What’s a Saturday without a visit to the Farmers Market? A must on any Saturday but particularly if one is in Los Angeles destined for Palm Springs – a city that lacks a little in the way of fresh fruits & vegetables. Which is why my partner Jill & I, armed with Peet’s Coffee, a wad of cash and a large shopping bag, programmed our GPS for the Third Street Promenade/Santa Monica Farmer’s Market (@ Third & Arizona) and headed West in 84⁰ temperatures (at 9:30am) ready to investigate all that LA has to offer in the way of fresh fruits, vegetables and who knows what else…
Well, we’re off to a great start with a parking garage conveniently placed at the entrance to the market with 2 hours free parking. Walking into the market, you get a sense of a true community event. Neighbors & regulars are chatting with each other, and the general atmosphere was festive and fun, not too unlike San Francisco. The market offered a variety of local (and not so local surprisingly enough) vegetables, cheeses, meats & fish. I was surprised to see Spring Hill Jersey Cheese out of Petaluma… nonetheless; I bought their divine pepper jack cheese, perfect for taco makings later!
Some dragon fruit, grown locally I’m told (Fallbrook, CA), for the obligatory desert fruit breakfast… I imagine this fruit would make a lovely and interesting cocktail of the adult nature. Perhaps something with Cachaça, fresh ginger and sweet lime which by the way, was also on sale at the market.
Bitter Melon & Sinqua… haven’t figured out a way to use them yet but I have some ideas brewing… a very helpful farmer offered a vague Vietnamese recipe of chicken with simmering broth, peppers & cilantro but forewarned me that indeed the bitter melons were really ‘bitter’!
Before long the shopping bag was full, and with the 2 hour mark approaching we headed out of the market picking up some irresistible albeit very large artichokes, 3 for $1 - fresh summer corn, Fallbrook avocados and fresh herbs at Coleman Family Farms.
Palm Spring’s here we come!!
