Los Angeles Times
May 6 2011
Market Watch: Small green plums are Armenian treat
By David Karp, Special to the Los Angeles Times
May 7, 2011
Plums usually don’t start until the end of May, but a few growers,
mostly of Armenian origin, have started bringing green plums, which
are unripe fruits the size of cherries. These are hard and sour, and
would not appeal to most Americans, but they’re much appreciated in
the Mideast as the first fruits of spring and are eaten fresh,
sometimes with a pinch of salt.
Alan Asdoorian of Island Farms, from Kingsburg, says that his
customers want only a certain variety with a distinctive taste and
that if he runs out and tries to bring similar-looking immature fruits
of standard varieties, like Friar or Simka, they wave their fingers
and say “voch” – “no” in Armenian.
What type is this green plum? It appears to be a myrobalan, the
small-fruited “cherry plum,” a species native to western Asia and
primarily used in California as a rootstock. When the fruits ripen in
a month or two, they turn yellow but don’t get much larger than a
quarter; Asdoorian’s customers say that at that point the traditional
use is to make a sheet or fruit roll of the dried pulp.
Meanwhile, the San Joaquin Valley peach harvest is starting up, about
10 days later than normal because of the generally cool weather this
spring, growers say. This weekend, at the Burbank and Studio City
farmers markets, Asdoorian will sell his patented Island King yellow
peaches, a very early, small-fruited mutation of Queencrest that he
and his father discovered about 12 years ago at their farm in
Kingsburg.
In the high desert, many stone fruit farmers lost most of their crop
to a freeze on April 9, when the fruits were just starting to develop.
The temperature dipped to 25 degrees at Tenerelli Orchards in
Littlerock, destroying 90% of the crop, says John Tenerelli. He also
lost virtually all of his apricots and cherries, and half of his
apples, and many neighbors were similarly affected. Tenerelli usually
sells at 20 to 25 markets in high season but will only have enough for
the Santa Monica market this year.
“It’s the worst freeze since my father started the farm in 1973,” he says.
As if to compensate for this loss, Tenerelli’s daughter, Natalie, who
turns 20 today, has hung on so far as a contestant in the reality
television show “Survivor: Redemption Island,” which was shot in a
beachside jungle in Nicaragua last year. If she makes it to the final
three, she will be vying in the show’s finale on May 15 for the grand
prize of $1 million.
“That’s a lot of peaches,” he says.
Mignonne wild strawberries
At their best, wild strawberries are dreamily aromatic and delicious,
a luxury item ideally suited to farmers market and home gardens,
because they are so fragile. Sometimes, however, they’re ridiculously
small, which makes them a chore to eat, especially when the inedible
calyx adheres and must be pulled off; often, too, they’re not
particularly sweet, with a pronounced bitterness from the seeds. The
truth is, fruit quality varies markedly, depending on the variety,
horticultural practices, and the age and health of the plants.
It’s therefore a delight to encounter the Mignonne wild strawberries
that Jerry Rutiz of Arroyo Grande started selling last Wednesday, for
$5 a clamshell, at the Santa Monica market. They’re quite sweet,
non-bitter and relatively large, many the size of a thimble. Of
course, they’re cultivated, not really wild – “wild type” would be a
better description for this crop. Rutiz has 1,200 plants, grown from
seed – wild strawberries are one of the very few fruits, along with
papayas and tamarillos, that are propagated chiefly by seed in Western
nations – and hopes to offer the fruit through the summer. The first
picking he sold destemmed fruits, which are easier to eat but
atrociously perishable; chefs, who buy much of the harvest, implored
him to leave the stems on so the berries would keep better.
New safety nets at Santa Monica
Next Wednesday, barring unforeseen glitches, a new system of
steel-mesh nets intended to protect the Santa Monica farmers market
from traffic will be fully deployed for the first time. These look
like red tennis nets and are distantly related to the devices that
help bring landing jets to a stop on aircraft carriers.
Since July 2003, when a runaway car killed 10 people and injured 63,
the market has stationed a police cruiser at each entrance on the
Arizona Street markets, four sides on Wednesdays and two on Saturdays,
at a yearly cost of about $172,000. The new setup cost about $200,000
but will save $122,000 in salaries annually, says manager Laura Avery.
The net system was announced in December, but manufacturing and
construction delays pushed back the installation until now, adds
Avery. The setup at each end of the market, with nets, anchors,
barricades and signs, weighs 1,500 pounds and requires its own cart,
similar to an airline luggage cart, and an electric puller. City crew
members will guide the carts from nearby storage facilities and set up
the nets starting at 7 a.m. Market staff and safety personnel have
been trained to lower the nets quickly to let emergency vehicles pass,
if needed.
Originally Avery feared that the market might lose 10 feet of selling
space to accommodate the nets, but engineers managed to configure the
design so that the market’s footprint is unchanged, she says.
New market in Orange, new manager in Encino
In other news, a promising new market that seeks to emulate the Santa
Monica farmers market opens Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon in Old Towne
Orange, at Cypress Street and Palm Avenue.
On Sunday, Carole Gallegos, who until recently managed the Studio City
farmers market and just opened a new market in Sherman Oaks, will take
over the direction of the Encino venue, which was long one of the
largest and best in the San Fernando Valley.
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From: A. Papazian
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-marketwatch-green-plums-20110507