Every stand at a market sells the same thing as the store, plus the person who made it. Here the plus is a chalkboard. Revolution Bread is from Petaluma, and the banner says so: a raised fist, a bold red r, Petaluma, CA. The loaves sit in a glass case with an orange wooden frame, scored and dark, each with a small chalkboard tag on a stake.
The price ladder
Country is $8, the plainest on the board. Olive, French and Seeded Country are $10. Sesame Pon is $11. Polenta and T80 with scorched rye are both $12. The pattern is easy to read: the plainest loaf is the cheapest, and the specialty ones climb from there. T80 with scorched rye is the one I couldn't decode by name, which is a good reason to ask.
The whole board spans four dollars, from $8 to $12. That's a small gap for the difference between the plain loaf and the polenta one, and a good reason to try something you wouldn't normally pick.
What the names tell you
Some of the tags explain themselves. Olive has olives in it. Seeded Country has seeds. Polenta has cornmeal. T80 is a French flour grade, a step from plain white toward whole grain.
The samples
On the table out front there's a board of torn bread and a few small cups, and a stack of paper bags next to them, which is the other half of the system: taste, choose, bag. I tried the samples and liked them. That's the right order: taste first, then read the chalkboard.
What to do with a loaf
Country is the everyday loaf: toast, sandwiches, soup. Olive is for cheese. Wrap whatever you buy in paper, not plastic, so the crust stays crisp, and slice and freeze what you won't eat in two days.
If you're buying for a table, get two kinds and taste a third. That's the sort of thing a market makes easy, because someone will hand you a piece.
Come with a bag that can take a loaf standing up. A glass case of crusty bread is a fine thing to look at and an easy thing to crush.
The rest of the lot is in Three Stalls, One Thing From Each.
Pick by the sample, not by the price.