www.eatlocalchallenge.com

Not everyone is a gardener

by Jasmine

I am not a gardener. I have dabbled in gardening and failed miserably. The year that I rented a garden plot in Burlington, Vermont’s Intervale had to be one of the most humbling experiences in my brief gardening career. The garden plot comes marked out and with the soil freshly turned by the blades of a rototiller (or more likely a tractor). I bought seeds and seedlings. I marked out rows. I planned companion plantings. I tried to plan succession planting but a little math soon led me to see that 70 days from the end of the season was only three weeks after the beginning of the season. This is where the adventure began.

Local Florida Fish?

by Claire Tompkins

"I think that enjoyment and pleasure are terms that have truly been lost from our vocabulary. We don't appreciate our food anymore. If we don't take care of the resources, we won't have it to enjoy."  So says Miami chef Steve Raichlen. 

He notes that organic farming is particularly challenging in Florida due to voracious tropical pests.  He supports local agriculture but is personally more interested in simple eating seasonally, which I expect doesn't always fly too well in high end restaurants. 

Case in point, elsewhere in the article, fish flown in from Alaska are mentioned.  But these chefs are in Florida, on the ocean.  Aren't there good local fish there?  C'mon!  Raichlen mentions seasonal (2 months) swordfish, but that's it.

Claire is an enthusiastic backyard gardener.  Her nascent blog is here:  www.organiclifeblog.com