Welcome to Bluedot Los Angeles! Every other Sunday, we share stories about local changemakers, sustainable homes and yards, the nature all around us along with planet-friendly recipes, and advice from Dear Dot. Please email us with story ideas at laeditor@bluedotliving.com. Together, we can make a difference for the blue dot we call home.
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE /Â STORIES
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Recently, Los Angeles’s agricultural roots – the city was founded as a small farming community in 1781 – have been showing up in unexpected places: A new generation of homeowners confronting the challenges of climate change are asking more of their landscaping, swapping out perfectly manicured lawns for front-yard farms. L.A.-based landscape company Farmscape is one of the businesses leading the charge. Working with homeowners, they design and install sustainable, edible urban gardens, and they even help their clients maintain their mini-farms as they grow. Says co-owner and master gardener Dan Allen: “Our challenge is to bring the farm back to the city, but in a
manner that’s adapted to how we live now.”
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Quick Links
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Skip scrolling! Here’s what you’ll find in today’s Bluedot Los Angeles Newsletter:
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If reading about Farmscape inspired you, here’s Bluedot gardening columnist Laura McLean’s step-by-step guide to turning your front yard into your own personal mini-farm. Two years ago, Laura tore out her lawn and planted veggies in raised beds,
wildflowers, and a stone fruit tree. Today, her yard produces squash, lettuce, herbs, cucumbers, and more – and it’s a Monarch Waystation, to boot. Dreaming about front-yard farms might make you as hungry as a sea otter, whose famously big appetites are getting credit for saving California marshland from erosion. A new study published in Nature showed that areas in Monterey Bay’s Elkhorn Slough estuary where otters feasted on striped shore crabs experienced much less erosion than areas with no otters.
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Dear Dot: Is Pollution the ReasonÂ
for a Beautiful Sunset?
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–Illustration by Elissa Turnbull
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Dear Dot,
I saw the most amazing sunset last night. Someone told me the beautiful red color is because of pollution. Is there any truth to that?
—Whitney
Dear Whitney,
We live in a timeline in which your question is both fascinating and heartbreaking. On the one hand, we all love a gorgeous sunset (just check out social media!). But on the other, it’s perfectly reasonable to wonder if air pollution is somehow altering these sunsets. I received your query at a time when unprecedented wildfires were raging across Canada, and smoke (i.e., pollution) from those fires was traveling at least as far south as Florida and across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Is all that smoke changing our skies? It’s hard to imagine it’s not. But let’s hear from the experts.
Read the rest of Dot’s answer.
Got a question for Dot? Write her at deardot@bluedotliving.com.
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         Paid Advertisement
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BUY LESS/BUY BETTER: Top Online ShoppingÂ
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The Bluedot Marketplace includes affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of our links, we may earn a commission, essentially a small digital finder’s fee.
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This week, our Marketplace editor shares three of her favorite marketplaces. These online stores feature thoughtfully curated brands that prioritize eco-friendly materials, ingredients, or manufacturing processes. If you’d like to shop online without the stress, start here.
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The One-StopÂ
Shop
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Wooden toys, reusable paper towels, silicone baking sheets, toothpaste tabs, organic cotton socks, rubber pacifiers, latex pillows, compostable phone cases … EarthHero has almost everything.
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Buy now orÂ
read our review.
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The Hippest
 Marketplace
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Montreal-based Goodee carries hip decor, gardening tools, and other useful objets from around the world. We love the focus on what Goodee calls endangered and heritage crafts, which represent a third of the items they sell.
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Buy now orÂ
read our review.
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The AffordableÂ
Online Grocer
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Thrive, a membership-based market, offers a plethora of quality items at great prices (vitamins in particular are a steal). The yearly fee quickly pays for itself. Try the house label for organic oils, nuts, and dried fruit.
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Buy now orÂ
read our review.
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Kim Abeles, an L.A.-based artist, is best known for the pieces in her Smog Collectors series, works she creates by placing stencils on rooftops, where they gather smog. The series dates back to 1987, includes depictions of everything from U.S. presidents to the Lascaux Cave Paintings, and has been described as “footprints of the sky.”
Abeles says, "Since the worst in our air can't be seen, Smog Collectors are both literal and metaphoric depictions of the current conditions of our life source.” Bluedot’s Lily Olsen spoke with Abeles about her process, her activism, and the things that inspire her.
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Bluedot Kitchen: From Side Dish to Main Course
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Sometimes vegetable side dishes are so good, you decide to turn them into the main course. These two recipes fall under that category, marrying hearty veggies with creamy cheese and bright vinaigrette.
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Cool Tech: Pulling Water Out of the Sky
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According to a UNESCO report, in 2020, some 2 billion people – 26% of the world’s population – did not have access to safely managed drinking water services. But thanks to a unique technology called Hydropanels, the number of places on earth where there’s no water to drink may shrink to almost zero. Bluedot contributor Alec Ross checked in with SOURCE, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company that manufactures Hydropanels, to learn more about the emerging technology.
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When It Rains…
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As we pointed out last month in our interview with Dr. Daniel Swain, weather is not climate, but they are related. The heavy rains we’ve experienced recently are likely influenced by
our warming planet. After the latest spate of storms last week, roads across the region were closed due to flooding and mudslides, and landslides were threatening homes across L.A. and Orange County.
We may not be able to fight against the awesome power of nature, but there are things we can do in our daily lives. And there are great stories of people and companies making changes that are creating a brighter future. Please consider contributing to Bluedot, so that we can keep bringing you these solutions-focused stories.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll be back in two weeks!
–Robin Jones
Do you have a special Los Angeles photo or story to share?
Email laeditor@bluedotliving.com.
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Robin Jones is a Southern California native who served as an editor at Westways magazine for more than a decade. She currently lives in Long Beach and teaches journalism at Cal State Long
Beach, where she advises the award-winning student magazine, DIG MAG. She loves road-tripping across California, especially when the itinerary includes stops in Arcata and Trinidad.
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