The Eagle Rock Farmer's Market has been around for almost 9 years, can you believe it? It's had its ups and downs that included pony rides, Elvis impersonators, fresh pressed apple juice, inexpensive clothing, incense, and the balloon clown. Today's market includes a fast food row with Latino, Filipino, and American style foods like hot dogs, horchata, chicken and pork skewers. There is always the Farmer's Market Table run by John and Sueann Miller on behalf of Michael Noguiera and the Chamber of Commerce. And there is good, fresh produce in season. Right now you can enjoy strawberries, plums, peaches, grapes, all kinds of greens, mushrooms, eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, herbs, and lettuce. The orchid lady is there with several varieties of orchids at slightly higher than Trader Joe's prices. Every week brings a slightly different cast of vendors, so this week there was another garden booth selling small pots of other plants.

The Eagle Rock Farmer's Market has been around for almost 9 years, can you believe it? It's had its ups and downs that included pony rides, Elvis impersonators, fresh pressed apple juice, inexpensive clothing, incense, and the balloon clown. Today's market includes a fast food row with Latino, Filipino, and American style foods like hot dogs, horchata, chicken and pork skewers. There is always the Farmer's Market Table run by John and Sueann Miller on behalf of Michael Noguiera and the Chamber of Commerce. And there is good, fresh produce in season. Right now you can enjoy strawberries, plums, peaches, grapes, all kinds of greens, mushrooms, eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, herbs, and lettuce. The orchid lady is there with several varieties of orchids at slightly higher than Trader Joe's prices. Every week brings a slightly different cast of vendors, so this week there was another garden booth selling small pots of other plants.

Two community events worth checking out:

Join me at Shaker's restaurant in Glendale to support the Women's 2oth Century Club tomorrow night!  The Women's 20th Century Club of Eagle Rock is a non-profit organization of local women who work together to improve the community, so the money raised will go straight into bettering Eagle Rock .

The tree-lined sidewalk by Montrose Shopping Park plays home to a variety of artists who display and sell their work this weekend.  From 9 am to 4 pm, walk along Honolulu Avenue to see the fine art created by the community's own artists.

An interesting calculation in the June 2008 Money magazine is the TED spread, an indication of easy it will be to borrow money. It's the difference between the 3 month LIBOR rate and the 3 month T-bill rate.  The T-bill is essentially risk free and the LIBOR is the rate the banks charge to borrow from one another. If they are nervous about lending to each other, they certainly are more fearful about lending to you and me. They say a difference of .4 % is what we need to see. The latest figures show a spread of .97%, which is a bit more than last month, and a lot more than 1 year ago when it was .41%.

My conclusion: this formula confirms that it is difficult to get loans right now. I already knew that anything but the most pristine of credit, 20% down, conforming loan type buyer was having trouble getting a loan, but this formula shows me why and also how I can know when it is changing.

Here's my idea: there are many properties in Eagle Rock that have rocky hillsides that are too steep for most common uses. It suddenly occurred to me that they look kind of like rocky hillsides in Italy, where they grow grapes. Besides, did you know that at one time there were acres of vineyards in places like Glendale? Prior to Prohibition, this Eagle Rock Valley did have vineyards. In Pasadena, the Johnston Lake once had a winery and the property still has some vestiges of its previous life if you know where to look.

I know one family who has actually planted a vineyard on their property just outside of Eagle Rock, near Johnston Lake in Pasadena. It's been in for a few years and is producing grapes. The wine is coming. Why not try this on a bit more organized scale? We could have a wine co-op. People could rent equipment, put their grapes together, make a co-op wine or keep them separate and make their own brand. You can make a certain amount of wine for home use without violating any government regulations.

Besides the immediate benefits of using previously used or unusable land, growing something that would give pleasure as well as food, this could benefit the atmosphere and the community. Why, no telling where this could go! Our own wine festival!

Here are some sources for more information:
http://www.backyardvineyards.com
http://www.chiff.com/a/backyard-grapes.htm
http://www.svcn.com/archives/saratoganews/09.10.97/BackyardVineyard...
http://winemakermag.com/departments/115.html
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/sections/home_garden/hg_garden/articl...
http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/food/winery/cali...
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/28/food/fo-moraga28

Do you know anyone who has expertise in this subject? Invite them to join this site and participate in the conversation. I'm sure there are people in Eagle Rock who own land that could work, don't have the skill or interest in learning how to do the process themselves, and would like to hire experienced help to plan, build, organize or maintain their vineyard.