Felicia Friesema

Autumn hits LA when the liquid amber trees start to change color, the kids bring home the latest flu strain, and winter squash hits the market stalls. Undaunted by size or heft, farm vendors pile up the squash like so many malformed and colorful boulders (it comes round, elongated, pear-shaped,......

The month of September has a bit of an identity crisis. It's hot. It's mild. It's full of fire. It gets more chilly in the morning and evening--but then the Santa Anas kick in. Meteorological autumn begins September 1st and astronomical autumn shuffles its feet until September 15th. And in......

He likes round produce. Sure, there's the occasional baskets of Spanish padrone peppers, bunches of torpedo onions -- and does anyone else remember the crosnes? But push that aside and you have Alex Weiser's rainbow assortment of heirloom potatoes and, come summer, a stack of intensely aromatic melons. Weiser cuts......

As summer begins to wind down (it's mid-August already?), the market tables become a metaphorical sunset of yellows, oranges, pinks, and reds. The most obvious are the piles of corn, peaches, and tomatoes--glut crops that are summertime's real flavor bombs (everywhere should be so lucky). But there are a few......

One of our favorite late-summer grapes is the big and nearly black Kyoho. It has one serious fault though--the variety has absolutely no shelf life. That big sugar flavor that is also its downfall, as the sugars quickly ferment inside those dark, inky skins. We'd rather stick to our Cabs......

So if you're Michael Cimarusti (Providence), Josiah Citrin (Melisse), or Mark Peel (Campanile), where do you pick up that giant wheel of 24-month Parmigiano Reggiano, that mess of dried morels, or those imported speciality olive oils? Since 1989, the Los Angeles go-to-gal for wholesale gourmet imports has been Nicole Grandjean......

"Baba gave us each a weekly allowance of ten Afghanis and we spent it on warm Coca-Cola and rosewater ice cream topped with crushed pistachios"--The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.With National Ice Cream Month about to vanish into our thighs (and because David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop is taunting us......

August through October is prime preservation season, which means busting out the pots, jars, and hot bubbly vats of sweet fruity goo to "put up" for later in the year. Tighter times and the ample free time allotted to the unwillingly unemployed (now at a dismally high 12% in LA......

All the big summer market favorites are hitting their stride right now - peaches and other stone fruits, corn, and lordy, the tomatoes. Mountains of each line the market alleys at the Pasadena and Hollywood markets this week and all of them grab your attention with their color and perfume--and......

Jill Mittan looks tired. But despite the looming death of the five year-old winery dream she shared with her husband Kevin, she's still pouring tastes and telling visitors about the local wine scene at Midlife Crisis Winery. On Sunday, July 27th that will end too......