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The Market:
San Clemente Village Certified Farmers Market
San Clemente, Calif.
200 block of Avenida del Mar
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
(949) 492-6000
Marketgoer:
Mark Thompson, publisher of this Web site
I haven't been to this market in a couple of years.
It's a great market, stretching down a couple of blocks of Avenida
del Mar, just a couple of blocks from the beach and pier. There are
some interesting specialty and diversified, growers here -- I
counted 15 today -- and half a dozen florists and nurseries, as well
as another eight or so prepared food vendors.
The San Clemente Pier
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What I Bought:
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(left to
right) Flavorella plumcots, dinosaur egg pluots,
Flavorosa pluots, nectarines
The pluots and plumcots are from Smit
Orchard in Linden. They're interesting to look at but
speaking for myself, I'd take a good plum or apricot any day
over these fancy hybrids. Speaking of apricots, these were
rather mealy, but it's late in the season for
apricots.
Price: pluots and plumcots
$3/lb.; apricots $2/lb.
strawberries,
peaches, nectarine and plum
It's the very end of prime season for
strawberries so their ripe and sugary -- perfect for strawberry
mustard, a seasonal favorite of mine, where these are
destined to end up. I like that mustard so much, I guess I
ought to try peach mustard in
the next couple of months.
Price: strawberries
$5/3-pack; stone fruit $2.50/lb.
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(left to
right) chard, radishes, arugula
Price: $1/bunch
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(left to
right) basil, dill, cilantro
One of the best bargains at the better
farmers markets in California is herbs. They're fresh and
you can get a hefty bundle for considerably less than
you'd pay for a few sprigs at a supermarket. I make lots
of basil pesto. Here's a basil
sauce recipe. And here are five ways to gainfully
employ large bunches of cilantro.
Price: $1/bunch
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(left to
right,top) Candy onions; White Granex (Vidalia) onions;
Louisiana Red onion; Fuerte avocadoes
Don Davis grows the onions in Wildemar
in Riverside County east of Los Angeles. The Candy is a
good, sweet three-year-old hybrid, he says, and the red onion
variety is a favorite of Louisiana chefs. In my test of
the two "sweet" onions, both were just about
as pungent as any other onion. But at least the Candy
didn't have me reaching for water as a sliver of the
White Granex did. It just goes to show, "sweetness"
in an onion owes more to weather and soil than to
seedstock.
Price: onions
$1/lb.; avocadoes (very ripe) 2 for $1
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tomatoes
Tomato season still hasn't
arrived in earnest here in southern California,
so tomatoes aren't yet at their best -- which is
why these get low billing today.
Price: $2/lb.
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