right off of Highway 58 and General Beale Road has a great selection of locally grown produce. I was at the Garden Festival at B.C. this past weekend and was intrigued by a

headquartered up north that allows you to select Central Valley grown fruits and vegetables by box size and ships to a pick up point once a week fo you to pick up. They had some samples of really terrific fruits on veggies on display at the festival. This might be a good low cost way to benefit small growers and provide great food for yourself.

Most of the locally-grown produce (is there any other kind?) is almost always exported to some other market that's willing to pay for it. We usually get short shrift...or worse still, produce from somewhere else, that isn't as good. The whole system is screwy. Welcome to modern agriculture.

 Found a flyer the other day at Dagny's for Abundant Harvest Organics, a Fresno County collective community-supported agriculture group that delivers to our area.  We signed up, but haven't gotten a delivery yet.

We've shopped at the farmer's market that takes place outside of the Golden State Mall since we moved here 5 years ago.  It's small, but you can get some good local stuff--Murray Family Farms has a stand, Tesch Family Farms in Lamont has a stand, an Arvin-based pomegranate juice maker comes now, there's Tehachapi apples in season, a Hmong family farm stand from Fresno with lots of Asian vegetables, and our favorite, Amber Hill Farms, which is really the backyard labor of love of Anne and Keith Stephens--he raises chickens for their eggs, and she grows all kinds of great produce that's organic in everything but the official name, heirloom varieties of greens and vegetables no one else grows around here.

 This is an easy one, Dirt.  Green Frog and Young's are fantastic in between Saturdays.  The Farmers' Market on F and Golden State in the old Montgomery Ward's parking lot has a load of local produce including Murray Family Farms and Tesch Farms.  Make sure to ask where the goods are grown and help local growers.  It's great stuff and a nice time.

 Anyone want to geek out on what "local" food means?

We are signing up for the abundant harvest boxes~thanks to the writer who sent in the letter!

I have shopped at the Farmer's Market at Golden State Mall for many years. It has grown quite a bit over the years and has an  especially good selection in the summer. I am intrigued by the idea of a CSA (like Abundant Harvest) but I have a hard time supporting Abudant Harvest because it is not really local, and I like supporting our local small farmers. I looked at the site one time, and all of vegetables and fruit they were putting in the box that week were available at our Farmer's Market. I, too, buy from the Teschs and, of course, Amberhill Farms, Murray Farms and some of the others. Amberhill Farms eggs are worth every penny- so gorgeous! I buy my fabulous, unusual variety tomato, eggplant and pepper plants at the Market from the very knowlegable Louise, then buy squash from her booth in the summer. Yes, there are those at the Farmer's Market who are just produce brokers, but I don't buy from them. If we want to have more local produce available to us, we have to support our local small farmers.

Speaking of which- my favorite local strawberry stand is open again! The very nice people who own it lease about an acre of land, plant the strawberries, then sell the ripe fruit from a little stand in front of the field. The strawberry aroma around the stand is intoxicating! The family has field at both Snow and Jewetta and the one that used to be on Panama Lane is now on Taft Highway, in Pumpkin Center.

Hey everyone, 

Thanks for sharing your tips on where to find fresh produce. I was planning to write about Abundant Harvest (I'm told they do purchase some of the food from a Lamont farm) but wanted to also list other places where one can find fresh, locally-grown produce. Now I have plenty of local farms/people to look up.

Thanks again,

Stacey

I poked around a bit at AHO,some lettuce was supplied by Icardo but most of the regulars do seem to be up by Kingsburg.

 Yeah, I asked AHO about it and, you're right, most of their produce comes from outside Kern County. They're getting a lot of interest here, though. I'm told they have about 300 customers in Bako, which surprised me. They've only been around about a year, too, I believe. In the end, it's one more option for people around here and I would imagine it might be more convenient for some. But I definitely see the point about supporting local farmers. 

CSAs are convenient. I would be interested if we had one with local farmers participating, but really, going to the Farmer's Market is such a pleasure! I always see people I know and over the years I have gotten to know the farmers from whom I buy, so it ends up being a social thing for me, too. In fact, I became hooked on roasted beets after one of my friends shoved a bundle of Amberhill Farm's Italian beets into my hand and insisted I buy them. I also had quite a thing this winter for Amberhill's golden cauliflower and recently, I have been craving big salads with Tesch's salad mix. Tesch has many varieties of delicious pluots in the summer- I can't wait!

So is the local farmer's market open year-round?

Yes. The selection is thinner than usual right now, because it is between seasons, but I still manage to keep myself in fruits and veggies. I tried lots of new winter veggies this year, courtesy of the market and pushy friends, and the summer veggies should be coming out soon. Both Murray Farms and Tesch have cherries, and Tesch has yummy salad mix, carrots, beets and some small early zucchini.

Also, definitely try the eggs. I buy from Amberhill, but there are some new people who appear to have humane practices as well. The eggs have vivid gold yolks that are much perkier than supermarket eggs (even the organic supermarket ones). Also, it's best to get to market early-ish, as the good stuff goes quickly. It is on Saturdays, 8-12.

04/29/2008

Where in Bakersfield is there a Farmers Market on Thursdays and Fridays?