There’s a lot of history behind the fresh food at Frieda’s—decades of importing exotic produce and years of slowly pushing new tastes into the American diet—and that’s all summarized in some of the company’s early photos, black-and-white prints of founder Frieda Caplan receiving things like the first-ever American shipment of New Zealand kiwis. Established in 1962, the company is famous for popularizing everything from alfalfa sprouts to sunchokes. And for most wholesalers, that history matters—there’s probably no single company with a lineage as long as Frieda’s. But now the company has taken its wholesale operations straight to the public with Frieda’s Fresh Marketplace, an open-air shopping strip outside the company’s headquarters in Los Alamitos. The setup is like most farmers markets, though all those faded white tents are replaced here with the purple and green corporate colors. But beyond that, Frieda’s earns shoppers by offering that strange variety—boxes of black radishes, dragon beans and starfruit sit among the simpler seasonal produce. The marketplace won’t last forever, though—it’s only here on Saturdays through July. But that’s plenty of time to pick up some Hami melons and gooseberries.

FRIEDA’S FRESH MARKETPLACE 4465 CORPORATE CENTER DR | LOS ALAMITOS 90720 | FRIEDAS.COM

Tags: farmers market, friedas, los alamitos