Pomona Does It the Old-Fashioned Way

Though Pomona’s farmers market has grown smaller in recent years, it still lures shoppers who bypass newer competitors for the appeal of an old-style market. You’ll find the basics here, fresh fruits and vegetables at reasonable prices--not the flood of crafts booths and prepared-food stands at so many other places.

As an added bonus, the market has a spacious, open layout and convenient parking. A Claremont shopper said she drives to Pomona for better prices from the market’s growers, many of whom run small farms or even pack up what’s thriving in their gardens.

Tony Kang carted in tubs of cherry tomatoes and yellow tomatoes from his Chino backyard to sell Saturday at his first farmers market. He also had grooved, warty Chinese cucumbers, which are crunchy and have a rich, earthy flavor.

A small but interesting stand is the one from Cal Poly Pomona, which has thin-skinned Japanese cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes and green beans. They’re grown by the college’s students on the campus farm in town.

Hot peppers, now approaching peak season, are popular with the market’s largely Latino customers, and Miguel Cervantes of Santa Ana has five kinds, including serrano, jalapeno and pasilla, as well as plump red, yellow and green bell peppers.

The Laganza Farm of Aguanga provides an upscale touch with its small but intriguing display of organic heirloom and specialty vegetables. Customers marvel at the 2-foot-long, striped, curled Armenian cucumbers (aka snake melons) with a mild, slightly citric taste. The stand also has sweet Zephyr squash, a distinctive green and yellow hybrid of crookneck, delicata and acorn squashes.

Dave Eakin of Riverside, whose father was one of the market’s first vendors when it began in the early 1980s, carries superbly sweet and juicy Valencia oranges.

From Hinkley, near Barstow, Angelo and Adelina Filandrianos bring Sangria watermelons, cantaloupes and Canary melons, along with sweet Flame grapes, much smaller than commercial specimens. That’s because they haven’t been sprayed with the standard plant-growth regulator to increase size.

For the best stone fruit in the market, try the lusciously ripe and peachy Early Elbertas grown in Lancaster by Robert Wayman, a Baptist minister, and his wife, Doris.

Pomona farmers market, Pearl Street at Garey Avenue, one block north of Holt Avenue, Saturdays, 7:30 to 11:30 a.m.