Fresh Tomatoes

I'm in sunny southern California this week. My sister-in-law and I stopped by the farmers market in Old Town Newhall and bought these "strawberry tomatoes" on the vine. I sampled some local strawberries, but they really need another couple weeks to sweeten up.

I was thrilled to find local avocados, though. I've been refusing to buy the supermarket avocados from Chile and Mexico and the California harvest doesn't start until sometime in April. This particular vendor said his trees start bearing in January, so I stocked up on 10 avocados--two perfectly ripe, for making guacamole this weekend and eight very hard green Haas avocados to bring home with me. They should ripen nicely over the next couple weeks and if by chance they get ahead of me, I can mash them with some lemon juice and freeze them for eating later.

I also bought a jar of local buckwheat honey, some blood oranges, fresh pita bread and garlic-chive hummus, some very small but extremely flavorful fuji apples and a cherimoya, just to try something new.

I guess I am still a California girl at heart. I just love running around in flip flops and short sleeves in March.