FINDS : Sun Sweet and Dried

Ken Kennedy doesn’t mind the weekly long haul from Central California to Santa Monica where he sells at the Wednesday growers market. It beats seeing your produce go off to packing sheds and shippers.

“The only thing [those people] ever said to me was that it wasn’t good enough,” says Kennedy. “Now we get to talk to the people who actually eat it. It’s a lot more pleasant and it’s given us a chance to get specific and more gourmet- ish. “

Take his sun-dried organically grown eggplant, for instance. Not only does Kennedy grow it and dry it, he also advises his customers how to cook with it. In this case, Kennedy recommends steaming the vegetable and then adding it to omelets or vegetable lasagna. Or toss it into a pot of boiling pasta. When the pasta is done, the eggplant will be cooked. Mix in some tomato sauce and maybe a little basil and dinner is done.

Ken and Betty Kennedy grow all the fruits and vegetables they sun dry and sell on their 20-acre farm in Dinuba, between Visalia and Fresno.

“When it’s gone, it’s gone,” says Kennedy of his produce. His regulars know to watch for his honey-sweet, multicolored flame-grape raisins, which sell out quickly.

“We sell the fruit in the same season it grew. We don’t store it for two or three years like a lot of commercial stuff.”

The couple raise persimmons, pears, walnuts, cherries, eggplant, tomatoes, flame grapes, figs, lemons, loquats, and lots and lots of apricots, nectarines, peaches and plums.

The seasonal produce is picked and dried weekly. “Fruit shouldn’t be picked until you can smell it,” says Kennedy. “Most dried fruit on the market has been genetically developed for packaging and shipping: firm, sold, good color, but not much taste. We grow varieties that practically disappeared because they didn’t look that good--but the flavor is there.”

In addition to Wednesday mornings at the Santa Monica growers market, Kennedy sells his sun-dried fruit and vegetables occasionally at the Hollywood and Encino markets on Sunday mornings.