Heather Parlato

Rutabagas are actually related to turnips, originally created by crossing turnips with cabbages. As a hearty root vegetable, rutabagas are often used alongside potatoes, turnips and other roasting vegetables. They have a sweetness similar to sweet potatoes, and are a nice treat to slice up and eat raw, with a flavor close to raw sweet potato.

One young vegetable you won't see at the supermarkets is purple sprouting broccoli, a variety of broccoli with purple florets and many thin stems, as opposed to the tree-like shape of Italica broccoli. They are delicate and do well with a light steam or sauté, sometimes with the florets blooming into flowers.

This week we'll take a look at pea shoots, which are the soft, young stems and leaves of pea vines and plants. They're entirely edible with a nice toothy crunch, tasting lightly of peas. If you don't have room for the full vine, pea shoots make great container plants you can graze for salad instead.

Brussels sprouts are a cool weather cultivar of cabbage, though shaped quite differently: a thick, main stalk covered with helical patterns of buds that resemble tiny cabbage heads. They grow in cooler climates, which make them ideal for the winter season in Southern California.

Lambs quarters (sometimes seen as one word, lambsquarters) is a wild edible leafy green that usually appears in farmers' markets in early spring, but with the exceptionally temperate winter we've had in Southern California, many spring greens are arriving early.

Spinach isn't necessarily a winter green, but in temperate winter areas like southern California, we get to enjoy it now. The spinach above is an heirloom variety that is quite toothy and probably best steamed or sautéed, but we also have sellers at the Hollywood Farmer's Market who specialize in young leafy varieties that are great for salads.

Butternut squash are right in the middle of their Southern California season, which starts at the end of September and runs until the beginning of March. As one of the more popular winter squash, butternut has a sweet and nutty taste similar to pumpkin, with deep orange fleshy pulp.

Pomegranate is a fruit rich in history, having ancient origins in modern day Iran and the Caucasus. It is cultivated all over north Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Asia. In many cultures, the juice of the individual arils is separated from the seeds and processed into grenadine and pomegranate molasses as intense flavoring agents.

For the first time in awhile, I've seen Meyer lemons back at the farmer's market. Meyer lemons are native to China and thought to be a cross between a true lemon and a mandarin or orange. Brought back from a trip to China by Frank Meyer about 100 years ago, they grow well in warm climates in orchards or garden pots as ornamental trees with a winter seasonality in the California climate.

With Halloween, we usher in a huge annual harvest of pumpkins that grace holiday tables winter-long. Though they are often carved into jack-o-lanterns, historically believed to ward off demons at Halloween, many varieties are thicker, juicier and more flavorful than typical Halloween pumpkins and make delicious, hearty meals.

Root vegetables are a fall favorite, and yams are no exception. Let's get one thing straight though, we often refer to sweet potatoes as yams, but true yams are a different family than sweet potatoes, and are most often confused here in the States (I found almost as many articles talking about this difference as I found recipes). While many of the recipes in this article will call for sweet potatoes, try them out with true yams and see what you think!

Fall is in full swing, and so is apple season! Here in Southern California, we're lucky enough to have apple orchards in some of the higher elevation mountains surrounding the city, one of which is Oak Glen, above Yucaipa. During apple season, the orchards are open 7 days a week, though self-picking is only available on the weekends and tapers down as the season wanes.