Northern California’s bountiful spring harvest — ranging from ripe, sweet cherries to bright green fava beans  — is on display at farmstands throughout the county these days.

A recent visit to Napa’s Farmers Market at Copia, along with a look at the new Oxbow Produce outlet, revealed that Napans can once again count on serving choice fruit and produce to family and friends this spring and summer.

Vendors from as far away as Visalia, Turlock and Watsonville come to the Napa market every Tuesday and Saturday with freshly harvested field crops. In addition, a growing number of local farmers are on hand to show us that Napa Valley soils are indeed ideal for more than just grapes.

For example, principals from Scully Ranch on Mount Veeder — with fava beans, carrots, herbs and all manner of greens — came to their first Napa market last week, joining the ranks of welcome regulars like Big Ranch Farm from Napa and cherry specialist Joe Gotelli from Stockton.

The early ripening Camarosa strawberries from Watsonville’s Rodriguez Farms were so sweet the other day that it took a lot of will power to keep from devouring a whole basket before we made it home. And the cauliflower, broccoli and leeks from this renowned farm near Monterey Bay looked good enough to eat on the spot.

The current harvest from Big Ranch Farms includes several varieties of chard, lettuce, kale, fava beans and flavorful cavalo nero (Tuscan kale) that brings added flavors to everything from minestrone to risotto.

The Gotelli clan had two varieties of cherries at the Napa market last week, with even more promised as the fruit from their Stockton orchard continues to ripen. And there were ruby cherries from Turlock along with the season’s first apricots and peaches.

From farms in the vicinity of Visalia were displays of peas, beets, baby bok choy, squash and hot house tomatoes.

Hours for the Napa Farmers Market are 7:30 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. It is located in the north parking lot at Copia, 500 First St.

Oxbow Produce

Right next-door to Copia is the Oxbow Public Market. Just this month Andru Moshe and associate Wallace Curtis began stocking a number of the facility’s outdoor farmstands with all manner of organic produce. Shortly, a few grocery staples, like milk, will be added to the inventory.

The attractive displays include a wide variety of fruit and produce, ranging from Riverside County avocados to heirloom mountain peaches from Butte County.

Moshe is interested in stocking as much organic produce at the Oxbow facility as she can find. If area farmers are growing organic crops, Moshe is interested in purchasing their produce.

In addition to succulent blueberries and mangoes, as well as Connie Green’s Wine Forest mushrooms, the farmstands were stocked with River Dog English peas from Capay Valley, pea shoots, DeCiccio broccoli, Bloomsdale spinach and a new crop of fava beans.

The Oxbow Produce farmstands are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.