Underwood Farm Market in Somis, CA
Felt like peak pepper today at SMFM. Just all over the place, and prices a couple of bucks lower per pound than a few weeks ago. Tons of stone fruit and melons everywhere as well. Mangos appear to have switched to Keit from Valencia Pride; I arrived too late for any immediately ripe ones. Oh and the first Asian Pears of the season
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In SoCal? Wrong Brentwood?
Yes I’m looking for the fabled NorCal Brentwood corn in SoCal
There’s a brentwood corn risotto on the menu at Knife Pleat. I had it last year, delicious
Maybe ask them who they’re getting the corn from
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The Brentwood corn I got at Berkeley Bowl the other day was nothing special. Didn’t taste like sugared lawn clippings, but there wasn’t much corn flavor.
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From Galpin Family Farms IG story:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEpz4MCDXyO/
(2011 story so some of the market info is probably outdated)
“The most distinctive and enigmatic stone fruit in markets currently is the Indian Blood Freestone peach. The first thing you’ll note is its intense rose-like aroma, which can fill a room with peachy perfume. The fruits look like nothing else, with thick white fuzz over mottled red and creamy white skin, which can give them an odd gray-green cast; the flesh is snowy white with blotches of red — occasionally it can be spectacularly, fully red, almost like a beet.
When really ripe — look for specimens that are plump and rounded near the stem end, with a vibrant cream background color — they’ve got a great balance of sweetness and acidity, and a unique berrylike or vinous flavor. Both the color and taste carry through famously well in ice cream.“
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“Enigmatic”? Hmm.
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That’s a great chart. My last few peach batches from Scott’s have not been as good as previous ones. The flesh is still marvelous, but the skins have had a really off-putting bitterness. But it looks like there’s still hope left in the season! I’m waiting for a batch that I purchased from the vendor “across” from Scott’s (can’t recall the name) to soften; it’s the first time I’ve tried them. They had what they referred to as a “baking” peach. Not as intensely sweet (or large), but still quite pleasant.
Which vendors do people like for their tomatoes?
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Honestly this time of year it is impossible to go wrong. Tutti frutti, muniak, beylik,valdivia, smith, McGrath and I’m definitely omitting a ton.
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For me Coastal Organic was a cut above the rest with unique varietals and dry farming which led to fantastic flavor.
The rest are ‘very good’ but all the same really. No one has stepped up to take the crown after he left farming
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@bruins I missy Chino folks much. Haven’t found any farm like this in LA. It used to be my weekly one stop for everything vegetables.
Had a shockingly good watermelon from Munak today. Maybe my best of the season. Flavor, texture, juiciness, the whole package. In October!
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Interesting, I couldn’t find any good watermelon around Ktown anymore. Time for a new hunt!
I had terrible watermelon luck all summer. Guess I should’ve just waited for Summer II 
Guavas are really nice right now. Got them at Torrance Farmer’s Market. Unfortunately, can’t remember the stand name but it’s the only one that has pink, white and feijoa guavas. We loved the pink ones. Most were very good, full of guava flavor, and every so often, we got the perfect one that was deliciously sweet. At $2 a lb, one of the best deals there!
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Anybody know what to do with spare guavas? Mom’s neighbor’s pineapple guava tree is going nuts and I don’t want to waste them. Jam?
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@bruins you can feed me 
and pickle the rest.
Google Thai pickle guava as well, usually just with salt and plum, very tasty. Guava is good in salad and you can make sorbet with it too! Juice them and make frozen bars, etc.
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Looking like berries are slowly ramping up; spotted mara de bois at Harry’s. I limited myself to blueberries though; just hasn’t been hot enough for me to believe it’s worth the dough yet.
I’m a little under the weather so wore a mask, but even with that the carrots at The Garden Of were just stunningly fragrant. Excited to get into those.
Sweet peas and fava beans are everywhere, though we’ve got our own bumper crop right now so I didn’t buy any.
One thing I hadn’t bought before was kumquats, but the Meiwa kumquats are stunningly sweet compared to some of the backyard trees.
Lots of young garlic and onions abounds. Of course leafy greens as well.
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