Depth in Venice

Set in a new state-of-the-art, ecologically advanced parking lot, the Venice farmers market offers a small but choice selection of growers.

Friday, three vendors enjoyed the shade of huge fancy tents set up for a TV shoot the previous day. Dennis Peitso of Maggie’s Farm, who grows in Tarzana, displayed an amazing range of top-quality organic vegetables, including half a dozen kinds of pre-washed salad greens, sorrel, radicchio, curly cress (also known as peppergrass, with smaller leaves, perfect on sandwiches) and Osaka Purple-Leaved mustard greens, which taste a bit like wasabi. He also had delicate white arugula flowers, good in salads and soups, and a spectacular “stellar mix,” a symphony of three dozen baby lettuces, herbs and flowers.

Jerry Dahlberg of Garden Grove sold avocado honey, dark as molasses, and lighter, more fragrant orange blossom honey. And Lilly’s Eggs had free-range and cage-free chickens and eggs from Fillmore.

Gary Ondray of Sequoia Orchards brought bright clean oyster mushrooms, along with shiitakes, creminis and portabellos, from Squaw Valley. Weiser Family Farms sold premium potatoes from Lucerne Valley: Purple Peruvians, baby Red Roses and small and medium Russian Banana fingerlings.

Amid her fine array of dried fruits and nuts from Dinuba, Betty Kennedy had dried slices of navel oranges for flavoring tea. Lim’s Orchards of Tehachapi sold sweet Fujis, still pretty crisp for apples in April. Harry’s Berries had three kinds of strawberries from Oxnard: Gaviota, Seascape and Chandler, the last still the best, with rich sweet-tart flavor. From Valley Center, Bob Polito’s Gold Nugget mandarins, a new late-season variety from UC Riverside, lived up to their billing: sweet, seedless and at peak quality.

Venice farmers market, Venice Boulevard at Venice Way, Fridays 7 to 11 a.m.