Planet Veggie Garden

We live in Oakland California about 10 miles across the Bay from San Francisco.
San Francisco is known - probably worldwide - for being on the “liberal” edge.
In the past few years they’ve put through a rather huge restaurant food waste recycling program, banned plastic bags in grocery stores, banned polystyrene (aka Styrofoam) food containers and [...]

Slow Food Nation ‘08 San Francisco City Hall

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A beautiful sunny day, we arrived via BART for the first day of the Slow Food Nation ‘08 Celebration to tour the Victory Gardens in front of San Francisco City Hall.

Surreal View of City Hall Through the Victory Garden

 
It seemed almost surreal to see what was once a [...]

The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) passed regulation last week allowing fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce to be irradiated.
Food irradiation involves zapping the food with ionizing radiation. The radiation damages the DNA of micro-organisms such as E. coli and salmonella and kills them. Hence, no more food-born illness issue.
The FDA has been allowing [...]

Slow Food Nation ’08 is coming to town this weekend – August 29th to September 1st. Just what is Slow Food? (from slowfoodusa.org):
Slow Food USA is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to supporting and celebrating the food traditions of North America through programs and activities dedicated to Taste Education, Defending Biodiversity and Building [...]

How many of you gardeners out there are a bit lonely in your gardening “hobby”… how many of you have friends and family that - when they see or hear about your garden - say “that’s nice dear” and steer the conversation away from such “fringe” activities?
That may change in the future. Home veggie gardens [...]

In this political year…
Wait, I’m not getting into a heated political discussion, but what if…
more government lawns were converted to veggie gardens?
What if - like the sprawling lawn outside of San Francisco City Hall - a few more sprawling lawns were converted to food growing rather than need mowing?
What if?

 
During the [...]

We’re in a Victory Garden revival period.
It’s commonly believed the Victory Garden movement started during World War II… and it did… under that title.
It’s predecessor was the War Garden which started during World War I.
The intentions were similar… have the population produce most of the food they need to free up large [...]

Quick… what word did the New Oxford American Dictionary deem word of the year for 2007…
LOCAVORE
A locavore is one who eats locally grown food. Local often defined as grown within 100 miles.
So Carnivore - meat eating.
Vegetarian - vegetable (and fruit eating)… shouldn’t it be a Vegavore?
Locavore - engages in the sustainable practice of [...]

War on this, War on that.
The word has been adapted into our culture… and perhaps, overused.
I believe the first adaptation of “War” was by the Johnson administration in the mid 1960’s - War on Poverty. Part of Johnson’s “Great Society”.
Seems a bit ironic since war is by nature destructive. I suppose this presumes destruction precedes [...]

San Francisco City Hall planted it’s Victory Garden over the weekend.
A few weeks ago there was a sprawling lawn in front of City Hall. That was dug up (the sod was given away) and transformed into garden beds.
The beds were planted over the weekend. Harvest is scheduled for Labor Day.
Not your typical City [...]