SHOPPING FIT FOR EVERY TASTE HEALTH-MINDED CUSTOMERS HELP FARMERS MARKETS THRIVE IN VALLEY.Byline: RICK COCA Valley News Writer Most San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. residents don't have oranges, strawberries, green beans green beans Noun, pl long narrow green beans that are cooked and eaten as a vegetable and potatoes growing in their back yards. But they can still enjoy a healthy diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, thanks to a number of farmers markets cropping up in many neighborhoods. At least seven farmers markets, all with a different focus, give Valley residents a lot of choice. Some are traditional, sticking just to fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers and a few specialty items. Others are more like street fairs than farmers markets, offering standard fare alongside kettle corn Kettle corn is a sweet-and-salty variety of popcorn that adds granulated sugar, salt, and oil. In the 1700s, kettle corn was introduced to colonial palates in the United States. , hoagies, live music, slides and pony rides for the kids. Carolyn Hill has managed the Burbank Certified Farmers Market since 1993. She has worked in the industry for 15 years. ``I've always been interested and kept some kind of connection all my life with horticulture,'' Hill said. ``The growing of food has always been fun to me.'' Hill proudly points out that the Burbank market's certified status means that all the produce is grown in the state of California, highlighting a major appeal of farmers markets: If produce is grown in California, chances are it was still growing the day before you bought it. The Burbank market emphasizes the freshness of its fruits and vegetables. About 34 farmers participate, as do seven vendors selling frozen tamales, dried fruits and nuts, Korean and Middle Eastern food, fresh fish, bread, eggs and milk. Hill explained that farmers markets can be operated legally only by a nonprofit group, a government agency or farmers. The Providence Saint Joseph Saint Joseph, cities, United States Saint Joseph (sānt jō`zəf). 1 City (1990 pop. 9,214), seat of Berrien co., SW Mich., a port on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the St. Joseph River across from Benton Harbor; inc. Foundation, a nonprofit organization Nonprofit Organization An association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well. Notes: Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. , sponsors the Burbank market. Like most other people involved in farmers markets, Hill has an opinion on store-bought fruits and vegetables. ``When you've worked this long in farmers markets, you start to eat seasonally,'' Hill said. ``I eat green beans fresh and not frozen. ``Frozen green beans are like eating little sponges.'' Joyce Wiese, 76, of Glendale is a regular at the market. ``I've been coming here since they opened,'' Wiese said. ``It's run very nice. It's clean, and the produce is excellent. They even have organic. Everything you want is here.'' Peter McGrath, another frequent visitor to the Burbank market, stressed the health advantages, especially for senior citizens, of eating fresh fruits and vegetables. ``It's very important because frozen and canned foods canned food food sterilized by heat in a closed, durable container such as tin and aluminum cans, flexible aluminum foil and thermoplastic containers including squeeze tubes. Technically, the processes used are highly efficient and used universally. have additives,'' said the spry An application framework from Adobe for building rich Internet applications using HTML. Spry takes the tedium out of writing AJAX code and also includes routines for creating animation effects and building widgets. For more information, visit http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry. 79-year-old Burbank resident. ``I just think that fresh fruits and vegetables are good for you. My age seems to substantiate that.'' Eun Wuh, 56, of Glendale is a nurse and frequent marathon runner. She visits the Burbank market every other week for the fruits and vegetables, which she said last longer than store- bought produce. ``Put it in plastic containers,'' Wuh said. ``It stays very fresh - three to four weeks.'' In the city of San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. , there were smiles, congratulatory handshakes and mariachi mariachi Traditional Mexican street ensemble. The performer, the musical style, and the musical ensemble are called mariachi. Mariachi music emerged in the late 1700s or early 1800s. music as city officials, community leaders and other excited residents welcomed the new incarnation of the San Fernando Farmers Market. The young members of the Mariachi Master Apprentice Program performed live music, vendors sold warm tamales topped with red and green salsas Salsas is a Portuguese parish in the district of Bragança. The population in 2001 is 424, its density is 16.5/km² and the area is 25.76 km². , and farmers offered a variety of produce for the grand opening on April 15. In the ``kid zone,'' organizers had an inflatable in·flat·a·ble adj. Designed to be filled with air or gas before use: an inflatable mattress. n. An object or device that can be filled with air or gas, especially: a. slide, pony ride and petting zoo. San Fernando City Council members Maribel De La Torre La Torre is a municipality located in the province of Ávila, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 357 inhabitants. and Jose Hernandez Jose Hernandez can refer to
With parts of the Northeast Valley having one of the highest rates of obesity in the state, the city leaders stressed the importance of the farmers market. ``The city has to support this venture if we're going to promote ourselves as a healthy city,'' De La Torre said. The mayor said the community is better served with a farmers market. ``The most exciting thing is we're going to have fresh (produce) for the Northeast Valley,'' Martinez said. Carole Gallegos is the manager of the San Fernando Farmers Market. For the last 18 months, she has managed the Studio City Farmers Market, which is run by that community's chamber and a homeowners association. She'll be managing both markets now. ``I shopped at the Studio City (Farmers) Market almost every week,'' Gallegos said. ``I was a regular shopper for years, and my friend told me there was an opening there, and I said, well, I might as well take (the job); I'm there every day anyway,'' said Gallegos, an English-born gourmet cook with a passion for food. Her husband, Steven Gallegos, is on the board of directors for the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce, and he brought up the idea of reopening that city's farmers market. Steven ``volunteered'' his wife's services as the market manager. Not that she minds. The Studio City Farmers Market is open on Sundays, and the San Fernando Farmers Market is open on Saturdays. Carole Gallegos enjoys the interaction with the farmers, vendors and customers, so organizing one more market was doable. Gallegos said her husband works on community health issues for Glendale Adventist Hospital and worked previously for the American Heart Association American Heart Association (AHA), n.pr a national voluntary health agency that has the goal of increasing public and medical awareness of cardiovascular diseases and stroke, and thereby reducing the number of associated deaths and disabilities. . He cares about the quality of food the Northeast's predominantly Latino community consumes. ``We're trying to get ethnic people to eat better, fresher foods, rather than fattening fat·ten v. fat·tened, fat·ten·ing, fat·tens v.tr. 1. To make plump or fat. 2. To fertilize (land). 3. foods,'' Gallegos said. Organizers hope to utilize the rides for children as health-conscious bait. ``With the kid section, that'll draw people in, and then they'll see the food,'' Gallegos said. The Studio City Farmers Market has about 70 vendors and includes crafts, pony rides and petting zoos, along with a good section of produce. To start, the San Fernando market will have about 27 vendors. Eventually, the market will move from its current location - on the corner of Brand Boulevard and Celis Street - to the San Fernando Mall. Those at the grand opening appreciated the nearby farmers market. ``It's good that we don't have to drive 10 miles,'' said Karen Soriano of Sylmar. Ana Soriano said she was very happy to have the farmers market back in San Fernando. ``We've been waiting for it,'' Ana Soriano said. The Northridge Fashion Center's Farmers Market and Family Festival is one of the biggest in the San Fernando Valley. With 80 to 120 vendors, the market draws between 5,000 to 8,000 people every Wednesday night. Mark Rochin, a citrus farmer and the market's manager, touts the popular event's reputation for offering families a fun-packed experience. ``We're not just a farmers market; we're more,'' Rochin said. Inflatable slides, pony rides and a climbing wall A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with grips for hands and feet, used for climbing. Some are brick or wooden constructions, but on most modern walls, the material used is a thick multiplex board with holes drilled into it. attract children at the Northridge market and festival. A large selection of food includes out-of-this-world kettle popcorn and empenadas, bratwurst and lemonade from freshly squeezed
Glenn and Roseanne Cunanan of Eagle Rock and their 3-year-old son, Glenny, were in the car headed to a favorite Northridge restaurant when they saw the farmers market and decided to stop. ``We didn't realize how nice this was,'' Roseanne said as Glenny enjoyed a pony ride. ``It's a lot more kid-friendly than a lot of other places.'' The Cunanans plan to return. Another farmers market that keeps folks coming back for more is in Encino. The Encino Farmers Market on Victory Boulevard Victory Boulevard is a major thoroughfare on Staten Island, measuring approximately 8.0 miles (12.87 km) and stretching from the west shore community of Travis to the upper east shore communities of St. George and Tompkinsville. , next to Pedlow Field Skate Park, will celebrate its 12th anniversary in June. The site is operated by One Generation, a nonprofit organization that has received some media attention for combining its longstanding day-care program for adults with day care for children, allowing young and old to benefit from each other. The farmers market is located in front of the One Generation facility. The focus at the Encino Farmers Market is on fresh produce and flowers. Craft products, such as African and American Indian American Indian or Native American or Amerindian or indigenous American Any member of the various aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of the Eskimos (Inuit) and the Aleuts. jewelry jewelry, personal adornments worn for ornament or utility, to show rank or wealth, or to follow superstitious custom or fashion. The most universal forms of jewelry are the necklace, bracelet, ring, pin, and earring. , are also available, along with plenty of hot dogs, tacos, Hawaiian chicken and hot roasted peanuts. And volunteers run a booth selling toys and knickknacks to raise money for One Generation. No children's rides here. What the Encino Farmers Market does have is an excellent selection of specialty foods, such as miniature carrots and squash to go with the mint, parsley, sugar snap peas Noun 1. sugar snap pea - variety of pea plant producing peas having crisp rounded edible pods snap pea edible-pod pea, edible-podded pea, Pisum sativum macrocarpon - a variety of pea plant producing peas having soft thick edible pods lacking the fibrous and sweet potatoes. Farmer Eugene Etheridge brought a wide variety of oranges to sell from Orosi, CA., where he is also a high school principal. His father was a baker and a chef and raised Etheridge with a nuanced appreciation of food. ``I grew up with food as an art, not something you spilled into your mouth,'' Etheridge said. His fruit is completely organic. ``It's the ugliest food in the world,'' Etheridge said. But one taste of Etheridge Farm's ``ugly'' oranges is evidence that you can't judge a fruit by its pesticide-free cover. They're that good. In fact, once people sample the many delectable fresh fruits and vegetables available at local farmers' markets  It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. , they'll most certainly come back for more.
Where to go Burbank Farmers Market Saturdays, 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. City parking lot on Third Street and Orange Grove Avenue. (626) 308-0457 Old Town Calabasas Farmers Market Saturdays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. 23504 Calabasas Road (at Mulholland Drive For the motion picture, see . Mulholland Drive is a very well-known road in Los Angeles, California named after engineer William Mulholland. A portion of it is also called Mulholland Highway. and Calabasas Road) (818) 591-8161, www.ccfm.com Encino Farmers Market Sundays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. 17400 Victory Blvd. in Van Nuys (818) 708-6611 Northridge Fashion Center's Farmers Market Family Festival Wednesdays, 5-9 p.m. 9301 Tampa Avenue (parking lot near Macy's) (818) 885-9700 San Fernando Farmers Market Saturdays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Brand Boulevard and Celis Street (818) 434-1782 Studio City Farmers Market Sundays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Ventura Place and Laurel Canyon Boulevard Laurel Canyon Boulevard is a major street in the city of Los Angeles, California. It starts off at Polk Street in Sylmar in the northern San Fernando Valley near the junction of the San Diego (Interstate 405) and the Golden State Freeways (Interstate 5). (just north of Ventura Boulevard Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east-west thouroughfares in the San Fernando Valley; as it was originally a part of the El Camino Real (the trail between Spanish missions), Ventura Boulevard is the oldest route in the San Fernando Valley. It was also U.S. ) (818) 434-1782 Sunland-Tujunga Farmers Market First and third Sundays of month, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. 7937 Foothill Blvd. (818) 951-8562 CAPTION(S): 3 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color) Andrea Venegas and her mother, Alsy Venegas, travel from their family nursery and field in San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. to sell flowers at the Burbank, San Fernando and Studio City Farmers Markets. (2 -- color) Judy Acio of Encino buys potatoes from Alba Trujillo at the Encino Farmers Market. (3 -- color) Mariah Vitro, 6, visiting from Sacramento, is headed for the top at the Northridge Fashion Center's Farmers Market and Family Festival. Photos by Rick Coca/Valley News Box: Where to go (see text) |
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