Best Bargain Produce

If you want a fashionable social event, go to the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market on Saturday; for dazzling displays of organic produce, there's the Berkeley Bowl. But if what you want is to squeeze a nickel until the buffalo groans, swing by the venerable 22nd and Irving Market, where on our last trip we picked up 10 lemons for a buck, beautiful radishes for 39 cents a bunch, and a big sack of yellow, red, and orange bell peppers for 99 cents a pound (when they were $3.99 a pound in the supes). In addition to the rock-bottom-priced produce, the market features an excellent selection of seeds, nuts, and dried fruit, and an eclectic assortment of imported syrups, juices, condiments, and spices, all equally well priced.