- Author: Rachel A. Surls
With a population of more than 10 million residents, Los Angeles County faces enormous challenges related to poverty and hunger. Over a million L.A. County residents face hunger or food insecurity every day, according to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. A Sept. 6 Los Angeles Times article detailed the problems faced by local food pantries, as they struggle to cope with a demand for food that’s risen by 48 percent in just two years. At the same time, with cheap fast food, and limited access to affordable healthy food, childhood obesity is an increasingly critical problem. Forty percent of middle-school age children in Los Angeles County are...
- 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: Pamela M. Geisel
I was only gone for 10 days, but when I came back the squash plants were just packed with zucchini — some that were as big as torpedoes (they got fed to the chickens) but many just the perfect size for harvest. However, what do you do with 50 zucchini? First stop, my neighbors. Got rid of 10 there.
Next, as 4th of July guests leave, they get a bag to take home; another 10 down . . . only 30 more squash to use or distribute. What can you do?
Well, there are lots of ways to eat zucchini but I have found a couple of ways that are just yummy and healthy.
The first recipe is easy.
Zucchini and mozarella salad/appetizer
Slice the zucchini in lengthwise ¼ inch...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
San Joaquin Valley farmer Mas Masumoto famously described the joys of fruit eating in the opening pages of his book Epitaph for a Peach. The prologue reads like a love letter to the old Sun Crest variety, planted years ago by his Japanese-American father. Sun Crest peaches are juicy and delicious but lack some commercial attributes.
On eating a fruit he calls a “treasure,” Masumoto wrote:
“You lean over the sink to make sure you don’t drip on yourself. Then you sink your teeth into the flesh . . . This is a real bite, a primal act, a magical sensory celebration announcing that summer has arrived.”
Many Californians can share Masumoto’s experience of lovingly caring for a fruit tree, patiently waiting...
- Author: Karl Krist
Californians can take advantage of our abundant sunshine and temperate climate in order to grow fruit and vegetables they can truly call their own. Gardening has some very obvious rewards, giving gardeners the freshest fruits, vegetables and herbs possible. If you are a cook, adding a garden to your backyard will pay dividends all year long.
In order to get the greatest benefit of this fantastic produce, make sure you...
