Gathering spring bouquets

It’s a good time to be a bee. It’s early spring and the honeybees are feasting on orange blossoms, wildflowers and even an uncommon kind of sage.

If you can’t be a bee, the next best alternative is to stand in line at the Bill’s Bees booth at the South Pasadena farmers market. On Thursday night last week, the beekeeper had every customer eating out of his hand -- or rather, out of spoons with honey samples.

“It’s turning out to be a good sage year -- which comes about every seven years,” said Bill Lewis, who keeps his hives in the Angeles National Forest.

The right amount of rain at the right time this spring helped create a bountiful crop of black sage, which his bees converted into a pale-but-powerful honey that he says never crystallizes. That, and his orange blossom and wildflower honeys are $3 for enough to fill a plastic bear dispenser.

Like bees in a wildflower field, customers at area farmers markets have been buzzing. Some marveled at the slender, tender stalks of asparagus at the Costa Mesa market, also last Thursday, while an hour’s drive to the north, students from Pasadena’s California School of Culinary Arts swarmed among vendors.

In South Pasadena, a group of baking students swarmed Rosemead vendor Betty Hau’s booth, where the aroma of roasting chestnuts was a sharp contrast to the fresh presentation of spring all around.

“We bring our students here to educate them about seasonality,” said chef-instructor Darrell Folck, who enthused about the plentiful organic produce and the variety packed into the fairly small intersection of Meridian Avenue and Mission Street in South Pasadena.

The students learned that strawberries are still in great shape in many markets. Three pints of sweet Chandler strawberries were selling for $5 in Costa Mesa and as much as $7 in South Pasadena.

Asparagus is still out in force. But its place on the charcoal grill may be challenged by early spring onions.

Cahuilla Mountain Farms of Aquananga is selling bundles of sleek red torpedo and Valencia onion stalks for $2.50. Usually a choice for cold-weather comfort food, winter and butternut squash were a good deal at $1 a pound from the organic farm.

No one could resist the samples of creamy Khadrawy dates from the Bautista Organic Date Ranch in Mecca, Calif. They’re even better in August, their peak season, said salesman Alvaro Baustista.

Maggie’s Farm of Marina del Rey enticed students and cooking novices alike with compact coils of chocolate mint (in bloom for only a few weeks), wider-leaf Mexican sage and savory leaves and heavy blossoms, ready to be mixed into butter.

Best of all? Arugula flowers -- tiny blossoms of intense, peppery arugula flavor, for $1 a bundle. If you store the herbs on a refrigerator shelf in a large plastic bag puffed with plenty of air -- like a goldfish from the pet store -- they’ll keep.

Shoppers in Costa Mesa can browse among 25 to 30 vendors of conventional and organic produce each week.

In a matter of an hour, it’s possible to survey the entire lot. Asian produce, such as slim Japanese cucumbers and taro root, is particularly popular at this market, where Japanese carrots (sweeter, shorter and squatter) sell alongside enormous daikon radishes, each a buck a bundle.

With the benefit of greenhouses and hydroponic technology, some vendors can offer exotic produce all year.

Chinese okra ($1.75 per pound) and, for a dollar each, taro leaves and Chinese long beans are some of the specialties from Viva Andres, of Andres Farm in Tulare County.

Andres and her customers debated how best to prepare the white, sweet squash known as upo: Peel the thick green skin, grill spears of it like baby zucchini, or add small cubes to a wok of onions, garlic, tomatoes, shrimp and fish sauce.

Amor Palma of Newport Beach likes it best raw and dipped into white vinegar.

Dan Hashiba and Michi Ward of Yasutomi Farms harvest their hydroponic crops of arugula, dandelion greens, mizuna and wide-leaf Japanese parsley right in the urban wilderness of Pico Rivera.

Though it’s tempting to wet the sponge-wrapped roots of the greens, Ward said they stay fresher away from water. And don’t forget, added her partner, tear, don’t chop the greens before cooking or serving.

And after all of that, skip the bottled dressing. A little sesame oil and rice wine vinegar, or a dash of olive or walnut oil, is all you need for a finished salad. And for sweetness, maybe a little black sage honey.