Modern Farmer, a new magazine dedicated to the world of food, environmentalism and sustainability that has grown around farming in recent years, launched today online. The first print issue -- the magazine will be quarterly -- will be on newsstands later this month. From the website's "about us" section:
courtesy Modern Farmer Modern Farmer's logo
Dreaming of ditching city life for your own farm share? Before you sign over the cash for those rolling hills, we highly recommend you read Farms with a Future: Creating and Growing a Sustainable Farm Business by Rebecca Thistlewaite, a former vegetarian turned farmer and livestock rancher (she dubs herself a "meat farmer") who is behind the blog Honest Meat and also does consulting work for small farms. We hope she sleeps well. 
Chelsea Green Publishing Farms with a Future
In the book, Thistlewaite hits more than a dozen small farms across the country and shares some pretty great, no-nonsense advice from farmers who have learned the hard way -- you know, from experience. Among our favorite nuggets: "If you don't like people, don't do a CSA." Hard to argue with that one.
Get ten more start-up tips from Farms with a Future, and our annotations (How could we resist?), after the jump. No desire to become a farmer? No matter. Most are pretty handy for the old life in general.
More »
Fantastic handmade cheese, bacon from backyard pigs and homemade jam made from farm fruit aren't exactly the typical Jane and Michael Stern road-trip finds. If you've tried any of the cheeses crafted by Christine Maguire of Rinconada Dairy, a visit to the 92-acre ranch that she and her husband, Jim, manage in Santa Margarita should be on your must-do list. When it comes to showing your support for small local businesses, a farm stay is a heck of a lot more fun than tossing those dollars over to another online Kickstarter campaign.
Rinconada Dairy The Working Vacation View at Rinconada
Should you be inclined to make the morning milking rounds -- and really, who isn't; those sheep and goats are so damn cute -- you're in luck. The season begins in just a few weeks. Get more, and our interview with Maguire, who has some new cheeses on the horizon, after the jump.
More »
The L.A.-based artist collective Fallen Fruit, the same group behind Los Angeles' community fruit tree maps, recently revealed their lastest endeavor: a twenty-seven tree orchard located just south of LAX at Hawthorne's Del Aire park. 
via TakePart.com Planting at Del Aire Park
If you're looking for something to do this weekend beyond reading about the 232 tons of potatoes Olympic athletes are tossing back this year, there's a meaty symposium at the Fowler Museum at UCLA on Saturday: TEDx L.A. Miracle Mile: Food and Food Systems in the 21st Century.
TEDx L.A. Some of TEDx L.A.'s speakers
According to the TED website, TEDx events are fully independent of TED in terms of organization and planning. But they are "designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level." Judging by Saturday's lineup (after the jump), it's going to be quite a TED-like experience. If you're interested in attending, we recommend advance tickets, as the Fowler Museum auditorium is a tightly edited space.
Los Angeles is no stranger to C.S.A. (community supported agriculture) subscriptions -- services that offer a curated box of fresh, seasonal produce delivered or picked up each week by community members for a monthly fee -- but none of them quite resemble the latest project from Atladena's John Muir High. The school will be using fruits and vegetables from Muir Ranch, a 1.5-acre urban farm that's run completely by that school's students, to create a weekly subscription available to locals via a pick-up site at either Muir Ranch or Pasadena Unified School District's headquarters on Thursday evenings. 
via Muir Ranch Students/Farmers at Work
What's in a glass of wine? The answer might be surprising. Wine is basically spoiled grape juice. (Whoever first ingested it millennia ago: hat tip.) But these days wine's ingredients can also contain a laundry list of adds in's: sulfur dioxide, egg whites, oak chips, water and numerous chemical additives, in addition to the base of fermented grape juice. As chefs and home cooks have turned to farmers markets for organic and small batch-grown produce, wine drinkers are increasingly seeking out natural wines, in response to the preservatives and stabilizers found in conventionally-made wine. 
Kathy A. McDonald 2009 Brooks Temperance Hill Pinot Noir at Buzz Wine Beer Shop
Natural wine is more than just winespeak or a marketing gimmick. Artisan winemakers are essentially going back to basics when making wine in a non-interventionist way, with as little manipulation as possible, avoiding mechanization in farming and production (foot stomping grapes is now in vogue), using grapes grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Some words frequently used to describe natural wine's flavor profile: alive, snappy, complex, dense and fuller on the palate. Natural wines do taste and often look differently than conventionally made wine. Turn the page to discover why.
More »
If you are in the market for backyard guinea fowl -- and really, who isn't? -- Windrose Farm has about 15 that need a new home. 
jgarbee Windrose Farm guinea fowl running down a dirt road
The pros: They're free and hilariously cute when running at frenetic speeds around the farm (or in your backyard). And as Bill Spencer of Windrose Farm says, "At times they seem to be completely insane, but they are truly extraordinary eaters, particularly pests like a stink bug from Asia that no other bird will eat. The bugs get in the middle of your squash, invade and become a real problem. Ticks, too. Their acuity as far as eating tiny things, down to 1/16th of an inch, is phenomenal."
More »
What happens in the early hours at the farmers market? Early as in 6 a.m., those pivotal few hours before the opening bell rings and most of us are sipping coffee. It's around that hour that farmers start pulling into their parking spots at the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market, some after an all-night drive, to fill the orders of chefs and soon, very likely, your dinner plate. 
JGarbee Produce crates at the Santa Monica farmers market
It's a beautifully orchestrated produce symphony, really, that time of day when Santa Monica is at its most honest and best, the air still oceanfront salty. One farmer, the first on his stretch of block to arrive, guesstimates how much room trucks trickling in over the next hour will need and parks. Old-school instinct works just fine here, and a truck is one thing that can always easily be moved later. Thirty pounds of potatoes, not so much.
More »
In his take-down of urban butchery, "The Butcher Next Door," published June 6, Slate contributor and vegan animal rights activist James McWilliams tackles the so-called "hipsters" who think D.I.Y. slaughter is the next step in responsible animal husbandry. McWilliams worries that the cool kids -- the same ones who might launch Kickstarter campaigns to fund wardrobe revitalizations -- have gotten carried away with this urban farming thing. In McWilliams' mind, the decentralization of the system, nice in theory and often in action, turns into an unethical, unhygienic mess when teachers, artists and insurance agents start hacking off chicken heads on their cramped back patios.
eren {sea+prairie}/flickr Chickens
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
