Felicia Friesema

Bi-color corn from Yasukochi Farms at the Hollywood market

When you Google Monsanto, the website link has both the company's name and its slogan -- A Sustainable Agriculture Company. It's a website that works very hard from the first click to reframe the conversation around the most controversial issue in worldwide agriculture. Perhaps with good reason. The search was prompted by overheard conversations at the market last week as customers eyed the season's first corn with unmasked suspicion, asking if it was genetically modified. A quick survey of farm employees revealed that few even knew what GMO crops were. And the customers who asked didn't know exactly why GMO corn might be bad for them. They had simply been told to avoid it, either by friends or via one of thousands of links on the Internet.

According to Monsanto's website, more than 16 million farmers are growing genetically modified or biotech crops in more than 28 countries, including the U.S. And according to the Non GMO Project -- North America's only third party verification and labeling for non-GMO foods -- 40 percent of the sweet corn market in the United States is grown from genetically modified seed. Monsanto claims that people have been eating GM crops since 1994 with no ill effects. Unsurprisingly, many beg to differ. The Non GMO Project says there's "a growing body of evidence connects GMOs with health problems, environmental damage and violation of farmers' and consumers' rights." Neither website provides access to impartial third party info that might shed some light on the issue.

Bottom line: Is the corn we so desperately want to toss onto the grill and slather with butter and salt genetically modified? And what does that mean? Is one of summer's most cherished farm foods actually a pesticide?

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Felicia Friesema

Morels at the Hollywood market

Acclaimed American poet William Jay Smith has so far painted the most accurate picture of the morel mushroom, in a short excerpt from his 1969 nature poems series. "Not ringed but rare, not gilled but polyp-like, having sprung up overnight -- these mushrooms of the gods, resembling human organs uprooted, rooted only on the air."

The air in which the rare, mud-colored polyp is rooted has unfortunately experienced some of the same annoying irregularity that keeps the cherry season short this year. Some rain followed by long stretches of bone dry and even hot weather have made treasured morel clusters scarce. You may see them at the markets one week. But the next, nothing.

"Buy them when you see them," advises Karl Oldnettle of Clearwater Farms, one of California's most reliable sources of high quality wild edible fungi. "We can promise nothing this year. The weather has been so inconsistent in northern California. Same with the harvests."

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Felicia Friesema

cherries

Steinbeck once opined that summer's warmth -- or for our purposes, fruit -- wouldn't achieve its sweetness without the cold of winter. Truth is revealed in the harvests; without a decent chill time and hibernation, stone fruit trees don't yield their best. Last year's first cherry harvests were amazing, thanks to long, steadily cold weather and perfectly-timed rainstorms followed by a gentle springtime warming. Cherry season puffed out deep into late June with gorgeous, rich and creamy fruit. It was the kind of year cherry farmers will get wistful about a decade from now.

This year, not so much. There were no significant weather tragedies -- no late frosts or heavy rains to split near-ripe fruit still on the trees -- but the winter just wasn't quite right in some regions, and there wasn't nearly enough rain. A little bit of localized heat in other areas has caused fruit spurring or doubling. Not a deal killer -- the fruit is still good eating -- but given the choice, consumers prefer a nice round single fruit.

Generally speaking, the early crops do look good, but the season will be short. Some say four weeks, tops. Given that we started seeing the first cherries -- some early Burlats from Mark Boujikian Farms -- last week, it's advisable to get your cherry fix in now.

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A. Scattergood

Coleman Family Farm's french sorrel at the Santa Monica farmers market

To show how meals with fresh food can be made on a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) budget, chefs Nyesha Arrington of Wilshire Restaurant and Stefano de Lorenzo of La Botte will be facing off tomorrow, April 27, at The Gourmandise School in Santa Monica Iron Chef-style. Arrington and de Lorenzo will each be given $22.26 to purchase ingredients at the Santa Monica Farmers Market.

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Felicia Friesema

loquats

There are a few people who would argue against calling loquats the first stone fruit of the season. It does have giant pit-like seeds -- anywhere from one to 10 -- enveloped in juicy, peach-colored flesh with a thin, slightly fuzzy and edible skin. Sound familiar? Plant classification is an exacting science, with a maze of family ties that put the loquat in the same group as roses, so similarities be dashed. Stone fruit it is not. Science has spoken.

Ken Love, president of Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers and in town for some press work before the L.A. premiere of the rare fruit documentary The Fruit Hunters (which he's in), has also spoken.

"I LOVE them -- easily in my top 5 of fruits," said Love. "They are virtually unknown in the US but considered one of the top in Japan."

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Felicia Friesema

Lisa cherimoya from Rincon Del Mar Ranch

Linda Mark, the Farmers Market Fairy, is every L.A. market's resident produce gossip. Her celebrities are generally the sessile sort -- piles of citrus or stone fruits depending on the season or farmers trapped behind scales and tables helping customers. Her enthusiasm for both is infectious and refreshing. Her big joy these past few weeks has been her discovery of the cherimoya from Rincon Del Mar Ranch at the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market.

"After a long citrus season, I am so happy to put these into people's boxes," said Mark. "The response has been huge. People are like, 'wow.'"

Rancho Santa Cecilia out in the balmy hills of Carpinteria has been bringing multiple varieties of cherimoya (and avocados) to the Hollywood market for years. Their longtime farm neighbor, Rincon Del Mar, is a newcomer to the Santa Monica market this year, luring both new and seasoned customers with piles of huge fruit, organized according to type and ripeness. Christine Brown, daughter of Rincon Del Mar's owner, Anthony Brown, will assist with selection, especially for the riper fruits. Their softness makes them very vulnerable to damage so a gentle and practiced hand is a neccesity.

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A. Broder-Hahn

McGrath strawberries

What's in your cart, chef? This week, we ask Karen Klemens, the master preserver behind Mothercluck's vibrant seasonal canned goods and jams as well as chef/owner of Mother Moo Creamery. Open for a year and a half in a location that formerly housed a Domino's Pizza, Mother Moo has quickly become known for its variety of ice cream flavors, from simple (three milks) to sublime (medlar), and for serving excellent Plow & Gun coffee.

"I've got these good, good, good, good, good, good -- that's six goods -- Seascape strawberries from McGrath. Right now I'm getting from them but over the course of the season I might get some from Harry's, too -- just whoever has the most flavorful, least watery berries. I'll macerate these for a couple of days to intensify their flavor and make sure there's no iciness," she told us on Sunday at the Hollywood Farmers Market, one of nine markets McGrath sells at throughout the Southland.

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Felicia Friesema

Helio radishes from Windrose Farm

Radishes metamorphose from seed to plant in a handful of days and, with some varieties, are ready to harvest in a few weeks. This swift seed-to-salad trait is what makes them so ideal for short-attention-span gardeners -- great for kids and kids-at-heart -- and market farmers. Limited land equals careful crop selection. You'd think twice, too, if you had to wait a few months for a crop to be harvestable, even if it was a Slow Food Ark of Taste heirloom grown in only a handful of locations in the state. The outcome ultimately has to be worth the time and space.

Windrose Farm up in Paso Robles -- and down here at the Santa Monica (Wednesday) and Hollywood (Sunday) markets -- has only one variety on the table right now -- the Helios. A rarely seen Czechoslovakian heirloom variety, the Helios once was seen only in seed club membership catalogs and small and independent seed sellers. It also manages to hit three great touchstones for a farm like Windrose -- interesting heirloom, small space crop, short time to harvest (about a month).

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Felicia Friesema

Seascape strawberries from Harry's Berries at the Hollywood market

The buzz from the official arrival of spring this week was summarily squashed when a sage marketgoer clucked her teeth at a friend and said, "Please, I've been eating spring for two weeks. Have you seen Zimmerman's asparagus?"

She had a point. Seasonal eating around here has a slightly different vibe than in, say, Seattle. The deserts provide early corn. The coast provides year-round brassicas and blueberries. There are the big trumpets of each season, of course -- cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, pomegranates -- but it's easy to get a little squinty when you see strawberries in January.

They're legit. But spring strawberries are effortless and sublime. The plants haven't been coddled into production or have had to fight off too many frosts or heavy rains, season permitting. All energy is free to be pumped into its singular purpose -- reproduction via bright red, jewel-like berries.

Harry's Berries, an Oxnard berry mainstay since 1967, returned to the Hollywood market a couple of weeks ago. (They're also at Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Venice and West Hollywood.) The big beast of the strawberry world is the Albion -- large, uniformly pointed and thick -- but you won't find it at their stand. No knock against the Albion; it's a great berry that produces nearly all year long. But take home a basket of zingy Seascapes or tender Chandlers -- only around when spring hits -- and you'll plotz. Each has a different flavor profile, but you'll say that both taste like a strawberry should.

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A. Broder-Hahn

beets at Coastal Organics

This week we ask Chris Reynoso, sous chef at Tavern in Brentwood. He's waiting for the elevator and pulling a cart loaded with boxes of produce.

"This whole bottom layer is just beets, red ones from Coastal Organics and yellow from Jimenez," Reynoso says. "We just roast them really simply and dice them for our vegan Cobb salad. It's got, really, all the vegetables, squash, beets, avocado ..."

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