Santa Monica Farmer's Market

On our trip, we went to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market. Mostly, I was too busy drooling over things to take a lot of photos, but I wanted to capture the brilliant colors in the early sunshine. Isn't California the place where the streets are paved with gold and fresh produce?



Brussel sprouts on the stock.

 We ended up buying a few things for our snack stash, as well as a few things to take home. From the Ha's Apple Farm booth, we grabbed a few small Granny Smith apples, a bag of dried Fiji apples (so flavorful!), a jar of apple cider vinegar (for home), and a bag of fruit and almond brittle. The fruit and almond brittle was actually one of my favorite snacks - it was fruit leather with bits of chopped almond in it. Crunchy and sweet at the same time!




Strawberries!

We stopped and got a bag of lemons and some Cara Cara blood oranges from some adorable farmers, and even got to taste the blood oranges before bagging them (um, that was what sold us).

We grabbed a jar of jalapeno olives from Adams Ranch, and some Desert Wildflower honey (that the husband can't get enough of) from Bee Canyon Ranch. It's a honey that's really dark in color, has the viscosity of the La Brea Tar Pits, and tastes like the desert. It's so beautiful.

Last, we scored some excellent berries. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and it was the closest to the ocean we had been yet in the trip. You could feel it.

I think it's fascinating to explore the food cultures of other cities. To see that every Saturday of the year, you can get fresh produce in Santa Monica. I've never lived in a place with a year growing season. Here in Utah, we get our produce in August and September, with some excellent tomatoes in October this last year. When I did the CSA in 2010, we received weekly orders from the last week in June (and really, those were the earliest foods, like garlic and herbs), through October.

Last Year: Chili Colorado
Two Years Ago: Coconut Kumquat Tea Cake
Three Years Ago: Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Centers