Ballard makes good (sort of)

Ballard has had a hard time impressing me with much of anything recently. After the novelty of the Locks wears off and the quaintness of Old Ballard starts to just look a little shabby, the traffic and parking (Almost Live was dead-on with the old Ballard Driving Academy sketch... 7 is as fast as anyone goes here in Ballard. Actually, taken as a whole, their compendium Ballard sketches comprise a pretty fair tourist guide to the neighborhood. Here's a bonus one with Bill Nye before he was the Science Guy.) and unfortunate location really start to grate on ones nerves.

But I had a half-hour or so to kick around at the Ballard Farmer's market today, and if there is anything to recommend the neighborhood, that would probably be it. In addition to being a real farmer's market, with actual farmers and actual fresh farm products available in quantities exceeding those of the half-baked craft goods that most farmer's markets try to pass off as authentic country goodness, the two or so blocks of Old Ballard that are blocked off and decked out for the event every Sunday ooze character. Looking for a crusty old guy walking around with a parrot on his shoulder? Got that. Pink Floyd covered by a two man accordion band? Got that. A hastily penned folk song chronicling the recent adventures of Balloon Boy? You better believe they've got that. And if the prices at some of the booths haven't managed to avoid gentrifying along with the rest of the neighborhood (fresh food at Yuppie, rather than country, rates) at least the quality of the goods are solid and the selection broad. Produce, meat, eggs and cheese, all available from multiple suppliers, right there in the same block.

There are deals to be had, however. Like most markets, you can dicker, if that's your thing. And there are just some genuinely good prices on some things. I managed to snag a half dozen mini donuts at the bargain rate of $1.75. And there is the constant possibility there, as at any non-systematized, casual marketplace, of teller error... error which may well be in favor of the consumer. I, for instance, received seven donuts in my half-dozen batch, a small counting error worth nearly 30 cents and one extra ration of yumminess in my belly when all was said and done. I shall commend the mini-donut both very favorably to friends and family in the future, so in the long run they will no doubt find it was a mistake well worth making.