Mudtown Farm in Watts gets a visit from L.A. food bloggers

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Many people going to Watts over the weekend were headed for the annual Christmas parade. But Food Bloggers Los Angeles -- a group of a few dozen people -- also held their monthly meeting in the neighborhood on Saturday. Eight of the bloggers visited Mudtown Farm, a 2.5-acre plot adjacent to the Jordan Downs housing development, and got a tour of the site from architect Michael Pinto.

For now, individuals are growing many varieties of fruits and vegetables in small plots on the land. Pinto and his students at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, along with the landowners, have been looking at the property to see how it might best serve the neighborhood.

The land can been seen, Pinto told the group on Saturday, as an asset from several perspectives: agriculturally, recreationally, educationally and culturally. The group that owns the property, Watts Labor Community Action Committee, wants to make sure the growers have a place to grow food. But it also wants to make the land an more integral part of the community -- perhaps by adding an incubator kitchen, a farmers market, classes and other programs.

The food bloggers get together to share information about food and about the business of blogging, says Erika Penzer Kerekes of In Erika’s kitchen.

-- Mary MacVean

(bottom) A plot on the farm. Credit: Patti Londre of Worth the Whisk