If you've ever been to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on a Saturday, chances are you've seen Larry Ham handing out samples of almond brittle at the G.L. Alfieri Farms booth.

For more than 15 years, Ham has been a barker for the brittle, calling out to passersby to try a sample. "It's delicious!" he calls out with precise diction. "It's no joke. It's exceptional. We have one with coffee." He continues, "You can eat it with false teeth; you can eat it with no teeth; you can borrow some teeth. Homemade dark chocolate almond brittle. This is exceptional. Slow down; try some almond brittle."

And many shoppers do stop to take a piece, and then go home with a bag. Ham said Alfieri does a brisk business thanks to his sales skills. "I'm just renowned for the brittle," he said. "It pays off giving out samples."

But, Ham added, "Just being nice to people even when they're not shopping is so rewarding." He always saves some bags that are too broken to sell and gives them to the homeless, he told us. He also works on Wednesdays for Two Dog Farm at the Heart of the City Farmers Market at Civic Center when they're there from late May to mid-November.

Many regulars at the Ferry Building look forward each week to "the almond brittle guy," though, and were disappointed or worried lately when they didn't see Ham at the stand for a few weeks. It turns out he had double hip replacement surgery about a month and a half ago. Last Saturday, April 30th, was his first full day back, and customers were happy to see him and wished him well, he told us. "It made me really, really feel good that people welcomed me back."

Though Ham is walking slowly, it's without the need for a walker or cane. "I was out of the hospital the same day," he said. "I had two canes, and one day, I said, 'This is enough of this.'"

His ability to bounce back might be because he's been physically active his entire life as a dancer. He's always loved to perform and be in the spotlight, telling us his last name really is Ham, although he did drop an extra "m" legally at one point because "I've always been a big ham."

Ham was born in Monticello, Florida, but spent his childhood in Jackson, Mississippi, and his family later moved to Santa Monica. When he was young, he said, he started out with the Los Angeles Ballet on scholarship, learning under Irina Kosmovska. He left because, he told us, there weren't enough parts for people of color. Later, he attended Santa Monica College and then got a B.A. in dance at California State University, Long Beach, where he studied under Gloria Newman.

From there, he got a scholarship to the University of Michigan and earned his master's degree. "My sister really was my inspiration about learning," he said. "She said, 'That's one thing no one can take away from you, if you put something in your head.'"

Later, Ham returned to the South and got grants to teach dance workshops and stage shows for public school students in poor areas "to try to inspire them." He got tired of the South, he said, so he came to the Bay Area to teach at Laney College in Oakland and Mission College in Santa Clara, and to work with disabled children. 

Ham still dances regularly; he takes classes at Alonzo King LINES Ballet in the Civic Center, not far from his home at Sixth and Mission streets. And he wants to work with children again, particularly low-income and at-risk kids, "to show them there's another way of life," he said. "I'm going to donate my time to try to inspire kids. I want them to be able to express themselves—art, music, dance. I think that's something missing in our society. We're really going to suffer with a lack of the arts."