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The Market:
Santa Monica Farmers Market
Arizona Ave. between 1st and 4th St.
Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m
(310) 458-8712
Market-Goer:
Mark Thompson
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April
Showers Over L.A. |
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It's been unusually rainy in Southern California in recent
weeks. Today was a rare day when the farmers market was
rained on. The weather thinned out the crowd of shoppers
but had no discernible effect on the produce on display -- a
season-spanning mix of winter items, such as the full range of
citrus fruits, springtime treats such as fava beans, and somr
harbingers of summer, including tomatoes from the desert. |
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What I Bought:
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Springs
Onions, Parsley Root, Watercress
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I decided to get a bit adventurous
today and buy a few items that I rarely, if ever, have
bought before. I found a few items that fit the bill
at the McGrath Farm stand: parsley roots and
watercress. I haven't a clue what to do with
them.
The broccoli spigarello, which I found
on the Coleman Farm table, is an exotic item that I
have purchased before, both here at the Santa Monica
market, and in Barcelona
last fall. In the past, I've chopped it up and
stir-fried it with pasta. It's good, but not as good
as a comparable brassica-type green, rapini. The stems
of broccoli spigarello can be quite woody, in my
experience, so you've got to cut off and discard as
much as the bottom couple of inches of each stalk.
Price: $5 for three bunches
of onions, parsley, watercress
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Broccoli
Spigarello
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T.
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Spring
Onions, Cilantro
Price: $1/each
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Green
Onions, Snow Peas, Gai Lon
Price: $3/lb. for snow
peas
$1/bunch for gai lon
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Butterhead
and Vulcan Lettuce
Price: $1.50/head
Hydroponic Tomato, Fuji and Granny Smith
Apples
These tomatoes, grown hydropnically by the
Wong's in the desert out near the Salton Sea,
are the only really good tomatoes that I've
ever found in the winter months. They actually
taste like summer tomatoes. They cost $3 a
pound, but one of the best bargains in the
market are the tomatoes in a box at the end of
the table, which are bruised or nicked in some
way or other, go for a mere $1 a pound. I
always find some in that box of cast-aways
that are only minimally damaged, such as the
one in the photograph above.
Price: $2/lb. for
apples
$1/lb. for damaged tomatoes
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