Carol Rossi's Posts

Green Festival Features Organic Gardening and Urban Farming Pavilion

Posted by Carol Rossi on October 24, 2010 at 1:54pm

The 9th annual Green Festival returns to the San Fransicso Concourse Exhibition Center on Saturday, November 6th and Sunday, November 7th. The theme of this year's Green Festival, billed as the nation's largest sustainability event, is "Engagement" and the festival promises green shopping, great live music, "cutting edge eco-innovations", hands-on workshops, fun family activities, insightful speakers, organic wine and beer, and "delicious, local vegetarian cuisine."

For the Bay Area organic gardener this year's Green Festival offers an extra special highlight: read more

County Line Harvest Introduces Rogue Market concept

Posted by Carol Rossi on September 23, 2010 at 8:22pm

County Line Harvest, a six-acre certified organic farm located in Petaluma, has introduced an interesting new twist to the CSA format called a Rogue Market. Folks who want to enjoy a box of freshly harvested organic produce pre-order a "mystery" box and then pick it up at a weekly scheduled rogue marketplace. Each box costs $25, paid in cash when picked up, and is filled with seasonal produce that County Line promises is a
better value than what can be purchased at a Farmers' Market or local grocery store. The best part is you don't have to commit to a full year of boxes like with a conventional CSA so you can try out the product and the service to see if it's for you. You also don't have to worry about missing a box pick-up due to vacation or other situations. Read more...

City of Walnut Creek sponsors free Healthy Garden Workshop

Posted by Carol Rossi on September 23, 2010 at 8:17pm

The City of Walnut Creek is sponsoring a free Healthy Garden Workshop scheduled for Saturday, Novmeber 6, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at The Gardens at Heather Farm (GHF). The program, funded by the City and co-sponsored by GHF, is free to residents but does have limited seating. Read more...

Excess dog poo has inspired a new up-and-coming green business in the East Bay that should be on the radar of all serious organic gardeners. Rainbow Worms was launched April 1st by Bob Swan, founder a

Posted by Carol Rossi on August 24, 2010 at 7:19am

Excess dog poo has inspired a new up-and-coming green business in the East Bay that should be on the radar of all serious organic gardeners. Rainbow Worms was launched April 1st by Bob Swan, founder and chief worm wrangler, from the front porch of his San Lorenzo home and is already shipping to customers across the United States. Read more...

East Bay MUD offers rebates for residential water conservation

Posted by Carol Rossi on July 22, 2010 at 12:36pm

The East Bay Municipal Water District is offering several rebates on water conservation products or services that should be of interest to East Bay gardeners.

The first is for mulch discount coupons. Organic mulch is almost peerless as the gardener's best friend...read more

Bay-Friendly Gardening Program offers free resources for the home gardener

Posted by Carol Rossi on July 22, 2010 at 12:30pm

The Bay-Friendly Gardening Program is a project created by StopWaste.org, a coalition of the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board. The program encourages a natural approach to gardening and landscaping that works in harmony with the conditions of the San Fransisco Bay watershed and also conserves and protects our natural resources. Bay-Friendly principles include...read more

Save heirloom seed stock through the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (BASIL)

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 26, 2010 at 5:00pm

The world's seed supply is in crisis.

After World War II F-1 hybrid seeds began to replace open-pollinated (or heirloom) seed stock. The large agribusinesses that sprang up preferred the hybrids because they produced a uniform crop with uniform maturation, generated higher yields, and tended to have greater resistance to disease. Plus monocropping (growing one species of seed on vast tracts of land) is more efficient and profitable because a single crop is easier to harvest and tend than multiple crops or species. Read more...

Eat Real Festival a "streetwise" celebration of local food

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 21, 2010 at 7:00pm

The third annual Eat Real Festival, scheduled for August 27th - 29th, 2010 in Oakland's Jack London Square,
is serving up a double portion of local food and fun this year by doubling the number of street food vendors and adding an Urban Homesteading demonstration zone to the celebration.

Founded in 2008 to promote local, sustainable, affordable, and delicious food, the Festival is a celebration of street food and artisan foods that contain local ingredients. Read more

Cooking Fresh for the Bay Area

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 13, 2010 at 12:00pm

Here in the Bay Area, where the eating local and organic movement first started in Alice Waters' Berkeley restaurant garden, we still have farms that grow the fresh and fabulous ingredients that inspire some of the best chefs in the world. Now Eating Fresh has put together the Bay Area's very own cookbook to celebrate our seasonal crops and teach locavores how to make mouthwatering meals from them: Cooking Fresh from the Bay Area. Read more...

San Ramon Community Gardens

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 12, 2010 at 5:42pm

The folks who till the soil at the San Ramon Gardens (officially known as North Gardens) have a long history of mixing individual expression with producing a bounty of delicious, fresh, locally raised vegetables.

Originally located adjacent to now defunct Mudd's Restaurant and the Crow Canyon Community Gardens, the North Gardens were moved in 2008 to a field 100 yards west, in partbecause city officials objected to the lack of uniformity in thefencing, planting beds, arbors, and plant supports. Read more...

Eating Local, a cookbook of seasonal foods

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 11, 2010 at 12:30pm

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a popular way for people interested in "eating local" to buy fresh, seasonal food direct from farmers in their area. The catch is you have to learn to cook and enjoy the food delivered in your weekly box as it ripens according to the season, even if there are some unfamiliar veggies in there! The solution is Eating Local, The Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers. Read more...

Buy Fresh Buy Local guide is the ultimate resource for local food

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 6, 2010 at 11:55am

Buy Fresh Buy Local, a project to expand markets for family farms in California, has issued the 3rd edition of its Eater's Guide to Local Food, Bay Area. This guide is the ultimate reference to help folks find and enjoy local fresh, seasonal foods from producers within their geographical area.

The amount of information within these 60 pages is amazing, even slightly overwhelming! Read more...

"Superweeds" immune to Roundup® require stronger herbicides

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 5, 2010 at 4:30pm

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about a new generation of "superweeds" that have developed immunity to Roundup®, the legendary herbicide made by Monsanto. Roundup® was considered a wonder chemical when it was first brought to market and Monsanto nearly bankrupted its competitors in the 1990s when it introduced its first genetically modified product - Roundup-tolerant soybean seeds Read more...

Top ten CSA delivery vendors in the East Bay

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 3, 2010 at 8:38am

Folks in the East Bay are busy and even though they want to eat organicand local, may not have time to stop at a Community SupportedAgriculture (CSA) farm or Farmers' Market for their weekly purchase offruits and vegetables. What's the solution? Direct delivery of affordable CSA farm products to drop-off points in your neighborhood! Read more...

Patrice Hanlon, Garden Manager at Heather Farm

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 3, 2010 at 8:30am

Patrice Hanlon has a gardener's dream job: Garden Manager of The Gardens at Heather Farm (GHF) in Walnut Creek. Before you swoon with envy, realize she is the only paid gardener on site with responsibility for 3.5 acres of developed land containing 24 demonstration gardens and learning sites. That's a lot of digging, planting, and weeding! Of course Patrice has help: a large group of volunteers who propagate plants and work directly in the gardens. But it still takes dedication and hard work to tend a garden of that size. Read more...

Common Ground's 4th annual Edible Landscaping Tour

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 3, 2010 at 8:30am

Common Ground, the affiliate of Ecology Action, has announced its 4th annual Edible Landscaping Tour for Saturday, July 24th, 2010 from 11am - 4pm. Participants on the self-guided tour will visit ten beautiful gardens with edible, organic landscapes plus tour the Common Ground Demonstration Garden and meet the gardeners who have transformed their suburban lots into creative inspirations of green garden practices. All the gardens are located in Palo Alto and neighboring communities. Read more...

East Bay MUD dry-climate plant book a "must" for sustainable gardeners

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 2, 2010 at 2:36pm

Their name may be Mud, but East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD)has created a beautiful and informative reference for gardeners tendingtheir beds in the hills and flats of the East Bay's climate-diversecommunities. The book, Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the San Francisco Bay Region,should be the "bible" on the shelf of every gardener who wants a lush,eye-pleasing garden without compromising his or her commitment tosustainable land management and water conservation. Read more...

Local Harvest: an online resource for organic food

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 2, 2010 at 2:34pm

Local Harvestis a fantastic online resource for all things organic, not just forEast Bay folks, but for organic food fans across the country! TheLocal Harvest virtual store offers 7,954 products fromfamily farmers who focus on selling fresh organic products direct totheir local communities or via mail order to the far flung corners ofthe United States. Products include fruits, meats,vegetables, honey, preserves, flowers, soaps, seeds, wool and fibers,and (bless them) chocolate and deserts. Read more...

Community Supported Agriculture in the East Bay

Posted by Carol Rossi on June 2, 2010 at 2:33pm

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for people interested in "eating local"to buy fresh, seasonal food direct from a farmer in their area.Typically the farmer sells a fixed number of "shares" to members of thecommunity who "subscribe" in the program. Shareholders are thenentitled to a box of fruit, vegetables, or other farm products eachweek throughout the growing season. The boxes are picked up at thefarm so you can't get much more local food unless you grow it in yourown backyard! Read more...