Letters to the Editor
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the next best thing
is the local farmer's market or farm stand. Even cities have them, and the stuff is reasonably priced (and lots of them are organic).
In my town, we have a Youth Agency-run veggie garden that keeps us in produce all summer and into fall. They have started doing veggie gardens in the schools: the kids volunteer to weed, water and harvest, and the produce shows up in their cafeteria. You'd be amazed at how many more carrots and tomatoes get eaten when the consumers have grown the suckers.
And clever teachers are incorporating gardening into the lesson plans. Everywhere from math and science, to nutrition and health, to the rhythm of the seasons and learning colors and shapes.
I dream of starting my own real garden, instead of just a tomato plant or two, but the Youth Agency garden seems to offer me and my kids the pleasure of gardening part-time, without the full-time worry of our own.