Great Stories about Organic and Local Food

Just look at what the Food editor at the New York Times have put together:

• Prince Charles as the hero of the organic and local food movement.
• North American local food heroes like Barbara Kingsolver and locavores.com in British Columbia

And there's more (here's the whole listing). 

Now about the NYT Gardening editor - um, do they even have one?  It's Thursday, the big day for Home and Garden stories, and what's today's offering on the topic of gardening?  Zip.  In late April, our busy season.  For good coverage of gardening I recommend the Washington Post.  That's the Home and Garden page, where Adrian Higgins rules the roost so well.  Then in Real Estate there's more good stuff from Joel Lerner.

Comments

[william]

I am not a royalist however for the work that Prince Charles has done for organic farming and gardening, he is to be congratulated. He has put his money where his mouth is, literally. If you ever have the opportunity to hear his head gardener speak - that is an experience. He spoke for a solid 3 hours and I did not once fall asleep! For me that is a miracle and shows how professional and interesting he is. You can 'see' an approximate account of what was said on http://www.mygarden.me.uk/highgrove.htm
Visiting Highgrove is difficult, you need to go in with a gardening club and the waiting list is 5 years, nor can you take photographs and if you write something about Highgrove in the public domain, it has to be with secretary's approval (the above link has! - you cannot refer to him personally).

[ginger]

Eating local food is great but how about encouraging everyone to plant a 'Victory' garden as in days of yore? It is a great activity for the kids and everyone has space for a container or two of veggies! Or how about that tomato contraption on the right of this screen? Now that is really local!

[Eliz]

I really wanted to post about this too, Susan. I was pleasantly surprised by the coverage--and hey, what about the green wine story!

That is a big movement.

I like it when newspapers and magazines put together a group of stories around a timely and compelling theme like that.

[Georgia Master Gardener]

Not only has the NYTimes eliminated both gardening columns recently, it has also dumped its online gardening forum. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has just dropped two of its three gardening editors, and merged the gardening features with interior decorating and lifestyles. Across the nation, while the organic and "green" movement is burgeoning, the gardening movement itself seemingly has peaked and is falling. Sales are off for the third quarter running on garden tools, supplies, plants, etc. Sure, millions of us garden our own soil, but tens of millions have apparently turned their properties over to landscapers and lawncare companies even as they shop for local foods and try to make their domiciles "carbon free."

[Michelle Derviss]

When the princely Charles came to my 'hood two years ago I wondered what if any kind of effect it would have.
Never did I realize that his visit to one of our local west Marin Pt. Reyes farmers market would make such an impact to the on looking nation.
His visit brought a dialogue about fresh foods to the American table, ... well at least to those who were watching the 5:30 news.
He and Camilla were pretty good sports too while in Marin.
After visting Toby's Feed Barn and the CowGirl Creamery they saddled up to the bar at the old wooden Western Saloon ( picture a dark and dusky true grit John Wayne saloon that regularly has drunken midnight brawls and a well worn pool table in the back ) for a cold brewsky with some of the rough and tumbled weather beaten locals.

[Georgia Master Gardener]

Comment II: As a further sign of the gardening craze's decline in the USA, HGTV has cut many of its gardening shows. About 75 programs are aired weekly; a mere eight are focused on gardening. Of the HGTV blogs listed, none are related to gardening. Whether this overall picture is a positive or negative portent remains to be seen in the next decade. In the meantime, let's keep those fingernails dirty.