It's prime season for fruits, vegetables at LA Farmer's Market

By Eliza Ridgeway, Town Crier Staff Write

Joe Hu/Town Crier Left, Kay Sasaki chooses from a vast array of tomatoes at Bee Farm’s vegetable stand at the Los Altos Farmer’s Market held Thursdays on State Street.

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Sweet is the operative word at fruit stands in the Los Altos Farmer’s Market this month, where vendors describe their fruit from “tart, tangy and sweet” to “bursting with sweetness.”

This is the peak of the season for the locally grown plums, nectarines and peaches that are a perk of living in this area. These long, hot days are an ideal time to experiment with varieties of produce that haven’t caught your eye before but promise a fresh new taste. A careful perusal of the abundant farm stands will uncover little treasures that make all the difference, like a bunch of lemon basil mixed in with regular sweet basil, or a few stems of deeply tinted red-purple carrots piled next to a more pedestrian variety.

At the Borba farms stand, look for Oriental cucumbers, dull green oblongs whose bumpy surface bears a disturbing likeness to the sea cucumber. Because they aren’t waxed, these thin, sweet cucumbers can be eaten whole, according to Borba seller Tommy Marquez. They are less bitter than conventional cucumbers, with smaller seeds, and have a crisp crunch when eaten plain as an appetizer.

Striped Armenian cucumbers are even more crunchy and dry than the Orientals, and the slender, striated forms can be found at Specialty Produce, run by Los Altos resident Pete Trembois and his daughter Evyenia. They also stock Cosmic Purple carrots, whose crimson exterior and bright yellow-orange interiors offer a feast for the eyes and a slightly sweeter flavor than traditional varieties.

Bunches of long slender greens among the parsley and onions prove to be young dandelions. When tender and young, the dandelion has only hints of the intense bitter flavor that comes with age. Serve them as a salad, topped with olive oil and lemon juice.

Fresh spring shallots, still topped with green, look like spring onions but have a more complex and spicy flavor. Because they haven’t been dried like supermarket shallots, the flavor is milder, with less heat.

The Walla Walla onions from Happy Boy Farms are a famed transplant from Washington state, where brave locals bite into the sweet, juicy onions like apples. For the fainter of heart, Happy Boy offers floral spring salad mixes, with nasturtiums, calendula and other edible blossoms tossed with the greens.

Pluots have reached their peak ripeness in the last week or two, with the intense sugar of the plum matching the muted apricot elements. At farm stands like that of EGB, you can choose among various plum-apricot crosses. One standout is the pluot bred from Santa Rosa plums, which is sweet and tart and preserves a powerful plum without the fruit’s bitter edge.

This may be the final week for plums at the market, according to Olga Medrano of EGB Farms, who said that the long rainy spring led to a bad season for the delicate fruit.

Watch for fragrant cherry plums for a sweet departure from the more familiar black amber and Santa Rosa varieties. Hamada Farms’ golden-green Mariposa plums have a bright, not-too-sweet flavor that can be a respite from the syrupy excesses of other summer fruits. The Zeelady nectaplum, a nectarine-plum combination from Kashiwase Farms, may be the juiciest nectarine you have ever eaten. While pluots can be found even in supermarkets, the rarer nectaplums and nectarine-apricots appear only fleetingly at local farmer’s markets.

Kashiwase Farms sets up a tasting bar of its many varieties each week. Any passerby can become an instantaneous connoisseur of four or eight types of peach, nectarine, plum and mixtures thereof. In general, yellow peaches and nectarines have a stronger flavor and squishier flesh, while white varieties are delicate, firm and sweet.

Another source of fresh summer sweets

is at the Oaxacan Foods stand, where Zaida and Ron Kent sell freshly made aguas frescas with their regional Mexican foods. The very popular agua de sandia, or watermelon juice, combines water and watermelon with an occasional touch of sugar. The mixed fruit agua, blended from market produce, changes every week based on the best items in season. Last week, peach, strawberry, plum and apricot combined to make a drink with body, more subtle than a blended smoothie and better suited to sipping on a hot street corner.

Zaida makes the agua de limon, a tart limeade not overpowered by sugar, with whole limes.The rind gives the drinks a delicate lime color. She learned such tricks at her parents’ restaurant in Oaxaco, where she and Ron return every year for culinary inspiration.

The Los Altos Farmer’s Market is open 4-8 p.m. Thursdays through the season on State Street.