Along with access to a variety of fresh produce would be the ideal climate for a year-round growing season (or close to that). And not a swampy, moscito-ridden, unbearly humid climate, nor too arid. I will bet that California is #1, but others? And in the Midwest, where are the best locales? I live outside Chicago and we get varied, decent produce, although the growing season is fairly short.

And I have always wondered this: why are greenhouses inferior to out in the sun, if the veggies still get the energy of the sun through the glass? Hmm? (*Edit: I should add that I ask this question because if I chose to stay in the Midwest, perhaps a greenhouse would be a reasonable compromise?)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2010 05:31PM by banana who.

in NO WAY is a greenhouse a lesser method of growing food. The reason that "greenhouse" has a bad name in industrial food production is because it is usually conventional hydroponically grown hybrid or gmo foods. so the foods they USE in the greenhouses are junk usually. A greenhouse is a great idea for you. STL area has lots of farmers markets popping up everywhere. i guess most cities do. Cali is great, almost perfect for being raw. year round farmers markets. The only place that is CLEARLY better in many ways is HAWAII!!!!! not only is it nice year round, but most of the foods we drool over are FREE for the taking. like imagine 25 varieties of avocados falling off the trees!!! nuts, fruit, etc. My friends camped on the beach for a week in hawaii,and lived on avocado and fruit. my suggestion is live the life where YOU are at. Convert your surroundings to suit YOU. that is the process of being human, and as long as we stay in balance, we are welcome!

The Raw Lion 440 pounds to 225 pounds!

@Aaron: Schweet...getting avocados off the trees. Yeah, I remember going to the Caribbean (where my mom's from) and one day we were on a hiatus from a long bus trip and the rest stop was right next to a mango tree! Jillions of mangos just rotting on the ground. My mom instructed me to scoop them into my tote bag and I just ate and ate them. Interesting next day, but it's TMI...LOL

I'm curious about hydroponics, though. Why are they inferior--growing in water vs. soil? Or is it the product itself--GMO, highly hybridized? This is interesting because at my farmer's market the tomatoes don't come in until the beginning of July, so when one farmer was selling them earlier, I asked how come and they said 'green house.' It kind of bugged me because I thought they should have labeled it that way. But they were saying it's the same thing, so I got confused. Do you know about those tomatoes-on-the-vine? They are hothouse, I think, because many times they come from Canada. Sometimes they are really fresh-tasting, other times, not so much.

there is nothing wrong with greenhouses per se .. it just as RAWLION posted they tend to use GMO crops , chemical ferts, pesticides,herbicdes, etc etc

one can definitely grow au natural in a greenhouse , its just not economically feasiable for most financial operations

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I had posted a negative response about another persons comment about Bellingham. I would wish to qualify that. A local business just opened up, its a raw place. Its the second attempt that I know of for Bellingham within the last 4-5 years. So that is promising. There must be some raw foodist consciousness in the area, otherwise there wouldn't be this second raw foodist place opening.

So, I guess its not as unfriendly to raw foodists as I had thought. Sudden Valley is just outside of Bellingham, that maybe a bit more ideal for a raw foodist, as there is a lot of trees, and its a bit closer to nature than Bellingham. More than one person has commented that this area is great for raising children. So, at least some of the posters concerns could be fulfilled here.

I didn't see your posts...where are these places?

Well Bellingham is within Whatcom county, WA. Its supposed to be the berry capitol of the U.S. Its perhaps not the most ideal place for year round growing, but some local growers grow some amazing and surprising things.
[maps.google.com]

Whatcom falls is beautiful
[www.panoramio.com]
Sudden valley, about 20min drive from bellingham
[maps.google.com]

The Stimpson trail is actually within walking distance from my home. Its beautiful and peaceful. There are a few mosquitos, but not too bad. I grew up in Alaska, so not too bad is relative I guess! At my home I very rarely see them.
[www.panoramio.com]

Los Angeles has a ton of raw food restaurants and good grocery stores. San Francisco has a couple raw restaurants and an excellent grocery store!

I lived in Bellingham for a while and would rate it extremely high in MANY ways (lovely walking trails throughout the city, wild areas, gorgeous scenery, mild temperatures, farmland outside of town, community gardens, and much more), but it has one big negative in my opinion - in the fall, winter and spring the skies are grey and there is a misty rain that rarely lets up. When I was there it rained for 47 days straight!!! Yes, 47! There SAD stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder where people get depressed from lack of sunlight. I became a coffee drinker there to stay awake. However, the summers are unbelievably glorious. And obviously there are a lot of people living there who don't mind the rain.


My favorite raw vegan

I am itching to move again myself but I want to stay in Canada (sorry USA! No coco mama for you!) so it has to be BC if I want anything more temperate than Ontario. It is super amazingly gorgeouseroo here in the summer time though so no moving until the leaves fall again. Time to plan anyhow.

Asheville, NC is probably a good place. It's on my wish list. When I sell my house and have a collie farm.

The closer to the equator, the better... But the soil is really poor in Florida... If you choose Florida, be ready to compost

Chris

@Arugula: I know that they have a very hippy vibe going on there...Do you know if the weather gets horribly humid, being in the South?

@Coco: Curious: Could you please tell me the warmest it usually gets in the summer in BC and the coldest? For instance, in Chicago it is very cold in the winter and we get a good amount of snow. The temp dips below zero (F) several times in an average winter and the summer may flirt with 95-100 once, but is usually in the 80s during July and August. However, it can get muggy as can be. I am sure BC isn't like that...or is it?

Which part of BC darlin'? It's a huge province.
There is a desert in the centre that stays pretty fair to middling through winter as I'm told (the Okanagan Valley), the coast is mild and rainy year round (Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, the Southern Islands), the mountains get hot in summer and cold in winter and the northern parts are darn cold for a great huge chunk of the year. Last place I was (mid province in the mountains) is 8 hours east from Vancouver, 8 west from Calgary and 3 north of Spokane if that gives you bearings a bit.

I've never been to Canada, so it's all Greek to me. But when I hear Canada, I think cold. If the coast is rainy year round, then I imagine it's similar to NW USA--like WA or OR? I haven't been west of Iowa, LOL. I just know that it is pretty temperate in WA all year and so you can grow stuff pretty much all the time.

Ok, well where I am is the southern most point of Canada on Lake Erie, it's below Detroit and is on the same latitude as northern San Fran so we get nice weather all year round without all that lovely, chilly fog and rain. It snows here but it's milder than the rest of Canada and northern America and has a longer growing season. It's called the fruit belt and is where nearly all Canadian wines come from (some are from slightly more north in the Niagara region). Nearby is Leamington, the greenhouse capital of the world. You'd think there would be more organic food here than anywhere else in Canada but you'd be wrong. It's chemical city unfortunately, and it's humid too so sweaty summers and damp cold in winter.

BC is on the west coast, Vancouver is slightly north of Seattle and Vancouver island actually south of northern America. The climate of the Okanagan Basin (middleish of BC) is somewhat less continental than the rest of the interior of the Province. The warm summers with fairly low humidities along with the relatively mild winters provide an attractive environment for agriculture and recreation.
The temperature is best described as being of the mild continental type. In the valley summers are warm with hot days and cool nights. Winters are much milder than areas east of the valley. In Kelowna mean maximum temperatures vary from 0.0 degrees in January to 27.9 degrees in July. Thus about one third of mid summer days are tropical in nature (maximum temperature greater than 30 degrees) and thaws occur at valley bottom on about half of the days in January.

Here's a link that describes the different areas of BC in terms of weather.
[www.vancouverisland.com]
There is a ton of organic food to be had and lots of eco awareness and kind folk, if you KWIM. It's pretty fantastic there, though expensive to live especially thanks to those rotten Olympics lately. wwoofing is free except for getting from farm to farm though, great for checking it out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2010 01:09PM by coco.

LOL- thanks for the info but I suspect you gave me Celcius numbers! 27.9 degrees in July?! That's below freezing! But it's interesting that where you live is below Detroit--you must not be very far from Chicago, I take it...

Oops, I forgot you live in the last hold out to the metric system. You can convert online, 21 is room temperature, 27.9 is HOT. I don't know where Chicago is actually, I don't know where much of anything in the states is really unless I look at a map. I think Toledo is across the lake from us, we get radio stations from there anyhow. Is that by Chicago?

Toledo is in OH. You are next to MI and we are across the lake from MI.

I live in Toronto - in terms of cheap organic food - QUALITY organic, this is hte place to be!!! The energy is CONCRETE, COLD and STRESSED.
IT is FREEZING in the winter and HOT AS HELL in the summer..
Fall/Spring - you can have a HOT day followed by a freezing day...
I have spent some time in Montreal - COLDER!!!! and very FRENCH!
Inteh last few years I have spent all my free time in Vancouver. I was just there for 4 months over the summer!
I am moving there this summer!
The TREES!! - It's a magical place!!
Rains a lot - not in the summer though...the greenery is AMAZING, so is the energy!!
Organic food is $$$.
Organic quality food - tropical fruit - nearly impossible to find unless ur willing to shoit at Whole PAYCHECK!
But nonetheless I am looking forward to living with the trees and beaches of Vancouver!
Actually looking for a room mate?
Any takers!!??

Make it Kamloops next summer and I'm in. But the Van? It's such a step down from TO culturally speaking. All the big city with so much less of the stuff that makes that tolerable. Sunshine Coast, ok, but no Van for me. Have fun though, the scenery is pretty fabulous.

Eckhart Tolle lives in BC and said that the energy was very high. I went on Craigslist and was blown out of the water at the high rents and real estate.

Kamloops rocks. I was born there and spent 16 years there. My brother and mother still live there so I go back once in a while. We always had an awesome garden every year. Summers can be pretty warm if you aren't used to it. 34 to 37 degrees Celsius. 40 isn't unheard of. Central air conditioning is a must if you wish to sleep. They actually had a pretty cold and dry winter this past season. Not much snow and had it in the -20's for a fair bit. My brother grows the best blueberries in the universe there. We always grew Macintosh apples - I was wrecked for life after that - store bought Macintosh apples taste like crap. They have good farmer's markets in the summer. Sigh, I miss home now.

Holy crap, is that EVER hot! I loathe AC though so I guess we'll be sleeping out in the garden some nights. Bears? We had them in Nelson so sleeping outside was an iffy endeavor . I'm really looking forward to the Horticulture program at TRU, especially if I can do a practicum growing blueberries!

coco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Holy crap, is that EVER hot! I loathe AC though so
> I guess we'll be sleeping out in the garden some
> nights.

I went back to Kamloops a few years ago for a visit at the end of July. It was about 34c that week and not much breeze - I can vividly remember walking outside of mom's house and just feeling the heat emanating off of the sidewalk. God bless the sundress.

>Bears? We had them in Nelson so sleeping
> outside was an iffy endeavor .

I guess it depends where you will be - they pop up from time to time. On the north shore the deer swim across the river and like to eat people's gardens - never used to. Someone also thought it would be cute to introduce marmots to the area not realizing how fast they repopulate - pisses off the owners of the golf course on the north shore I am sure.

Nelson, oh yes - walked to the mall one day from about halfway down the hill, that was fine. Walked back - holy mother of shin splints the next day, let me tell you!

I'm really
> looking forward to the Horticulture program at
> TRU, especially if I can do a practicum growing
> blueberries!

Thompson Rivers University - that wasn't what it should have been called - Should have been called University of Kamloops but they had a problem with people calling it UoK for short. I don't know, has a nice ring - I'm okay so, U o K!

I grew up and lived in Chicago and its suburbs and LEFT IT 8 months ago for LOS ANGELES... it is just too hard to be healthy, active, and eat well there. The winters are way too long and slow you down; everyone is into beer and hamburgers. At its best, it's just not very good. LA IS GREAT! I feel my life improving. Plus... SUNLIGHT! 100+ more days of sunlight in LA than Chicago. California rules.

stellium Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I grew up and lived in Chicago and its suburbs and
> LEFT IT 8 months ago for LOS ANGELES... it is just
> too hard to be healthy, active, and eat well
> there. The winters are way too long and slow you
> down; everyone is into beer and hamburgers. At its
> best, it's just not very good. LA IS GREAT! I feel
> my life improving. Plus... SUNLIGHT! 100+ more
> days of sunlight in LA than Chicago. California
> rules.

How long did you live (t)here? I am 44 so it has been quite a bit of time. Interesting--I just realized that even those born in Chicagoland and have lived here the whole time, you never get used to the cold. That seems odd, since it's to be expected every year. But it's as shocking to us as it is to visitors! I disagree with you that it's hard to stay active. It's really how you view the weather. Most people will only go out if it's between 50-80 degrees. Well, we know that the two most intense months for heat and cold are January and July. And I always see people not wearing hats in single-digit temps! When I began to dress in layers, I began to enjoy all seasons. Also, I thought that LA had terrible smog. Plus, what about water shortages, job losses, and overcrowding? I am thinking of one day going to a place like CA (probably northern area, though). What have been your experiences with your new area?

It's cold in Canada in the winter, even in the milder areas. I tend to hibernate but you can get out if, like you said, you dress the part. And You've gotta plan it right, bring the stuff you'll need, schedule your outings, etc. Especially with kids!

LA is pretty, sure, but it's unbearably smoggy. Just driving through set my lungs on fire for weeks, yuck. It's car city there, so many older vehicles too and you know how they are on gas. Not for me. San Fran was an interesting city, the Rainbow food co-op was an amazing healthfood store. Lots of raw, funky folk, but cold and damp and foggy a lot. San Diego was like Ken and Barbie land when I was there but maybe I didn't give it enough time. I wanted to go north but didn't make it. Northern Cali, Oregon and area sound amazing. I imagine a lot like Vancouver and surrounding areas. There's good and bad no matter where you go I suppose, you just gotta find the thing you personally like the best.

hi banana who

concerning chicago land

i was given some pretty explicit details concerning the winters
i was told that it was the coldest place on planet earth
it made me want to PERMANETLY avoid chicago
for the rest of my life ( or at least... during the winters


is it true that it can get 60 below ?
i find that hard to believe
wouldn't your eyeballs
and organs

just .... go craaazy or SOMEthing?

seems so unnatural

either chicagoans REALLY love their city

or they have some MIGHTTTTEEE persevering constitutions to handle the frost