Altadena Farmers Market Worth A Visit | Los Angeles

Shopping the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers' Market is out of the question if you live east of La Brea or work a nine-to-five.

But that doesn't mean you have to miss out on a midweek shopping trip to one of the Southland's better markets. Head east between 3 and 7 p.m. instead to the Altadena Farmers' Market (click here to see a slide show), which debuted two weeks ago.

There you will have the pleasure of buying produce from our favorite Southern Californian farm, The Garden Of . . . , without having to drive north. Owners Deb and Shu Takikawa grow some of best lettuces around, and to talk with them about the particulars of the Santa Ynez Valley microclimate is to believe that the soil there is best suited to farming butter leaf, not Pinot Noir.

This market also features a number of truly local, L.A.-based farms. So you can buy chicken and duck eggs laid in Glassell Park ($1 each) and uncommon herbs like feverfew from The Growing Home. There's produce grown at the nearby John Muir High School's two-acre farm, and, when we visited, kale harvested by Room 28 at the Glenfeliz Boulevard Elementary School, marked by a sign declaring, "We sell the best veggies!"

If that doesn't convince you to give the student-farmers' vegetables a try, their live charm-offensive sales pitches certainly will.

Altadena Farmers' Market, 3330 Lincoln Ave., Altadena