I usually pop right out of bed in the morning. Sometimes as early as 5 a.m. all revved up and ready to go. But sometimes it is hard to get it together on Sunday morning. You see, I meant to get an early start to the Hollywood Farmers Market today, but let's just say Mr. Vintner's Grape got a hold of me at a dinner party last night. So I am a wee bit behind schedule.

Still, when I finally got down there I was very surprised to see that there has been a transition in the market from spring produce to summer crops. The stone fruits are starting to come in. Stone fruits are those with pits, like peaches, plums, and apricots. We get them a bit earlier than most of the country, and there was definitely a party-like atmosphere in celebration of their arrival at the market. I have been meaning to do a big luscious tart using these fruits, but today is just not the day. I couldn't possibly focus on pastry dough!

So, due to my slowed down mood I picked a vegetable that takes almost no preparation to be at its best and it also makes an early appearance in Southern California. I chose yellow wax beans.

The variety I chose is an Italian heirloom. It is flatter than the more common yellow wax bean that looks exactly like a green bean, but is, well, yellow. The window of availability for the flatter Italian variety is very brief. So I moved it to the front of the line.

I finally got back to the Hollywood Farmers Market after a forced two week hiatus. I had been out of town the past 2 Sundays and couldn't go.

When I got down there I was very surprised to see a transition in the market from spring produce to summer crops. The stone fruits are starting to come in. Stone fruits are those with pits, like peaches, plums, and apricots.

We get them a bit earlier than most of the country, and there was definitely a party-like atmosphere in celebration of their arrival at the market.

But I picked a vegetable that also makes an early appearance in Southern California for this week's Market Matters post.

I chose Italian yellow wax beans.

The variety I chose is an heirloom. It is flatter than the more common yellow wax bean that looks exactly like a green bean, but is, well, yellow. The window of availability for the flatter Italian variety is very brief. So I moved it to the front of the line.