Cool Beans Shoppers

At first glance, a recent Monday at the West Hollywood Farmers’ Market was no different from any other Monday.

Customers crowded close to the egg man from Gama Farms, listening intently as he explained the difference between brown and white eggs. Others scanned the Red Rose potatoes from Weiser Family Farms before making their selections at 50 cents a pound. Carrots, fennel, parsnips, turnips, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, radishes and celery made their way into various white plastic shopping bags.

Everything seemed ordinary except the age of these savvy shoppers. Most were younger than 12.

To kick off a new community project called Healthy West Hollywood--geared toward educating residents about nutrition, gardening and exercise--nearly 150 first- through fifth-graders from four neighborhood schools visited the West Hollywood Farmers’ Market. Chaperoned by their teachers from Gardner Street School, West Hollywood Elementary School, Rosewood Avenue Elementary School and the Center for Early Education, the students spoke with the farmers and purchased fruits and vegetables for soup and salad recipes they would make in the classroom.

Sandra Voyne’s third-graders from Rosewood each had 50 cents to spend on vegetables for a vegetable soup they planned to make the next day.

“Don’t forget!” Voyne called out in a sing-song over the din of children’s voices and the soprano-sax playing of Jazzy Sprouts’ Dexter Scott serenading his wheatgrass crop. “We need potatoes!”

At J & P West Coast Fish Market, Pete Sircusa offered smoked-salmon samples and told one wide-eyed group about catching a 19-foot white shark three years ago off Dana Point.

Kachi Takahashi of Top Veg handed out small pieces of fennel, knowing students would recognize its subtle licorice flavor.

Molly Mary B. Linek, a registered dietitian from Los Angeles County’s Public Health Nutrition Program, was also on hand with healthful tips and recipe booklets produced in part by the California Children’s 5 a Day-Power Play! Campaign. Fruit smoothies made with nonfat vanilla yogurt are Linek’s suggested alternative snack drink to (gasp!) soda. The students noted each ingredient as she prepared her Strawberry-Banana Blast Smoothie, and then they got a taste.

Many of the students seemed to embrace Linek’s lessons. Throughout the morning, they ran from one produce stand to the next, filling their shopping bags with oranges and strawberries, cabbages and onions. Every few minutes, when one group of students passed another, they would proudly show off their buys. Better loot, it seemed, than candy at Halloween.