The first time you buy at a farm
Buying at the farm is nothing like a supermarket, and that is where nearly all the good part is. This is the only thing you need to know the first time.
Ring before you go
Most of them are families working the land, not a shop with staff. One day they may be picking until eight, the next they shut at midday. In this directory 103 farms publish their phone number: a thirty-second call saves you the journey and saves them the interruption.
Ask two things: whether they will be there, and whether they have what you are after. The second one changes every week.
Take cash and bags
Many take cash and some have a card machine; we do not assume it on any page because we do not know. Take bags or boxes: you are going to leave with more than you planned, and nobody is going to hand you twenty plastic bags.
Buy what there is, not what was on your list
A farm does not have a product range, it has a harvest. If you went for tomatoes and what is at its best is the broad beans, change the menu. That is the difference between really eating in season and buying the word «season» printed on a label.
Quantities
Ask by the kilo, not by the unit, and accept the uneven sizes: on the same plant not everything comes out the same. If you are going to preserve or freeze, say so — many will set a box aside for another day and it works out better for you.
What is not done
You do not haggle: the price at the farm is already the price with nobody in between, and arguing it with the person who grew it gets you nowhere. You do not walk into the fields and you do not pick anything without asking. And if you bring a dog, you ask first.
Go back
The second visit is when the good part starts: they know you now, they keep things for you and they tell you what is coming in. Almost all the value in this is in the third visit, not the first.
Carry on here
This page is also in Castellano