Felicia Friesema

This is the year of strawberries. Last year, farmers were scrambling to pick not-quite-right fruit ahead of torrential downpours courtesy of El Niño. The pickings were heavily white-shouldered and disappointing. This year if you do see a peak of white underneath the pinwheel of green foliage on top, chances are......

We spent the first part of the 2011 Master Food Preserver class at the UC Cooperative Extension getting our heads enmeshed in food safety issues finishing off two days of lectures with a simple safe canning demo: tangerines in syrup. It was a nice reminder that food preservation can be......

How fast 90 days flies by. SEE-LA, the organization that runs the Hollywood Farmers Market (among others), is set to lose its permit to operate on Ivar between Selma and Sunset unless they are, once again, granted an extension by the city. Originally it was thought that 90 days would......

Kumquats, the small olive-sized citrus that produces catchy YouTube videos from people who just like saying the name, have actually been in season for awhile already. But it's around this time of year that we really come to appreciate this sweet-tart 19th century import from Asia. Springtime holiday pitchers full......

Ernest Miller, Executive Chef at Farmer's Kitchen and Master Food Preserver (MFP) Instructor for the UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) (also we love that their website is ucanr.org), has his hands full. As the instructor for the first Los Angeles County MFP class offered by the UCCE in over a decade,......

Green garlic is young and soft, lacking the papery cured skin that keeps the cloves of end-of-season garlic from getting nicked or exposed. That's pretty key here. The thing which gives garlic its potency is allicin, a compound that's formed only when garlic is crushed, chopped, or even bruised. Since......

Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms is fond of making us ask, "Ooo what's that?" March's entry was a pomegranate-colored tuber sitting off in a corner pile, partially obscured by a box of Chilean Red fingerling potatoes. Those familiar with Weiser are probably not too surprised, as he's been responsible......

Vivid and new-growth-green fava beans belong in the springtime the way the deep red jewels of pomegranates belong in the fall. The pods, fat with flattened beans, span about five to seven inches and take a few hours worth of prep to yield, well, not very much. Their flavor, status......

Anyone who is still avoiding French cuisine because they think its all heavy sauces draped over various seared meats (you've surely dropped your New Year's resolutions by now anyway, right?) needs to become friends with frisèe. Also known as curly endive, frisèe is the leafy green hallmark of some great......

Last week gave us a big blooming harbinger of springtime. But we admit we're still getting in touch with our roots. Luckily we're not being forced into a mad panicky rush, because beets are generally available all the time (a visit to Underwood Farms is usually all it takes). But......