmer-operated, non-profit farmers market. In operation since 1981, it also shares space with a slew of niche vendors, including chocolatiers, pie makers, and specialty and ethnic food stalls and trucks. The wide range of farmers and their specialty produce include farms such as Rainbow Orchards, known for its mountain grown blueberries, apples, nectarines, pears, peaches and more; M.A, Farms and its seasonal variety of stone fruits; and Medina Berry Farm of Watsonville, growers and sellers of the most incredibly delish pesticide-free berries and other fruits. Read about the market's farmers here. The added beauty of this market is its efforts for inclusiveness and accessibility for everyone, no matter their income bracket or ways they can pay, by facilitating customer purchasing power and attracting new customers through linking vendors with government assistance programs so farmers can accept alternative forms of currency. Read all about the California farmers market token program, the largest in the nation, here.

Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 291-3276
www.cuesa.org

Since 2003 the Ferry Building Farmers Market has transformed the City's Embarcadero and harbor landscape with an about face purpose as nothing else before it. No longer a business centered office building fronting several ferries, the historic Ferry Building, badly damaged in the magnitude of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, shut down for many years, but thanks to a massive restoration that converted the first floor into an exquisitely modern, hip and inviting marketplace with offices above, the building reopened in March 2003, and its cozy cousin, the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, opened a month later and has been a phenomenal success ever since. The three-times-a-week farmers market brings the biggest draw on Saturdays when its largest market, with more than 100 vendors including the finest fruit and vegetable growers, along with bread, coffee, flowers, meats, nuts, honey and jams, prepared food vendors and much more, blends seamlessly with the interior Ferry Building Marketplace. Inside the place showcases its restaurants, savory and sweet food stalls, and other purveyors of everything wonderful. Stop by soon, you'll love it.

Related: Best Places To Pick Summer Fruit In The Bay Area

Frog Hollow Farm
Ferry Building Marketplace
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94111
www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

The Frog Hollow Farm Marketplace outpost is really worth a visit. Stroll over to Shop #46 not only for its selection of direct-from-the farm organic seasonal fruit, but also for the yummy selection of savory and sweet, fruit-filled pastries, including luscious galettes, baked daily on-site. If you're looking for fruit goodness in a jar the shop carries an assortment of Frog Hollow Farm spreadable fruit: conserves, marmalades, and chutneys, with sample tastes before you buy to see what you like best. Known nationally for its peaches, Frog Hollow Farm is an actual 143-acre certified organic farm (C.C.O.F.) in Brentwood, California, about a one-hour drive east of San Francisco. While well know for its delicious peaches, Frog Hollow also grows apricots, apples, apriums, cherries, pears, persimmons, plums, pluots, and quince, plus olives and heirloom tomatoes, and smaller crops of citrus and winter fruits in season. Learn more about Frog Hollow Farm, here.