I’ve spent that last two weeks in Southern California taking advantage of vast farmers markets, visiting friends/family, trying new restaurants, sitting on beaches- you know, typical vacation activities. These are all the things I’ve missed the most since moving to Austin. We all know I LOVE Austin but not one of it’s farmers markets can compare in size and variety to California. Sorry it’s just a fact. This visit I went to the Santa Monica Farmers Market. It’s been around 30+ years and I had never been once. It was about time right? 
My uncle works a few blocks away from the market so I was able to have lunch with my family after shopping as well. I was joined by my mom, my uncle, my grandma and my friend Stacy.
Welcome to the photo montage of my trip to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market!
As soon as we walked it people started to throw samples at us (okay not THROW). Stacy and I was starving. Thank god for samples. This nectarine was juicy enough to require a napkin and it still dribbled down my chin a little.
I bought a 3 pack of organic strawberries. Whenever I can get cheap organic strawberries I jump on it. Come to think of it, I’ve eaten a LOT of strawberries this year. (see my strawberry picking adventure)
Loquats= apple/apricot like Chinese fruit. These ones looked less than ripe but just seeing them was exciting for this foodie nerd!
You can’t go to California without eating artichokes. I mean, we provide over 90% of them to the rest of the country. It’s the best place to get the freshest artichokes in the states. Heck my neighbor even has some growing in this front yard haha.
Patriotic berries. I sampled the white raspberries (again, YAY samples) but passed on purchasing.
Cherries are everywhere here. You can’t escape them but why would you want to?
I’ve never cooked with fresh garbanzos before. I can’t recall seeing them fresh before either actually.
I nabbed one to see and taste the bean inside. It was very…. green tasting and starchy. It’s probably better when cooked.
There are at least 50 additional pictures from this farmers market trip alone. It’s definitely still not fun for me to drive to LA but the food makes it worth a once a month drive for sure. I also went to farmers markets that were closer to home. (I’ll post photos of those later)
Now I’m off to make a menu for my grad party with my SoCal friends and enjoy the rest of my vacation.
Teddy
