Skip Soulard on Wednesday: Buying Fresh Produce in St. Louis
Revised November 10, 2026
Is produce more expensive at the farmers market?
Sometimes, and it depends on which kind of market you mean. Soulard Farmers Market, which the city calls a place to find budget-friendly fresh foods, counts six local farms among more than 100 vendors. Markets built around local growers price in the farmer’s own labor, so just-picked crops often cost more than the store.
Keep reading ↓Walk into Soulard Farmers Market on a Wednesday and most of the stalls are bare. You can hear your own footsteps under the roof. That isn’t bad luck, and it isn’t a slow week. The City of St. Louis, which runs the market, posts the numbers on its own page: about 10% of vendors set up on Wednesday, 10% on Thursday, 35% on Friday. Saturday is 100%.
So Saturday is the day. Every stall in the wings between 7th and 9th Streets is working, and the aisles fill with produce, fresh meat and fish, baked goods, honey, candy and cut flowers, the whole place loud with people and paper bags. It’s been a market for a long time, too. The city calls it the longest continuously operating market west of the Mississippi.
And here’s the number tucked into the city’s own announcement about the market. Soulard has more than 100 vendors, including six local farms.
Six.
That’s not a knock on Soulard. It’s the single most useful thing to know about buying produce in St. Louis, because it answers the question everybody asks, and the answer isn’t the one you’d guess.
Is produce more expensive at the farmers market?
Sometimes, and it depends on which kind of market you mean. Soulard Farmers Market, which the city itself calls a place to find budget-friendly fresh foods, counts six local farms among more than 100 vendors. Markets built around local growers price in the farmer’s own picking, packing and driving, so their just-picked crops often cost more than the store.
Those are really two different kinds of place wearing the same name. Six local farms out of more than 100 vendors means most of the people behind Soulard’s tables aren’t local farmers, and that’s part of why the city can call it budget-friendly. Nobody’s hiding it. The number is right there on the city’s page.
At a market built around growers, the deal is different. The Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, run by STL-FM, says it was founded two decades ago with the goal of connecting local farmers with St. Louisans, and its Saturday market in Tower Grove Park is home to 120 vendors. When the person behind the table grew the tomato, you can tell before you pay: it smells green and sharp at the stem, and it’s heavy in your palm. The price card carries their fuel, their booth, their Saturday and the hours bent over a row. You pay more for some things. What you buy back is time: a tomato that was on the vine a day or two ago, not one picked green for a long truck ride.
So the trick isn’t picking the cheap market or the expensive one. It’s knowing which one you’re standing in, and asking the simplest question at the table.
Did you grow this?
If the answer is yes, buy the thing that tastes nothing like the store version: the peach, the heirloom tomato, the sweet corn picked that morning. If the answer is no, buy the staples that keep, like onions, potatoes and cabbage, wherever they’re cheapest, and spend the difference where fresh really shows.
Shopping Soulard the way the regulars do
Soulard Farmers Market is at 730 Carroll St., and it’s open year-round, Wednesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s closed Sunday through Tuesday. Individual vendor hours may vary, the city notes, so call the market at (314) 622-4180 if you’re planning around one stall. There’s metered street parking around the building and a free public lot across from 7th Street and Carroll Street.
Leave the dog at home. That one surprises people. St. Louis city ordinance 11.44.220 says no person shall bring a dog into any market place during market hours, and the market’s own rules say animals and smoking are prohibited anywhere on Soulard Market grounds.
Then do what the regulars do. Walk the whole market once before you buy anything, because two tables selling what looks like the same tomato can differ a lot on price and on ripeness. Carry small bills and a sturdy bag, because a sack of potatoes gets heavy by the second aisle. Buy the heavy things first and the soft fruit last, every single time, so the peaches ride home on top instead of under a sack of potatoes.
Keep an eye on the small stalls, too. Soulard’s manager, Bob Ray, calls it a low-cost, low-risk setting for new businesses, and the city says Freddie Lee’s Gourmet Sauces, now sold in 1,000 stores, and Lona’s Lil Eats, a 2019 James Beard semifinalist, both made their starts at the market. The next one might be the table you almost walked past.
And remember the calendar. The Tower Grove Saturday market runs 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on market days, so check its Visit the Markets page for this season’s dates before you go. Soulard keeps its doors open year-round.
One more thing worth asking about at any market’s info table. Double Up Food Bucks doubles the value of SNAP benefits spent on fresh fruits and vegetables, at more than 70 participating grocery stores and farmers markets. But the Missouri Independent reported that state lawmakers passed a budget without funding for the program, so ask before you count on the match.
How can you tell if fruit is ripe?
Use your nose and your thumb more than your eyes. Ripe fruit usually smells like itself at the stem end, feels heavy for its size and gives a little when you press it gently. Color is the easiest thing to fool you, because plenty of fruit is bred to look red and ready long before it tastes that way.
With peaches, look past the red blush and check the background color near the stem. Gold or creamy yellow is good. Green means it came off the tree early. Press with the flat of your thumb near the stem, never a squeeze, and smell it. A ripe one smells like peach before it ever reaches your face.
For a cantaloupe, sniff the stem end. It should smell sweet and a little musky. Watermelon plays by different rules: pick it up, and it should feel heavier than it looks, with a creamy yellow patch underneath where it rested on the ground.
Good sweet corn has bright green husks wrapped tight and silk that’s brown and a little sticky at the tips. Feel through the husk for plump kernels all the way to the end, and please don’t peel the ears open at the table. Growers hate it, and it dries the corn out for the next person. With berries, tip the container and look at the bottom for juice stains or fuzz before you pay, because one moldy berry spreads to the rest fast.
The crisper drawer is where good produce goes to die
You did everything right at the market. Then a few days later, the lettuce is slimy and the peaches have gone soft on one side. Most of that is storage, and most of it is fixable.
Start with the gas. Illinois Extension explains that ethylene is the natural plant hormone mostly responsible for ripening, and some produce gives off a lot of it. Its advice is to store ethylene producers, like apples, melons and tomatoes, separately from ethylene-sensitive produce, like peppers, green beans, cucumbers and lettuce. Two crisper drawers, one for fruit and one for vegetables, solve most of it. You can also use it on purpose: a hard avocado in a paper bag with an apple softens faster.
Then the cold. The FDA says to store perishable fresh produce, like strawberries, lettuce, herbs and mushrooms, in a clean refrigerator at 40°F or below, and to refrigerate anything pre-cut or packaged. A cheap fridge thermometer tells you whether yours actually gets there.
Not everything wants the fridge, though. Cold turns a good tomato mealy and dull, and onions and potatoes do better somewhere cool, dark and dry, in separate bins. Hold off washing berries and greens until you’re about to eat them, since water left on the skin invites mold. And cook sweet corn the day you buy it. It tastes best close to the field.
If you bought too many peaches, that’s not a problem, and in August it happens to everybody. Slice them onto a sheet pan, freeze them, bag them, and save them for a gray February morning.
If it’s the kitchen itself that needs saving, not the lettuce, here’s what to do after kitchen fire damage.
Where else can you buy produce around St. Louis?
Farmers markets are only one of four good options, and each wins on something different. Roadside stands sell what one farm is picking this week, and they open when something’s ready and close when it’s gone. Some are a truck bed and a cash box, so carry cash. Independent fruit-and-vegetable stores buy wide and sell fast, because produce is the whole business there, not one aisle of it. Ask what came in today. They usually know.
Grocery stores get a worse rap than they deserve. They’re open late, they stock the same things in January and July, and for staples that keep well, the quality gap is often small. Buy those wherever they’re cheapest. Want a market close to home? Our guide to St. Louis metro farmers markets by town sorts them by where you live, and our piece on how to cut your St. Louis grocery bill handles the rest of the cart.
Buying in bulk for canning or freezing is where a direct relationship with a grower really pays. Many will set aside a bushel of tomatoes or a box of peaches if you ask a week ahead, and some sell “seconds,” bruised or odd-shaped fruit that’s perfect for sauce and jam, for less than the pretty stuff. You won’t find that deal on a shelf. You find it by asking a person.
Not a Saturday, or not market season? Browse fruit and vegetable stores across the St. Louis metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, call ahead, and ask what came in today.
If you’re the produce stand, the fruit-and-vegetable store or the one-person farm table, a Gold listing puts you in front of the shoppers reading this page, so turn them into your next customers.
Frequently asked questions
How to pick good fruit?
Trust smell and weight over color. Ripe fruit usually smells sweet near the stem, feels heavy for its size and gives a little to gentle pressure. For peaches, look for gold rather than green near the stem. For cantaloupe, sniff the stem end. For berries, check the bottom of the container for juice stains or fuzz before you buy.
What fresh vegetables should not be refrigerated?
Tomatoes, potatoes, onions and garlic generally keep better somewhere cool, dark and dry than in the fridge, and onions and potatoes do best in separate bins. Perishables are different: the FDA says strawberries, lettuce, herbs and mushrooms belong in a clean refrigerator at 40°F or below.
What vegetables should not be stored together in the fridge?
Keep ethylene producers away from ethylene-sensitive produce. Illinois Extension names apples, melons and tomatoes as producers and peppers, green beans, cucumbers and lettuce as sensitive, and recommends storing the two groups separately. One crisper drawer for fruit and one for vegetables is the simplest fix.
Can I buy produce directly from farmers?
Yes, but ask. Soulard Farmers Market counts six local farms among more than 100 vendors, and markets like the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market were founded to connect local farmers with St. Louisans. At any table, the question “Did you grow this?” tells you what you’re buying. Roadside stands and pick-your-own farms are the other direct routes.
What fruit is in season in Missouri right now?
It changes month to month, and weather moves every crop a little, so the honest answer is on the table. The City of St. Louis calls late July the peak season for farm-fresh produce, when the tables are heaviest. Soulard stays open year-round, Wednesday through Saturday, so in the cold months that’s the table to check.
Do you haggle at the farmers market?
Usually not. Prices at most market tables are set, and small farms work on thin margins, so haggling over a pint of berries can land badly. Buying in bulk is different. Asking whether there’s a price on a full box or bushel is normal, and late in the day some sellers offer a deal on their own.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.