This week: Fresh bamboo shoots, habanero peppers, lychees, peaches, apples

Fresh, domestically grown bamboo shoots are hard to find in California, but Yao Cheng Farm grows an acre of them near Camarillo and sells at the Monterey Park, Alhambra, Irvine and Thousand Oaks farmers markets.

After being boiled for 15 minutes to remove bitterness, and then stir-fried, they have the juicy crunch of an Asian pear and a sweet vegetal flavor recalling just-picked corn and heart of palm -- far superior to the bland strips sold in cans.

At $12 a pound they’re not cheap because, although bamboo thrives readily as an ornamental, cultivating it for food is tricky and labor-intensive. It requires daily monitoring to harvest the tender young shoots, which look like little horns, before they peep above ground and turn green and hard.

Habanero peppers

Lantern-shaped habanero chile peppers, famous for their ferocious heat and fruity, floral flavor, require more time from planting to harvest than most other chiles, so they’re just peaking now, a month or so after their kin. Luis Suarez has gorgeous orange specimens at the Whittier Uptown (Friday), Pasadena Saturday, Hollywood Sunday and Glendale Thursday markets.

Lychees

Nothing beats the perfumed lusciousness of a lychee right off the tree. Beneath the thin, slightly leathery and spiky red skin, the juicy, translucent white flesh has a sweet-tart flavor reminiscent of rose and muscat grape.

Lychees imported from China are cheap and abundant May through July but are often treated with pesticides and preservatives. Farmers have tried to grow lychees in California since 1871, but they’ve never become a commercial crop because the trees bear inconsistently here.

But Robin Smith of Mud Creek Farm, from Santa Paula, will have fresh Brewster lychees at Hollywood this Sunday, and possibly a few at Santa Monica on Wednesday. Widely cultivated in Fujian, where it is known as Chenzi, or Chen Purple, the Brewster was taken in 1903 by a clergyman of that surname to Florida, where it became a leading variety.

Peaches

The San Joaquin Valley peach harvest is drawing to a close, but freshly picked peaches will still be available for another month from the high desert, where the elevation delays maturity.

One of the best varieties for the next week or two is Ryan Sun, a seedling of O’Henry introduced in 1983. It has most of the good qualities of its parent -- for producers, firm, large, red and productive; for consumers, rich flavor -- but ripens about 10 days later. At Tenerelli Orchards of Littlerock, which sells at many local markets, it should be at peak this week.

Apples

Cox’s Orange Pippin, which has tender, crisp yellow flesh and an intense, distinctive aroma, is the classic dessert apple of England. It generally does not flourish here because -- you guessed it -- the Southern California climate is rather dissimilar to England’s, but Mike Cirone manages to grow a few in See Canyon, San Luis Obispo. In previous seasons they were sometimes tart and woody, but this seems to be a banner year. At Santa Monica Wednesday and Saturday Organic.