The best of two seasons in one

SOUTHERN California’s unseasonably hot fall has proved a godsend to Thanksgiving cooks, who can gather armfuls of squashes, yams and cool-weather greens that tradition demands yet still garnish their dishes with late-summer raspberries and tomatoes.

Harvested before the recent rains, the last of the summer grapes and plums are piled high at the Santa Monica farmers market on Arizona Avenue, along with an astonishing variety of tomatoes, haricots verts and figs. Baby artichokes, baby squashes and corn that will vanish after Thanksgiving are spilling off of the tables.

“The weather has really been in our corner -- all of this sun,” said Kerry Clasby, who shops a variety of farmers markets for a group of Los Angeles chefs. “I picked up a lot of arugula, white radicchio, cavalo nero, ... mesclun, all of the great Italian greens. And Tutti Frutti still has great heirloom tomatoes.”

Today’s farmers markets will team with eager cooks, said Stephen Vodantis, coordinator of the Santa Monica market. About 15,000 shoppers -- 30% more than the usual Wednesday crowd in Santa Monica -- are expected to check out the produce of nearly 100 farmers. Farmers will sell as much as $100,000 worth of produce, he said.

Brilliant orange Fuyu and Hachiya persimmons are everywhere for as little as $1 a pound. Laura Ramirez, owner of ALJ Ranch in Bryn Mawr, has customers clamoring for her ripest Hachiyas to make persimmon pudding garnished with pomegranate seeds. An astringent fruit, persimmons can be intimidating, she said: “The Persians and the Lebanese know how to eat them. The Asians come by the busload to our ranch to buy them.”

James Birch plans to greet the rush of culinary treasure hunters with a special treat: the fruit from the 100-year-old chocolate persimmon tree on his farm near Sequoia National Park. Boasting that his fruit, when it’s gushy ripe, tastes like chocolate liqueur, Birch said that even at $6 a pound, “I’ll sell every one.” He may put a few aside for Suzanne Goin, the executive chef at Lucques in West Hollywood, who featured the Flora Bella Farm’s small dark gems last year on a Sunday supper menu.

The little potatoes, including the nutty-flavored La Rattes and fingerlings, cipollini onions, spaghetti squashes along with delicata, hearts of gold and red kuri squash are all readily available.

Only a few brave cooks will tackle the 15-pound New Zealand blue squash at Windrose Farm’s booth. These hefty rounds with ulcerated gray-blue skin have a dense meat that makes a creamy puree. “It’s a complex flavor, full-bodied,” said Barbara Spencer, whose Paso Robles farm specializes in a wide variety of squash.

Her prize squash, however, is the more manageable butternut for soup. “This is the time for squash -- there’s 200 times as much demand around Thanksgiving,” she said, noting that butternuts are available by the bushel.

Sweet potatoes -- jewels, garnets and Japanese -- are everywhere in the market. So are apples -- Fujis, heirlooms and sweet, tiny crab apples. And the citrus is now fully available, including Satsuma tangerines, pummelos, Meyer lemons, grapefruits and oranges. The kiwis are just arriving.

Clasby weighed a softball-sized quince in her hand then placed it back in a flat full of the yellow-skinned fruit. “A few more,” she told Cheng Blain, the grower from Lake Hughes.

There is nothing like quince to garnish game or foie gras, said Yvon Goetz, the chef at the main dining room of the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, and a client of Clasby’s. “I think I’ll make a chutney, a little honey, a little butter.”

“This will be it for the quince,” Clasby said, noting that next week’s pickings will be slim.

“Oh, no. We have more,” Blain said with a wink and a sly smile.

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Today’s schedule

Many of today’s farmers markets have extended hours.

Anaheim: Center Street Promenade at Lemon Street, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (instead of Thursday).

Fullerton: Woodcrest Park, 450 W. Orangethorpe Ave., 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Gardena: 13000 Van Ness Ave., 6:30 a.m.-noon; 162nd Street and La Salle Avenue, 7:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Hollywood: Virginia Avenue at St. Andrews and Wilton places, 12:30-5 p.m.

Huntington Park: Salt Lake Park on Bissell Street, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Northridge, San Dimas: Closed.

Rancho Santa Margarita: Dove Canyon Drive, east of Plano Trabuco, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Santa Monica: Arizona Avenue, between 2nd and 3rd streets, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.

St. Agnes Church: Adams and Vermont boulevards, 2-5:30 p.m.

Tustin: El Camino Real and 3rd Street, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.