Catching Up

Friday night is the worst night ever to post to your blog, but I suspect that there is going to be a revolt against this site if I don't post something soon.

Things have been very busy around here.  As you saw from my pictures, I spent a little over a week in Los Angeles and then meandered back on Highway 101 stopping at some of my favorite places.  You can read my write-up about the drive back on KQED's Bay Area Bites (Parts One and Two).

I finally made it to the fabulous Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers' Market.  It was nearly three years ago that an elderly man ran his car into this farmers' market killing 10 people.  I remembered this when I was at the market and noticed an amazing amount of camaraderie between the farmers there.  All markets have their close relationships, but this was a palpable feeling that the farmers at this market were family -- and I truly believe that it's because they went through that horrible tragedy together.

I grew up in Southern California, and didn't move from there until I was 27.  So in many ways, it feels like home there.  It was interesting being there during the Eat Local month.  One of the things that we always hear about eating local is "it's easy to do if you're in California."  I would revise that stereotype to say it's relatively easy to do if you are in Northern California.  Southern California, to my mind, is a whole different story.  I have a friend who lives in Manhattan Beach who participated in the Eat Local Challenge, and she changed her challenge from 150 miles to the entire state of California.  And being down there, I can see why.

I am planning on talking about this further in the future, but for now I'd just like to give a big high five to the Southern California participants of the challenge.  You really had your work cut out for you.

One reason for the quiet on this site is because a lot of my attention has been focused on the Eat Local Challenge site.  I am really proud of the work that everyone has done over there.  And it's getting some attention.  We were the Typepad Featured Blog a couple weeks ago, and then the site was mentioned in Time magazine this past week, as a part of an article about the Locavores.  It included an interview with Barbara Fisher, and was quite a thrill. 

Meanwhile, spring is almost gone and summer is almost here.  Our CSA box* this week was one of the best yet: strawberries, fresh lavender, cherries, dino kale, beets, and fresh potatoes.  I wish that I could bottle and sell the scent that filled my car as I drove home from the pick-up site.  It was the quintessential smell of spring to me.  If you make it to the Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market this week or next, be sure to consider some of Eatwell's fresh lavender.  It's only available for about a month a year, and is worth buying to either put in vases fresh or to dry yourself.  To me, it is the yearly sign that summer is here.

* I would have taken a picture of the CSA box if my boyfriend wasn't off with BOTH cameras in the middle of the desert taking photographs.  Bragging rights to you if you can figure out where he went.  Bragging rights cancelled if I already told you in person where he was and you guess anyway!

Comments

[cookiecrumb]

Tatooine?
:D

[jen]

Ha ha, very funny cookie. I hadn't thought about the similarities until you said that. :-)

[Jane]

It must be the Salton Sea.

[shuna]

O am just so happy happy happy that you are back!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!

[erin]

Thanks for the shout-out to us SoCal eat local-ites. Have to say it's with jealousy that I read the NoCal bloggers' options, esp. when it comes to meat and dairy!