North by Northeast
We can’t all be stars, and not every farmers market is a runaway success. Founded in 1983 in North Long Beach, the Northeast Long Beach farmers market moved to its current location in 1996; modest in size, it maintains a healthy, steady pace.
Late January is prime citrus season, as was evident at Saturday’s market. Moro blood oranges from the Central Valley tend to be tart before Christmas and funky after mid-March, but Mike Agnew of Lindsay had perfect wine-dark, berry-flavored beauties. He displayed his main crop, sweet and juicy Washington navel oranges, in five wooden lugs, according to size, from golf ball to softball.
Most shoppers never think about the rootstocks on which fruit trees grow, but the two batches of Washington navels offered by Jim Van Foeken of Ivanhoe showed the importance of this factor: grafted on Troyer citrange (a hybrid of sweet orange and cold-hardy trifoliate), navels were impressively large but had pebbly rinds; from 90-year-old trees on sweet orange rootstock, they were smaller and smoother, with noticeably richer flavor.
From Thermal, Rudy Yanez brought Rio Red grapefruit (the leading variety in Texas) that were fresh and juicy, but not quite as sweet as the best from Texas; grapefruit need consistent heat, and it gets cold at night in the Coachella Valley. His Medjool and Deglet Noor dates (which he had deseeded), however, were most luscious and sugary.
Johnny Buenrostro of Perris sold nice fresh broccoli, romaine and greenleaf lettuce, and red and purple cabbage. The McKay Smith stand, from Fountain Valley and Irvine, had beautiful artichokes, slender asparagus and snap peas. Tang Lian, selling for his sister’s Bih Shan farm of Riverside, had pristine organic oyster, abalone and shiitake mushrooms. The market’s most comprehensive vegetable vendor, Top Veg, was absent last weekend, as the owners, the Takahashis, made their annual pilgrimage to the Super Bowl.
Northeast Long Beach farmers market, Wardlow Road and Norwalk Boulevard, Saturdays 7:30 to 11:30 a.m.