The farmers market

My recent bounty from the farmers market. Aren't those mini tomatoes adorable?

When the Los Angeles Times recently devoted its Food section to the topic of farmers markets, I can't say I was surprised that it left out Long Beach. It may not be as big and well-known as Santa Monica's farmers market, but I consider the Sunday farmers market in Long Beach to be solid, with its mix of fruit and vegetable stands, along with sellers of grass-fed beef, seafood, nuts, bread, dates and herbs, along with a crafts fair in the same parking lot. All it needs is a table of cheese and it could rival the wonderful farmers markets in Geneva where my sister lived for two years (that and an espresso cart!).

As part of my effort to be more conscientious of my consumer habits and how they impact the environment, I've tried to shop more at the farmers market because the produce is grown locally, or at least in the state, which means less pollution in shipping it here. A lot of the produce is organic, and even if not, it's grown on small farms I'd prefer to support over mega agriculture. And it's a blast. It turns the boredom of the weekly trip to the grocery store upside down -- the selection is more diverse (sweet oranges, giant Pomelo grapefruits, a colorful assortment of mini potatoes, bulbous eggplant) and the samples abound (by the time I left on Sunday my stomach hurt a little from all the natural sugars in the oranges, apples, cherries, strawberries and date I sampled).

I was surprised the other day when a friend had never heard of it. Still, the market is doing well, if my visit this Sunday was any indication. At noon the parking lot was full of cars from shoppers, bicyclists and boaters. It runs on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Alamitos Bay Marina off Second Street near PCH, across from the Whole Foods.

It's small enough that just a few trips makes you feel like a regular. I've gone enough times that I recognize the regular vendors, like the woman who is more aggressive about inviting you to taste-test her strawberries. A few weeks ago I overheard someone asking where the "spice guy" was and actually knew the answer. I told her he had shut down his stand and moved inland.

My strategy is to buy what I see, making a mental shopping list on the fly and putting together a meal depending on what's in season. So this week when I spotted a bag of three zucchini for $1 and then a $1 bag of yellow squash, a tofu stir-fry seemed an obvious choice. In the same bargain-hunter's paradise, I picked up a bag of three onions and a small head of cabbage, each $1. I added sugar snap peas from another stand to the mix (a pricier addition at $2 for a small green basket). Earlier at the herbs stand when I smelled the mint, contemplating making a fruit salad, the seller handed me another kind of mint to smell. It was a sweeter version called chocolate mint. I don't turn down chocolate, even in mint form, so that went into my bag too. I didn't feel like buying a lot of fruit so once I decided on stir-fry I figured I could add the mint to it, making it Thai-style with low-fat coconut milk. It sounded like a plan. After buying broccoli (which I cooked that night and I'll be damned, it tasted much fresher than broccoli from the grocery store), a tomato, adorable mini tomatoes on the vine, sweet oranges and adorable mini plums -- I was ready to head out, having spent a mere $16.

Now that I've gotten used to shopping at the farmers market, my next goal is to ride my bike there (it's about three miles).

Here's a link to the Times story on shopping at farmers markets: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-cooking7-2008may07,0,6612313.story