Market Watch: The latest farmers market news by David Karp

Market Watch: Mar Vista farmers market

When neighborhood business owners and residents started the Mar Vista farmers market in 2006, they were not just looking for a local source for fresh fruit and vegetables; in a car-centered city where shopping experiences are typically impersonal, they wanted the market to serve as a community square for residents to meet and socialize. By this standard, certainly, the event has been a great success, having expanded from a small, sleepy "starter market" to a lively venue with some 58 stands.

Market Watch: At Ventura Downtown farmers market, Minneola tangelos and cauliflower

The Ventura Downtown farmers market, the oldest and largest farmers market in Ventura County, has remained remarkably stable over the last decade, with a good mix of local growers, including many small and backyard farmers. It benefits from its location in a growing area rich in vegetable, berry and citrus farms, and from the experience and integrity of its longtime manager, Karen Wetzel Schott, who does a good job keeping out peddlers masquerading as farmers. The ambience is especially relaxed and family-friendly.

MARKET WATCH

Fennel showing up at farmers markets

Fennel, the most fragrant of vegetables, is now at its peak of abundance and quality. Of the half-dozen stands at the Hollywood farmers market that sell it, Finley Organic Farms, which grows the Zefa Fino variety in Santa Ynez, has the sweetest and most tender and aromatic bulbs, ideal for eating raw in salads. Finley also sells at the Culver City, Beverly Hills and Saturday Santa Monica markets. But it's hard to go wrong: The Xiong farm of Clovis has pristine specimens, and Underwood Family Farms of Somis has large, plump bulbs.

MARKET WATCH

Alhambra farmers market: pummelos for Chinese New Year

The scores of customers who join the long line at the Alhambra farmers market on Sunday mornings to buy Jerry Dimitman's Wong pummelos all know the drill: Get there early, and be prepared to wait as each shopper scrutinizes the giant pear-shaped citrus fruits, holding them in the hand, one by one, to judge their weight, looking for heavy, shapely specimens. Plenty of pummelos are grown in California, but most are the flat, pink-fleshed Chandler variety. And especially as Chinese New Year approaches -- it will be Sunday, Feb. 14, this year, the Year of the Tiger -- many Chinese Americans seek out the necked, yellow-fleshed fruits they remember from their homeland. Asians give them as offerings at temple altars, where their gold color symbolizes prosperity; they also peel and eat them, carefully removing the tough, bitter membrane from each section.

It's not all organic, but integrity and quality are in abundance

The Santa Monica Saturday Organic farmers market was originally conceived in 1991 as an all-organic venue, but when this proved impractical, nonorganic vendors were admitted. Nevertheless, it does offer a high percentage of organic vendors, currently about 20 of 46, and more important, it's one of the best markets in the Southland, in good part because Mort Bernstein, the manager since soon after its founding, is a stickler for integrity and quality.

MARKET WATCH

Silver Lake farmers market: root vegetables, greens, herbs

Launched in 2001 by the Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance, a nonprofit organization that benefits local youths, the Silver Lake farmers market successfully serves its community. Prepared foods and crafts stands -- such as gourmet coffee, books, LPs, sunglasses and clothes -- outnumber the produce vendors, giving the venue somewhat of a flea market ambience, but that seems to suit the area, with its mix of hipster and working-class residents.

Market Watch

Torrance farmers market: Thys Ranch Cocktail grapefruit

The Torrance farmers market has always ranked as one of the top three in the Southland, after Santa Monica Wednesday and Hollywood Sunday, and is particularly strong in winter, with an abundance of citrus and exotic fruits and vegetables. Mary Lou Weiss, the manager, is a veteran professional, and although some of the market's stands do sell commercial-grade produce, many are genuine small family farms, well worth searching out.

MARKET WATCH

Palm Springs market blossoms in the winter

Farmers markets that close seasonally typically do so in the winter, when fresh produce is least abundant in most of California, but the Palm Springs farmers market shuts down from June to September, in deference to the brutal desert summers, when temperatures can easily surpass 120 degrees. In winter and early spring, by contrast, the generally balmy weather attracts a profusion of tourists and snowbirds, and the desert (mostly the less developed areas of the southern Coachella Valley and Imperial County) produces much of the nation's vegetables.

MARKET WATCH

The Seedless Kishu, a small but mighty mandarin

Adorable and irresistible, the Seedless Kishu is one of the most delicious of mandarins, smaller than a golf ball but easy to peel, tender, juicy, fragrant and sweet. Until recently it was very difficult to find, even at farmers markets, but at least a dozen growers now have producing trees of these small wonders, and the fruits are becoming more readily available.

MARKET WATCH

Rancho La Viña's La Nogalera walnut oil

Walnuts are available year-round, but the most traditional season for their consumption is late fall and winter, particularly around Christmas and New Year's. We're lucky that Rancho La Viña, a remnant of the walnut groves that once covered Southern California, sells high-quality nuts and oil at local farmers markets.

MARKET WATCH

At the Los Feliz farmers market: Asian vegetables, strawberries, mushrooms

The number of farmers markets in Los Angeles County has more than doubled over the last decade, from 53 to 129, and many of the venues are new, small and operated by neophytes. Such is the case with the Los Feliz farmers market, which was started five months ago by Helen Lee, a filmmaker who grew up in the area and got into the world of markets when she operated a crepe stand. She has started three markets since April; this one, sponsored by a nonprofit organization called Eco-Op, began near the well-known Dresden restaurant, but a month ago moved two blocks north to its current, more visible location in a post office parking lot. In this modest space Lee has managed to fit 25 stands, of which seven are certified produce vendors and 18 offer prepared foods and miscellaneous merchandise. The neighborhood invites strolling, but free local parking is scarce.

MARKET WATCH

Finger lime: the caviar of citrus

This year, for the first time, you don't have to be a scientist or an Australian to taste citrus caviar from legendary finger limes, as the initial, very small harvest from commercial plantings in California has started to show up at local markets and restaurants.

MARKET WATCH

Santa Clarita farmers market: almonds, Princess raisins, citrus and cabbage

The Santa Clarita farmers market offers experienced management, a good mix of quality local growers, and plenty of parking. It took some time after its establishment in 1993 to catch on, but the numbers of shoppers and vendors have steadily increased, and it's really flourishing now.

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Hollywood farmers market: Bacon avocados, cherry tomatoes

The Hollywood farmers market has a distinctively urban, almost carnival-like atmosphere, blending serious foodies, working-class shoppers, musicians, petition gatherers and a scattering of freaks. It's the second-largest market in Southern California, behind Santa Monica Wednesday, and features an abundance of excellent and unique farms, but also some that sell commercial-grade produce. The geographical organization is well-conceived, with the certified farmers on Ivar Avenue and a lively stretch of prepared foods and crafts on the cross street, Selma Avenue.

MARKET WATCH

At the Santa Monica Pico farmers market: kiwis, dates, Fuyu persimmons

The Santa Monica Pico farmers market on Saturdays has a lower profile than the big Wednesday venue on Arizona, but it's an excellent market in its own right. It's in an attractive location, the recently renovated Virginia Park, and it's substantial in size, with 35 produce vendors, and seven prepared food stalls. Most important, Ted Galvan, who has managed the market since its establishment in 1992, vets the farmers to make sure they actually grow what they sell. Many managers don't bother or don't have the time to conduct farm inspections, but Galvan -- whose family used to own a local chain of Mexican restaurants named Hacienda Galvan -- has visited virtually all of his growers.

MARKET WATCH

At the Burbank market: Salad greens, Brussels sprouts, apples, grapes, persimmons and pepinos

The Burbank farmers market, now held in the parking lot next to City Hall, has occupied several locations since its founding in 1983 but has always maintained high standards. It continues to feature many more produce vendors than prepared foods and crafts, 25 of 33 stands. Much of the credit belongs to the longtime manager, Carolyn Hill, who retired in July 2008 but trained her successor, Sarah Dornbos, to continue the market's style. The event provides more than $50,000 yearly to its sponsor, the Providence St. Joseph Medical Foundation, to subsidize medical expenses for needy patients.

MARKET WATCH

Laguna Beach: Purple Queen beans, Pink Lady apples, satsuma mandarins

The Laguna Beach farmers market, held in a city parking lot below a huge bluff, has remained a stable, successful venue for the past decade. It features about 20 produce vendors, including three Orange County vegetable growers, Smith Farms and two branches of the Berumen family.

MARKET WATCH

This week: Mexican limes, Arkansas Black apples, Autumn Lady peaches

California's season for limes is much earlier than for most other citrus. Some limes show up at farmers markets through the winter, and a very few year-round, but September to December is the time of plenty for locally grown fruit.

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At Playa Vista: Fuji apples, Fuyu-type persimmons, minutina mini-greens

Playa Vista is not far from several established farmers markets, but a nearby market is a coveted amenity, and residents of this new neighborhood were delighted when their own venue opened in June. Since it's hard to see from nearby main streets, it draws mostly local customers, and perhaps as a result, vendors say that business has been just so-so. The market is modest in size, with 28 stands, half produce, half prepared foods, but the manager, Mark Anderson -- a co-owner of Lark Farms, which grows vegetables in Fillmore -- has assembled a well-chosen roster of respected farms.

MARKET WATCH

Introducing . . . Buddha's Hand

Shoppers usually stop in their tracks, jaws hanging down, the first time they see a Buddha's Hand citron, which looks like a cross between a lemon and a squid. Its ancestor, the ordinary citron, is one of the three original species of citrus and looks like a large, lumpy lemon; in the Buddha's Hand, the fruit splits at the end opposite the stem into segments that look somewhat like human fingers - whence the fruit's other name, fingered citron. This prodigy is a genetic mutation that arose many centuries ago somewhere in the citron's homeland, southwestern China and northeastern India. (Occasionally similar-looking fruits will develop on a normal lemon tree, but these are caused by mite damage to the buds.)

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Sweet and spicy: Chocolate persimmon and GoldRush apples

The so-called Tsurunoko or Chocolate persimmon is a most mysterious, elusive and alluring fruit. Technically speaking, it belongs to the obscure class of "pollination-variant, nonastringent" persimmons, in which small quantities of alcohol exuded from the seeds cause the tannins in the flesh to clump together, turning the pulp brown, softening the astringency and developing a rich, distinctive flavor.

MARKET WATCH

Ashmead's Kernel apples are deliciously ugly

Small, russet brown, and dotted with pockmarks, the Ashmead's Kernel apples grown organically by Windrose Farm in Paso Robles definitely won't win any beauty prizes. They do, however, have the most intense, complex flavor of any fruit in the world, strong and sharply sweet, with an aroma that reminds Britons of the traditional candies called pear drops -- derived, say chemists, from the amyl acetate ester.

MARKET WATCH

In Claremont: Cucumbers, watermelon, jicama, mushrooms and eggplant

Quite a few farmers markets have opened in the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire over the last decade, but many of them have never really taken off, or feature mostly prepared foods and crafts. The medium-size Claremont market does emphasize produce and draws appreciative customers from around the region.

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This week: Fresh bamboo shoots, habanero peppers, lychees, peaches, apples

Fresh, domestically grown bamboo shoots are hard to find in California, but Yao Cheng Farm grows an acre of them near Camarillo and sells at the Monterey Park, Alhambra, Irvine and Thousand Oaks farmers markets.

Health authorities act to contain bacterial threat to citrus trees

A month after the discovery of Asian citrus psyllids in Santa Ana and Echo Park, state and county plant health authorities are scrambling to implement new regulations for citrus growers who sell at farmers markets in affected areas.

MARKET WATCH

New Moorpark farmers market: top muscat grapes, quality olive oil

By most counts, the new farmers market in Moorpark is pretty nondescript. Brand new (it only opened in June), it is modest in size, with about a dozen certified producers, and has been relatively quiet so far. But against all odds, this one small market features two vendors that sell one of the scarcest and greatest grape varieties you'll ever taste.

FOOD

Farmers markets fear Los Angeles' fees

Farmers market managers in Los Angeles are in a tizzy over a proposed city ordinance that would charge more than 20 markets tens of thousands of dollars to recoup the city's costs of enabling their events, which could force them to close or move if new ways to cover the costs can't be found.

MARKET WATCH

Long Beach Southeast farmers market: mushrooms, wild bitter melon, grapes and pears

Favored by a pleasant location at the Alamitos Bay Marina and by its proximity to several affluent areas, the Long Beach Southeast farmers market has grown steadily since its founding in 1997. It's now the largest farmers market in the Long Beach area, and one of the best mid-size markets in Southern California.

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Pitahaya, or dragon fruit, finds a place at SoCal farmers markets

It's happening at farmers markets all over Los Angeles. A shopper stops short, agape, at a table of fruits that look like artichokes from Mars, and asks the vendor, "What on Earth are they?"

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Encino farmers market: grapes, plums, avocados, nopales, green beans and celery

The Encino farmers market remains the largest and best in the San Fernando Valley, with about 30 produce vendors. This count has held steady over the last decade, but the number of prepared foods and nonagricultural stands, selling everything from hot dogs to pet nail clippers, has almost tripled during that time, from 13 to 37. That trend is common these days, as the sponsors of farmers markets -- whether cities, charities or entrepreneurs -- find that craft and food stalls generate higher fees than farmers. In Encino's case it's for a good cause, to benefit the One Generation Daycare center for children and frail seniors.

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Penryn Orchard Specialties continues a tradition of 'mountain-grown' fruits

Jeff Rieger's commute each week to the Santa Monica farmers market from his farm in Placer County-- 924 miles round trip -- is probably the longest regularly undertaken by any vendor at a Southern California certified market. He is driven by a passion to grow and market rare and high-quality fruits, all the more remarkable since he got into farming almost by accident.

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Ripe time for mangoes from Wong Farms

Among the most eagerly awaited treats sold at farmers markets are the luscious mangoes grown by Wong Farms in Mecca, just north of the Salton Sea. When Deborah Wong Chamberlain started selling her crop last Wednesday at the Santa Monica farmers market, most of her truckload was already spoken for by customers who started calling her weeks ago, even though her mangoes are far more expensive, at $3.49 a pound, than the imported ones sold at supermarkets. Hers, however, are of matchless flavor and texture.

MARKET WATCH

Market Watch: Tomato growing with passion

"Windshield doctor and heirloom tomato grower." It sounds like one of those joke advertisements, but Darrell Elser juggles these two vocations with aplomb.

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At Santa Monica farmers market, peppers, flageolets, peaches and berries

At the Santa Monica Wednesday farmers market, growers, shoppers and chefs are always searching for new and extraordinary items.

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Beverly Hills farmers market: lima beans, pluots, lemon cucumbers

The Beverly Hills farmers market, which will celebrate its 15th anniversary Aug. 2, is one of the best mid-size markets in Southern California and is carefully supervised by its manager, Greta Dunlap.

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In Venice, salad greens, Asian vegetables, stone fruit and muskmelons

The Venice farmers market is modest in size but rich in high-quality stands with colorful characters behind them.

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In Ventura County, stone fruit, flame grapes, bicolor corn and black raspberries

Under the experienced direction of manager Karen Wetzel Schott, the Thousand Oaks farmers market is one of the two largest and best in Ventura County, along with Ventura Saturday. Vendors and customers are pleased that the market recently returned to its spacious original location in a shopping center parking lot, after two years of exile on a cramped rooftop.

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A fruitful time at the Irvine farmers market

The Irvine farmers market, the largest in Orange County, offers a wide selection and moderate prices. There are quite a few craft stalls, but produce is clearly the focus.

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Circle C Ranch's immigrant beginnings

Many shoppers at the Hollywood and Santa Monica farmers markets well remember Circle C Ranch for the outlandishly long lines that formed to buy its Persian mulberries. Others fondly recall the connoisseur-quality fruit -- jammy Adriatic figs, super-sweet Seckel pears and Indian blood peaches -- that conjured a virtual cult around the farm and its eccentric co-owner, Kim Blain, who died in 2003. Few people, however, have any idea of the family drama, worthy of Chekhov and Flannery O'Connor, behind the stand, which will resume selling at the Hollywood Farmers Market this Sunday.

MARKET WATCH

Torrance market featuring delicious pluots

It's about 10 days late, due to persistent mild weather, but peak season for stone fruit finally has arrived, with so many great choices that it's easy to go wild, especially at a large, vibrant market such as Torrance.

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The time is ripe for figs, apricots and peaches at Pasadena Victory Park

The Pasadena Victory Park farmers market, founded 25 years ago, continues to be large, well-run and focused on produce.

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This week at Riverside farmers market

The Riverside farmers market, one of the best in its region, emphasizes genuine small and local growers. For instance, Angelo and Adelina Filandrianos, a charming couple from Hinkley, near Barstow, have plump, sweet and flavorful Bing cherries, now in peak season.

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This week at Westwood Farmers' Market: Valencia oranges, Robada apricots, Flavorella plumcots

At its former location on Weyburn Avenue, the Westwood Farmers’ Market was big and lively. Forced to close in 2006, it reopened three months later at the Veterans Garden, north of Constitution Avenue, west of Sepulveda Boulevard. While this venue is beautiful and peaceful, with picnic tables under a large fig tree and even a nearby parrot sanctuary, it is isolated from Westwood Village pedestrians, so shoppers and vendors are few compared with the old market in its prime.

MARKET WATCH

Good this week: Brooks cherries, Pakistan mulberries, Apriums

The earliest varieties of any fruit are rarely the best, and it's easy to get impatient this year, when stone fruit harvests are running a week late. Discrimination in varieties is crucial.