Happy Father's Day!

I posted the same thing on my Giving Gardener's Blog, but I wanted to pay proper tribute to my Dad, the most awesome gardener I have ever seen. He is Mr. Green Thumb. I snapped a couple of shots of his freakishly tall sunflowers yesterday. They are literally over 7 feet tall!

Happy Father's Day to all and thanks Dad for being my inspiration for so many things!

What Do You Think Should Be California's Agricultural Vision?

If you are like me and have ideas on how you think our agricultural system could be improved, we have a unique opportunity to provide our input directly to the CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture).

They, (along with the California State Board of Food and Agriculture) are hosting Ag. Vision Listening Sessions next month that provide a forum for agriculture and the public to give their input into a California agricultural vision. This vision will be used to guide public policy and investment priorities at the state and national level for the next 20 years.

They want to know:

• What do you have to say to these questions?
• What is your vision for California agriculture by 2030?
• What will be the biggest challenge in achieving that vision?
• In 2030, how has public perception of agriculture changed?
• What is a "must have" in an Ag Vision for California?

Let them hear your ideas and come to one of these sessions:
July 1st - San Luis Obispo: 12 p.m. - 3 p.m.
July 2nd - Tulare: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
July 7th - Oxnard: 12 p.m. - 3 p.m.
July 8th - Escondido: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

For more information or to RSVP, visit www.cdfa.ca.gov/agvision.

It's Stone Fruit Season

I finally had the chance to go to the Torrance Certified Farmers' Market yesterday and found some great seasonal stone fruit, including cherries, apricots, peaches and plums. Just remember, if you are a cherry lover, you better get them quick since the season is very short.

Here's a couple of shots that I took as I was walking through the market
Erickson Farms of Fresno, has several different cherry varieties in the bing family.

These yummy apricots are from MB Farms (Mark Boujikian's farm).

Inspired Idea: Tax Breaks For Victory Gardens

If you aren't familiar with the group Kitchen Gardeners International, you might soon become familiar with them as they have been in the news a lot lately thanks to founder Roger Doiron, http://www.kitchengardeners.org/

His group advocates growing your own via "Kitchen Gardens," and his newest idea is brilliant, he asks the question: "Which Will Be First State to Offer Tax Breaks for Victory Gardens?

As he says: "We provide fiscal incentives to people to encourage them to put hybrid cars in their garages and solar panels on their roofs, so why not offer incentives for solar-powered, healthy food production in their backyard? With wars still waging, food and oil costs rising, and paychecks stretching to the breaking point, now is the time for a home-grown revival. What better way to usher in this revolution than by marrying two great American traditions: vegetable gardening and tax cuts?"

As Doiron points out, the wartime "Victory Garden" campaign was a huge success, with over 20 million gardens growing 8 million tons of food by 1943. He also points out that more home gardens would offer us victory not only over rising food and health care costs, but also foreign oil dependency and climate change.

His ideas consider local, state, and federal breaks for home gardeners such as removing sales tax on seeds, fruit bushes, and seedlings and even giving an income tax break for people similar to the deduction with home offices that allow you to deduct based on square footage. As Doiron suggests: "The bigger your garden, the better the tax break. Those with no yard could deduct the rental fee for a community garden plot."

Good News: Locavore Movement Helping Revive Family Farms

An interesting and hopeful article appears in the May 20, online edition of Business Week. www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/may2008/db20080520_920283.htm

It discusses the fact that the trend toward eating locally has led to both an increase in the number of farmers' markets in the U.S., (The U.S. Agriculture Dept. indicating the number of markets reached 4,692 in 2006, its most recent year of data, up 50% from five years earlier. Sales from those markets reached $1 billion,), but also an actual increase in the number of small farms.

According to the article: "After declining for more than a century, the number of small farms has increased 20% in the past six years, to 1.2 million, according to the Agriculture Dept."

As somebody who has been writing about farming for the past decade, I can't say how exciting and encouraging it is to see statistics that indicate small farms are on the increase.

Unfortunately, the good news is tempered with more of the same sad news, the large food retailers are also now "cashing in" on the local movement, much as they have done with the organic market. However, I guess to see the positive side to even this trend is to recognize that many consumers who would not normally have access to any locally grown fresh produce now do.

Lastly, the article points out that local produce is now starting to show up in all kinds of unexpected places aside from schools, like cafeterias of companies such as Target, Oracle, and DreamWorks.

My goal is to see more farm-to-school and farm-to-hospital programs and am doing my own small part to help make that happen.

Big News: Book Has On Sale Date!

While I am still recovering from my wonderful trip to San Francisco, I was very excited when I got home to receive word that a tentative date for my book to go on sale has been selected.

Ready? It's Monday, September 8. It sure does make it seem real now! So, being technologically impaired, I couldn't figure out how to turn the PDF of the cover into a photo so dorky me just took a photo of it and I am posting it here, (clicking on it makes it bigger but it does look way lame)!

It's titled: Farming in Torrance and the South Bay and is being published by Arcadia Publishing.

I am going to be posting stories about our wonderful farmers and history here in the weeks ahead.

LA Farm Girl Taking in San Francisco Ag.

Just a quick post to let you all know that I am alive and well visiting San Francisco for my birthday this week.

I wasn't able to visit the awesome Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market since I missed it, but I did visit the Ferry Building that offers plenty of locally grown fruits and vegetables from farms mostly in Marin County across the bay.

These include Capay Organic Farm that offers fresh produce at the farm, the Ferry Building Marketplace, and via home or office delivery, http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/.

The photo of the sign here is from them and of course there's a photo of the Ferry Building from the Hyatt Regency across the street. If you haven't visited since its been renovated, make sure you see it, http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/ There's also a McEvoy Olive stand, Cowboy Creamery Artisan Cheese Store, Hog Island Oyster Company and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Company.