Telepeer

Cooking with Judy: The produce steals the show at the Fullerton Thursday market

April 23, 2026

Cauliflower is having a moment.

Once the pale, overcooked stepchild of the dinner plate, it’s now the star of fine-dining menus, with prices to match.

As master griller Steven Raichlen explains in “How to Grill Vegetables” (Workman, $24.95), its size, texture and earthy flavor make it “as close as a vegetable comes to a roast.” That was evident at a recent Thursday night Fullerton Farmers’ Market, where Black Sheep Farms’ display stopped shoppers in their tracks.

The colorful cauliflower arrangement from this family-owned company from Hemet looked more like a painting than a crate of vegetables.

“The purple cauliflower is slightly sweeter than the white,” explained Jordan Jaime. “The orange has the same flavor as the white, but it is softer in texture. It’s called cheddar for a reason. The green is Romanesco, an Italian variety that looks like an alien egg and is a little nutty tasting.”

Cauliflower needs a cooler climate, Jaime noted. “We grow them in fall, winter and spring, but not during the heat of summer.”

A few steps away, another surprise. I thought kiwis were grown exclusively in New Zealand, but there they were, a basket of larger kiwis that looked like conjoined twins, and (the proof is in the sampling) much less tart.

According to Izzy Pineda of Sunny Cal Farms, “These kiwis are the Mighty variety, structurally different than the kiwis from New Zealand. They grow larger, but taste similar.”

The sweeter yellow variety I’ve been buying are grown in New Zealand, he said. “They’re sweeter because lighter colors absorb more acid. That’s why white peaches are sweeter than yellow peaches.”

Sunny Cal Farms’ location in Reedley, California, 10 miles south of Fresno, is conducive to growing kiwis.

“In Fresno, we have really hot days and cold nights,” Pineda said.

As I walked the market, fruit continued to steal the show. The most luscious strawberries I saw were the Monterey variety from Berumen Farms.

“They’re one of the sweetest, too,” Jose assured me. “We grow them in little farms in Anaheim and Westminster. One of the challenges in growing strawberries is it needs a lot of water and good soil. A lot of people try to grow them, but they don’t succeed.”

Then something completely different caught my attention. I stopped at Baba Foods for my first taste of kefir, which Gaby M. told me is thick like Greek yogurt, but that’s where the similarity ends.

Hello kefir, goodbye yogurt! (Be sure and try the Ubi flavor.)

“All fruit flavors are sweetened from real organic fruit,” she said. “The chocolate does contain some sugar, and for the lemon and pistachio, we add honey.”

Visit the Fullerton Night Market at the Downtown Plaza, 125 E. Wilshire Ave., from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays through Sept.3. Information: cityoffullerton.com.

Fullerton’s Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of “Cooking Jewish” and “The Perfect Passover Cookbook.” Her website is cookingjewish.com.

Orange County Register

News Details

Cooking with Judy: The produce steals the show at the Fullerton Thursday market

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

News

CONTACT INFO

QUICK LINKS

SERVICES

CURRENT NEWS