Results tagged “vegetables”

Earlier this month, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared National Farmers Market Week, during which Americans were urged to try to put a visit to an area market into their routine in order to support local farmers and hopefully enrich their diets with fresh, locally sourced, healthy produce. On the heels of those eating and consumer focused efforts, Vilsack shifted his focus one step back in the chain and declared August 23-29 National Community Garden Week.

Okay, everyone. An apology in advance, but seriously, it's time for a Martha Stewart moment. Thanks to a reader comment on our urban farming-pinkberry connection post, we learn a little trick that will be exciting to try out. LAist commenter LadyAMC points out an article on Cookthink about re-growing green onions on your window sill. Basically, keep about an inch of the bulb-end, place it in a cup of water on a sunny windowsill, let them grow and clip bits off as you need. "It works, I've got 6 of'em growing right now," she exclaimed.

No, urban farming is not the name of some cool sounding store that will become the next fad like froyo and cupcakes. It's just what it is--farming and gardening for yourself at home at in local gardens for the community. Up in San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom wants community gardens on vacant and underutilized city-owned lots. At the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama has planted a garden on the south lawn. Although the garden on White House Place in Los Angeles is threatened and the South Central farm is now over a hundred miles away in the Central Valley, the urban farming efforts found in Silver Lake, South Pasadena, Altadena and elsewhere seem to be growing in popularity.

At a Zocalo food panel focused on defining Los Angeles' cuisine moderated by the Pulitzer Prize winning Jonathan Gold last year, there was no specific dish or item that could be defined as owned by this city. Tacos, burritos, sea food, sushi were all brought up (mind you, this was before Kogi BBQ and the mobile food truck culture ever existed, so much changes in less than a year, right?), but none felt like the quintessential L.A. food. But one consistent theme was apparent with Gold and others: a chef's long-term relationship with farmers and farmer's markets. In other words, what L.A. should be known for is not one specific food or dish, but the locally grown and sustainable food trend, the panel seemed to agree.

       

Tuesday is not exactly a day that screams "go to the Farmer's Market!" Yet everyday of the week, there is one somewhere in the Los Angeles region and on Tuesdays, Woodman Avenue in Sherman Oaks becomes one of those places. The weekly event is not purely a farmer's market (and probably why it's called the Woodman Avenue Market)--there are plenty of vendors selling clothes, solar power and sunglasses. The real meat, no pun intended, are the quality fresh farm stands. Our favorite pick is easily the South Central Farmers who offer a box (or three bags worth) of vegetables for $15 (you will be stir frying all week long, no joke).

Now that fast food is banned in South LA in order to make way for healthier options to exist in the region, what's next? In New York, it was reported today that "food stamp sales have grown to $90,000 in 2007 from $3,000 in 2002." Part of the increase comes from technological advancement with wireless or scrip debit food stamp machines at the markets. 118 markets in California use these machines with over 25 of them located in the Los Angeles area. Unfortunately, only a couple of the South LA farmers market use EBT and food stamps. Or is it that there are only a few South LA markets in the first place?

OK, well it isn't exactly the same make and model as the old farmer's market, which recently kicked the bucket -- but it's got heart, which is all that matters. You see, the popular Westwood Farmer's Market of Weyburn Ave was shut down by the LAFD in March 2006 because of safety concerns during construction. There were problems re-establishing the farmer's market on other nearby streets because as everybody knows, Westwood residents and merchants...

Feeling a little lazy. Maybe a little experimental. We ordered in. We refused the nice bike ride to the grocery store. We said no to the nice farmers at the market. We skipped going out for dinner. Instead, we went online and pressed "yes" to delivered organic fruits and veggies. To live in a city with farmer's markets everywhere, it just feels so lazy to do this. But when we opened that box, we...

It's certainly not the biggest farmer's market around--in fact it's pretty close to fledgling. Operational since last fall, the Toluca Lake Certified Farmer's Market takes over just one tiny block on Sancola, north of Riverside Drive. There are a few produce stands featuring excellent, although somewhat limited, selections of fresh local fruits and veggies, as well as at least one floral stand, craftsmakers with wares from soy candles to jewelry, tamales, baked goods, and...