Sweet! It's citrus season

 
January is absolutely peak season for oranges from the San Joaquin Valley, the state's leading growing area. Citrus from this district, where each variety has a relatively defined season, takes a little more care to obtain at best, compared to fruit from Southern California, where citrus can hang on the tree much longer in good condition. Some of the best choices at this time are Page oranges, Washington navel oranges and Moro blood oranges.

Read more in this week's Market Watch report by David Karp. Plus, check out his photo gallery capturing the fruits and veggies making their way to your local farmers market.

Photo: Page oranges / David Karp

Chiles so hot they make habaneros seem -- yawn -- bland

 
For certain people, finding and triumphing over the world's hottest chile is one of those captivating, extreme pursuits like climbing Mt. Everest or running an ultramarathon in Death Valley in July. Even for nonparticipants, the spectacle of the quest is amusing. Until recently, the hottest chile available at local farmers markets had been the relatively common habanero, so it was a bit surprising to see the fabled Bhut Jolokia, a heat championship contender, displayed quite casually at the Santa Monica farmers market the last two few weeks. Read more in this week's Market Watch report by David Karp, "Market Watch: Super-hot Bhut Jolokia chiles," plus check out his photo gallery of the freshest fruits and veggies arriving at local farmers markets.

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Rainy season challenges sellers and buyers at the farmers market

 
Frequent heavy rains and holiday closures on weekends have made recent weeks challenging for farmers market growers and shoppers. California's dominance in fruit and vegetable production stems largely from the rarity of rain during the peak summer season for many crops, allowing them to mature and be harvested with relatively few problems from spoilage. That advantage was turned on its head recently, as crops were damaged and farmers couldn't harvest them or drive to market. David Karp shows you how to pick the best produce in this week's Market Watch report. Plus, check out his photo gallery of the farmers market's freshest produce.

Photo credit: David Karp

A rare taste of medlars at the Santa Monica farmers market

The medlar, a legendary historic fruit with the flavor and texture of spicy applesauce, will make a cameo appearance Wednesday at the Santa Monica farmers market.

"The stars have finally aligned," said Craig Ruggless of Winnetka Farms, who harvested 180 pounds of the fruit on Christmas Eve from an orchard in a remote area north of Tehachapi. He had hoped to sell at the market the last two weeks, but torrential rains turned the roads into rivers.

Ruggless will be offering the fruit at $8 a pound, probably just at the one market Wednesday. Some of the crop has already undergone the peculiar ripening process called bletting, required to turn medlars soft and edible; firm fruits will need to be bletted, ideally by placing them stems down on wooden trays, not touching each other, and storing them in a cool, humid location for up to several weeks. The medlar may be the ultimate slow food, and that's part of the appeal.

-- David Karp

Photo: David Karp

How to make persimmons taste like holiday gingerbread

The traditional Japanese art of making the dried persimmons called hoshigaki is a mind-bogglingly labor-intensive artisanal process.

The fruits of the acorn-shaped Hachiya variety are harvested firm, peeled by hand, strung up to dry for a month or so and manually massaged to break up their fibers and keep their flesh soft.

If all goes well (and there's a lot that can go wrong), the surface of the finished product will be covered, as shown above, with a fine white powdered sugar naturally exuded by the fruit. The flesh within has a tender but chewy texture and a sweet, spicy flavor, like raisins and gingerbread.

Read more in this week's Market Watch column by David Karp, plus check out his photo gallery guide to what's fresh this week at the farmers market.

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Photo: David Karp

Coffee grown in California? Yep

 

When customers stop by Jay Ruskey's stand at the Santa Barbara farmers market these days, they may or may not be impressed by the likes of the dragon fruit or finger limes he grows, but virtually everyone stops and gawks at the jars of fresh-roasted coffee, flanked by a potted tree.

Ruskey's ranch is 15 miles up the coast in Goleta. It's a lush, hilly paradise of exotic fruits, with the Pacific Ocean and the Channel Islands glimmering in the distance.

Ruskey is no less thrilled that his coffee trees, from waist- to shoulder-high, are flourishing and that he has harvested his first real coffee crop after many years of trailblazing preparations.

Read more in this week's Market Watch column by David Karp.

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Photo credit: David Karp

 

Market Watch: Where those red Brussels sprouts come from

Purple variants of common vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus and potatoes have been increasingly popular at farmers markets in recent years, but none is as intriguing as the red Brussels sprouts just now showing up at the Santa Monica farmers market. Beautiful, tasty and different, they seem sure to make a splash.

It's hard to imagine a farmer more on the prowl for novel specialty produce than Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms. He learned of red Brussels sprouts from Erin Eastland, executive chef of Cube Marketplace & Café, who had experimented with growing them on a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles. She liked them but thought they'd do better in a colder climate (Brussels sprouts grow sweetest when kissed by frost), and asked Weiser if he'd be willing to put in a planting.

He consulted the bible of his trade, Elizabeth Schneider's "Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini," became further intrigued and ordered seeds of the classic red variety, Rubine, from Territorial Seed Co. He put in 8,000 plants, about three-quarters of an acre, at the coolest of the three locations where he grows, in Tehachapi, Calif., where it was 16 degrees (more than a kiss of frost!) Wednesday night.

Weiser brought the first samples to market Wednesday. A bit smaller than typical Brussels sprouts, and not quite as tight, they're deep reddish purple both inside and out, splashed with green — Christmas colors -- and white in the stalks. Read more in this week's Market Watch report by David Karp.

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Photos: Rubine red brussels sprouts grown by Weiser Family Farms in Tehachapi, Calif. Credit: Alex Weiser / For The Times

Market Watch: The Newport Beach farmers market is back

 

The Newport Beach market came back into being when the owner of the Lido Marina Village development was looking to revitalize the district's shopping street, Via Oporto.

A glimpse of the boats and water adds color to the market venue, a European-style walking street. The relatively narrow passageway also means, however, that vendors must off-load their produce and park elsewhere, not a favorite practice among growers and their employees.

There are several holes in the offerings -- no potatoes or eggs -- but the market roster reads a bit like "Santa Monica South," with several vendors, such as McGrath, Maggie's Farm, Tenerelli, Suncoast and Pudwill, that also appear at Santa Monica's celebrated Wednesday market.

Read more in this week's Market Watch report by David Karp.

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Photo: Meños Farms of Riverside sells vegetables, including beets and carrots, at the Newport Beach farmers market. Credit: David Karp / For The Times

What's hitting its peak at the farmers market? Fuyu persimmons

 

Persimmons should be kept at room temperature until they are fully ripe. Then they can be refrigerated for as long as a couple of weeks. Fuyus are brilliant simply sliced and squirted with lime juice.

Click here for our guide to cooking through the seasons, recipes included.

Photo credit: David Karp

Peaches in November? How can that be?

Among the Halloween treats available at farmers market this weekend, alongside pumpkins, apples and persimmons, there's one, Autumn Lady peaches from Tenerelli Orchards, that might seem incongruous. Could these fruits really be fresh, or any good? Find out in this week's Market Watch report. Plus, check out David Karp's photo gallery of what's fresh this week at your local farmers market.

Photo credit: David Karp