It's Spring! Let The #CAGrown Flower Love Continue

After posting about the wonderful open nursery/greenhouse tour I took in Carpinteria, I got to thinking (scary I know); it is April and that means Carlsbad's Flower Fields are in full bloom and a must-see spring outing.

For those who are uninformed, The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch consist of 50 acres of Giant Tecolote Ranunculus flowers, on a hillside the overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Those who know me well, know that my favorite flower is Iris, my next favorite: Gerber daisies and rounding out the top 3: ranunculus.

What's a ranunculus? As they say on their FAQ page, "The ranunculus flower is native to Asia Minor and is a member of the buttercup family. This unique blossom also is known as a Persian Buttercup or Ranunculus Asiatic."

Standing among these delicate beauties at the Flower Fields is like standing inside of a rainbow. But these fields of color are short-lived and generally are in bloom for about 6-8 weeks from mid-March to mid-May, and this year the last scheduled open day is May 11, so don't miss them!

Not only can you take in the beauty of the flowers themselves, but there's lots of other activities and events for all ages including antique tractor rides, a sweet pea maze, an organic demonstration garden and of course, ranunculus bulbs available for purchase. When I first visited the fields many years ago, admission was free, but like most things, that's changed. The good news is that you can purchase your tickets online ahead of time.

LA Farm Girl Lives & Visits California's Flower Basket

Gerber daisies as far as the eye can see. I did not want to leave Maximum Nursery.

It has been so long since I have posted anything to this blog, that I often get emails from people inquiring about my well-being. I am happy to report that I am fine, alive and kicking, and was simply taking a very long, unplanned break from blogging. Life happens and time passes. So, I am making an effort to start writing here again.

Easing back into the blog, here are some photos from the 6th Annual Carpinteria Greenhouse and Nursery Tour held on Saturday, March 29. This free event lets visitors tour several flower farms to get an idea of what it takes to grow the beautiful California flowers that Carpinteria is so famous for. Carpinteria is actually known as the flower basket of the United States.

A self-guided tour, you were able to visit as many (or as few) of the farms and nurseries as you liked. Not surprisingly, with a last name like Gerber, I made sure to visit a Gerbera daisy producer and was not disappointed in the tour offered by Winfred Van Wingerden of Maximum Nursery. I am thinking they need to hire this Gerber to help spread the Gerber daisy love!!!

As I always do, I want to remind everyone to buy local and support our California farmers whenever we can. That also extends to flowers, so buy #cagrown and  #caflowers! The good news is that this is easily done. Did you know that there are 120 acres of Gerber daisies grown in the United States and 80% of them are grown in Carpinteria? And, that you don't even have to visit there to get some? If you are a Trader Joe's shopper, you can find fresh bouquets of Maximum Nursery Gerber daisies year round!

Beautiful Maximum Nursery Gerbera daisies all wrapped and ready for purchase

Beautiful two-toned Gerbera daisy from Maximum Nursery

Brilliantly colored Maximum Nursery Gerbera

 

More Gerbera love from Maximum Nursery

The Reason I am LA Farm Girl

It has been so long since I have posted anything on this blog, I don't think people are even reading it anymore. Life seems to get in the way of my own blog, or actually other people's work does; specifically writing for other people does. That, and teaching gardening workshops and classes, and working in the hospital learning garden, and of course, there's volunteering.

I have often been asked: why are you LA Farm Girl?  How did that happen? Especially from people who knew me when I was younger, in school, or in a different profession, and recall that I was never a "farmer" or even a gardener.

And, I always try to give a simple yet complete answer, but like most things in my life, there was no simple path that led me here and really no short way to explain it. As most of my friends and family know, just 21 days before our wedding, my husband broke his hip on his bicycle and I started working part time to help him heal up quicker.

Considering that I was miserable at my job, but trying very hard to get the most bang for my buck and use that MPA, once I went part-time, I never went back, and soon, it turned into a permanent thing and I eventually quit my "real" job to focus on writing.

Having no plan, or even a remote idea where or how to make a go as a full time writer, I completely floundred and found myself with no work and no income and went through many very lean years. 

During these lean years, along came the chance for me to not only make some more money, but for me to find my place in the world, only I did not know this at the time. It came in the form of one of the most wonderful women I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, Ms. Mary Lou Weiss, the Market Manager at the Torrance Certified Farmers' Market, who sadly, passed away on Saturday. It is my sadness at losing her that compels me to write this now.

I had known Mary Lou for a long time. I met her while I was working for the City as an analyst. But, I got to know her better as each Tuesday I started to shop at the farmers' market to save us some money, while I struggled to find a way to make more.

During this time I did everything from tutoring ESL students to merchandising jobs including sorting out and displaying cards for Hallmark, and seeds for (gasp) Burpee seeds (now I know better).

The awesome Mary Lou Weiss

One day, Mary Lou asked me if I would like to help her out and become her Market Assistant on Saturdays since at the time she didn't have one. I of course jumped at the chance and took the job. Once again, without thinking or planning (do you see a pattern here), I soon found I was in over my head. I am not a 5 a.m. girl; I am not a 6 a.m. girl; I am barely a 7 a.m. girl. But alas, in order to do the job you have to be there every Saturday by 6 a.m.

Needless to say, I did not last long as the Saturday Assistant, but,  I did find a deeper connection to both the market, and our farmers, and that was Mary Lou. I heard their stories first hand, but mostly I heard them from Mary Lou who told me how hard they worked to get themselves to the market and that without farmers' markets our farmers couldn't survive. I saw how when they had personal problems, or needed assistance, she made sure they had it. 

She had such a love for our farmers and for the farmer's market, taking care of them is what kept her going, year after year, in spite of struggle after struggle against over regulation, greed, and a complete lack of concern by those who only saw our market as a cash cow to be exploited, and a general apathy towards our farmers by most of the public. She both advocated for them, and worked to educate the public on how important our family farmers are. She said that it's simple, we can help and support them by shopping from them.

She never got angry at me for not doing the Assistant job and instead encouraged me to be involved as a volunteer. I told her I wanted to write a newsletter for her and tell the stories of our farmers. I was completely unreliable and sporadic at how often I would do one, but once again, she never got angry and always greeted me with a smile and the familiar: "hey Jude, how's it going?"

She was one of the few people in my life who never seemed to be mad at me for overcomitting because she was the same way. Like mine, her intentions were always good, and she had a hard time saying no, and sometimes things fell through the cracks, but she always did the important things that needed to be done.

Her love for both her farmers and her friends was unconditional. That doesn't mean she didn't let you know if you'd done something wrong, or that she was angry about something, but, once she got it out, she moved on and was always there for you, without question. She "rescued" so many other people, gave them jobs helping at the market, and if there was some way to help you, she did it.

It was her love for our farmers that changed my life. It was infectious.  It made me want to do something to help even though I wasn't sure how. So, I did what I am doing now, what I always do when I need to do something, I write about it. Once I started, I couldn't stop writing about them and talking about them. Now, 13 years later, I still am. It was because of her that I found my life's passion and I don't think I ever got the chance to thank her for that.

Now I feel such sorrow that I can't share this passion with her anymore. When my first book came out about our farm history and our farmers today, she was my biggest cheerleader, letting me have book talks and sales at the market.

I will miss you more than I can say, I don't think it has even sunk in yet. I will do my best to keep telling the stories that need to be told. But, I know I cannot tell them the way that you did. I will do my best to make sure that the market you fought so hard for and that you made so successful keeps going in the way that you built it to be, with the same integrity and concern for both our farmers and our environment, even if that means I have to step into the political fray again.

Your beloved market is still going strong. This is from today/Tuesday June 25, 2013

Suport LA's Local Breweries: Yes Beer is Agriculture!!!!!

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to have gone on a FREE, yes FREE docent led walk through the murals of LA's Art District. This was sponsored by the Craft and Folk Art Museum and led by the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles.  If you ever get the chance to go on one of these tours---do it!

Here's a couple of photos of some murals I saw on Saturday:

While I was on the tour I noticed so many new and fun places to eat and drink in the Arts District, including my favorite brewery Angel City Brewery, while it might not be new, it was new to me to see the building they have settled in on Alameda and 2nd, and they had a tour starting so I took the tour and sampled a couple of brews I hadn't tried.

Here's Angel City's own little mural:

And, the address/front of the building is 216 S. Alameda

Beer!

Now, you might be thinking, it sounds like you had a great day, lots of fun but what does your outing have to do with agriculture? Well, beer is made from barley and hops and craft beer making is not just a new/old home hobby coming back, but craft breweries throughout LA have popped up and they were one of the oldest farm related businesses in Los Angeles.

So, I wrote my Care2 post this week about local "craft" breweries. Like local produce, local breweries provide the community with many beneifts, read it here.

And, watch this blog for a future post about how Angel City Brewery has come full circle, ending up in the Arts District, near where LA's original breweries were and Wine Country was along the Los Angeles River.

Seed Library of LA Meeting This Saturday

Join the Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA) on Saturday, February 16th, from 2:30-4:00 pm for their monthly meeting, presentation and library hours.

This month, SLOLA Chair David King presents "Sex in the City: Lessons from Urban Pollination"

Description from their site: "All the published work on seed saving supposes we are saving seeds out in the country side with miles and miles of horizon. This is not exactly what we deal with and therefore their conclusions are not necessarily applicable to our work. From practical experience, David King will explain how most modern research on plant pollination deviates from our reality and how we can use this data, adapting it to our specific situation to save seed without making ourselves crazy."

All SLOLA meetings are free and open anyone. HOWEVER, a lifetime membership costs only $10 and you can check out heirloom and non-GMO seeds from the library with your membership.

They just received a huge donation from Baker Creek this December.

Meetings are held at: The Learning Garden at Venice High School (13000 Venice Blvd, enter on Walgrove).

If you aren't sure what a seed library is, read a bit about them and also about seed swapping in my Healthy and Green Living posts on Care2.

Join LA Farm Girl at Foodprint LA Today!

Foodprint LA is the "fourth in a series of international conversations about food and the city."

I am very humbled and excited (but nervous) to have been asked to be a panelist at today's event. I will be part of the panel "Edible Archaeology"  (3:00 to 3:55 p.m.) How has today’s food culture in Los Angeles been shaped by social changes, economic fluctuations, and technological innovations throughout the city’s history?"

There are several other great panels discussing the issue of food from all different perspectives including zoning and planning issues, mapping issues, and the last one of the day about food opportunities and challenges.

Date: Sunday, December 9
Time: 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Location: LACMA‘s Brown Auditorium (5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90036)
Free and open to the public; seating is limited

It is Pumpkin Time: Visit A Real Farm

I have been wanting to post on this blog for a long time and between starting up the Torrance Memorial Learning Garden, finishing a book, and my "regular' writing gigs, I seem to just run out of time.

So, I decided to revamp a post from several years ago because it is pumpkin patch time and my favorite time of the year.

While I am so sad to face this first fall season without my favorite local farm, the awesome Tom T. Ishibashi Farm, I am happy to be able to write about another of my favorite farms,  a great family farm where you can pick-your-own pumpkin and support a great local LA farmer.

Yep, a "real" LA farmer, imagine that! Forneris Farms, is one of only two "traditional" farms left in the San Fernando Valley---John Forneris has been farming in Mission Hills for the past 43 years!

Not only can you pick-your-own pumpkin, but now during Harvest Festival time there's great activities for the whole family including a corn maze, a tractor-pulled train ride, a "farm frolic" area with kid's games, farm animals, antique tractors and cars, and on weekends there's food and entertainment. And, of course their farm market is always open and features farm fresh produce year-round.

They are also now on Twitter, http://twitter.com/fornerisfarms so follow them!

Let's show John and Barbara that we support them and appreciate that they are here providing us with locally, grown, farm fresh produce and a great on-farm experience for the whole family!