California Farmers' Markets

[yasuofenix]

I will be moving to Southern California next year from NYC. I've visited both North & South in the past few months. I was under the impression N. California had a lot of great produce. I went to a farmer's market in Napa, but thats friggin Napa. Sadly I didn't get to go to one in SF. But from what I bought in The Embarcadero, the stuff was good, but compared to the farmer's market in Union Square NYC it wasn't anything special. I remember reading an article with Nate Appleman talking about how he can find so many types of lettuce and arugula in SF and how its better than NYC. Funny enough, he is now setting up shop in NYC, but that has nothing to do with what he said.

I also got some really good strawberries, but from some farm off Highway 1 close to Santa Maria. In S. California I could only find these nasty steriod berries full of water. I visited Bristol Farms, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods. Those places have their purpose such as buying things like mustard and far away foods, for me at least. But their produce sucks mostly, and there's only one type of something. The world is such a beautiful and diverse place I doubt nature created only one type of strawberry. But I say that because I've tasted real fresh produce grown by a decent farmer that has been doing it all his/her life. All my grandparents were farmers. And in NYC I can buy or grow tomatoes full of natural pectin or sweet yelllow and strawberries that are completely red inside, sweet, or grassy . But this past summer we had a bad year, it rained too much and most farmers lost their tomatoes. Except my family's garden.

And one thing I might add is that buying vegetables and fruits from the farmer's market here in union square can be cheaper than buying at Whole Foods or Trader Joes. But there could be a reason for that: people actually buy consistently. I know this because I see the same people Wednesday and Saturday.

So whats up with California? Everyone always talks about how California grows so much. People over here think of California as the food basket of America. People in my culinary school dream of going to California and opening some restaurant out by the farms. I was one of them, and still am. The land is great it really is.

Please don't take it as I'm bashing your state and think poorly of it, it doesn't matter what I think and if that was the case I wouldn't be moving there.

I would say more, but I am more curious about how many people really cook? Who cares about restaurants, how many people actually cook (meals) in the their home. Thats the bedrock of food culture not restaurants.

Do tell me if I'm sounding nasty, aggressive, or making sense. I've spent most of my time staring into an ice cream machine and cutting horrible mangoes so my contact with people is limited to helping old ladies cross the street. I normally don't talk, but I'm drawn because a lot of California seems to be coasting on wasted talent.

[andiesenji]

There are plenty of farmers markets in the greater Los Angeles and Orance county areas.

I live in Lancaster and there are none in my area but there is not a great deal of produce grown here, though there are almonds, peaches, pears and apples, and onions, lots of the "sweet" Antelope valley onions. (They are not sweet when compared to Vidalia or Maui, but are okay.)

"Down Below," as we characterize the lower elevations, there are many farmers markets on various days. Depending on the area in which you live, you should have ready access to at least three within a reasonable driving distance. Unless you live in the immediate area, don't expect to find one within walking distance, that is rare.

To find one that will be near your sphere, click here: http://www.cafarmersmarkets.com/index.cfm

and select your location.

I've visited farmers markets in Santa Barbara, Oxnard, the San Fernando valley, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Valencia, Northridge, Yorba Linda, 2 in Temecula, Costa Mesa and Del Mar (when there for the dog show). I found the variety of produce and other goods to be enough for me and as I always bought more than I actually needed, possibly too much.

The quality was always better than in most supermarkets. However for certain produce, I never buy at regular supermarkets - try to find a Mexican supermarket, such as Vallarta and check their produce. Not only are the prices better, the quality and variety of the more "exotic" produce is terrific.

[blue_dolphin]

I will be moving to Southern California next year from NYC. I've visited both North & South in the past few months. I was under the impression N. California had a lot of great produce. ...

I would say more, but I am more curious about how many people really cook? Who cares about restaurants, how many people actually cook (meals) in the their home. Thats the bedrock of food culture not restaurants...

I don't think California's any different from anywhere else in the US with respect to home cooking. Some people do, others don't.

On the produce front, once you get here, visit a half dozen or so of the local farmer's markets and draw your own conclusions.

They've all got their different personalities. I recommend visiting the Santa Monica Wednesday market and the Hollywood Sunday market for starters.

And for strawberries, this isn't the best time of year for them, but look for Harry's Berries at the farmer's markets.

[Franci]

Hi!

My husband is thinking of accepting a job in San Diego and I've been reading this topic a bit and I got somewhat scared of what I'll be able to find there.

I'm now in Monaco and used to the fresh vegetables and fish from the French riviera, before we were in London, prior to that NY. 10 years ago, when I first moved to the US, I lived in San Francisco and I was struggling to find my Italian products but maybe now it's different. What about asian markets around San Diego? And fresh fish?

Thanks

[FrogPrincesse]

Franci,

Rest assured - there is no shortage of farmers markets in San Diego. I frequent the markets in Hillcrest, La Jolla, Little Italy, and Solana Beach, and they all have a great selection of local produce. Some of these markets also have fish, meat, cheese, etc. Little Italy has a very diverse selection which includes fish, meat, cured meats and even live urchins! I don’t think that you should be scared. For fish there are also a few specialized stores such as Point Loma Seafood and Catalina Offshore Products. I think that you will be happy with the food options in San Diego if you decide to relocate.

[kalypso]

Franci

I really have to echo FrogPrincess, San Diego has some exceptional farmers markets. Right now Little Italy or Hillcrest are the the 2 heavyweights. Both of them have highly regarded and respected local farmers, and producers. Little Italy also has a vendor selling locally harvested sea urchin, which is acknoweledged to be some of the best in the world. LI also has a meat vendor selling locally grown, grass fed beef. You can find at least 2 of the better local cheese shops represented as well as several bakeries and olive oil produced by Italians.

Here's the link to the list of local farmers markets

For fresh fish you've got 4 options

Catalina Offshore

Point Loma Seafood

Blue Water Grillwhich is a combination restaurant and fish market. I've never purchased a bad piece of fish from them and they will gladly prep the fresh fish however you'd like, i.e. boned, skinned, fileted, etc.

The 4th choice would be either Whole Foods in Hillcrest which has a great seafood counter,tho' it is very pricey, or the 99 Ranch Market on Clairmont Mesa Blvd. The later is an Asian grocery store chain. They've got tanks and tanks of live fish and shellfish at very good prices. They'll also clean and prep the live fish to your specifications. I usually do not purchase fresh fish from them on weekends because they super stock the tanks and I think they are overcrowded.

You will have some difficulty sourcing good Italian products. Even though SD has a neighborhood called Little Italy, SD never had a large Italian population to begin with. That which it did have has been pretty well assimilated into the overall community. Your two best bets are probably

Assenti's Pasta

Mona Lisa

Both are in Little Italy. Hands down the best gelato in town is at Papplecco and there are a lot of Italian ex-pats and Italophiles that hang there. The Italian Cultural Centeris very active in SD and would be a good resource for you in finding particular items in SD.

San Diego has a reasonably sized Asian population. Most of the restaurants and stores are located on Convoy St. in the Kearny Mesa neighborhood. You will find Vietnamese and Japanese markets to be partciularly well represented.

Geographically, San Diego covers a large area. Do you know yet in what part of the county you'll be living. That will make some difference as to what's readily available (i.e. you don't have to drive a long way to find it)and for what you're really going to have to travel. The links I've provided above are for purveyors in the central part of San Diego, if you are in North County, they would be at least 30 mintues away from there.

And finally, I can't close without recommending one of the best kept grocery secrets in San Diego - Northgate Market on 43rd St. This is the Disneyland of Mexican markets. While the Asian influence is strong in SD, the predominant influence is undeniably Latin, and in particular Mexican. Mexican markets are good sources for a lot of things, particularly produce. Northgate has an enormous produce department and the quality is better than anything in the local grocery stores and in some cases equal or better than what you can get at a farmers market. Their in-house bakery is very good. Bolillos, very, very similar to french bread and baguetts, are sold hot from the oven 4/$1.00. Quality is good. Even if you don't shop there regularly,it's worth a visit just to check it out, particularly on a Saturday when they're firing on all pistons and have lots of sampling going on.

Don't worry about sourcing products in San Diego, that you will be able to do reasonably well once you get settled in and know your way around. What will be much harder will be adapting to the local restaurants which are decidedly casual and not all what you're used to.

Welcome to SD!

[Franci]

FrogPrincess, Kalypso, thank you very much! It sounds I could really enjoy SD.

At the moment we don't know yet what to do but after so much moving around I'd like to stay in a place for sometime and food is a very important component for me being comfortable.

If we end up in SD, I'm sure I'd become a regular of this section of egullet.

Thanks again!

[heidih]

Franci- I am in Los Angeles which is 2 hours north of San Diego but I will echo the other posters. California in general is one of the top agricultural states in the US. The Latin American and Asian immigrant population has added to the drive for diversity in fresh produce. Plus- you can drive a few hours north or south and go wine tasting (we produce some pretty decent wine as well)

[andiesenji]

I'm bumping this topic up because we now have a "Farmers Market" in Lancaster on "The Blvd." and I walked through it yesterday afternoon. (Thursday 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.)

I was not impressed and did not buy anything. I thought much of it was overpriced.

This morning I'm just back from an early morning excursion to the produce market (just down the street from UPS where I had to ship a box).

Tomatoes 2 pounds

Apricots 1.3 pounds

White corn 4 for 1.00 large plump ears

Green grapes seedless 1 pound

Red grapes seedless 1.55 pounds

Cherries Ranier 1.5 pounds

Lettuce 1/ - 1.00

Cabbage 1/- 35 ¢

Cucumbers 2/ - 1.00

Mango 1/- 49¢ jumbo size

Gld.Del. Apples 3 pounds

Peaches, yellow 2.5 pounds

Bananas 5 pounds

Strawberries 3-pack 4.50

Total cost: $31.37

The total was 10% more but they gave me a senior discount even though the usual senior discount day is Tuesday. However, I am a regular customer so the owner, who checked me out, extended the courtesy.

I can only guess at this point but I am sure I would have spend at least half again as much at the Farmers Market.

[FrogPrincesse]

I wrote about my favorite farmers’ market in San Diego, the Little Italy Mercato, a few weeks ago on my Foodblog. I also talked about the legendary produce stand at Chino Farm, which may be one of the best in the country.

There are a lot of other good farmers’ markets in San Diego that I visit occasionally when I am in the area, so I plan on posting pictures on this thread which, unfortunately, has not been active in a while.

It would be great to see pictures of other markets in California as well!

I just heard that a new market opened in Pacific Beach on Tuesday afternoons (2 – 6:30 pm), organized by Catt White, who also manages the Mercato. I plan on visiting it soon.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from another market that I really like. It’s the Cedros avenue market in Solana beach. It takes place on Sunday afternoons (1 – 5 pm). It’s smaller so shopping is very efficient. The selection is good and there are a few good options for lunch, including crepes and handmade ice cream sandwiches. There are very few non-food oriented vendors. We went there a couple of weeks ago and bought some corn (which was good, but not as good as Chino!), dandelion to use in salads, Rainer cherries, eggs, yellow wax beans, and purple carrots.

Corn grown in Oceanside

Free range & vegetable fed eggs

Green, yellow wax and purple beans

Fresh herbs

Purple kohlrabi, purple carrots

Sunflowers (my bags were getting heavy at that point!)

Heirloom tomatoes

The lunch area

I would love to try the meat as well (I need to remember to bring ice packs next time)

Our daughter enjoying a chocolate ice cream sandwich from Peke’s

[CaliPoutine]

When will Target and Wal-Mart break into the California market?

←

Target and Wal-Mart are here but not the grocery-store versions. Interestingly, the local Targets have expanded their refrigerated food sections so they're selling more prepared foods. But they're not large enough to house a fresh grocery section. If any Super Targets come in here, they'd have to start from scratch as opposed to adapting a current Target.

That would certainly shake things up. I listen to a podcast of Splendid Table, and one of the sponsors is Target advertising a new concept combining a traditional Target store and a grocery store.

←

I don't intend any offense by saying this, but you must be young or new to the state. When I was a child San Diego had the successful Fed-Mart chain (started by, and then sold by, Sol Price who went on to found the Price Club warehouse store chain which was eventually bought out by Costco). Fed-Mart was basically a Target and a grocery store all in one space. Then there was the Gemco chain, which was basically a Target and a grocery store all in one space. The difference was that Gemco usually had a line of delineation (is that redundant?) within the store keeping the grocery section seperated from the rest of the store where Fed-Mart didn't....it was a one huge happy space.

When Sol Price sold the Fed-Mart chain to a German conglomerate (I believe), it eventually went out of business. Gemco went out of business, too.

While I haven't heard much about the Super Targets, the Super Wal-Marts have been trying to get a foothold in the state. Wal-Mart tried to build two of the stores here in Bakersfield. But residents who lived near the building sites feared an increase in traffic if the stores were built so they filed lawsuits effectively stopping them. Of course, the local grocery chains also did what they could to stop them from being built.

In fact, there is a half-finished Super Wal-Mart on the southern edge of town that you can see from the freeway. Welcome to Bakersfield.

The funny thing is, if they tried opening the stores again here in town, I think they'd get quite a different reception given the sad state of the U.S. economy. I think now they'd be welcomed with open arms.

Yes, having these "super" stores in the state certianly would "shkae things up". Which is why the current grocery chains in the state are trying to fight them at every turn.

To get back on topic, we still have a local Farmer's Market here in town. I don't think the super stores would really impact the Farmer's Market since I believe they have two diferent customer bases.

Our 2 Target stores will be offering fresh produce in October.

[Kouign Aman]

Pretty!

Have you tried the farmer's market in City Heights yet?

Some of their stuff comes from a local community garden. Its a nice idea,

but I havent been to the market to see how it works out.

[FrogPrincesse]

Kouign Aman,

I have not tried that one. Do you know when it takes place?

[CaliPoutine]

I'm bumping this topic up because we now have a "Farmers Market" in Lancaster on "The Blvd." and I walked through it yesterday afternoon. (Thursday 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.)

I was not impressed and did not buy anything. I thought much of it was overpriced.

This morning I'm just back from an early morning excursion to the produce market (just down the street from UPS where I had to ship a box).

Tomatoes 2 pounds

Apricots 1.3 pounds

White corn 4 for 1.00 large plump ears

Green grapes seedless 1 pound

Red grapes seedless 1.55 pounds

Cherries Ranier 1.5 pounds

Lettuce 1/ - 1.00

Cabbage 1/- 35 ¢

Cucumbers 2/ - 1.00

Mango 1/- 49¢ jumbo size

Gld.Del. Apples 3 pounds

Peaches, yellow 2.5 pounds

Bananas 5 pounds

Strawberries 3-pack 4.50

Total cost: $31.37

The total was 10% more but they gave me a senior discount even though the usual senior discount day is Tuesday. However, I am a regular customer so the owner, who checked me out, extended the courtesy.

I can only guess at this point but I am sure I would have spend at least half again as much at the Farmers Market.

Andi, how is the quality? I find that the produce in the supermarkets( except Whole Foods) doesnt compare to the Farmer's Market. Local peaches were 2.25lb at The farmers market and 2.99lb at Whole Foods.

I have recently bought some great melons at Sprouts, but the cherries have been horrible. The cherries I got at the Farmers Market were excellent, but that was over a month ago too. No more cherries at the farmers markets.

[ScottyBoy]

Saw this thread and wanted to share a photo collection I made over the seasons this year at my favorite markets here in the Bay Area.

Yay California!

[FrogPrincesse]

ScottyBoy - Beautiful collection. Thanks for sharing!

Meanwhile I found more info about the market in City Heights. It takes place on Saturday mornings (9 am - 1 pm). It looks like this may be a smaller market, but it's neat that they have a "consignment" booth, where people can bring their homegrown produce for sale.

[kalypso]

We are all certainly blessed to live in CA aren't we? Everyone's photos are just spectacular

FP, the City Heights farmers market is truly unique in the programs it offers. As you probably know, City Heights has a thriving community of recent immigrants to San Diego. The urban gardens started as a way for them to grow familiar and traditional foods for the family as they transition to life in the U.S. and San Diego specifically. The program has been successful enough so that their surplus can be sold at the farmers market when it exists. Additionally, the market runs special educational programs for kids and parents designed to teach them how to purchase and prepare fresh foods rather than relying too heavily on highly processed and fast food. They also have, on occasion, run health clinics since much of their population base is at high risk for some diseases.

One of my friends has worked with the market organizers off and on with their garden projects, it's a prett interesting market in an underserved neighborhood.

Edited July 30, 2011 by kalypso (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Kouign Aman and Kalypso both talked about the City Heights market so I decided to check it out this weekend. It's a fairly small market, only about a block long (2 rows), with a nice community-feel. It's geared towards the local low-income residents with affordable produce and vendors that accept food stamps. In addition to the produce (mostly Asian and Mexican), there were a few options for prepared foods and, more unusual (but a great idea) a bicycle-repair booth!

Here are some pictures taken last Saturday.

Different varieties of cucumbers

Chili peppers

I got a few of these beautiful baby eggplants

Pea shoots

Chinese okra

I bought some galangal because I was intrigued by it. Now I need to find a good recipe.

Fresh eggs and also balut eggs (I decided to pass...)

Miniature tomatillos

Yellow peaches - I bought a few. Also got some apricots from the same vendor.

The elusive passion fruit. It's the first time I see passion fruit at the farmers' market, and I am not familiar with this variety (only the one with much darker skin). I bought a half basket. We will see how they turn out.

Edited August 1, 2011 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Kouign Aman]

Oh my, those are some pretty passion fruit.

I usually wait til they are shriveled and wrinkly before opening them. You?

[heidih]

Different varieties of cucumbers

Great produce shots. I think those warty green things are Indian bitter melon and the smoother ones also are a variety of bitter melon versus cucumber?

[FrogPrincesse]

Oh my, those are some pretty passion fruit.

I usually wait til they are shriveled and wrinkly before opening them. You?

That's the plan. I got a few that were already wrinkly so I will start with these first.

Edited August 1, 2011 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Different varieties of cucumbers

Great produce shots. I think those warty green things are Indian bitter melon and the smoother ones also are a variety of bitter melon versus cucumber?

You are right, Heidi, these are bitter melons.

[Katie Meadow]

Last year I discovered The Aprium--that's 60% apricot and 40% plum. (As opposed to the plumcot, which is 50/50 and the pluot which is 60% plum--as far as I know.) Saturday morning at the Berkeley Farmers' market I bought something I've never seen before: the vendor was calling it a nectaplum. I don't know what the percentage of nectarine to plum is but it was delicious.

I grew up thinking the nectarine was a cross between a peach and a plum, but according to Wiki, that's not true. The nectarine is some adaptation of a fuzzless peach. They don't taste like peaches to me, though.

[kalypso]

FP, what great photos. You certainly made all that produce look pretty delectable

Passionfruit vines grow well in San Diego. There is a variety that flower and fruits and a variety that flowers but produces no fruit. We've got the latter type and it's really prolific. After seeing how well it grows, I kind of wish we had planted one that produced fruit. Passionfruit ice cream is amazingly good.

Edited August 2, 2011 by kalypso (log)

[Kouign Aman]

Tropical Star on Balboa sells a maracuya batido that I love.

FP - thanks for the trip to City Heights. Saturday am is such a sensible time for a market. The one nearest me is on Wednesday afternoons, and that's not gonna happen!

Linda Vista is opening a farmer's market soon too.