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For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse is reporting a story about food and farming from each of California’s 58 counties.
When most of California is asleep, a few square blocks on the edge of Oakland’s Jack London Square come alive with people, produce and machinery. It’s the Oakland Produce Market, and it’s been supplying grocers and restaurants for more than 100 years.
The streets fill up with pallets, stacked with cases of fruits and vegetables. Boxes of tomatoes, mangoes and grapes take up most of the sidewalks. Workers weave between semi trucks, drive forklifts, use hand trucks, take orders and pack delivery vans…