Attention fans of fresh food and smart design: You have until tonight-11:59pm PST to be exact-to submit your idea for bringing locally-grown food to urban residents in our Redesign Your Farmers’ Market contest. Check out all the requirements and see three early entries we picked from the batch.If you’re in Los Angeles, be sure to stop by the event Farmers’ Markets: 30 Years and Growing on Thursday, September 3 from 10:00am to 2:00pm. In addition to the official announcement of the contest winners-made by none other than Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic from LA Weekly, Jonathan Gold-20 finalists from the competition will be exhibited in GOOD’s tent. A press conference by Mayor Antonio Villaragiosa will kick off a program emceed by Evan Kleiman, host of KCRW’s Good Food, which will include many of the original farmers from the first L.A. farmers’ market held 30 years ago in Gardena, as well as many of L.A.’s most farmers’ market-friendly chefs, including Nancy Silverton, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, Jeffrey Saad, Michael Cimarusti, Ben Ford and more.
In partnership with The Architect’s Newspaper and edible LA, we’ve also invited a few people to our tent to talk about their design solutions for local food starting at noon, including: Our own greywater workshop teachers and community leaders Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne from Homegrown Evolution, demonstrating their self-irrigating planters; Sara Marie Paul from Ramirez Farm talking about how community supported agriculture works; Mike Blockstein, Public Matters, and Sharlene Gozalians, South L.A. Healthy Eating Active Communities Initiative sharing the stories behind their video series Where Do I Get My Five? and the soon-to-launch MarketMakeovers.org; and Tara Kolla, from Silver Lake Farms, who will be discussing the challenges of urban farming in L.A. with some of her beautiful flowers and loofahs.All this in addition to a packed day of activities including a salsa contest, produce tasting, chef demos, a timeline of 30 years of farmers’ markets in L.A., and some pretty nifty giveaway bags we’ve been working on with ECOBAGS and Fresh Pressed. Plus the celebration will be held at what’s already one of the liveliest farmers’ markets in town, with more than 40 local food vendors and artisans, on the South Lawn of City Hall. Sounds to us like the perfect reason to come downtown for an extra-long lunch.
