Not as local as the backyard, but still eating locally

It's November 1st and my garden has given up the ghost. With the exception of a few very fine looking onions, I've got fallow land on my hands.

In all honesty, this first attempt at growing my own food was a bit of a bust. The reason, as determined by me and as verified by reliable resources (my mom, other gardening friends), is that I just didn't have enough dirt in my raised bed. Sometime before I plant again in the spring I'm going to add another several inches to the sides of the garden bed and fill it in with my Mel's Mix. According to my friend Pat, broccoli won't even consider growing without about a foot of dirt. So... now I know what my goal is. Also, I'm installing drip irrigation in my garden. My zucchini never had a chance against the powdery mildew. Next year I will prevent it from even thinking about touching my squash.

In the meantime I've taken up the next best thing to having a personal garden: I've joined a local organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Because we live in Los Angeles, there are actually a fair number of these CSA's in the area. Basically, an interested person can "subscribe" to a CSA, paying either a weekly, monthly or annual fee. Depending on the CSA and on your household needs, you can pick up a box of fresh, seasonal produce from a drop off location (often a farmers' market, though sometimes from a private residence) once a week or twice a month.

The CSA I've joined is the South Central Farmers' Cooperative. The farmers in this co-op used to farm a large community garden in downtown LA that was eventually bulldozed by the city and inspired the documentary, The Garden. Now they have a larger piece of land that is funded in part by the CSA.

This week's box included several kinds of kale, collard greens, two eggplants, cilantro, spaghetti squash, green tomatoes, zucchini, sunburst and scallop squash, and purple pole beans. To add to my local mix, I also visited the farmers market for organic apples (Red Winesap and Pink Lady), California olives, and fresh vanilla bean quark. Here's the menu for the week so far. I'm providing links when I can find them--so many recipes that I have in my cook books are also available online:

Halloween Night (yesterday):
Pumpkin Soup (local pumpkin from a family farm)
Melting Greens (I used up all the green leafy veggies from the CSA box)
Crusty bread with Parmesan

Sunday Morning:
Pumpkin Waffles
Organic free-range scrambled eggs
Vanilla Bean Quark
Local blackberries and raspberries

Monday:
Helen's Polenta with Eggplant (pg 287 in Laurel's Kitchen)
Purple Pole Beans with a cheesy, lemony, garlicky topping

Wednesday:
Pancetta Pasta with sundried tomato cream sauce
Zucchini Squash

Thursday:
Still seeking a good recipe for spaghetti squash--any suggestions?
Fried green tomatoes
Starburst squash
Maybe I'll do something with cilantro too