COOKING : A Chance to Spread Out and Shop

You’d probably have to go to Montana to find a farmers market with as much space as the one at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

The 12-year-old market, which is at the southwest corner of the fairgrounds parking lot just off Fair Drive, is held Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (The market is closed today but will reopen Jan. 7.) It features about 40 vendors and plenty of parking space.

So how big is the lot? You could fill it with umpteen dozen football teams, toss in a few Boeing 767s and still have room for roller-skating.

This abundance of space lends a laid-back air to the market; there’s plenty of sun, no noise from surface streets, and the hustle of freeways seems light years away. Everyone’s relaxed here. This is the place to ask vendors for pointers on such things as how to quickly ripen fruits. Carla Kirksey of Kirksey Farms in the San Joaquin Valley can tell you. (Put your guava, kiwi or avocado in a paper bag with an apple, she advises. The gas emitted by the apple will speed up ripening. But keep a close eye on it, because it will ripen fast--in no more than a day or two--and use only a paper bag, because plastic won’t do the job, she said.)

Kirksey, who sells kiwis, pomegranates and Chinese grapefruit the size of bowling balls, also knows how to ripen persimmons: Put them in the freezer. Unlike most fruit that come of age with the sun, persimmons naturally ripen during cold seasons.

Vendor Mary Torabi used to be a teacher in her native Iran, and for the 12 years that she’s been selling here, she has delighted in instructing her customers on the differences between organically grown produce and that in which chemicals are used.

Her grapes are a good example. They tend to look smaller than their counterparts in the supermarket, and she notes that the size is uneven and that some of the fruit even has blemishes. But the truth is in the eating, and Torabi invites people to taste for themselves. The flavor of her grapes is sweet and pure, and they’re loaded with juice.

The bargains on produce, as at most farmers’ markets, are abundant: 25-pound sacks of naval oranges for $4, five branches of fresh, pungent rosemary for $1, a two-pound pack of juicy dates for $3.50 and two pounds of organically grown grapes for $1.

Fairgrounds Farmers Market, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. (714) 751-3247.