More Than 100 Certified This Year in California Alone : Farmers Markets Blossoming Across Country

Les Portello happens to like two-headed cherries--a deformed fruit unlikely to turn up in a supermarket’s produce department. But by going to a farmers market during cherry season, Portello does find an occasional double-header.

He is one of the thousands of consumers flocking to farmers markets across the country in search of the unusual, the inexpensive and, above all, the fresh in produce.

Portello is not just another shopper but the head of the farmers-market program for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Under his supervision, the state has certified more than 100 farmer-run markets this year, up by about 10 from last year, with 24 now operating in Los Angeles County alone. These urban markets, drawing farmers from a wide area, have joined the scores of unregulated produce stands where growers for years have sold directly to motorists passing their farms.

For farmers, the markets offer a new sales outlet, or perhaps even a network of sales outlets. For example, Donna Sherrill of Sherrill Orchards in the Kern County community of Arvin said her family sells fruit at markets throughout Los Angeles County.

“Sunday we’re in Alhambra,” she said, “Monday in Bellflower, Tuesday in Torrance, Wednesday in Santa Monica, Thursday in Redondo Beach, some Fridays we’re in Burbank and Saturday we’re in Gardena.”

Those markets offer a broad selection of produce, she said, often more extensive than that offered by many supermarkets, which tailor their inventory to their neighborhoods.

Under state law, only farmers, their families and their employees can sell at certified farmers markets--the consumers’ assurance that the fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts actually are grown by the seller. Certification exempts this produce from normal standards for size and appearance as well as packing and labeling requirements. Consequently, some of the produce has blemishes or other cosmetic flaws--the two-headed cherries Portello fancies, for example.

On the other hand, the fruit may be riper and fresher than is possible in supermarkets. “We’re ripe-picking only,” Sherrill said. “We go through every two or three days to pick by hand. It costs a little more but I have a very loyal clientele, and that’s what they want.”

California’s direct-marketing program began 10 years ago at a time of huge surpluses in peaches, pears and apricots. Portello said the program came about partly because of the feeling that fruit that would have been left to rot in orchards could be sold to low-income people in urban areas.

Begun as a two-year experiment, the farmers markets program was made permanent in 1979--reviving an institution that, along with itinerant green grocers peddling fresh produce from trucks, had virtually disappeared after World War II.

The spread of farmers markets has altered marketing practices for people such as Jean Phillips, whose family has farmed near the San Joaquin County town of Lodi and sold their fruits and vegetables directly to the public for 33 years.

At one time, the family ran three roadside produce stands as well as the Phillips Farms Restaurant, a mile west of Interstate 5 on California 12. But once farmers markets opened in Sacramento, a 40-minute drive to the north, “We found we were losing out-of-town customers, so we went where they were,” she explained.

The family maintains the restaurant, serving meals made from home-grown produce, but the three stands have been consolidated into one to enable the Phillips family to participate in farmers markets throughout Northern California.

At least 30 states have programs to encourage the development of farmers markets to aid agriculture, but the organized movement is most developed in California, Texas, New York and Massachusetts. California’s farmers markets had about $50 million in sales last year, up an estimated 20% to 25% from 1985, Portello said.

“We had some enormous increases,” Portello said. The weekly market at Davis, for example, reported that 1986 sales were up more than 40% from the year before, and on one recent Saturday the market had more than 5,000 customers--one-eighth of the college town’s population.