If It’s Tustin, This Must Be Saturday

The new Saturday Tustin farmers market represents a comeback for Nancy Caster, a beloved veteran manager. After working for Sunkist for 25 years, Caster managed four farmers markets for the Orange County Farm Bureau until she left on acrimonious terms last year. Six weeks ago, the cheerful grandmother was back in her signature straw hat as she opened a Saturday Tustin market in the same location as the Farm Bureau’s Wednesday event.

Mack Edwards, who runs a farm in the Sierra foothills as a retirement hobby, had stopped selling at farmers markets last year but returned to give Caster a boost. Last Saturday, he offered exquisite Divinity nectarines, his own special hybrid, with yellow skin speckled with red and intensely flavorful creamy, white flesh. He also had aptly named Ambrosia white peaches, light green Bartlett pears and crisp, juicy Akane apples.

Neff Ranch sold fresh, sweet Valencia orange juice from fruit grown on a 14-acre grove in Yorba Linda--one of the last scraps of commercial citrus plantings left in Orange County. The stand also sold unfiltered apple juice, a blend of Jonathan and Gravenstein, from apples grown by a cousin of Don Neff in Sebastopol, a traditional apple-farming district in Sonoma County.

From Atkins Nursery of Fallbrook, David Gonzalez, 14, sold large, round Reed avocados, arguably the best variety at this time of year, along with Bearss limes and green-skinned, custardy Suebelle sapotes. Luis Martinez of Selma had flavorful O’Henry peaches, dark red Mariposa plums and crunchy, yellow-skinned Shinseiki Asian pears, a refreshing treat on hot summer days.

Smith Farms of Fountain Valley and Irvine had basil, eggplants, Roma tomatoes, white corn and old-fashioned iceberg lettuce. Berumen Farms of Westminster sold broccoli, green tomatoes, conical, slightly spicy Anaheim peppers and sweet, fragrant cantaloupes

Lewis West of Wayside Honey, an amateur beekeeper from Anaheim, had eucalyptus and avocado honey, dark as molasses, and lighter sage and clover honey, both kinds gathered in Yorba Linda.

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Tustin farmers market, El Camino Real and 3rd Street, Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.