What's in season at the farmers market this week:
- Walnuts
- Grapes
- Jujubes
Before she was chef de cuisine at Tsubaki in Echo Park, Klementine Song lived on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley where her parents grew nectarines. At the end of the rows, they would also plant jujubes so they had another crop to bring to market. A rusty, reddish-brown color, the fruit is also known as the red date or Chinese date. Song used to ride her bicycle through the orchards and get the thorns from the jujubes stuck in her tires.
The texture of the fruit changes depending on its ripeness. When fresh, the flesh is firm and tastes like an apple with an edible skin. As the fruit dries, the components change. The flesh starts to taste like a raisin. Once fully dried, jujubes need to be rehydrated. They're often added to dishes such as Szechuan hot pot and Korean galbi jjim. At Tsubaki, Song uses the jujubes in a short rib dish where she boils the fruit without the pits in the braising liquid and reduces it into a sauce.
Terry Kashima of K&K Ranch travels from Tulare to bring grapes, pecans, and walnuts to market. She grows an authentic Chinese jujube that is used medicinally to treat postpartum depression and ADHD. Because it's a natural blood detoxifier and intestinal cleanser, she says it can also be used as a sleeping aid. Kashima shares that jujubes have 100 times more Vitamin C than apples and 20 times more than citrus fruits. She says they also contain 18 of the 24 amino acids that the body requires. On top of that, the fruit also contains calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc. Jujubes can be brewed into a tea or eaten on their own.