Piper is a Cover Girl!

If you’re local to the San Diego area, you may have seen this week’s reader with a rather odd cover photo. A beautiful and majestic fuzzy-butted silkie hen that my regular readers have come to love and admire. Alongside some random mustachioed schlubb that as no business being on the front of anything.

Photo by Matthew Suárez

as to the former, you are quite welcome. For the latter, my humble apologies, it will all be over in a week’s time so hang in there. If you plan on using it as a liner to your birdcage, or are getting creative with a Sharpie, I’d love to see photos! If you are not one of my local readers, you can see the story on The San Diego Reader’s website.I won’t attempt to re-writing the article here as it is already done by a far better writer than I, but it talks about the neighborhood community garden that I helped set up and all the amazing work they’re doing for the community. Something I’m so proud to have been a part of.

Although I am historically hell-bent on being a giant goofball, there are a few things that I’m serious about. Quality of food is one of them. In this article I talk a lot about this “fast food” society we’re living in and how destructive food deserts are to communities and the health of its populace.

This attention from The San Diego Reader is such a welcome shot in the arm for communities like mine that are surrounded by so many awful food choices. I truly hope that this resonates with everyone so that together we can fight these patterns and continue to find ways to keep our family happy and healthy no matter your income. That’s been my driving force in the last five years of writing Mind Your Dirt. To show that you don’t need to spend money to bring back a natural balance to your surroundings and the food on your table. Mostly because I’m broke as hell and necessity is the mother of invention.

Our community garden not only provides fresh and healthy free produce, it also teaches anyone who visits how to bring these techniques into your home gardens. Between Mind Your Dirt and the Ocean View Growing Grounds (as well as all community gardens), we will always be here to help you keep your family healthy and loaded with nutrients.

So a huge big Thank You to The San Diego Reader, Barbarella Fokos (writer), and Matthew Suárez (photographer) for taking the time to help this noble cause! To everyone else, get busy with that Sharpie! 

The Ocean View Growing Grounds Made the Paper!!

I’ve been a bit busy lately. Not only in the yard fighting the dreaded influx of weeds that had taken over almost every square inch, but also at the community garden up the street. We’ve been tidying up the space and surveying the area to layout the locations of the future greenhouse and the many beds so that my neighbors can finally begin sowing the seeds of change in our food desert.

The Saturday before last, I led the charge to have 12, 12 foot by 4 foot raised beds constructed on the lot. No small feat in the blazing sun and Santa Anna dry hot winds. It just so happened that we had a San Diego Union Tribune reporter and photographer on site that day as well.

Well, today they printed the article! And there’s even a quote from the babbling baboon that is yours truly! So, in lieu of all this hard work, it is my hope that you will find the means to forgive my lack of blog post writing as of late. It seems that the very moment I become sedentary, I immediately pass out. Sometimes before I can jump in the shower and sometimes with a full beer in my hand growing warm as I snore and bore my girlfriend and my dog. Apologies all around!

That said, check out the article! I hope I don’t get sued for posting an article from the Union Tribune?! Do they still have William Randolf Hearst like lawyers? Gulp! Rosebud… Continue reading “The Ocean View Growing Grounds Made the Paper!!”

Former food desert now feeds a community’s spirit

Good morning friends! The community garden I volunteer for was just featured in an article by UC San Diego! A great honor and a beautiful write up to boot. Check it out and see what other activities I’ve been up to! Try not to be hypnotized by the ridiculous mustache. I use it to filter compost as well as sniff out truffles. Continue reading “Former food desert now feeds a community’s spirit”