Farmer's Markets
Love this time of year when the Farmer's Markets start opening then followed in June by the produce stands selling fresh strawberries. What produce do you look forward to at the markets? From berries to potatoes, I love them all!
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Fresh strawberries are sold year round at my market, but they are at their peak for about three months. We've been enjoying really good strawberries for several weeks now. The stone fruits have been around for a few weeks: cherries, apriums, peaches. The latter are the early ripening cultivars -- I haven't yet seen doughnut peaches, but they must be right around the corner.
Beans and peas galore right now: blue lakes, yellow wax, English peas, sugar snaps, snowpeas, favas.
Potatoes are available year round so I don't focus on these like other seasonal produce.
Only a week or two left for asparagus, the two-month season is almost over. In the dead of winter when I'm mostly staring at piles of leafy greens, carrots and potatoes, I always anticipate the asparagus harvest, the first indicator of spring.
Two things I really look forward to are olallieberries (late May/early June) and Blenheim apricots (early July) since their availability is so short, maybe three weeks.
Gravenstein apples which arrive a couple of months before most of the other apples are a nice summer market choice.
There are countless other things I look forward to seeing at the farmers market, I've only mentioned a handful. There's always a reason to go to the farmers market, even on a rainy morning in January.
Also making their first appearance of the season are doughnut peaches.
Clearly, asparagus are at the end of the season, today's bunch will probably be the last of the year.
Cherries galore, including Rainiers which were very scarce last week, now plentiful.
Spotted a second time this season were fresh sardines from Half Moon Bay. Small ones, bought six of them for a buck, destined for the grill this afternoon.
Awesome time of the year.
Probably a couple of weeks away from the first ears of corn. I could have asked the Brentwood guys when they would start picking but I'm okay with them appearing magically. Better to know at the tail end of the season when something is about to disappear.
The ones that are destined for wide distribution may be different cultivars that are sturdier and likely picked earlier to survive transportation better. For sure, the berries at my farmers market are way better than what is found in a standard supermarket. Of course, the local upscale grocery stores are getting fruit from the same local growers.
As you note, nectarines tend to travel better and I assume that because of the skin of the nectarine is hardier than that of a peach. I note that doughnut peaches are extremely fragile as the skins are almost like tissue paper which is why they don't make it into regular grocery stores.
If you look at Food52's weekly Saturday morning farmers market inspiration posts, you can see that we have some really great produce at our local farmers markets (typically anywhere from 2 to 4 of the posts are from Californians).
I'm from San Diego and our home in La Jolla has 32 avocado trees on the property. The Fuerte are my favorite. I learned long ago they are not often shipped (if ever) because of their thin skin and delicate nature. That may have changed more recently. I just wait to devour them when I go home for a visit.