- Author: Pamela M. Geisel
I was struck the other day, when hearing about the world-wide soaring cost of foods, that we are incredibly lucky to live in California where food is so readily available to us. I was listening to this news on the radio as I was returning from my weekly trek to the grocery store and farmers market loaded with wonderful local whole fruits and vegetables of really high quality. I felt so fortunate and thankful at that moment that I could buy everything I wanted or pick what I wanted from my winter garden or my fruit laden citrus trees.
You can increase your own food security by planting food in your own garden . . . and you can start by planting a fruit tree now. February is the time that you can plant what are known as...
- Author: Rachel A. Surls
The Baldwin Park Community Garden sits in the shadow of the San Bernardino Freeway in Eastern Los Angeles County. As the cars rush by, an effective and innovative community garden grows. A unique public-private partnership has made this garden possible to benefit the community and local children.
The garden, which is approximately a quarter acre in size, has both school and community plots. The land and financial support are provided by Kaiser Permanente. The City of Baldwin Park helps to maintain the garden. The Baldwin Park Unified School District uses the garden to engage fourth graders from four classrooms at two elementary schools in hands-on nutrition education through a project called “The Moveable Feast.”
The...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
Mention that something is free and useful, and most of us will stop to take a look. And for good reason — the University of California has a number of websites that offer free information related to food.
Take your time to peruse the sites listed below. There is some fascinating and very handy information to be had. Many of these sites also offer terrific publications at nominal prices, but this blog lists only those that are free . . . and we all love a bargain! Many more publications and programs are available than those listed below.
After looking at these lists, you never know when you’ll be inspired to pickle some olives or field dress a deer. As for me, my latest food craze is cheese-making. Two weeks ago...
- Author: Pamela M. Geisel
Vegetable and fruit gardens are taking over American backyards and that is a really good thing. However, many gardeners are forgetting that their backyard should also be a place to enjoy in other ways and hence the food garden really should be a thing of beauty as well as productivity.
I was at a garden in downtown Oakland not too long ago and the garden, while productive for being on a vacant lot, still looked somewhat like a vacant lot. You could tell there were veggies growing, chickens ran around and there were also goats on the lot but it wasn’t really a place of beauty. It looked more like a weedy lot with intermittent plots of veggies.
A beautiful vegetable garden is not difficult but it does take some planning....
- Author: Cynthia Kintigh
To the rescue is a series of free, downloadable publications from the ANR Catalog. I've always noticed that these publications move to the top of our download charts each summer, so this year I decided to try one of the recipes.
This comes from the category, "What do I do with all of these peppers?" and is actually called Peppers: Safe Methods to...