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Locavores Talking the Talk

Posted at 9:36 AM on June 8, 2008 by Leslie Allen (3 Comments)

I recently had the most awesome day! I was asked by Moana Nursery to give a talk on how to be a locavore. I asked my friend Shelley, a locavore and blogger, to join me, and we had a full house! There were 75 people at our talk, and they were turning people away at the door because the room couldn't hold any more.

When Moana asked me to give this talk, I suggested they also invite some local food producers to create a mini farmers market. We were so lucky to have Lattin Farms selling spinach and purple asparagus, Joy's Honey selling honey and beeswax, and Heavenly Organics selling oyster mushrooms and mushroom growing kits.

We presented for 1.5 hours on reasons to eat locally, local resources for local food, and how to grow more food in your yard. Both Shelley and I have broken from the conventional, all-American tradition of big lawns and nothing else. Her backyard is totally devoted to growing food and beautiful flowers, but no lawn. This year I converted another chunk of my front lawn into a veggie garden. I am growing corn, pole beans, potatoes, watermelon, and grapes where there used to be only lawn.

We were astounded by the interest in eating locally, and happily fielded a ton of questions. Most of the people in attendance were over 50, and when I asked if they had memories of their parents' or grandparents' Victory Gardens many hands flew into the air! Perhaps now is the time to restart the Victory Garden tradition? What do you think? Are you interested in planting a garden for victory?

Comments (3)

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Leslie,
How totally cool! Here inour local newspapers there have several articles over the last couple of weeks about people choosing to grow a little bit of food. The numbers will increase.
Paulette

Posted by Paulette Thompson | June 8, 2008 4:10 PM

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I often think about converting my lawns to add more growing area for vegetables and fruit trees. My kids and other visitors like to think of our house as the place you go to play croquet or soccer. The kids are pretty much out of the house now, but I still feel like preserving some lawn for the games.

Laura

Posted by Laura Solorio | June 8, 2008 5:54 PM

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How exciting. I think people across the nation are getting this vision. Our town and household sure has. Our farmer's market is exploding this year even with the death of a very old timer vendor who managed to supply us all summer with local produce from around the area for years. We miss him!! Other locals have come up to the plate and are providing us with lots of beautiful things.
I took the day off from work yesterday to gather veg. out of the garden and I'm taking tomorrow off to can them. Salsa and pickles. Yummy. I finished off the last jar of last summer's salsa. So I'm psyched for more!!!

Posted by Margaret Flynn | June 11, 2008 8:59 AM