What is a Vegetable?

What's a Vegetable? 

What is a vegetable? I'm serious. Smarty-pants like to point out that tomatoes are a fruit, but so are eggplant and zucchini. If carrot is a root, and celery is a stem, broccoli is a flower, and yes, tomato is a fruit, then what exactly is a vegetable?

According to Wolfgang Stuppy, the research leader in Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew & Wakehurst Place: “the term vegetable doesn’t exist in botanical terminology.” Simple as that.

Veggies might not exist botanically, but they’re not going anywhere culturally. So we're back to square one: what’s a vegetable?

A quick flip through the dictionary is surprisingly unhelpful. The first entry in the Oxford English Dictionary is so broad as to include “any living organism that is not an animal.” Under these guidelines oak trees and hydrangeas could end up on our dinner plates. Less archaic definitions include words like “edible” and “savory.” Leading us back to well, vegetables.

As it turns out, when we’re drawing distinctions between vegetables and fruit, it's not a plant part’s botanical function that matters, but it’s culinary one. And any kid could tell you what’s what: vegetables are dinner and fruit is dessert. We knew it all along.

So why did we ask this unexpectedly complicated question? Right: tomatoes. Like many other savory vegetables, tomatoes are neither root, nor stalk, nor leaf, but—botanically speaking—fruit. And if you’re having a botanical discussion, that’s the word you should use. But if you’re in the kitchen, for the love of pizza call them vegetables.

Knowing the botanical purpose of all our vegetables can help us feel connected to our food, and grateful for it. But the next time some pseudo-smarty pants tells you that tomatoes are fruit... please let them know that strawberries are in fact a vegetable. 

Aubrey Yarbrough is the Community Development Manager for Farmer Mark. Before moving to LA she ran her own organic farm and cooked on the garde manger station of the award winning Elements restaurant in Princeton, NJ. She has contributed poetry to New American Writing and prose to Edible Jersey.

A Case for Refill Stations

We’ve heard the statistics…

• In the Los Angeles area alone, 10 metric tons of plastic fragments—like grocery bags, straws and soda bottles—are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day.

• 50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away.

• The average American throws away approximately 185 pounds of plastic per year.

• We currently recover only five percent of the plastics we produce.

• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located off the coast of California is the largest ocean garbage site in the world. This floating mass of plastic is twice the size of Texas, with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life six to one.

Photo curtesy of BlueOcean.net

All of which are reason why the #ZeroWaste and #ZeroWasteJourney trends on social media are becoming increasingly pertinent. Refill Stations are for those on a #ZeroWasteJourney, making any effort they can to reduce single-use plastic consumption.

Refill stations, like Sustain LA who will be at our Westwood Village Farmers’ Market every fourth Thursday of the month, bring bulk items like detergent, shampoo, natural cleaners, deodorants, and more for people to refill their own glasses or bottles. Other zero-waste approved utilitarian items like reusable napkins, stainless steel straws, or metal lunch boxes can also be found at a refill station.

Thoughts leaders in this space caution that the journey to reducing plastic is not about perfection. And while our Markets are not free from plastic, we are doing our best to reduce market-wide use and to provide opportunities for market shoppers to practice zero-waste intentions too.

Remember, our Take a Bag, Leave a Bag program is there for you to take advantage of if (and when) you forget a reusable bag. And as the name suggests, consider donating an under-loved canvas bag(s); we will gladly add it to our collection!

If you frequent the farmers’ market for the health of your body and for our environment, consider visiting us when we have a popup refill station and go on a journey towards more zero-waste thinking with us!

An Earth Day Scavenger Hunt!

Get kids exploring the market, learning about fruits and veggies, and our farmers at the Market for Earth Day.

Write or draw the answer for a prize from our Info Booth!

1. Find a purple fruit or vegetable. Name it or draw it!
   
   
   

2. Find a green food that you have not tasted before.  Name it or draw it!
   
   
   

3. Find something that grows underground. Name it or draw it!
   
   
   

4. Ask a farmer what time they woke up this morning & how long it took them to get to the market. Answer in time or distance:
   * Fact: The average supermarket produce travels 1,500 miles!
   
   
   

5. What booth is the Take a Bag, Leave a Bag basket next to?  *Fact: 160,000 plastic bags are used globally every second!

Download the scavenger hunt here and print at home, or get one at the info tent!

Bucks for Buckets

Beginning May 1st, our Hermosa Beach Market will provide pales for shoppers to collect beach rubbish and will give out $1 market buck for each filled container of beach trash!

Who: You! Your Family! Your Friends!
What: Beach Clean for Market Buckets!
When: May 1st, 12pm - 6pm
(and every 1st Wednesday thereafter)
Where: 1 Pier Avenue, just before the strand, at the Farmers’ Market
Why: To keep Hermosa Beach clean + green from the inside + out!

• Collection pales will be onsite at the Info Booth inside market for you to borrow.

• Get Market Bucks for every pale of found beach trash collected!

• Use #HermosaMarketClean in your photos and to help us spread the word!

Join us and our guest co-hosts, Leadership Hermosa for a day of doing-good at the farmers’ market, for happy, healthier, and more fulfilled tomorrows!

Just a Teaspoon of Honey

How much honey does one bee make in its whole life? The answer may surprise you, unless you’ve met Robin Ghermezi, the apiarist and educator behind LSG Honey.

Robin Ghermezi, the apiarist and educator behind LSG Honey

Robin Ghermezi became a beekeeper after retiring from the tech industry. He’s now been collecting honey for six years, but he still exudes the zeal of a recent convert. At the market, he’s generous with his honey samples, and if you linger long enough at his booth, he might convince you that bees are among the most fascinating creatures on earth. 

When I approached his stand at the Playa Vista market on a recent Saturday, he was handing a spoonful of honey to a dazed looking customer.  

“Wait,” the man said, “you’re telling me one bee makes a quarter teaspoon of honey…” he looked to the woman by his side in disbelief, “in its whole life?” 

Robin grinned as he nodded.

“That means,” the man went on, “that the honey left on my spoon each morning…that’s like, one bee’s whole life’s work?” Robin was still smiling as he reached into a jar, producing a sample of honey for me to taste. It was buckwheat, the color of weak coffee and just a touch bitter: a perfect pairing for stinky cheese. I popped the sample in my mouth and for just a moment, I felt luxurious.

Robin produce more samples for me to try—avocado, wildflower, and a mesquite honey that tasted herbal and faintly smoky—and I lingered in his stall, eavesdropping on the customers beside me. They were strategizing. Robin’s story had transformed the honey in their hands into something valuable-verging-on-precious. They were determined never to waste another drop. Should they use a spoon or a wooden honey dipper? Should they leave the dipper in the honey jar permanently so it wouldn’t need washing—but what about ants?

Robin was unfazed. “One solution,” he said, shrugging, “is to drill a hole in to top of a honey jar, and poke the handle of the dipper stick through it.” Then he handed me a spoonful of lavender honey and began to laugh, conceding that they weren’t the first customers to respond to his fact with awe. At one point, so many customers were concerned about wasted honey, Robin was bringing a drill to the market, tricking-out honey jars so dippers could live in them.

A queen’s cell is noticeably larger in size because her body is much longer than the drone's and worker's especially during the egg-laying period!

The price of honey had not risen during this exchange, but it had, for me, grown vastly more valuable. For just one taste of honey, a foraging bee spent her days sipping nectar from flowers. She ferried it back to her hive in her tiny crop and, mouth to mouth, passed the nectar to a processor bee. In turn, the processor bee passed the nectar to another processor, mouth to mouth, in an intimate fire-line. Along the way, enzymes from each bee’s crop, mixed with the nectar making it shelf-stable. When the nectar was finally packed into a waxy cell, the bees fanned it with their wings, evaporating excess water, and nectar became honey. Robin tended the hive, carefully, skimmed off just enough honey, to share with us.  We can put it in our tea, use it baking, or simply taste it by the teaspoon and marvel.

LSG hives are never treated with chemicals. Their bees collect nectar in nature and produce honey in their hives, one teaspoon at a time, as bees have been doing for a very long time. You can meet Robin and sample LSG honey at the Playa Vista Farmers’ market every Saturday from 9am-2pm.

Aubrey Yarbrough is the Community Development Manager for Farmer Mark. Before moving to LA she ran her own organic farm and cooked on the garde manger station of the award winning Elements restaurant in Princeton, NJ. She has contributed poetry to New American Writing and prose to Edible Jersey.

Celebrating the Honey Bee

Where would we be without the honey bee? It's a scary thought, and it's not just the sweet honey we would miss—it would be the more than 100 crops that are pollinated by these busy bees (almonds, apples, broccoli, carrots, citrus, onions....). An estimated 50-80 percent of the world's food supply is affected by bee pollination.

In recent years, the honey bee population has been in decline and scientists point to pesticide use and climate change as contributing factors. Thankfully, environmental organizations and others are working to save the bees. The organizers of National Honey Bee Day are among those raising awareness of the honey bee's struggle and one of their recommendations is to support local bee keepers. Done! That's something we do at our certified farmers' markets, where you'll find bee keepers and purveyors of local honey and its by-products.

More on honey bees, honey and helping save the bees:

National Honey Bee Day (Saturday, August 16, 2014)

Why We Need Bees (NRDC PDF fact sheet)

6 Delicious Health Benefits of Honey (Mind Body Green)

Selecting Plants for Pollinators (Pollinator Partnership)

Honey at our certified farmers' markets:

Energy Bee Farm at our Monterey Park Farmers' Market

Bee Ladies Honey at SOCO Farmers' Market and Newport Beach Farmers' Market

 LSG Honey at  Playa Vista Farmers' Market and Hermosa Beach Farmers' Market

10 Everyday Tips to Keep Our Planet Healthy

We can always use a friendly reminder that the earth is our home, and we should do everything we can to treat it as best we can. Below are 10 simple easy tips that you and your family can follow to help make the earth a healthier place.

1. Conserve Water- This is especially important in areas that are prone to drought. The little things count here – turn the sink off when brushing your teeth, take shorter showers, and forego the carwash.
2. Walk or Bike- Other than these options being a great form of exercise, staying off of the road helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than you’d think.
3. Recycle- By placing your plastic bottle in the correct container, you are helping to reduce pollution. Recycling goes beyond glass, paper and tinfoil. Don’t forget to properly recycle your used batteries, electronics, and hazardous waste to the appropriate recycling centers near you.
4. Compost- Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of solid waste your household produces each year, therefore taking up less space in landfills and providing great nutrients for your garden.
5. BYOB- Bring your own bag! When shopping at the farmers market, grocery store, or even the mall, it’s best to bring your own bag to reduce the use of plastic bags.
6. Go Paperless- By switching to electronic billing statements, you are reducing the amount of paper being used and savings trees.
7. Donate- Before throwing away clothing, shoes and household items, think if someone else could put it to use. It’s easy to donate these items to charitable organizations.
8. Clean Without Toxins- Swap out toxic, heavy duty cleaning supplies for “green” cleaning products. You can even save money and make your own by using household items like vinegar, lemon and baking soda!
9. Plant A Tree- Trees help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, cleans pollution, and provides shade, so get out there and plant a tree. And if you don’t have space for a tree, simply plant smaller flowers!
10. Educate Yourself- Make a commitment to educate yourself about the environment and how you can protect it. Head to your local library, or join a local group. Even small changes help!