Every Wednesday morning, I walk to the most excellent Santa Monica Farmer’s market that spans along Arizona from 4th Street to 2nd Street. Lately there have been loads of restaurant chef sightings and restaurant buyers with their huge carts buying up all the great stuff! I have to start getting there before 9:00 am, I think!
The past couple of weeks, I have been enamored by the plump, sweet blueberries grown by the coastal farm, Pudwill Berry Farm of Nigomo, CA. I like to plop these into my cereal and know I am ingesting some crazy delicious healthy fruit! I have never been a huge blueberry fan because I’ve usually had only tart or flavorless ones. But these are so plump, juicy, and sweet, it’s like eating just picked blueberries from New Jersey in the summer! Although constant sunshine of California may make the berries sweeter, proper storage is just as important as the mild climate that helps the fruit mature and ripen over a longer period of time.
Coastal blueberries start appearing in February and peak in April/May. Randy and Pyoungyun Pudwill grow theirs year-round in hoop houses. In addition to blueberries, they grow other types of delicious berries like raspberries and blackberries. You can find Pudwill berries at these LA farmers markets: Wednesday: Santa Monica; Thursday: Thousand Oaks; Saturday: Santa Monica; Sunday: Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Studio City.
For more information about California’s recent blueberry boom and how Californians have learned to successfully cultivate blueberries, check out this article from the LATimes.
The Flower Lab website
Tiny Wren Press