Wow, so excited! I just found out that I got a plot in the Palm Desert Community Garden for this season. I initially applied for a spot almost 2 years ago, so this is huge. Non-city residents get low priority, of course.
Unitl now, I thought I was going to miss out on this season too, so I'd been working toward getting a CG started inside my homeowners association. Now that project is on the back burner. Might be better to see if I can even grow anything before trying to start a whole new endeavor.
Showing posts with label local. Show all posts
Showing posts with label local. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
"Local " Produce FAIL
That trip to the store didn't quite work out as I expected.
Our house is a banana house; we consume at least 3 a day. And I don't like going to the store THAT often, so I generally buy 4 to 5 ripe ones and 6 to 8 green ones (10 to 13 total) every trip.
I had to get bananas, so at my main grocery store (which will go unnamed, but is based in SoCal and includes the initials T and J) I checked one type of banana's place of origin ... Ecuador.
Remember, I am trying to buy produce from North America. You wouldn't think that was too hard. And it's not like Ecuador is in Central America, just south of Mexico. It is in South America.
I check the other type of banana ... Ecuador again! What is the point of having it be organic if it has to be shipped 3500 miles?
So unfortunately, I bought 10 bananas anyway. Fail.
I had to get garlic as well, and I took a look ... Argentina! 6000 miles for garlic? When we have the garlic capital of the world in Gilroy right up the 5 Freeway? Fail.
Some bright spots (at both the aforementioned store and Costco): Strawberries and avocados from California; apples, lettuce, mushrooms and broccoli from "USA"; zucchini, tomatoes and blackberries from Mexico; and green beans from Canada.
So my next to-do is finding a new source for our banana fix. Mexico or the Caribbean are our best bets ...
Our house is a banana house; we consume at least 3 a day. And I don't like going to the store THAT often, so I generally buy 4 to 5 ripe ones and 6 to 8 green ones (10 to 13 total) every trip.
I had to get bananas, so at my main grocery store (which will go unnamed, but is based in SoCal and includes the initials T and J) I checked one type of banana's place of origin ... Ecuador.
Remember, I am trying to buy produce from North America. You wouldn't think that was too hard. And it's not like Ecuador is in Central America, just south of Mexico. It is in South America.
I check the other type of banana ... Ecuador again! What is the point of having it be organic if it has to be shipped 3500 miles?
So unfortunately, I bought 10 bananas anyway. Fail.
I had to get garlic as well, and I took a look ... Argentina! 6000 miles for garlic? When we have the garlic capital of the world in Gilroy right up the 5 Freeway? Fail.
Some bright spots (at both the aforementioned store and Costco): Strawberries and avocados from California; apples, lettuce, mushrooms and broccoli from "USA"; zucchini, tomatoes and blackberries from Mexico; and green beans from Canada.
So my next to-do is finding a new source for our banana fix. Mexico or the Caribbean are our best bets ...
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Ready to shop now.
Just found a cool site called sustainabletable.org where they directed me to a National Resources Defense Council tool that you can plug in your area (for me: Southern California) and time of year (late April) to see your list of seasonal produce. If you click on some items, there is a recipe. Awesome!
Sustainable Table
NRDC Eat Fresh
Sustainable Table
NRDC Eat Fresh
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Keep the produce (relatively) local
Last couple months have been pretty busy. But I am ready to go at this green thing again. Got a few ideas percolating in the noggin.
The test for this week:
Not going too crazy on this for now. Instead of going hyper-local, 100-mile radius, I will limit all produce purchases to seasonal and North American. Nothing against Chile or New Zealand, but I'm going to keep it on this continent. The seasonal is going to be the hard part, so I've got to do some research.
The test for this week:
Not going too crazy on this for now. Instead of going hyper-local, 100-mile radius, I will limit all produce purchases to seasonal and North American. Nothing against Chile or New Zealand, but I'm going to keep it on this continent. The seasonal is going to be the hard part, so I've got to do some research.
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