Market Watch: 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.

For four years before becoming the manager, Dornbos worked at the market as a vendor for Living Lettuce Farms, which grows a wide range of lettuces, greens and herbs in the backyards of two homes in Reseda. The farm, which also sells at the Hollywood, Studio City and Culver City markets, offers particularly fine frisée -- young, pale yellow, sweet and crunchy. Its salad greens, including arugula, spinach and mesclun, are tender, delicate and mild. The owners, David and Michelle Goldman, also have two hydroponic supply stores, and the whole lettuces, sold swathed in plastic, roots still attached, are grown hydroponically. Read more here.

-- David Karp

Photo credit: David Karp / For The Times