Los Angeles

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Los Angeles

Caltech Olive Festival

Every year, Caltech harvests the olives from 130 olive trees on campus in Pasadena, CA.  They send most of the harvest to a local company to press and bottle, but there are some dedicated students who press olives immediately, creating a gorgeous purple goo from which the freshest olive oil can be skimmed.

Many California vendors, including Trader Joe’s, sell olive oil produced here in California.

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The Basics

Changing your behavior around food, even just a little bit, can help you save money and get healthier.

  1. Be conscious of where your food is coming from. If you’re not sure, just ask. Chances are, if it came from close by, it’s fresher, more nutritious, and cost less in burning fossil fuels to get it to you. If it’s in season, it’s probably even cheaper.
  2. Shop at your local farmer’s market. Food with no packaging is usually the healthiest food.
  3. Grow your own food. See our recommendations for the best low-maintenance plants for your region. Be reasonable, and plant only as much as you think you have time to take care of – even one tomato plant will produce beautiful, ripe treasures.

Remember that the freshest and healthiest is not necessarily the most expensive. While the big fancy grocery chains consistently have more information posted about organic vs conventional and where food is produced, the farmer’s market can often beat out both freshness and price. Farmers will almost always volunteer the location of their farm and their practices with pesticides – just ask, and don’t be afraid to shop around for the best-looking product and most honest sounding vendor. You can be sure the seller also has great ideas for how to prepare pretty much anything they have.

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Growing in LA

Certainly, periods of different temperatures affect what will thrive.. here’s what we’ve had success with:

Fall / Early Winter – this is when you should be planting your beans and peas and anything else that is cold-hardy, as the nightly lows can get into the 30s and 40s.  Many herbs will be good here as well, especially cilantro which will definitely not like the hotter weather coming.  Likely, you will have success with leafy veggies as well – lettuce, chard, beets, kale, etc.  Fall is a great time to plant alliums like onions and garlic, as well as tubers (although potatoes can be rather finicky).

Late Winter / Early Spring – plant your hot-weather lovers, like tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant early!  You’ll be glad you did – they’ll be producing early, and will love all the full sunshine once they’ve established a good root system.  It’s also a good idea to continually sow any herbs like cilantro and basil from which you’d like an ongoing harvest.

Late Spring / Summer – you can continue to sow summer plants if you like, but know that there will be a shorter growing season for them.