100 Mile Diet: I Never Promised You a Tomato Garden
by Siel, Los Angeles on 11. 3.06
When I joined the 100-mile diet, I felt psyched, energized, inspired. I felt greener than green.
For a second.
Then all those serious, life-altering questions began to cloud my green mind. You know – the really important ones, like, "Will I have to give up vodka?" Clearly, this is the question that makes most would-be 100-mile dieters give up. But let me back up a bit. What's a 100-mile diet, you ask? The premise is simple: Only eat things produced within 100 miles from you.
The execution, however, is far from simple, in this globalized, mechanized world, even for a gal who already buys only organic produce from ParadiseO, doesn't eat red meat or poultry, and gets organic whole wheat bread from Trader Joe's. I mean, where does that organic whole wheat flour come from, let alone the organic soybean oil?
Even for a SoCal girl, with lots of farms all around and temperate weather all year, the 100-mile diet's no easy task. For those in less sunny areas, it's a Herculean feat. For proof, just read the story of J.B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, the two people who started the whole 100-mile diet hoopla. They tried to do this in Vancouver, Canada, -- and lost about 15 pounds in six weeks before they decided to loosen the rules a bit.
I'm all for the loosening of rules. For practical purposes, of course. Like vodka.
Luckily, the 100 Mile Diet guide's quite forgiving. The first rule: Start small. The second rule: There are no rules.
So – I decided to modify things a bit. I'm starting small by dealing with produce first. And instead of the 100-mile rule, I'm going with an in-state rule. I'm gonna make sure my produce is California grown, without worrying about whether the carrots came from just south (within 100 miles) or just north (outside 100 miles) of Bakersfield.
Theoretically, these are pretty simple rules. But considering the fact that there's no CSA program that delivers to my city, and that my closest farmers market opens at a tortuous hour (9:30 am) and close ridiculously early (1 pm), I need to undergo an entire lifestyle change to meet even my definition of the 100-mile diet.
Fortuitously, I managed to leave my camera in my friend Melissa's place, and had to drop by to pick it up. Melissa lives in Venice (just south of Santa Monica, where I live) and has a lemon tree! There she is, comparing a particularly large lemon to the size of her head –
I picked a lemon, got my camera, and headed home. And I stared at the lemon for a while, for inspiration.
What I really, need, I decided, is a garden of my own.
So imagine my excitement when I got an email from Slow Food LA, asking: "Interested in growing your own produce? Find out how you can safely grow food for yourself and your family in your own back yard."
Never mind that I don't actually have a backyard; at least I have an apartment balcony! I signed myself up, then went to hear James Birch an organic farmer who used to help urban homeowners in LA convert their gardens and landscapes into organic food gardens – from Flora Bella Farms in Three Rivers, Calif.
I got a lot of inspiration, but very little actual practical advice for balcony gardening. Which made me realize: If I want to garden urban style, I gotta talk to current, real-life urban gardeners.
Luckily, my friend Summer has her own backyard garden – complete with LA-style caterpillars with shades and black gloves.
So I'll be posing this question to her: What I really, really want is to grow my own tomatoes – but is October too late in the year to plant these, even for SoCal?
I've had limited success with growing a few tomato plants indoors year round helping polination of the flowers with my finger or a Q-tip. I haven't tried it in years, but when I lived in an apartment years ago in Tennessee I did this and was able to have tomatoes all throughout the winter.
I'm not 100% sure about this, but I believe tomato plants have perennial potential. A friend once told me that they are actually accustomed to a warmer climate than here in PA, and that they can be grown year-round.
I like the flexibility of this.
I'm in Utah and take part in a local CSA; there is also a great variety of locally grown produce.
The challenge is that this is all seasonal; from November to March it's pretty much all imported from CA and other parts of the US (not to mention the air-freighted fresh veg and fruit for the holidays...)
[What's with Typekey not letting us sign-in?]
Short Answer: Yes, it’s probably too late in the season to grow tomatoes in the LA Basin. Plants like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and melons like lots of heat and sun. This time of year, you might get some (I still have a few tomatoes straggling along) but they are rather sad and not juicy. Indoors with a grow light would probably work, but I haven’t tried that.
I live in Culver City, and have a plot in a community garden at Ocean View Farms. I have a tiny backyard at my apartment, but I decided it wasn’t worth putting all the work into turning Bermuda grass into a garden when I might have to move at any time, so the garden, even though it’s a little ways away, is a really great thing. In my backyard and on previous balconies, I have had pots of herbs, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, flowers with moderate success. They really are much happier in the ground. Also, repotting on the balcony can get messy. However, it is definitely worth it in the end! I’ve had my garden for about a year now, and it is a lot of work and I find myself not eating my vegetable as much as I thought I would; it is like eating my kids! I’m working on getting over that though. The garden is close enough to the ocean that we don’t get that much heat in the summer, so I by tomato varieties appropriate for the “early season”. Tomatomania is a total blast; it is held several times throughout the spring at different SoCal locations, and they’ve got (I kid you not) at least 200 different types of tomatoes there. It is so hard trying to limit myself! My favorites last year were Brown Betty, kinda funny looking brown cherry tomatoes, but super sweet and tart too.
Southern California, while much more forgiving that other parts of the country, DOES have seasons. What we don’t have (for the most part) is frost, and that makes a big difference. Myself a transplant from the Midwest, I found it difficult to find information on how to grow food here. Usually, you would plant cool season crops (beets, carrots, spinach, lettuce, peas) in the spring as soon as chance of frost is over; here you plant them in September, and again in January if you want. Warm season crops you can plant (depending on how close to the ocean you are and your elevation) as early as March, and continue all summer. A really good resource to get started is 52 Weeks in the California Garden by Robert Smaus. I also highly recommend The Edible Container Garden by Michael Guerra. Probably my best resource has been the old-timers at OVF; they've been growing in the lame spot for years, know all the tricks, and are usually more than happy to share the knowledge.
I go to the Culver City Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays from 2-7 after work; it’s on Main between Venice & Washington, close to Trader Joe’s.
you're really funny with words.. anyways, vodka, haha.. i know what you mean.. and after watching 'inconvenient truth' i started to realize that i have to do my bit to change the world, eventhough it's like 0.0000001% from a global point of view.. well keep it up! planting tomatoes sounds great! it's never too late to start anything, ahah.. cheers
I started a website a few years ago to help people find their local products. Creatively named LocalProducts.co.uk :) and we've been running it since 2000.
I have the .org of the domain and now live in the US so for now it'll be of benefit to UK users on the 100 mile diet but if I ever find the time (or have enough people ask me to) I'll build the US version too.
The site is quite strict on only allowing art,craft and produce from local producers. It's free to list too.
I hope you enjoy it. You can contact me (the webmaster) through the website.