Tasteless avocados have me pining for the farmers market

I've been a bad blogger. It's been over two weeks since my last post because it's harder to find the time now that rugby season is in full swing. I'm also not doing as many good things for the environment that would be worthy of a post. I'm in my daily driving routine to work and on the weekends I've had rugby games so I haven't made it to the Sunday farmers market in a few weeks. My routine is pretty much wake up, get ready for work, drive to work, drive to rugby practice (or go running), come home, cook something that resembles a meal in under five minutes because it's late and I'm hungry, maybe take a second shower of the day, go to bed. Then wake up, repeat. Sorry, Earth.

I wish I had made it to the farmers market this week because I accidentally bought avocados from Chile at the grocery store and am now feeling the guilt. To make it worse, the one I cut into tonight was TERRIBLE. I was too excited by the 65 cent price to notice the country of origin. I also didn't realize that the two bright green avocados I picked out weren't ripe yet so it was like trying to cut plastic. And it might as well have been plastic since there was no taste either. I'm hoping that the other one will taste better if given a few days to ripen but I'm not holding out much hope. How fresh and flavorful can a vegetable be that came all the way from South America? I've gotten pretty good about reading country of origin signs when I'm buying seafood, so this is a reminder that I need to pay closer attention in the produce department too, and not get sucked in by the sales price.

In a related topic, I liked this story in the Sunday LA Times about a woman who planted a vegetable garden in her front yard a year ago. It reminded me of my sister, whose husband planted a garden along the side of her house in Temecula. They moved last year and I hear (via her blog!) that he's planted another one at their home in Dallas. I'm jealous of her abundance (or what I presume is an abundance based on the success of her garden in California) of tomatoes, squash and basil. It's sad that it's not easy to get reasonably priced fresh produce without having a garden of your own. No wonder eating healthy is so hard. Who wants to eat an avocado that tastes like plastic? Not I, not I.

30 years of farm food in LA

A few days after I railed against a Times op-ed criticizing foodies who encourage people to eat at so-called pricey farmers markets, it was nice to see a positive farmers market story in today's paper. The story, about Los Angeles County celebrating 30 years of farmers markets, was written by Mary MacVean. It said that L.A. is soliciting ideas for how to make farm food more available, with the winning idea being a central hub where farmers could bring their produce to be distributed by electric trucks to neighborhoods. I know what my suggestion would be: longer hours. OK, that may be unrealistic (how long do tomatoes stay fresh sitting under a tent in the bright sun?) but with Long Beach's Sunday farmers market closing at 2 p.m., I can't always get there in time, or forget about it until 1:30 p.m. when it's too late to go. So even though I didn't make it to the market this week, it was nice reading this article and dreaming about the meals I'll make in the future with farm fresh food.