Bumper Crop

Aromatic matsutakes, a seasonal delicacy prized by the Japanese, rank among the elite of true wild mushrooms ? along with porcini, morels and chanterelles ? but are generally less available and less well known at farmers markets. Part of the reason is that although appreciation of matsutakes is deeply ingrained in Japanese culture, production of these mushrooms, which must be foraged from the wild, has plummeted over the last century in that nation, which now imports most of its supplies from other lands such as China, Korea and the United States, pushing up prices.

These days, everyone and his uncle wants a farmers market in his neighborhood or shopping center. Dozens of new farmers markets open each year in the Los Angeles area, varying greatly in their operators, intentions and locales. Some are basically swap meets, dominated by prepared foods and crafts, and many languish and disappear after a year or two. Several more noteworthy markets, which have opened or will open soon in Thousand Oaks, Hollywood and Torrance, provide an object lesson in the complex motivations, economics and logistics that underlie the farmers market world.

California farmers must feel like the ancient Egyptians this year, considering the parade of plagues that has been visited upon them. Rain has been constant, as have cool temperatures, which have delayed ripening of some fruit by three weeks or more. The latest scourge? Hailstorms, which hopscotched through the Central Valley last week, destroying sections of orchards. Farther north, there were windstorms.

Rising commodity prices may be stoking inflation worries abroad and starting to pinch U.S. consumers at the grocery store, but for farmers strolling the grounds of the world's largest farm equipment show the good times are rolling. People good-naturedly jostled to be the first to test drive John Deere's new skid loader at the World Ag Expo, a 60-acre stretch of dusty earth and buffed machinery. They smiled as they flocked to place orders for new combines, cotton balers and top-of-the-line tractors.

Rising commodity prices may be stoking inflation worries abroad and starting to pinch U.S. consumers at the grocery store, but for farmers strolling the grounds of the world's largest farm equipment show the good times are rolling. People good-naturedly jostled to be the first to test drive John Deere's new skid loader at the World Ag Expo, a 60-acre stretch of dusty earth and buffed machinery. They smiled as they flocked to place orders for new combines, cotton balers and top-of-the-line tractors.

If berries are your cup of tea, then it's time for you to take advantage of this year's bountiful harvest of raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, olallieberries and boysenberries. Muriel Jackson of Vista can hardly keep up with the abundant pickings from the blackberry vines in her sprawling back yard.

Due to heavy rains this year, a bumper crop of rattlesnakes is anticipated in Southern California due, in part, to higher numbers of rats and mice, which are prime food for rattlers. Dense grass and shrubbery, also a product of the winter rains, will make it harder for hikers to spot the snakes. Rattlesnakes, the state's only venomous snake, begin a brief hibernation in late November and are out as early as February.

Barring a last-minute weather disaster, this is going to be the biggest harvest in Thomas T. Noll's 30 years of farming the northeastern Kansas land. Noll, like other farmers who grow corn, is looking at his biggest crop ever. His crops of soybeans and sorghum could also set farm records. This summer's wheat yield was so big around John E. Wise's farm in Linwood, Kan., that the giant grain elevators in which he and other farmers store their crops are almost full.

Chemists are searching for a medicinal bumper crop. The National Cancer Institute is attempting to turn plants into drugs, testing as many as 20,000 extracts of natural products per year. Similar efforts have yielded the cancer drugs vincristine and vinblastine, from the rosy periwinkle plant of Madagascar, and taxol, derived from the Pacific yew tree. "Nature is still in many cases the most economical source for medicines," says Gordon Cragg, chief of natural products branch of the NCI.

With an anguished metallic cry, a winch slowly pulls a shimmering black net teeming with squid alongside the Heavy Duty. Giant light bulbs visible for miles illuminate the evening's catch: 25 tons of silvery squid that in a matter of hours will be chopped into calamari bound for overseas markets. "The boat's leaning now!" yells a crew member, as the metal winch strains to hoist the heavy load alongside the 58-foot vessel.

Demand Media Inc., the Santa Monica company that is often derided as a content farm, is about to harvest a bumper crop. The company Tuesday priced its initial stock public offering at $17 a share, valuing the company at about $1.5 billion. Demand Media initially expected to sell 7.5 million shares at $14 to $16 a share, but investor interest was strong enough to lift the deal to 8.9 million shares at $17 each. "It's generally positive when deals price above their range," said Ben Holmes, an IPO analyst with Morningnotes.

As families sit down at the table Thursday to give thanks for a bountiful feast, we can also give thanks for the bounty of California, where the harvest is diverse and year-round. And ? more thanks ? many of California's abundant crops and natural resources provide more than just good nutrition: They can help in the pursuit of beauty too. Grapes ? anti-aging "Grapes are naturally rich in antioxidants, so they offer incredible health-protective benefits whether eaten or applied topically," says Dr. Howard Murad, a dermatologist and associate clinical professor of medicine at UCLA.

In the long-running contest to win Latino voters' hearts and minds, the Republican Party jumped out to a stunning lead this month. And for a party saddled with leaders displaying more than a few retrograde impulses these days — on immigration and even the landmark Civil Rights Act — that's no small accomplishment. Consider the recent string of Latino Republicans to triumph in GOP primaries in three states over the last few weeks: In California, appointed Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado won his six-way Republican primary with 43% of the vote and the right to fight for a full term this fall.

The scores of customers who join the long line at the Alhambra farmers market on Sunday mornings to buy Jerry Dimitman's Wong pummelos all know the drill: Get there early, and be prepared to wait as each shopper scrutinizes the giant pear-shaped citrus fruits, holding them in the hand, one by one, to judge their weight, looking for heavy, shapely specimens. Plenty of pummelos are grown in California, but most are the flat, pink-fleshed Chandler variety. And especially as Chinese New Year approaches -- it will be Sunday, Feb. 14, this year, the Year of the Tiger -- many Chinese Americans seek out the necked, yellow-fleshed fruits they remember from their homeland.

Like everybody else in his farming village, Zhan Changchun used to get around on a bicycle. This month, the 29-year-old walked into a local dealership, pulled out $7,300 in cash from his leather satchel and drove away with the family's first car: a seven-seat micro-minivan that's jointly produced by China's Wuling and General Motors. The Zhans drained their life savings and borrowed from relatives, bold moves in a slowing economy.

With her face wrapped in a pink veil, Suman Yadav squatted on the mud floor of her home washing clothes by hand, next to her family's gleaming new possession -- a silver-gray, $10,000 car called the Swift. They bought it on an auspicious January harvest-festival day, she said, and drove it straight to the village temple for a blessing before bringing it home. "My husband's new auto spare-parts shop is doing well. The mustard and wheat from the farm is fetching good money, too," said Yadav, 30. "We already had a motorcycle and a tractor, but now could afford a car, too. We paid the full amount in cash.

The Segee family in Leimert Park has discovered a simple way to get daughters Jai'Neil, left, Dee'Anna and Jai'Lynn excited about growing their own food: cultivate a 28-pound cucumber. Although the vegetable they grew and recently harvested may not land in the Guinness World Records book -- they say they've been beaten by a 59-pounder grown in Australia -- mom Tiffany and dad Vernon are content knowing that Dee'Anna, 10, and Jai'Neil and Jai'Lynn, both 5, are now interested in gardening.