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If you get there before 10 a.m. (better yet, before 9), you'll find no problems. During the week is great, but vendors are more limited. I find that people bring out their best for the Saturday crowd.

"the clueless complaining that there aren't any bananas" made me LOL and think of this classic line: "Yes, we have no bananas, we have no bananas today!"

Early, during the week, and better yet, as you mentioned, going to your more local neighborhood markets, is the way to go. The Union Sq one has become the flagship, more for the tourists and posers. My favorite time to go to the Union Sq one is 8am on a weekday in any other season than late spring / summer.

I lived right around the corner until recently. I never minded the crowds. I mean its an event and think this is perhaps a bit of a harshness. The whole success of the market is because those people you don't appear to like want to show up, buy somethings that are over priced. It encourages it to be the place to sell high end, natural foods. As for going during the week, I pretty much feel its the only good time to go anyway. The vendors work with you more, and you can be in and out in no time. I used to go right when it opened and I was coming home from the gym.

Particularly during this damned (and, as near as I can tell, totally unnecessary) "renovation" of Union Square North, the farmers and food vendors are squashed along Union Square West and South, commingling with those awful "art" vendors so that one minute you're admiring a perfect head of cabbage and the next your looking at a bad bunch of Barack Obama T-shirts.

I've been going to the Union Square Greenmarket since its inception in 1977. Of course I prefer the current Union Square to the truly dangerous hellhole it was back then, but I wish they'd hurry up and finish their "renovation." I was told by a manager that it will be at least 2 years!

BTW, I don't mind tourists. They really boost the city's economy. But you're right--they never buy anything at the Greenmarket, they just gawk and get in the way. But then, why would someone staying in a hotel want to buy a dozen eggs?

Producestories, maybe you're just blissfully out of touch, and I think you misunderstood my post. While I am a fervent supporter of local farmers and open markets for them to sell their product directly to their customers, the Union Sq market has become a total foodie scene. Many many people go there less as a functional utility than to see and be seen. And that's fine. This is a healthy trend, and every trend needs a focal point. If the glamor helps the farmers, which I think it does, then it's positive. If you are really there to buy your food, it is a pain in the ass though, wading through all the tourists and Alice Waters wannabees, their strollers, bicycles, miniature dogs, and major attitudes. I personally prefer to go there early, before work, on a weekday, to avoid these crowds. Or to go to the one in my neighborhood. But that's just me, and I am lucky to have one nearby. the same way I prefer to avoid movie theatres, bars and restaurants on nights I know they will be packed. That's a pretty natural instinct, wouldn't you say? And for the record, the word "poser," or "poseur" depending on how euro you want to make it, is still in wide use.

@ simon - I'm sorry if my tone was overly defensive. I get totally annoyed by folks who cut through the greenmarket chatting on cellphones, getting in the way of people who are shopping - who doesn't?

I do go to the Union Square greenmarket pretty much every Saturday, as I have done for a couple of years, and I guess I wouldn't know where to look for a "scene" - it's mostly a lot of people buying food. Sure, a lot of them are probably buying Ronnybrook milk because it's "the thing to do," but do people actually expect that their foodie neighbor is going to happen upon them in line for milk or eggs or cheese and be impressed? Are people actually buying food, not because it's what they like, but because it's fashionable? I've never seen a celebrity at the greenmarket, but I have yet to walk into the Bowery Whole Foods without a sighting.

It's annoying that people go to the greenmarket and spend an hour taking up space, moseying, walking with their pals before brunch, and buying only, say, a pint of strawberries, when you're trying to shop for the week's food. But I still find the crowds reassuring, even when they get in my way, because it means market is thriving...even if I do have to wake up a lot earlier to get asparagus or strawberries from my preferred vendors.

I don't have a local market, and I certainly don't live close enough to Union Square to shop, take the train home with my food, then go back out to make it to work, and I imagine that those who can do are in the minority. Surely you can give the benefit of the doubt to those fellow marketgoers who aren't being blatantly obnoxious that they're not following a "scene," but are simply shopping when they have the time/ability/inclination?

I doubt I'm "blissfully out of touch" (now that's some condescension!) as a culinary school student and a weekly marketgoer? I would just rather not assume the worst of people who happen to inconvenience me.

@Barbara Hanson - I too try to avoid the Saturday market and I am fortunate to be able to go on Wednesdays, which is often crowded with school children on field trips, certainly a good thing, although they don't buy and they do get in the way. I used to find that the Saturday market was fine before 11 but haven't been able to get there that early.

Wednesday and Friday are definitely quirky days but it is also true that there are more vendors on Saturdays with more wares so it is nice to brave the crowds there every now and then.

@ Barbara Hanson - I go to the Natural Gourmet Institute, over on 21st between 5th and 6th; I just started a little over a month ago and I love it (though part-time school plus full-time job leaves me with the aforementioned inflexible market schedule).

And I am with you on loving to see kids at the greenmarket, even if they do sometimes get underfoot. This morning I was choosing shell peas along with a mom shopping with two boys - one hers, one a friend - and they were all chattering excitedly about the dinner they were going to prepare that night with their market finds. I'm a bit of a sap that early in the morning, but it was downright heartwarming, I have to say.

@ Barbara Hanson: Crunchy? Peaches? As someone under thirty, I don't think I have *ever* met someone who thought a peach should be crunchy. I want to know where you get that kind of fact...

@pbis--I believe Alice Waters said it, about ten years ago.

My name is lemons and I am a tourist.

I do go to the USGM when I can when I visit Manhattan. I seldom buy a great deal, except the time when I was hired to cater a dinner party, because I'm usually at a hotel, but I buy a snack, perhaps some yarn, and I do a lot of looking and learning. I write about it, and blog about it, and maybe from that some people will learn more about any of the associated topics. The crowds are part of New York and I accept that, and did even before I married Mr. Meatloaf, who grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. I'm usually just so happy to be in New York, the chaos doesn't bother me.

Getting back on topic. I love the USQ Green Market... early in the morning. Definitely if you hit it past 9 AM, it is too overwhelming, but if you get there early I think you also get a bit more variety before things sell out. Think ramps a bit earlier this season. With the construction and the other aspects of USQ, you also avoid any overwhelming typical USQ protests or other vendors at that time.

The only bad thing that one has to deal with at USQ on Saturdays early in the morning are those people with dogs who let the leash run extremely long while they chat creating an obstacle course with a physical challenge trying to traverse the market.

I take the long way to the subway solely to walk through the market M, W & F mornings because it makes me happy. It's perfect and makes me *feel* healthy just walking by the green, red, yellow & pink produce.

But sadly I agree: Saturdays are unbearable. I've recently accepted defeat, and I simply don't go there past 10ish. That way the cell phone-chatters, dog-walkers and stroller-pushers can't make my blood boil.