The A, B, C's . . . Y, and Z's of the Farmer's Market

We're back in LA trying to do more work on my mom's house.  Despite all we've given and thrown away, it still looks packed with things.

But we have to eat, so we biked up to the Virginia Park Saturday market in Santa Monica.  It was cool in the shade and warm in the sun.





My alphabet isn't going to start with A.  There's a technical blogging problem.  When other blog rolls include a photo from the latest post of the blogs they list, it's always the first photo in the post.  Often that's not going to be the best or most interesting. (I know, I should only put up 'best' photos.)  So I have to decide if I should sneak in a better picture on top or keep the order the story would dictate.  So I'm giving you these Root vegies, mostly strange carrots I think, instead of the apple butter which isn't as interesting, though maybe it is to you.   (What's a blog roll?  If you look in the column to the right I have several, starting with Alaska Blogs.  But I only include the title, not a picture.  Maybe I should add pictures too.)



OK, now the Apple Butter. (See not a bad picture, but I guess I like the jumble better than the order.)

And the Bitter melons. 

 and the Cabbage.















And Daikon.   I like the daikon's sharp radish flavor and since they're much bigger than a radish, you can cut them up into little chips more easily and they're munch healthier than, say, chips or crackers.  I took this, and a couple other pictures, at home, after I'd thought of this alphabet theme.  But don't worry,  we won't do the whole alphabet.

 

Grapes.

And then we found the Longan!   I actually remember these from Thailand as Lamyai or  ลำไย. 

Tricky, I can't enlarge the ล in the word because it's written with the vowel attached. ำ ('um' ) (the broken circle indicates where a consonant has to be typed in) gets attached to the consonant, so in this word we have ลำ (lum).  I know I spelled it lam, but it really sounds like 'um' and not 'am' as in 'I am.'  In Thai vowels can go before, after, over, or under the consonant, or a combination for one vowel sound.  The second syllabus (yai) has the 'ai'  (ไ) vowel sound  before the 'y' (ย) consonant sound.

The folks at this stand said they grow the lamyai near San Diego.  Note, two similar fruit (with a skin you peel and a skinned grape-like fruit and pit inside)  are the  Lychee which is more commonly known, and one of my favorite Thai fruits the  Rambutan, or in Thai, gno.  

I found a video that will show you more about the longan or lamyai - what the trees look like, how to eat them, ways to use them, the seed, and the nutrients. 




Lots of Persimmons for sale today. 

The highlight of this market for me is getting to eat Bertha's jalapeno vegie Tamales.  So good fresh and hot.  We got a half dozen, two to eat  at the market, and the rest to take home. 

And here's one of the rows of Vendors.   (Is it cheating, if it's not food?)

 And finally the Yams and the Zucchini.

 [More Feedburner issues, so reposting and deleting the original.  Sorry]