.jeri.

In case anyone is curious about the resources that are around this area, I just thought I'd write a review of the local places I've been visiting in search of decent, healthy, local foods. I'm actually trying to buy with a sense of conviction when I can now that I've seen Food, Inc. It may only turn out to be a phase, but at least it will have been an educational one. My home menu possibilities have opened up so much since I have opened myself up to buying more fresh produce and keeping a regular stock of it in my house, as well as letting myself cook meals that take more than just 20 minutes to prepare (buying a food processor certainly helped).

Sprouts
Sprouts is new to this area, and is located in Brea across from the mall, near BevMo. It offers a wide variety of foods from produce to meats to cheeses, as well as tons of canned and packaged goods. It has a ton of organic and health options. I stood for several minutes just browsing the eggs, finally choosing organic, cage-free, free-range, omega-3 egss sold by a farm in Chino. My sister and I loved that there were lots of barrels of nuts, candies, and oats for sale by the pound. One of the frustrating aspects of Sprouts is that a lot of items are Sprouts brand, and don't say where they were produced. Sometimes nutritional information is not available either, but for the researcher, they are available on the company's website. I came away with mizithra cheese, fresh lentils, eggs, roasted sunflower seeds, and some cans of organic beans and veggies. If it weren't twenty minutes from home, I'd probably visit this store often and spend far too much money.

Vons
I usually shop at Vons, preferably the one on Beach and Imperial (the aisles are wider and it's just more spacious with friendlier checkers). Lately, they've been boasting the fact that they support local growers. There's a map in the produce section that shows where various items come from in California. This is encouraging for me. Most people would think that the bigger grocery stores would be shipping in from all over the place. For less easy-to-find items, they do. But I'm pleased to find that there are tons of locally-grown items. And on top of that, there's an organic section of produce as well, and a lot of the prices for organic items are the same as those of non-organic. Hooray for me!

La Habra Ranch Market
The Ranch Market, located in La Habra at the corner of Idaho and La Habra, has had an overhaul lately, and I'm sad to say it's probably not for the better. They no longer sell flower arrangements out back, which were my main draw for coming to the market. They used to have the cheapest, freshest flowers! I think they are under new management now. The store has been slightly restructured inside. I never used to pay attention to the produce there all that often, so this was my first time in a while where I visited for the express purpose of checking out the produce. Almost all of the products in the entire store are imported from other countries. I didn't find any evidence of anything local. The selection and the prices are good, but the quality of what I saw was lacking. There were a lot of foods that looked like they were rotting. I was extremely disappointed and left without making any purchases.

Brea Farmer's Market
The Brea Farmers Market is a certified farmer's market held on Tuesdays from 4-8pm on Birch Street right in the middle of downtown Brea. There is plenty of parking available in the nearby parking structures. They close off the street for it, and it houses mostly vendors selling snacks, purses, jewelry, and a few specialty foods. When I visited, there were only about two vendors selling produce. I bought some amazingly fresh and thick corn and some cauliflower (more on that later). I also hit up the gourmet tamales, which are ridiculously overpriced but quite tasty. I was disappointed with the size of the Farmer's Market, but the produce I bought was out of this world.

Whittier Farmer's Market
The Whittier Farmer's Market is also a certified farmer's market, and is held on Wednesday evenings on a closed-off Greenleaf between Philadelphia and Hadley. Here's a link to a site with a good overview and photos. Parking is difficult to find - you just need to drive around the area until you find something, which can take a while. There's a reason it's hard to find parking, though, because this market has pretty much everything, from food to plants to incense to attitude-filled onesies for babies. I bought some awesome sliced squaw bread (which is so hard to find) and checked out the local sellers. I was a little turned off by how everyone was speaking Spanish. It made me more timid about asking about prices. There were some beautiful looking berries and summer fruits on display, and many smells were intoxicating. I ended up not buying any produce, because I wasn't looking for berries, and I didn't really need anything that day.

Fullerton Farmer's Market
The Fullerton Market is another certified farmer's market, and is held on Thursday evenings on Wilshire between Harbor and Pomona. There are lots of local parking structures, as well as possibilities for parking on the streets, if no other events are going on. The first day I went was particularly popular, because it coincided with Dog Days, an event that encouraged owners to bring their dogs to the market, and there were lots of dog-specific vendors there. This market, along with Whittier, had the largest amount of vendors selling produce. They all offered samples, and all those samples tasted great. The selection was so fresh! There were tons of dinner options there as well, from crepes to baklava to roasted corn. This is the one market I have returned to, and I think I will be frequenting it more often from now on. Did I mention I got a dozen free range eggs straight from the farm for only three bucks?!

One of the things I was disappointed by with all of the produce vendors at the markets was the variety of foods being offered. I'm sure this is mostly due to foods being seasonal, and I am so used to buying whichever foods whenever I want them because the grocery store always has them. So maybe I need to adjust my expectations, and buy the items I am missing at the grocery store when I really need them. Or perhaps, foods will become more special if they are eaten seasonally. There's something to be said for the the proportionality of anticipation and gratification.

Also, something to remember when considering Farmers Markets is that sometimes you're going to pay more to enjoy what you eat. While it's easy to take advantage of the Vons Club Card specials at the store, at a market, most of the fruits run $2.50 a pound. But they sure taste like they're worth it.

Out of all the places I've visited, I'd say I am most likely to return to Vons and the Fullerton Market, with perhaps an occasional stop by Sprouts. The discovery of locally-grown and organic choices at Vons was really encouraging. Fullerton has about as much to offer as Whittier's market, but it has the bonuses of better parking options and English-speaking vendors. And I do like the incredible variety of health foods at Sprouts. I know I have neglected Trader Joe's on this list, but to be honest, the one near me is so hard to get into and the parking lot is always so full, and I think a lot of the items there can be acquired elsewhere. But I will try to go every now and then.

I think I'm looking forward to the day when I am a stay-at-home mom because it hopefully won't be so annoying to have to go so many places in search of healthy foods. I've been forming the ultimate store in my mind, and I think it would have the spaciousness, variety, and friendliness of Vons, there would be certified market vendors out front, Stater Brothers' deli, Trader Joe's specialty foods, Costco's juice, milk, and cereal selection, Sprouts' organic food choices, an entire BevMo attached to it, and Target's affordability. My estimate would be that it would span two city blocks. Is that too much to ask?