It's Peak Season for Summer Produce at the Farmers' Market
Chefs dish on their favorite fruit and veg from now through September — Bonny melons, Celebrity tomatoes, mango nectarines, and more!
Photographs by Emily Wilson
The Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market is a Los Angeles institution. It’s where chefs from across the city load up on the best produce Southern California has to offer, and it’s where, during my reporting (and buying) trips over the past few weeks, I’ve encountered an infectious, joyous energy in the air. Summer, after all, is here. That means Andy’s Orchards is back in the mix, with pomologist David Karp managing in-demand orders of melting-flesh apricots, nectarines, and peaches grown up north in the Santa Clara Valley. It means Munak Ranch of Paso Robles has returned as well, with Rocky Sweet melons and Celebrity tomatoes. Figs, particularly the prized varieties grown by JJ’s Lone Daughter Ranch of Redlands, have just started to show face, as have Wongs Farm’s otherworldly Coachella Valley mangoes. Summer squash, sweet peppers, and strawberries are abundant.
The second-best farmers market in town is in Hollywood on Sundays, where, in addition to produce, flowers, meats, eggs, and fish, you’ll find Balo Orozco slinging kombucha and shrubs, roasted tomato-ricotta galettes and hot honey biscuits from Nourish the Soul, Mom’s Specialty Foods’ hummus and feta, tubs of spicy tempeh and seaweed salad by Dave’s Gourmet Korean, and other prepared foods. If Wednesdays in Santa Monica are the industry’s stomping ground, Sunday in Hollywood is a fixture of the Eastside social scene. Then there are the smaller markets: Sundays in Atwater, Mar Vista, and Brentwood are popular, as are Wednesday afternoons in Larchmont, Thursday evenings in South Pasadena, and Saturday mornings in Silver Lake.
One of the gifts of having a SoCal address is access to the best peak-season produce our nation has to offer. So, in order for us to really take advantage of our farmers’ markets in their prime, I hit up a handful of my favorite chefs (Karla from Chainsaw, Aaron of Quarter Sheets, Jihee from Perilla, Miles of Baby Bistro, & more!) for their summertime secrets: specifically, which harvest (from which farmer) they look forward to the most and what they like to cook with it, once secured.
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