What I am up against...and what may help

So, there are a couple things standing in my way:

1. I live in a big city. San Diego, to be more specific. In other words, I don’t live in the middle of farm country. I live on the edge of a desert. The main growing region in California is the Central Valley, a couple hundred miles north which doesn’t fit my definition of local (more on this later). The other close growing region is Mexico. So, as far as what ends up on my grocery store shelves, those two places are where most of them originate. If San Diego were to be left to its own devices, we’d be back to sage scrub in a couple of years. The Native Americans used to survive on acorns around here. I have something a little tastier in mind.

2. I live in an apartment. An upstairs apartment. Without even a patch of grass. And lots of cement in view. Without the “ease” (I place it in quotations for a reason) of growing some of my own food as others who live in this manner have, I will have to find other sources.

Of course, I do have a couple things going for me:

1. I live in California. This means a longer growing season (in some cases, the entire year), so I am not bound by the May to October season elsewhere in the country. In addition, a lot of different types of things grow in this climate, which will hopefully mean diversity in my diet.

2. I live by the sea. I should have a seemingly limitless amount of locally caught seafood available.

3. This blog. Knowing that somebody may be watching will help keep me motivated to continue when it would so much simpler to swing by Vons. And – I’ve seen this happen with others’ blogs – by opening up to the world at large I may even get a little help along the way.