As the leaves change color and the weather changes, the yield in the local farmers markets gracefully transforms from the delicious grab-and-eat summer fruits to a generous variety of squash, root vegetables and leafy greens that require a little bit of heat before eating. With the smaller variety of produce in the local markets during fall and winter, it’s easy to fall back on the same recipes when cooking every night. The Sacramento Press asked local farmers at the markets for some of their favorite cooking ideas for the fall and winter harvest, and they had a medley of suggestions. Carolyn McCormack of McCormack Farms in Walnut Grove is finishing her end-of-summer pear harvest and sa

Throughout the summer, access to fresh and local produce has been offered in several locations around Sacramento, but the change of the season means less availability as many farmers markets close until May or June. The remaining markets for the year: Open All Year Sacramento Central Certified Farmers’ Market Eighth and W 8 a.m. to noon Sunday Sacramento Florin CFM Florin road and 65th St 8 a.m. to noon Thursday Sacramento Country Club Plaza CFM Watt and El Camino Avenues 8 a.m. to noon Saturday Open through October Sacramento Chavez Plaza CFM 10th and J streets 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday Del Paso Heights CFM Norwood Avenue and San Juan Road 7:30 a.m. to noon Saturday Natomas CF

Neighborhood streets and intersections in Portland, Ore. have become public gathering places and people have reported that they’ve felt much safer in their communities, a testament to community building through the City Repair project – the topic of Mark Lakeman and Marisha Auerbach’s presentation on Permaculture in an urban context Wednesday night, hosted by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. City Repair is a small grassroots nonprofit organization, founded in 1995 in Portland by a group of neighbors, that facilitates multiple “placemaking projects” geared toward reclaiming one's neighborhood and inspiring alternative ways to think about what it means to have a community gathering space

The City Council passed the backyard hen-keeping ordinance after nearly two years of discussion in an 8-0 vote Tuesday night. The ordinance, set to take effect November 1, will allow people within city limits to keep up to three hens in their backyard as long as the enclosure is 20 feet away from the nearest neighboring residence, and a license fee of $10 per household and permit fee of $15 per chicken is paid annually. To read the ordinance, click here. After 18 members of the community spoke in support of the council adopting the ordinance, and two in opposition, all members of the council voted in favor of adopting the ordinance except one, councilman Darrell Fong, who was not presen

The City Council has brought back to the table an ordinance that would allow Sacramento residents to keep chickens in backyards in the city. The ordinance has been set aside since February’s Law and Legislation Committee meeting for drafting and was passed for publication at Tuesday night’s council meeting. This means that the drafted document for the ordinance is available to the public for viewing from either the city’s website or in person from City Hall. The ordinance would only allow for hens to be kept in residents’ backyards so long as they are confined in a pen, coop, cage or other type of enclosure at all times and the enclosures are maintained at a distance of 20 feet from a n

The nonprofit organization Ubuntu Green is literally planting seeds of change within the Sacramento community, nearing completion of the first year of its Home and Community Gardens Project. The project seeks to provide low-income families in the Building Healthy Communities target area with healthier access to food and to create a greater sense of community in the selected neighborhoods. For more information on BHC, click here. Building Healthy Communities is a coalition comprised of many different community-driven organizations that are all funded by California’s largest foundation--The California Endowment. The BHC seeks to implement a ten-year plan to renew the health in children an

Residential communities in Oak Park and South Sacramento are in good hands under the umbrella of the Sacramento Building Healthy Communities coalition for funding programs and collectives geared towards making Sacramento safer and healthier. Several projects funded by the BHC are underway to create healthier food access for low-income families, better transportation, and safer neighborhoods by engaging youth in community service and leadership training. Projects already initiated include an EBT dollar-for-dollar match incentive at the local Oak Park farmer’s market, assistance in building a home or community garden, and teaching youth the basics of news writing and reporting on issues in