An Olive Oil Education – Mar Vista’s Bounty Hunter
The latest post on Mar Vista Patch.com is available - learn the truth about that bottle of olive oil in your pantry:
Mar Vista's Liquid Gold
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(Clockwise from top left) Orach Mountain Spinach, cilantro, Roc D'Or yellow wax beans, Dragon Tongue beans, Ronde de Nice zucchini, Bennings Green Tint patty pan squash.
After-Vacation Harvesting
There's a point at which every garden hits autopilot. With a little planning and adequate irrigation it can happen while you're on vacation. During my trip to Italy my garden took off, and when I got back it was time to harvest the first fruits of the season. (My apologies to those still covered in snow out there. Your time is coming 
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Some may recall that our community garden plot was going through some hard times last year - excessive zinc in the soil, nematodes - things were just ...
I added some of the whey back in to make it a little thinner, since I "helped" by squeezing too much whey out of the yogurt as it was draining.
Trials and Tribulations of Making Yogurt
It happens every once in a while, probably every few months. Some people go on a bender. I go on a cooking jag.
The latest cooking jag involved making bread from a new book (more on this later), finding new ways to use a mountain of freshly harvested kale, and making the seemingly simple recipe for home made yogurt in a Thermos. It seems like every newsletter and magazine I opened in May featured home made yogurt, so the time had come to try it out.
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Apricots are in Season at the Farmers’ Market
This week Mar Vista's Bounty Hunter found apricots and fava beans to delight customers at the Mar Vista Farmer's Market. Find out what you can do with both of these in your kitchen:
Do Me a Fava and Eat an Apricot This Memorial Day
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Italy Travelogue: Farmers’ Markets Abroad
In the last few years, Los Angeles has seen an abundance of Farmers' Markets popping up all over town. People are longing to get back to the way things used to be, by buying fresh local produce straight from the farmer. Well, in Italy it still is the way it used to be, and nothing proves it more than a visit to a Farmers' Market.
There are many towns, even cities, in Italy where supermarkets do not exist. Instead the locals get their food needs met by stopping at the baker on the ...
Cherry Season is Here!
Don't you love it when new fruits pop up at the Farmers' Market? This week's Mar Vista Bounty Hunter is all about cherries and what to do with them:
It's a Cherry Jubilee at the Farmers' Market
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Italy Travelogue: Umbria’s Beauty and Hotel Montali
I've just returned from 12 days in Italy filled with gelato, pasta, cheese and beautiful countryside. May is a wonderful time to be there - just before the stifling heat, but just after gardens have been planted. If there's one thing you see a lot of in Italy, it's front yard gardens. They are not obsessed with the idea of a grassy front lawn like we Americans. They use their land to grow food - lots of food.
Driving through the green rolling hills of Umbria, we saw small Medieval towns dotting the ...
Local Organic Blueberries – Get ’em at the Patch
Here's the most recent post from our forages through the Mar Vista Farmers' Market:
Organic Blueberries Give Kids a Sweet Snack Alternative
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Dream Garden Grows Up
I stopped by the Dream Center garden in downtown Los Angeles yesterday to see how things are growing in and I was delighted to see what has transpired since my last visit. It's all grown up!
Not only did the flagstone and decomposed granite get installed in the pathway, but the mulch had arrived (free from the City) and it was all in place.
Pathway complete, plants growing in. Happiness is a thriving garden!
Some of the tomatoes even had fruit set already: ...
Venice Garden Tour 2011 Review
Every gardenerd needs to "fill the well" sometimes, to take in beauty and inspiration that will generate ideas for future gardening projects. Today was filled with sparks of gardening inspiration at the Venice Garden Tour. There were 31 houses on the tour, so we set out on foot to take them all in.
Venice Beach, for those who aren't familiar, is an eclectic town populated with artists, architects, landscape designers, and hippies. It was the epicenter of pushing the envelope in the 20s, where the world's first swimsuit competition was held. It's the ...