Farmers market produce

I've started to suspect that the produce may not be as fresh as that from someof the other stands. His produce seems not to last as long once I bring it home. I'm interested in the comment about small vegetables often being tastier bc the one vendor that only sells tomatoes/peaches and apples (which are always supeb) told me once that bigger fruit is always better and juicier.

Were the vegetables particularly big, or looked 'perfect' (no bruises in the skin, even color, etc)?
I live in a place with a big vegetable garden, and tasty, juicy produce from my garden never looked perfect or even - and it shouldn't. Tastier produce tends to be smaller and it might not be super smooth, so consider this when shopping at farmers markets. We still have eggplants and green beans too, but they kind of suck now - as they should.
I fully agree with the answers above!

To be fair, on many new varietals of fresh-market vegetables, the pendulum has begun to swing back towards flavour rather than pure asthetics. Much sweetness and flavour is developped in the summer's heat - even with a blast of late hot weather, an eggplant that ripened in the month of September is not going to have same brix or flavour of one in July or August.

Generally, better taste is directly related to either the varietal and/or freshness. For example, many modern tomatoes are bred to be pure red (as opposed to the bit of green near the stem common on ripe heritage tomatoes) at the expense of taste (I hate to say it, but the "Early Girl" tomatoes my parents raise have almost no flavor even immediately after being picked). So, you may be falling for the "beautiful produce" connundrum -- stuff that has been bred to be beautiful frequently has less flavor. And then there is the whole rapid flavor loss in aging. So, my guess is either that the produce isn't as fresh as you expect, and/or it is varieties that are bred for appearance at the expense of flavor.