Crazy for Sweetness in Santa Clarita

The Santa Clarita farmers market holds its own during the slower seasons of winter and early spring. It is a mid-size event that draws a good selection of local growers.

You wouldn’t think that crowds would mob a stand just to buy carrots, but Sunday Naomi Elmasian barely could handle the customers clamoring for Sweetness II carrots, crisp and sweet enough to eat for breakfast, grown by her daughter, Susan, in Thousand Oaks.

Vicente and Irma Suarez had an impressive array of vegetables from Moorpark, including beautiful spinach, leeks and cilantro and a forest of tall, leafy celery. From Carpinteria, the Watkins’ stand offered organic red leaf and green leaf lettuces, Red Boar and Red Russian kale and Red Giant mustard greens, which were larger and sharper than the regular green kind.

From nearby Canyon Country, Canyon Meadow Farm brought tasty free-range Araucana eggs with light-green shells, as well as brown eggs. Jill Peterson of Peterson Ranch sold portabello, oyster and shiitake mushrooms from Camarillo.

Joanna Rangel of Piru’s Tangelo Rancho had superbly sweet-tart Minneola tangelos, just $7 for a huge box of premium fruit. The Shore stand of Santa Paula sold addictively sweet, seedless Pixie tangerines, along with juicy, deep-colored Washington navel oranges, Eureka lemons and fine Fuerte avocados, arguably the best variety of avocado at this season.

Ryan Fife of Visalia had Marsh white grapefruit, just now getting good in the Central Valley, Thompson Improved navels (much sweeter and juicier than in their commercial season, four months earlier) and sweet, tender-fleshed Tarocco blood oranges, unblushed on the outside but splashed with red on the inside.

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Santa Clarita farmers market, Valencia Boulevard west of Rockwell Canyon Road, Sundays, 8:30 a.m. to noon (closed Easter Sunday).