Personal Dork Assistant

Farmers' Market Highlights

Hit the La Jolla Farmers Market on a cloudy Sunday morning. Been there enough times so that I could hit the usual suspects before the early football game starts. Get some frozen tamales from the tamales lady. A tamale costs 8x more than a frozen burrito from Ralphs, but it does taste 190387120 times better, even without lard. Got some pluots and white nectarines from one stall, grapes from the usual guy, and tomatoes from across the aisle. Fruits are so much better at the farmers markets. The extra ripening allowed by direct pick-and-sell makes a huge difference in the sugar/flavor level. Except for the Fuji apples. The Washington Fujis at 99 Ranch are just so big and perfect (still think that they're probably fruit meant to go to Japan where they're obsessive about this sort of thing). The Gala-Fuji hybrids we got at El Cerrito were great, though. The Gala adds a little extra tang to the sweet crunchiness of the Fuji. I'm not as impressed by the veggies, although the Japanese cucumbers I got last time were really good and not found at the usual places.

Picked up some viennoiseries from the patisserie stall to give them a try. Two bucks for a croissant (and more for the pain au chocolat) is a little steep, though, even if a tall, willowy French lady was running the booth with her cute kids. The fruit tarts did look amazing, but they probably cost even more, and I wanted to see how they do the basics first. Expenses aside, you just can't beat a chocolate croissant and a big milky cup of coffee on a Sunday morning.

All the vendors have bunches of herbs for sale, but they seemed to have standardized on a buck per bunch, for a few basil sprigs. In Berkeley, for two bucks we got a huge handful of entire basil plants, complete with roots, so we could keep them alive in water. Decided to just get a planted pot of basil instead for $3.25, and another pot of parsley while I was at it. Useful since I only ever use a few leaves at a time anyway, and I hated to throw away half a bunch every time I bought herbs at the supermarket.

Was weaving my way out through all the extraneous artsy-crafty stalls when one of the random organic farm booths caught my eye. The lady had little trays of newly-cut chamomile flowers for sale. A few flower buds makes a nice mug of fragrant tea, with that extra hint of freshness that can't come out of a tea bag. It keeps, too, as it'll dry naturally, at least that was what the lady said.