buying local: c/d (farmer's market etc thread)

I don't go the market route as much as used to on that front; instead I'm full CSA through these guys:

http://www.southcoastfarms.com/

Basket every two weeks that I pick up from my favorite local restaurant near here. I started basically because the opportunity arose and I thought it would be good for all those reasons you outline. I appreciate the seasonality of the produce, the way that various local farms pool together for it.

That said there's a well established series of local farmer's markets in OC, as well as a couple of stores that sell direct from growers. The market that used to regularly attend is over at UCI on Saturdays and in retrospect I kick myself that I didn't take advantage of it when I lived there in the early nineties. Increasingly busy and more expansive than ever, and all the better for it.

i bought some kale today

and celery. both organic. i promise to eat them.
i feel like it has been winter forever

i thought i asked you in another thread abt things like this to take me in and feed me california foods of health and sunshine, ned :/ and yet here i am

Clearly the Canadian government needs to grant its citizens more of its wishes.

this is my local

http://www.farmernet.com/events/one-cfm?venue_id=587

LA is not a very "hippie" place but they all converge here, it's very lol to me

i was a big fan of the Union Sq. farmers market when i lived in nyc, excellent but there's that whole seasons thing you gotta deal with, california pwns when it comes to availibilty of a wide range of produce year round

stuff white people like

stuff non-white people staff

they check dna at the entrance, i think you gotta be at least 85% white to enter, but there's an asian waiver every other week

It's pretty great to buy produce from local hippie-ish farmers who can tell you everything about what you're buying and how they grow it, not to mention all the perishable stuff that you can only buy locally because it can't or won't get shipped. The barefoot dreadlocked woman in the old seatless school bus with the hand-painted sign bitching about the corporatization of the term "organic" is my favorite and her arugula rules.

The big local ag school is doing a lot with organic farming and such, and I've thought about signing up for the "box of whatever produce is in season per week" thing that they have but I'm not sure if I could justice to it.

It's pretty great to buy produce from local hippie-ish farmers who can tell you everything about what you're buying and how they grow it

they are like weed dealers

they are like weed dealers

Fixed.

ha

Just went to my bigger local for the first time a couple weeks ago. Got a lolhueg jar of feta, some lamb, and a couple other items. Live band was alright.

Heading back next Sat, most definitely.

btw i considered making this a poll to the effect of 'does doing this actually help,' answer opts being "yes," "no," and "fuck off with yr yuppie grocery markets"

there's been a non-hippie saturday farmers market in pasadena for as long as i remember. Less emphasis on organics until recently but all kinds of breads and produce and orchids and busking (a blind mexican guy has a standing engagement, no drum circle sightings yet). Monrovia has a bigger one in old town friday nights.

I wish our local farmer's market sold things besides zia-shaped napkin holders and kokopelli towel racks. The only food items sold are kettle corn, biscochos (sp?) (the official cookie of New Mexico!) and wreaths made of red chiles (not sure if these count as food).

hahaha zia-shaped napkin holders!!

i like markets like this, v good produce/baked goods at mine in brooklyn. yummy pies.

it's kind of sad how things that ought to be perfectly normal and once were perfectly normal become "yuppie" over time. Like ordinary people used to eat produce that was fresh and hadn't been bred to travel 3000 miles on a truck.

also there are places where non-white/non-yuppie people buy local produce. In New Brunswick there was an indoor farmer's market store in the Mexican neighborhood. There was nothing organic or frou-frou and it was super cheap.

also there are orgs like City Harvest, and also I've heard of NYC green grocers in poor/moderate-income neighborhoods partnering with local farmers.

i buy right down the street

There's an indoor market in South Williamsburg somewhere, I've passed it on my bike for forget exactly where. I need to check that out, seem to recall it having giant butchers' counters and stuff too.

Google tells me it's the Moore St Market (or La Marqueta) and is primarily Latino. Has been in business for 70 years, is Bklyn's last indoor market, and was under threat by the city in 2007 but got a one year reprieve to look for financial solutions. Shoot.

Easily the best thing about living in lol Kansas is the local food. For the last couple of years, I've been in a group that buys a cow from a local rancher (pretty small ranch, you can go hang out with your soon-to-be-dinner if you want), and then we split the meat. So we end up with a year's worth of beef, but it's terrific. We also buy our pork that way, from a guy who sells his pork to Niman Ranch (can get goat and lamb too, but we haven't gotten into this yet). Both the beef and pork are fantastic. And at least from May to October, the produce is amazing at the farmer's market, and we get all our produce there. It means that we pretty much live on ratatouille during August, since there's so much tomatoes and eggplant and zucchini. But that's actually a pretty awesome way to live.

Two interesting food facts I learned recently that seem sort of relevant

1) Organically grown bananas, because they require more land, could never come close to meeting the world demand for bananas (not that bananas are local to anyone reading this thread anyway)

2) Overland transport has a MUCH larger carbon footprint than sea transport, so much so that if you're in New York City it's actually better to get New Zealand apples than Washington State apples (although perhaps it's still better to get NY state apples - not sure). Same goes for French wine vs. California/Washington/Oregon wine.

if you're in New York City it's actually better to get New Zealand apples than Washington State apples (although perhaps it's still better to get NY state apples - not sure)

you're not sure? I've never understood the mystique of Washington State apples, at least on the part of anyone in the Northeast - you get much better ones near home.

I mean I'm not sure carbon-wise

Although I guess it seems pretty unlikely that ground transport even from the furthest reaches of NY State would be equal to shipping from halfway around the globe.

(not that bananas are local to anyone reading this thread anyway)

i know of at least one commercial banana farm in ventura county, ca.

It's kind of frustrating here -- you'd think in the deep south, you could find plenty of local produce, but not really. There's a small farmer's market in Tupelo two days a week during warm months, but it's pretty meh. Folks around here either care enough to have their own garden, or just go to Kroger and Wal-Mart and don't know or care what they're missing.

Even the local produce store here buys most of their stuff from the same distributor that services the big supermarkets.

It is important to me, Hurting, because I love bananas.

My wife and I buy a share in a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. What it amounts to is the CSA is a truck farm that grows a huge variety of organic vegies that are staggered to produce different stuff as the season progresses. When I say "local", I mean this place is about 5 miles from my house!

We get a share of whatever survives the weather long enough to get harvested. We get a batch of vegies once a week from May to November. It works like a charm, but it requires a hugely devoted and capable farmer to make it work correctly.

i used to belong to organic express and i was impressed with the quality and service, except the amount of stuff that was actually "local" varied wildly from box to box. thinking of signing up again, and adding the pears from argentina to my "no" list this time.

I've been trying to eat seasonally and locally as much as possible for about 5 years. Fortunately, Washington state grows a lot of stuff and really gets behind the CSA idea. I like knowing (and paying directly) the people who grow and harvest the stuff I eat. Part of the requirements for whatever space we live in includes being able to have the chest freezer (it is doubling as a sort of light-duty countertop in the loft we are now in) to store the meat we get and the berries and stone fruit I freeze at the end of the season. Last October, I bought 20 lbs of winter pears from a friend of a friend who has an orchard up north aways. They took up a big chunk of refrigerator space, but taste so good and last so long in there - the final few are now too ripe, but I guess I'll puree them for a sauce or something.

I will say, as much as I love beets and potatoes and brussel sprouts and winter squash and pears and apples, I can't wait for the asparagus to start coming up. Also, berries.

it's kind of sad how things that ought to be perfectly normal and once were perfectly normal become "yuppie" over time. Like ordinary people used to eat produce that was fresh and hadn't been bred to travel 3000 miles on a truck.

yes.

Not to mention the stop in between the ordinary state of affairs and "yuppie" thing when it was viewed as a "health food"/hippie/granola thing...

yesterday I planted:

two black currant bushes

one white currant bush

one jostaberry (currant/goose hybrid)

two blueberry bushes.

currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral which is kind of a ground zero for the whole localism movement.

so, yeah, classic. and I think it does help.

I do one day hope to grow my own vegetables.

At the other end of the spectrum, I'm psyched about the idea of vertical farming.

Like this tomato planter I just ordered? I'm getting a waterfall of tomatoes this September!

i recommend not to worry about whether you are hippie or yuppie and to just enjoy eating food from the farmer's market

Kinda like that, but bigger.

http://www.chrisjacobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/vertical_farm_v2.jpg
http://tropist.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/skyfarm2.jpg

(xpost)

not everything has to be branded

I do one day hope to grow my own vegetables.

I'm on the list for a pea-patch in Seattle, which as long as I'm not traveling constantly would be awesome. I did container gardening in the last 2 places we lived (tomatoes, tomatillos, a huge amount of basil, chili peppers), but where we are now, even the window ledges and fire escape don't get any sun.

I branded some cattle once. They bellowed and blew epic amounts of snot everywhere.

xp

If tomatoes are not grown in a garden they are just a heartbreaking false promise.

Hmm. Container gardening might work on our fire escape. It's on the northeast corner of our building, more or less, and there's nothing higher than us directly to the East.

If it gets sun for at least 1/2 the day, it will probably work.

Some other good things for container gardens (esp partially shady ones): peas and spinach

Sugar snap peas are SO GOOD. Those and tomatoes are like my ultimate snacks.

I'm adding artichokes to my tomato repertoire this year. Possibly some blueberry bushes as well, though my parents have loads of blueberries and always beg me to come over and take the crop off their hands, so that might be a little redundant. I'd like to start an asparagus bed for the long term.

Madison outdoor farmer's market, when will you be back? Ice pellets forecast for tomorrow. Red elf needs asparagus .... badly.