Ventura Food Co-Op

Ventura Food Co-op

How to Determine Quality?

• Homegrown Good Eatin' & Organic
  
• Food Quality Meter
  The Bionutrient Meter, calibrated to 8 crops, shows the direct connections between management practices on farms, soil carbon and biological activity, and nutrient variation in food.
• Bounce several colors of light off the fruit or vegetable and learn if /whether the nutrients are worth ho cost. What would you do if you could select the best quality produce in a grocery store or farmers market? Bloggers could rate produce and give you review of what's best, where. What would this do to the market for fresh produce? Will this push farmers to produco REAL QUALITY produce?

  In our next five years expect to have established a framework for a new food supply. One that prioritizes nutritional value, and in so doing is able to realize the potential of agriculture to systemically improve climate and ecosystem functon, as well as human health.

  "We now stand at the precipice of accomplishing our primary objectives. We have shown the connections between soil health and food quality. We have also shown that a hand-held consumer-priced meter can be developed to determine relative nutritional value in food with a flash of light, and on open-sourced data platforms."
  Dan Kittredge, Founder of Bionutrient Food Association

• A Food Hub
  VFC Members bring community together & our mission to life.
• Refractometer
  Just squeeze a drop of juice out of a leaf with a garlic press onto the plate of the refractomoter, close it and hold it to the light. You see a line at the sugar concentration or Brix reading. The higher the Brix reading, the healthier the plant. Different varieties may have a different healthy Brix range, but generally, when the Brix reading is 14 or higher, you will see no pests.
• Nutrient Variation
  In the Food Supply
• Regenerate
• A Toast to Ventura Agriculture: Conversation with local farmers

https://www.venturafoodcoop.com/

Access to Land Help for local organic farms
VC General Plan Policy

• AG 1.5 Support County Grown
• AG 1.7 Buy Local
• AG 4.2 Grow Food on Public Land

Programs

• B Encourage sales local produce
• C Procure organic local grown
• F Local farm stands
• G Farm to front door

Local FarmersPartnering with Farmivore and Farmers Markets

Our Mission
The mission of the Ventura Food Cooperative Is to provide fairly priced groceries, while following cooperative principles. The Coop's focus is to source small-scale, local, organic goods with the intention of keeping ourselves, our community, and our environment healthy and happy. In addition, it will provide a space for the Ventura community to gather, organize, learn, and share.

Climate Justice

Start to Garden

1. Find a Mentor

• Master Gardeners of Ventura County [ https://ucanr.edu/sites/VCMG/Contact/ ]
• City of Ventura Community Gardens [ https://www.cityofventura.ca.gov/1715/Community-Gardens ]
• Camarillo Community Garden [ https://www.facebook.com/camarillocommunitygardens/ ]
• Thousand Oaks Community Garden [ https://www.lasfloresgarden.com/ ]
• Find a Permaculture Design Course [ https://www.quailsprings.org/ ]
• Ask your oldest family members on how they gardened. What are their generational practices.
• Visit your Neighbors and ask them for their knowledge. Maybe they need assistance and will share their space. Look for neighbors with weedy lawns, maybe they would like a garden and don't have time or skills to grow one.
• Talk to your city's Sustainablility office or their Community Outreach Department for group contacts.

1. Spend time with your schedule and see if you have the time. Gardening, while fulfilling is like brushing your teeth and requires consistency. Be honest if you can keep to a pattern that plants can trust.
2. Evaluate your sun and wind exposure as the drivers for your water needs on site. There are reasons why hill tops are bare and ferns don't grow in deserts.
3. Have you experienced house plants and monitored them? Have you watched the miracle of germinating seeds in paper towels? Or considered volunteering with a other gardeners?
4. Prepare to do a bit of study on the different Families of Plants. Did you know sage, lavender, and mint are cousins? What is a legume? What is a Brassica? What are their general differences and preferences?
5. Prepare to recognize soil types and the different nutrients needed making the best place to feed another entity which then feeds you.
6. Does your sun, water, soil, and compost with preferable drainage match up with the "right plant, right place, right time of the year'? Then proceed to enjoy the microbes, plants, and people that make us healthier.

Gardening is futuristic thinking and risk taking. It is planning a menu with combining ingredients, adding water, and asking the sun to cook. You are in touch with trillion of beings, respiring (and transpiring) with you. Your imagination will always be surprised, and you will be in wonder at the changes.
- Pat Browne, RN. Past President and life member in Camarillo Community Garden Groups