the farmers' market capital of the world

newspapers have changed, and so too has journalism. the frontier of this once juggernaut news format is unknown and the days of past reporting are sliding farther and farther away. the la times, the paper i grew up reading at the breakfast table, is no exception to this. and the first time i opened the chicago tribune, which owns the la times, i couldn't believe how bad the paper was. ads larger than articles and poor typefaces and mismanaged formatting. it was hard to even read. and the la times, simply, is just not the paper that it used to be.

but, lately—and maybe it's a glimmer of hope—i've been damn impressed by the food section.

on the newspaper's food section of the website right now, there's not only the farmers' market map that i'd written about a few weeks back, and also a write-up on saving the season, which i also featured more recently, but there's a newly posted guide to seasonal foods and how to cook through the seasons. for bartlett pears, they encourage that it's okay to buy unripe fruit from the market, because they will, and need, to ripen at room temperature, and it is then that they can be refridgerated. there's tips for persimmons and peaches and grapes, and so too cranberry beans and apples and figs and zuchinni, and recipes to boot. and all with perfect timing as coming home with peaches and cranberry, or shelling, beans from the wicker park farmers' market yesterday suggests.

and then there's this story, in commeration of the first l.a. farmers' market thirty years ago. mayor antonio villaraigosa, who in conjunction with the huge party that will be thrown in honor of the first market, has announced a food policy task force, its primary function to "help turn l.a. into the farmers' market capital of the world." with 121 markets, the county already has by far the most farmers' markets in the country, and i can't help but scratch my head at the thought of it becoming the epicenter of the market in the world. think about all of the agricultural history in europe and asia and other parts of the world, where organized markets, where farmers and fishermen sell directly to their customers, have long been the practice. has l.a. really come that far? the things you take foregranted about the places you once called home...