Felicia Friesema

Hawk-eyed market-goers started spotting the first signs of fall this past week. And while Southern California isn't a hotbed of apple fever -- it simply doesn't get cold enough for trees that need a solid chill-induced hibernation in the winter -- LA does have the apple belt of Oak Glen......

If you've been to the South Pasadena, Pasadena, or Alhambra farmers markets these past two weeks, you've likely had to navigate your fruit buying through a maze of makeshift netting draped over long tables. On August 10th, the California Department of Food and Agriculture announced a quarantine of about 89......

Just when it actually starts to feel like a typical Los Angeles summer, the Weiser Family Farms booth rolls out the Padron pepper, a Spanish pimienton that Weiser has been growing here for a few years. And like the days we've had in July and August, some are hot and......

Locally focused cookbooks aren't uncommon in Los Angeles. There's the Santa Monica Farmers Market cookbook, The California Heritage Cookbook, Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book, Sunday Suppers at Lucques, and on and on. But you can put money on the fact that Highland Park, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles,......

August is often one of the favorite, and thus most crowded, months at the farmers markets. Tables are bowing under the weight of mountains of stone fruits, tomatoes, and corn; from one end to the other, you can sample a complete rainbow of yellow to deep purple. Today we're going......

California grape farmers have been tapping their toes and eying the calendar. It seems the entire agricultural season got knocked back a couple of weeks thanks to the persistent cold weather that wouldn't let go at the end of spring. Early grape varieties just started showing up last month, and......

The first time Ivory Gaya melons showed up at local markets, it was alongside another semi-new arrival, the Kyoho grape, which by the way comes into season this week. But when asked what the melon was named, the vendor would shrug and say only, "Japanese melon." That offhand label, however......

The green walnut was featured as an exciting "new" import at this year's Fancy Food Show in New York. While it is a little hard to come by, the entirely edible (but really sour) green walnut is hardly new. Sixteenth century Englishmen and women were pickling and jamming them, while......

In the category of vegetables that are actually fruits (a berry to be more precise), the eggplant, originally only small, white, and egg-shaped (hence the name), has evolved over hundreds of years to include several colors, shapes, and sizes. The most common at the local markets will be a dark......

Lili Baltazar, the "queen of greens" at ABC Rhubarb Farms, started offering mushrooms at her stand a few years ago, filling in a gaping mushroom hole at the Pasadena market and giving mushroom vendors at other markets something to ponder. At first the selection she offered was pretty familiar: small......