Going Local

Crazysalad is back. 

After a six month-hiatus (what I like to call my unpaid, family leave of absence), I return to the food blogging world.  Thank you to everyone who wrote and asked if I was okay.  Yes, I’m fine.

What have I been doing?  I’ve spent the last six months trying to save my city from alien invasion. 

Those of you living here in San Diego have probably seen them.  They are here among us, all around us, and most of the time we are not even aware of their presence. 

It is only during their reproductive season that they become visible.  Yet we are so beguiled by their beauty, their sunny yellow faces, that we don’t seem to notice that they are slowly taking over our city.  (Either that or we are driving by so fast on the I-5 that we don’t see anything to the left and right of the windshield.)

Scientists who study these invaders call them sisymbrium or brassica, and note that they are a species “characteristic of disturbed places.”  You probably know them by their common, friendly name: mustard. Here I am fighting off some of the attackers:

Seriously, I just needed a break.

Writing the blog had started to feel like an obligation, rather than the joyful sharing of food that it started out to be. 

I had lost my focus, my sense of purpose.  I looked at all the food blogs out there in the blogosphere and wondered:  is my blog really necessary?   Does anyone really care about what I ate for dinner or what I did on my vacation?

What was my blog about?

To me, a good blog should be passionate and serve some higher purpose.  The blogs that I read and love capture my attention through powerful, well-written prose or beautiful images.  They demand my attention and teach me something I didn’t know.  Good blogs compel me to take action; to get up from the computer, to cook, to try a new restaurant, to go out into the garden. 

Although I was kidding about the alien invasion before, I was only half-joking.  Living in San Diego often does feel like aliens have invaded.  Only it is we who are the aliens.  Most of us are not natives here.  Most of the food we eat is not native to this area, nor is it even grown here. 

Maybe you have noticed all the pretty yellow flowers in bloom all over the hillsides of San Diego during the past month.  That’s mustard.  Some stories claim that mustard was originally brought here by European missionaries.  As the missionaries traveled along the California coast from mission to mission, they planted mustard seeds to help them find their way on subsequent journeys.  Or they planted it to feed their draft animals.  Either way, this plant, like the people who brought it here, are now everywhere. 

Non-native invasive species.

While I recognize the inevitability of humans spreading out and taking over the planet, sometimes I take a look around and wonder, what the hell are we doing here?  I have only lived in San Diego 15 years, but already I can see how quickly it has grown in that time.    Everything flat is paved over with asphalt.  The beautiful canyons that are San Diego’s natural landscape are graded and filled in with identical stucco-ed, red-tiled roof housing developments.   

Does it matter where you live?  When you zip past mile after mile of housing developments, fast food restaurants, and strip malls, can you even tell where you are living?  It looks just like Los Angeles or Phoenix or (except the palm trees) any other American suburb. 

Where is San Diego in all this?  What is this place we call home?   

Recently, I spent an afternoon at Batiquitos Lagoon with some students from my daughter’s middle school ripping out mustard plants from this sensitive salt marsh habitat.

After a few hours I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  I looked around and all I could see were millions of these mustard plants, mocking me with their bright yellow presence.  This is pointless, I thought.  We are never going to completely eradicate this plant from our shores.

But later, I began to realize something.  Just standing out there along the trail taught me to see the landscape in a different way.  At first all I could see was mustard.  But if you looked around and behind and beneath, you would occasionally get a glimpse of other plants. Low-growing, salt-tolerant plants like pickleweed and salty susan. Pulling out even a few non-natives leaves a little room for the native species to grow. 

I feel the same way about our food supply. 

I realize that McDonalds and Wal-Marts are part of the food landscape now and they are not going away.  But if we can take the time to stop and look a little closer at what was there before, or is still there, hidden in the background--the local, independently-owned coffee shop, the neighborhood diner--we can save these places. 

Why should we save them?  Because I don’t want to live in a world where there is only one variety of apple, one species of turkey, one type of coffee.  I love the beauty and taste of diversity.  I want to know what it is that makes this place unique, worth living in, worth eating. 

That’s what this blog is all about.

Comments

[Kirk]

Hi Angie - Welcome back, we missed you!

[Angie]

Thanks, Kirk. It's good to be back!

[Kady]

Glad you're back! Great post, btw. I completely agree that we need to make sure that the chains don't take over or there will be no "real" food left.

Looking forward to reading your future posts!

[Alice Q.]

Hi Angie! - I just checked your blog again (love the title) and it's good to see you are back from hibernation. I just started my own SD Food blog, and it sounds like we have a lot in common. I look forward to reading more!

[Sonia]

Hi Angie, I am glad you are back to blogsphere! I missed you!
Yes, your blog is truly necessary! I care about you and about your experiences. Believe me, your blog is great! Looking forward to reading your next posts!
Have a nice week!

[PJ]

neat! It took a blog friend from Brazil to point out a blog that is in my back yard! (San Diego!) I'm a non-native to CA and have been here only 3 years...and I'm 'feeling' what your saying. This is very interesting about the 'mustard'..perception is everything and here I am taking pictures of it thinking it's a spring-early summer flower! {tourist!} HA...thanks for educating me! I'll be back!

[Rorie]

Hooray - Angie's back! You were definitely missed!

[Scott]

Glad to see you are back! Get eatin'!

[Beth]

Yay! Welcome back! Can't wait to see what you're eating and cooking and exploring in the coming months.

[Angie]

Wow, thanks, guys. It's great to "see" all of you again. I'm pouring each of you a virtual glass of champagne and giving a toast to all my fellow foodies in San Diego (and Brazil). Salute!