Sprouted foods are packets of dense nutrition ready for you to add to healthy meals. Check out the local sprout vendor at the Mar Vista Farmers' Market for ideas on how to use them:
Mar Vista Farmers' Market Sprouts Healthy Alternatives
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Ocean View Farms (OVF) organic community garden hosts a tomato tasting for its members and guests each year. I've never been able to attend in the past, but this year I was on site to sample over 65 tomato entries (such hard work!).
It's a blind taste test, and all varieties are places side by side, so this is strictly a "tasting" rather than an overall tomato competition. Prizes, however, are still given out for the tastiest tomato.
Signs welcome visitors to the tasting
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Summer comes to an end each year, as does the warm season vegetable garden, but gardening magazines rarely, if ever, show what that looks like. Why don't we celebrate the end as much as we do the bountiful beginning and mid-season garden? There is beauty in it as much as any garden when it is flourishing.
We took a walk through the end-of-summer garden to snap a few pictures to showcase the beauty of death and decay. It sounds corny, but there really is much to rejoice about the end of a ...
In the never ending quest to find new and tasty ways to consume zucchini, this week we're featuring another great recipe from Rose Elliot's Vegetarian Fast Food. It's the Summer Frittata, which uses asparagus, zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, eggs and Parmesan cheese.
Not only does this dish showcase zucchini, but it also gave us a chance to feature our home-grown asparagus. We've been collection spears each day through summer and although it's hard to resist the urge to just serve home-grown asparagus plainly cooked, this frittata does a nice job of highlighting the produce. ...
As summer winds down, the excitement for fall crops is building. Not sure what to grow? Gardenerd is here to help. We've picked out a special selection of veggies we have been dying to grow - and we're pretty jazzed about it.
Color is the name of the game this fall. Purples, yellows, reds and greens take the stage this fall to brighten up your garden. Check out this beautiful lineup for fall:
2011 Fall FantaSeed Collection
Sure you can buy food at the Farmers' Market, but did you know you can also buy plants to grow your own food? Check out some of our local vendors, and find some great ideas for cooking with home grown herbs:
Buy at the Market to Grow at Home
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Planning out your garden each season is more than just fun - it gives you the chance to plant new varieties and experiment each year. What are you going to grow this fall?
In warm winter climates, fall gardens thrive. In cooler climates, you can still plant a fall garden with protection. Using cold frames, insulated floating row cover, and greenhouses, you can grow cool weather crops all winter long. Here's what to grow:
Root crops, broccoli (Italian broccoli shown left), kohlrabi, peas, chard and ...
I've never had much luck growing watermelons in our coastal climate. The plants usually succumb to powdery mildew before they really get going and the result is little melons or no fruit at all. This year I tried something different and have seen great results. Apparently, it's all about timing.
Watermelons like hot weather to mature, in fact according to the University of Ohio, they need daytime temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees, and nighttime temperatures between 65 and 70 degrees. (While we're at it, soil pH is preferred between 6.0 ...
The latest post from Mar Vista's Bounty Hunter is up and running on Patch.com. It's grape season, and here's how to enjoy them:
Savor the Sweetness of Grapes
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The Three Sisters garden is a Native American planting technique that consists of beans, corn and squash. The corn is planted first, and when it reaches 2 feet tall, pole beans are planted around the corn. The beans use the corn as a trellis to climb. Then squash (usually pumpkins) are planted around the base of the corn and beans to provide shade so the sun won't dry out the soil. It's been done for centuries... let's see how I can screw it up.
The corn part went well. It's the beans that ...