Monday, January 21, 2013

Catching Up Part 1 – Neighborhood Farmers Market – 11 November 2012

I am SO-O-O behind in posting to Coccinelle's blog!  We have been out and about and lots of pictures have been taken, but rather than doing one enormous post with everything, I'm going to do it as if I've been doing it all along...just getting it all online in the course of a day or two.  So here we go....

Over the last several years, weekly “farmers markets” have flourished all around the Los Angeles area.  The markets vary in size, vendors, and day of the week, but the common denominator is that the fresh produce suppliers are (or at least are assumed to be) smaller, often family owned and run, farmers who come from within a few hundred miles of the LA.  Many of them grow organically (without chemical fertilizers or pesticides), with limited and more natural pest controls, or are transitioning from chemical to organic.

We have one every Sunday in my neighborhood.  It’s relatively small, but there are still plenty of stalls selling fruits, vegetables, cheeses, breads, freshly prepared food, as well as some non-food items like jewelry, art prints, scarves etc.  The main part of the market is set up in a parking lot where there are a few dozen or so stalls, with maybe another eight or ten set up along the sidewalk.
















There are two or three where I regularly shop for veggies.  These leafy greens come from a family farm, and the stall is run by the mom and her kids:

 
Here are carrots from a farm that has on-the-farm activities such as hayrides and pick-your-own-pumpkins in the fall, and pick your own fruit in the summer:



The Nicholas Family Farm stall is where I get my fruit.  This time of year it’s a variety of apples, citrus, and grapes, as well pomegranates, persimmons, juices, etc.  That’s mom Penny Nicholas posing with Coccinelle:


 

 Oh, and some months back while coming up from the parking garage across the street from where the market is held, I spotted what appears to be an alien instruction message posted on a small electrical junction box next to the stairwell; sure wish I knew what it said….


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