Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Korean melons and Hungarian peppers

The sweet, oblong, striped yellow fruit is said to be similar in taste to a honeydew, with notes of pear and cucumber.

Sweet white corn is a great vegetable to eat in season — especially non-GMO varieties grown at local farms.
Sweet white corn is a great vegetable to eat in season — especially non-GMO varieties grown at local farms.

August produce isn’t looking a lot different from July, but that’s great news, since San Diego’s in peak season for some of our region’s best loved fruits and vegetables, including heirloom tomatoes, chili peppers, melons and corn.

My favorite, reed avocados, are strong this month at Stehly Farms Market. Stehly likes to pick them early, as they’ll ripen better off the tree, so take one home and wait until there’s just a little bit of give when you press the thin green skin before eating.

Heirloom tomatoes continue to flourish this month. Stehly sells them in packs, which include awesomely rich Cherokee purples, and milder golden jubilees. Rivas Farms out of Vista and San Marcos also offers cherokees, as well as the gold and red streaked pineapple tomatoes, and Brandywines — delicious and easy to spot with it streaky, pinkish skin.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The market stands for Suzie’s Farm carry most of these varieties, in addition to several others. Keep an eye out for red and orange stripes to try the tart red zebras; pear-shaped fruit with “green shoulders” indicates sweet and juicy red pears; and an oblong red with gold streaks are speckled romans — not super juicy, but great to eat raw or cook into sauce.

Suzies also adds more peppers, including sweet red ruffled pimientos. For a sweet pepper with plenty of burn, go for a cherry bomb — potentially big spice makes them great for roasting. Then there’s the Hungarian hot wax pepper: a long, thin fruit that eats well as it matures from yellow to red.

Like Suzies, Adam Maciel Organic Farm offers packaged mixes of multi-colored heirloom cherry tomatoes — which multiple sources tout as fantastic this year. Maciel also adds peppers this month, for the first time offering cayenne. They reportedly turned out great, so they’re likely to come back next year.

Maciel, Suzies, Stehly all have melons running through August, and Maciel’s selection includes Korean melons, also sometimes called a Japanese canteloupes. The sweet, oblong, striped yellow fruit is said to be similar in taste to a honeydew, with notes of pear and cucumber.

An especially great vegetable to eat local and fresh is sweet white corn. Stehly has an excellent, organic, non-GMO crop. If you hit a farmers market, look for corn from Rodney Kawano Farms. Kawano also has several heirloom tomato varieties including Japanese tomatoes, which has thick pinkish flesh with a little green around the stem, and a tangy, sweet taste.

Rodney Kawano Farms covers 10 acres in Oceanside and an additional 5 in Vista. Though not certified organic, it’s 100% non-GMO, doesn’t use Round Up, and organically enriches its soil. The third-generation farm deals mostly through farmers markets, hitting just about every major market in the county. (See their web site for a complete list). Strawberries and tomatoes are its biggest annual crops, but Rodney likes to try new produce each season and some that have stuck over the years include cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach, kale and raspberries, which are in small supply, but tangy and sweet this month.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Was Reddit ghost sighter hired by Hotel del Coronado?

Parking 1/2 mile away and complaints of vandalism
Next Article

Will Trump’s Baja resort be built after all?

Long-stalled development sparks art exhibit, gets new life
Sweet white corn is a great vegetable to eat in season — especially non-GMO varieties grown at local farms.
Sweet white corn is a great vegetable to eat in season — especially non-GMO varieties grown at local farms.

August produce isn’t looking a lot different from July, but that’s great news, since San Diego’s in peak season for some of our region’s best loved fruits and vegetables, including heirloom tomatoes, chili peppers, melons and corn.

My favorite, reed avocados, are strong this month at Stehly Farms Market. Stehly likes to pick them early, as they’ll ripen better off the tree, so take one home and wait until there’s just a little bit of give when you press the thin green skin before eating.

Heirloom tomatoes continue to flourish this month. Stehly sells them in packs, which include awesomely rich Cherokee purples, and milder golden jubilees. Rivas Farms out of Vista and San Marcos also offers cherokees, as well as the gold and red streaked pineapple tomatoes, and Brandywines — delicious and easy to spot with it streaky, pinkish skin.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The market stands for Suzie’s Farm carry most of these varieties, in addition to several others. Keep an eye out for red and orange stripes to try the tart red zebras; pear-shaped fruit with “green shoulders” indicates sweet and juicy red pears; and an oblong red with gold streaks are speckled romans — not super juicy, but great to eat raw or cook into sauce.

Suzies also adds more peppers, including sweet red ruffled pimientos. For a sweet pepper with plenty of burn, go for a cherry bomb — potentially big spice makes them great for roasting. Then there’s the Hungarian hot wax pepper: a long, thin fruit that eats well as it matures from yellow to red.

Like Suzies, Adam Maciel Organic Farm offers packaged mixes of multi-colored heirloom cherry tomatoes — which multiple sources tout as fantastic this year. Maciel also adds peppers this month, for the first time offering cayenne. They reportedly turned out great, so they’re likely to come back next year.

Maciel, Suzies, Stehly all have melons running through August, and Maciel’s selection includes Korean melons, also sometimes called a Japanese canteloupes. The sweet, oblong, striped yellow fruit is said to be similar in taste to a honeydew, with notes of pear and cucumber.

An especially great vegetable to eat local and fresh is sweet white corn. Stehly has an excellent, organic, non-GMO crop. If you hit a farmers market, look for corn from Rodney Kawano Farms. Kawano also has several heirloom tomato varieties including Japanese tomatoes, which has thick pinkish flesh with a little green around the stem, and a tangy, sweet taste.

Rodney Kawano Farms covers 10 acres in Oceanside and an additional 5 in Vista. Though not certified organic, it’s 100% non-GMO, doesn’t use Round Up, and organically enriches its soil. The third-generation farm deals mostly through farmers markets, hitting just about every major market in the county. (See their web site for a complete list). Strawberries and tomatoes are its biggest annual crops, but Rodney likes to try new produce each season and some that have stuck over the years include cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach, kale and raspberries, which are in small supply, but tangy and sweet this month.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Will Trump’s Baja resort be built after all?

Long-stalled development sparks art exhibit, gets new life
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Bob Long played piano for Tina Turner and Ray Charles

And he got the crowd shaking at InZane Brewery
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader