VILLAGE NEWS LA JOLLA
LA JOLLA’S PREFERRED SOURCE FOR LOCAL NEWS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011
San Diego Community Newspaper Group
Bring home
the veggies BY KENDRA HARTMANN | VILLAGE NEWS
aren Eckhart knows the power of putting your money where your mouth is. After all, she’s been doing it for 15 years. The 71year-old goes only as far as her front porch to get local, organic produce delivered weekly to her Windansea home from Be Wise Ranch, located eight miles east of San Diego. “I was always interested in the benefits of organic eating and gardening,” said Eckhart, who has lived in La Jolla since 1965. “When I learned there was a way to have a variety of organic fruits and vegetables delivered that were reaKaren Eckhart receives a shipment of vegetables to her Windansea home on Jan. 24, sonably priced, that which she will distribute to about 40 local families. DON BALCH | Village News was appealing.” Eckhart is part of a growing phenomenon called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Local farms (Be Wise is only one of several in the area) deliver boxes of farmfresh goods to sites around the county, The following conoften at a fraction of grocery store tents were delivered in prices. Eckhart hosts Be Wise’s La Jolla Be Wise Ranch’s large pickup site, offering her own front porch CSA box on Jan. 24 as the hub where members can retrieve (small boxes also availtheir produce. able for $25): The catch is that consumers don’t get to • 3 pounds of apples choose what they get. The fruits and vegeta• 1 pound of baby bok choy bles delivered are chosen by the farmer, based on what’s been harvested that week. • 2 pounds of broccoli
K
What’s in the box?
• 1 pound of leaf broccoli • 1 head of cabbage • 1 pound of carrots • 2 pounds of red potatoes • 1 bunch of dill • 4 large grapefruit • 2 heads of lettuce • 6 limes • 2 pounds of oranges • 1 bunch of radishes • 1 bunch of rosemary
Total cost: $30
Want to know how to incorporate CSA potluck-style assortments into your cooking routine? See page 7 for recipes from Cups’ Farm-to-Table class.
“Sometimes you get things you might not otherwise have purchased, but that’s part of the fun” said Eckhart. “People are out there going through their boxes, saying, ‘What do you do with this?’ Conversations about the produce take place among members and people share recipes.” Be Wise also offers recipes on its website to prepare things from apples to zucchini, but for members who prefer further instruction, there is now another option. Cups bakery, located at 7857 Girard Ave., offers culinary classes geared toward cooking with CSA produce. The “Farm-to-Table” classes, headed by Cups culinary director Jesus Gonzalez, happen twice monthly and feature a box of produce from a local CSA farm, which Gonzalez uses to creates dishes. On Jan. 16, the class used vegetables from Be Wise and made a variety of dishes, like goat cheese and cod wrapped in Swiss chard and a chipotle peanut sauce over nuts, wild rice and grapes. Students can bring their own boxes and learn creative ways to prepare their not-so-common vegetables. Cups owner Michelle Lerach said she started offering the classes after talking to current or former members of CSAs and realizing they had been wasting produce due to a lack of preparation ideas. “We wanted to show them that it really can be very simple to utilize every item in their CSA box,” Lerach said. Eckhart said knowing she’s not contributing to the degradation of local soils is worth having 40 or so strangers on her porch every week. She said once pesticides and artificial sprays are used, a return to an organic way of farming can take years because chemicals make their way out of the earth slowly. “Once you lose organic soil, it’s very hard to go back,” she said. “By participating in a CSA, you’re not only getting the benefit of great produce, you’re also casting a vote for the sustainability of small farms and organic practices.” Lerach said by making a political statement with groceries, locals can regain a connection to the land that’s been lost, and no one but the big agri-industry loses. “We lose something in the name of convenience and we’re trying to get it back,” she said. “People think it will take hours to prepare something fresh. We’re just trying to show them that with five simple ingredients, all fresh and healthy, you can create something for your family.”
Scott Appleby & Kerry ApplebyPayne A Family Tradition of Real Estate Success
858-775-2014
DRE#01197544 DRE#01071814
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 16, Number 19
Schools expecting $120 million deficit BY KENDRA HARTMANN | VILLAGE NEWS Teachers, parents and administrators discussed the future of public education on Jan. 19 at an emergency budget meeting at La Jolla High School (LJHS). LJHS principal Dana Shelburne led the audience of about 30 through the intricacies of the school board’s 2011/2012 proposed “sitebased budgeting” plan. Under the plan, each school, or “site,” will be given a base allocation from the state, which covers the cost of a principal and teachers only. Any additional expenditures, including counselors, vice principals, janitors and librarians, will have to come out of a “discretionary fund,” and schools are allowed to decide individually how they would like to prioritize that money. SEE SCHOOLS, Page 5
City decision could close all La Jolla dispensaries
Various strains of marijuana are sold at Avail Collective, located at 909 Prospect St. Ste. 130 C. The co-op, tucked in the corner of a busy commercial center of shops and restaurants, is fighting to keep it’s doors open amid proposed municipal regularions. KENDRA HARTMANN | Village News
BY KENDRA HARTMANN | VILLAGE NEWS Bryan Wilcox used to have a six-figure job. He used to have a house, car and all the accoutrements that come with a typical life in suburbia. Then the economy took a turn for the worse. Like many, he said, he had to make some changes, but he took a decidedly atypical direction. A few years ago, Wilcox’s cousin was dying of cancer. Given four months to live, she survived for two years, a miracle he said she attributed to the regular treatments of medicinal marijuana. Realizing that this was something that real patients had a real need for, Wilcox said he made the decision to open a medicinal marijuana cooperative to provide for his patients and make ends meet. So, a litSEE CO-OP, Page 5