Vegetables

COSTA MESA — Locally grown, fresh produce and other outdoor market goodies will be available this weekend at the opening of the community's newest farmers market. The new certified farmer's market opens at the South Coast Collections ("SoCo") on the 3300 block of Hyland Avenue and will occur weekly from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. In addition to farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, the market vendors will also sell flowers, hummus, fresh fish, coffee and more, according to a news release.

  I stopped to get my morning coffee at a little place not far from home. Sharing the same parking lot was one of the big home improvement stores. You know the one, a cavernous place with lots of pallet racks and forklifts. So, with my coffee in hand, I took a walk. Just inside the entrance to the garden department was a display of vegetables. As I'm sure you know, vegetable gardening is the fastest growing segment of gardening. It seems everyone nowadays, from Michelle Obama to the guy next door, has at least a few vegetables tucked somewhere in the garden.

Outfitted in tall white chef hats and green aprons, the Food Fighters faced off against the Blazing Hot Chili Peppers in a cooking showdown Monday at Killybrooke Elementary in Costa Mesa. Sixteen students in grades 4 to 8 participated in the Killybrooke Iron Chef competition, a pilot event sponsored by the school, the Network for a Healthy California and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's Food Services Department. Students had 45 minutes to create a tasty, healthy dish using a secret ingredient: vegetables.

There was starfruit. There was blood orange. There was dragon fruit. And they weren’t characters in some video game. They were exotic fruits, which Pomona Elementary School tasted last week for the first time — the result of a collaborative effort to cut down on obesity in the classroom. The 400 children at the Costa Mesa campus also hit the gym and recess with Principal Stacy Holmes, performing dance routines and playing old-fashioned kick ball in a program designed to get the children doing something they should be doing naturally at their age: moving.

In addition to giving out rations of food to the area’s needy, Share Our Selves, a Costa Mesa nonprofit, will give out vegetable plants to its patrons in the coming weeks as part of an initiative to get people started growing their own food in their gardens. An alley near the charity’s administrative building now houses about 200 small pots holding newly sprouted plants of several varieties, including tomatoes, peppers, corn, okra and broccoli. In most cases, the green stems and leaves are just popping up from the soil, and the vegetables have yet to appear.

Like watching cooking shows on television? Well, the Taste of Newport is giving people a chance to see dishes prepared live at the Gas Company Chef's Pavilion, which features cookware by Bloomingdale's. Today on the stage, the chef at What's Cooking Cafe will share the secret of making a great tasting, bread crumb-encrusted pork tenderloin. Though the cafe will not be among the restaurants serving up tastes at the Taste, we did persuade them to share their recipe for the dish.

After recent budget cuts, the Costa Mesa Senior Center was planning on pruning down a popular grocery distribution program until two local women came forward with donations. Flo Martin donated $2,000 and Joan Cox donated $500 to the Senior Lunchbox program, more than making up for a $2,000 shortfall. City officials who are responsible for doling out federal Community Development Block Grant money gave the senior center $2,000 less compared with last year. The program allows the senior center to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, canned soups and meats, and other items that are given to low-income seniors.

IRVINE - As the tractor-pulled wagons slowed to a stop, smell was the first indicator that the youngsters were about to come face to face with barnyard animals. The first-grade students were not pleased. "It smells stinky," said Taylor Park, 6, making a face as some of her classmates covered their noses. Lincoln Elementary School on Friday took its three first-grade classes on the Newport Beach school's annual field trip to Tanaka Farms, a 30-acre working organic farm on University Drive.

Question: I have the terrible suspicion that I'm a hypocrite. I'm an animal lover, but I eat meat. I don't eat the meat of young animals, like veal and lamb, but I do eat meat, fish and fowl, along with eggs. Is there anything in the Bible referring to the practice of eating meat, or to Christ's practice? Did he eat meat? I'm aware that I'm seeking absolution for eating meat, but I do face a conflict. Although I would never hunt or fish, I eat animals that other people kill.

The Jewish National Fund in Costa Mesa will kick off a 30-day campaign Monday to jump-start a three-pronged program to increase water supplies for the people of Israel. The country is currently faced with its most severe drought since 1951. Funds raised will be used to build new reservoirs and flood dams for drinking water; recycle more waste water for agricultural irrigation; and conduct more research and development using brackish water to grow fish and vegetables, said Ronald S. Lauder, president of the fund.