At the end of a lengthy list of hoity-toity restaurants and upscale events published in the Los Angeles Daily News this week, the writer slipped in a road trip to the Great Park Farm and Food Lab in Orange County, where educational gardens are maintained by UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners.
After dishing about the five-spice braised pork belly with star anise served at Rama, seitan meatballs with tomato ginger curry at Mana's on Maple, and a $150 per person fundraiser at the Ritz-Carlton, food editor Natalie Haughton plugs the lab's pizza and spaghetti garden, where people can see vegetables growing before they are chopped into marinara sauce.
The Farm and Food Lab features planters brimming with fruits, flowers, vegetables and herbs. There are 12 themed garden beds - including an ethnic garden, fruit salad garden, herb garden and sensory garden - that introduce kids and adults to new and interesting produce and plant life.
The lab is only a small part of the Great Park's venture into urban agriculture. Planners have set aside 114 acres of the former El Toro Marine Corps. Air Station to be cultivated with food crops for the first time since James Irvine sold his lima bean fields to the U.S. government 70 years ago.
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