JASON’S GARDEN

The Backyard Homestead is coming of age!  40 years after the “Back to the Land” Movement took us all out onto our remote 20 acre parcel…

The newest generation to begin farming is making their wave on front lawns, in backyards across America.  It is now very hip to keep chickens in town, and the movable mini-coop (Chicken tractor) that can clean up & fertilize a garden bed is a wonderful invention being built just about anywhere!

Jason Bradford – localization spark plug & recently of my hometown – Willits, CA – has moved to Corvallis, OR –  in search of a wide & fertile valley to farm organically.  His dream is to organize Organic farming for thousands of prime farmland – revolutionize the future of our basic grain crops.  As that bigger dream unfolds, he is making a cozy home with wife – Kristin Bradford – a full time MD & very good baker of scratch German Chocolate cakes, beautiful young mother of 2 extraordinary boys, a Tai Kuan Do student, ballet dancer extraordinaire, and – well – you get it – these are not your ordinary backyard gardeners….but, wait – they are extra ordinary just as are we all, each in our own way.

So find your extra-out-of-the-ordinary time & dig a patch in your front yard, your side patio, your balcony pot of soil…plant a tomato & savor the goodness of the connection to your food.  Meanwhile, you can get inspired & informed by books such as The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan.  

I have learned something new on every page!

start seeing farmers!

START SEEING FARMERS!

Hey – I do hope we all “Start seeing Farmers” …around town, around our county, around our nation… small farmers that is – ones that grow “real food”!!!

There is an exciting new farmer movement – young people who realize that farming is sexy & that feeding people is where it is at – for survival into the next human phase.

SO-

Come on farmers – stand up & be counted!  WWOOFers, PERMACULTURISTS, TREE PLANTERS, Green Uprising Farmers all Farmers who go to Market or sell from a CSA…

Why do we need a farming revolution?  Yep, since the 1970’s (or earlier) we have been losing the ancient farm web – a structure that fed all of us for millennia.  In just a few decades, we became dependant on Big Ag.  Large farms are not feeding us in a healthy way, they are part of the corporate food complex, creating obesity & health concerns with the use of fields & choice of crops.   Too bad for everyone…  It is about Government Farm Subsidies as much as anything else.

A decade ago, an American woman’s waist, on average, was close to two inches smaller than it is today. Eighteen year olds are at least 15 pounds heavier than they were in the 1970s.   That is a bad start on adult life & habits.

One reason is federal subsidies for food production.
Check out these numbers:

• Meat/Dairy — 73.8 percent
• Grains — 13.2 percent
• Sugar/Oil/Starch/Alcohol — 10.7 percent
• Nuts/Legumes — 1.9 percent
• Vegetables/Fruits — 0.4 percent

That’s right – just 1.9 percent for nuts and legumes and 0.4 percent for fruits and vegetables. As a result, a salad often costs you more than a Big Mac.

Follow the money – & it should come as no surprise that federal subsidies for certain kinds of food will directly influence the production and subsequent consumption of that food.

As you can see in the list above, the US food subsidies are grossly skewed, creating a diet excessively high in factory-farmed meats, grains and sugars, with very little fresh fruits and vegetables or healthy fats from nuts and seeds.

The food crops currently subsidized are corn, soy, wheat and rice. What do you end up with?

A fast food diet!

It’s quite clear that the farm bill creates a negative feedback loop that maintains the status quo of the standard American diet, which is directly responsible for our current epidemic of diabetes & obesity.  By subsidizing the farming of corn and soy, the US government is actively supporting a diet that consists of these crops.  And, the food processing industry is using the bulk of these crops to either feed animals before slaughter or to be used as foodstuffs in their processed form – so what we are getting for all of our tax supported farm subsidies is a lot of high fructose corn syrup (GMO), soybean oil (GMO), and grain-fed cattle (GMO) – all of which are known contributors to obesity and chronic diseases.

(See my reminders that the vast majority of these two crops are also genetically modified, which in and of itself is a major health hazard that has hardly begun to play out in our lifestyle or timeline of health & genetics of future generations)

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is perhaps the most obvious example of how the farm subsidies are destroying our health, as opposed to promoting the production of food that is actually worthy of being called “food.”  I’ve done a few rants (posts) on this subject, http://anniegreenjeans.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=406

and it is all over the information field that this stuff is bad news.  I am traveling right now, and (am not in my normal zone of food selections – including homemade salad dressings, natural ice cream, carefully chosen foods – even is they are from the Grocery Outlet)…checking a few labels from my friend’s cupboards, I find that the proliferation of corn syrup is amazing!  It is truly in almost everything.  I am sure that when I was a kid – hot fudge syrup did not have corn syrup to sweeten it (of course we didn’t have it in our cupboards actually – only as an occasional treat from the dairy queen), so those recipes have been altered & I bet – are much cheaper to make without regular sugar.  Funny – to think we have come to a point where “sugar” is considered a “healthy alternative”.  Yikes!  Everyone – check those labels & refuse to buy that stuff…maybe we can get it off the shelves if we just don’t vote with our dollars.  Cheap food is not better if it kills us sooner…

Get involved with your food.  You don’t have to be an activist to make a few healthy choices at the grocery store.  Your budget can handle it.  Your kids will thank you when they don’t get diabetes.

Thanks to K Krizanovich for the fun photo that started this entire rant…

Why Planting Farms in Skyscrapers Won’t Solve Our Food Problems

Why Planting Farms in Skyscrapers Won’t Solve Our Food Problems

By Stan Cox and David Van Tassel |

Agriculture in America has become an ecological, social and nutritional disaster of sufficiently huge scale to inspire a frenzy of book-writing, filmmaking, conference-holding and project-initiating in recent years. The critiques that emerge are often right on the money, highlighting pesticide and nitrate pollution, soil erosion, the consequences of meat production in feedlots and confinement sheds, the destruction of rural communities and the poor nutritional quality of food. But the solutions being proposed have not, for the most part, been of the same scale as the problems; most would do little more than nibble at the edges of America’s long-running agricultural fiasco.

A striking example of such ill fit between problem and proposed response can be found in the November 2009 issue of Scientific American, where Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health and environmental health sciences at Columbia University, made his case for what he calls “vertical farms,” a vision he promotes through his site verticalfarm.com.

After doing a very good job of describing the terrible toll that agriculture takes on soil, water, and biodiversity across the globe, Despommier’s article lays out a proposal to replace soil-based farming with a system of producing food crops in tall urban buildings-to, he writes, “grow crops indoors, under rigorously controlled conditions, in vertical farms. Plants grown in high-rise buildings erected on now vacant city lots and in large, multistory rooftop greenhouses could produce food year-round using significantly less water, producing little waste, with less risk of infectious diseases, and no need for fossil-fueled machinery or trans¬port from distant rural farms.”

Despommier describes how one of his scenarios-which are based on the use of hydroponic or “aeroponic” methods of growing plants without soil-might work: “Let us say that each floor of a vertical farm offers four growing seasons, double the plant density, and two layers per floor-a multiplying factor of 16 (4 _ 2 _ 2). A 30-story building covering one city block could therefore produce 2,400 acres of food (30 stories _ 5 acres _ 16) a year.” By extrapolating numbers like those and assuming extraordinary leaps in technology, as well as the repeal of Murphy’s Law, he has made such a convincing case for vertical farms that, he claims, “many developers, investors, mayors and city planners have become advocates.” Time magazine has run a generally positive story on the concept. And an Australian architect is currently planning to build the first full-scale vertical farm, in China.

The idea for vertical agriculture grows out of the realization that there are not enough exposed horizontal surfaces available in most urban areas to produce the quantities of food needed to feed urban populations. Although the concept has provided opportunities for architecture students and others to create innovative, sometimes beautiful building designs, it holds little practical potential for providing food. Even if vertical farming were feasible on a large scale, it would not solve the most pressing agricultural problems; rather, it would push the dependence of food production on industrial inputs to even greater heights. It would ensure that dependence by depriving crops not only of soil but also of the most plentiful and ecologically benign energy source of all: sunlight.

Jamie’s Food Revolution

Jamie Oliver is at it – again..this time in the USA…change the food, change the future…

See it on Hulu…just 5 minutes to get a glimpse of how we can all help!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/134896/jamie-olivers-food-revolution-5-things-you-need-to-know

SIMMERING SQUASH in my Crock Pot

Simmering Squash in my Crock Pot

LAST CHANCE WINTER SQUASH SOUP

How to eat what you have on hand…
End of winter finds me cleaning out the pantry just like my great gramma did – and indeed – finding a small box of our homegrown butternut squash.  They are all so tiny (4 inches long) & in fact – have no seeds … these little babies were the ones I grew in my only-slightly-successful circle bed of the Three Sisters…beans, squash & corn, the ancient inter-planted companion staple foods for simple nutrition & long storage. Mostly I struck out in that cute little circle bed – no beans to pick, a dozen small, short ears of corn & these few puny squash. Ok – I did have one fabulous and huge squash, but she seemed out of place with the others…

The bed was a converted hard pan walkway in partial shade that I dressed with compost & turned, so maybe I shouldn’t feel too bad – but, still – wished I could have eaten a lot of lovely sweet corn last year!! I won’t be trying corn again with my shade problems & space issues…look out Farmer’s Market!

Back to the cooking…

So, easy to make a dinner with them – after breakfast – as Richard is doing the dishes, I just cut them up slightly, clean out the centers & pop into a slow cooker for a few hours of slow steaming.  By afternoon they are cooked up and soft.  If you are at work all day, you can leave them as long as you need, it won’t hurt the result.

Dinner is almost ready when you walk in the door – 5 minutes to chop one large onion – sautéed until soft in olive oil, then add a scoop of Thai spicy sauce (you could just use Italian seasoning or even simply salt & pepper to taste) and use your handy stick blender right in the crock pot…or transfer everything to a jar blender & give it a whirl!  Leave chinks of squash & onion for texture.  This delicious & hearty soup dish has no protein, but is a perfect serving of slow burning carbs, with very little but high quality fat calories from the olive oil.  With an addition of a cold bean or chicken salad, it is a simple yet balanced meal for the busy cook and her(his) family!

I love squash & pumpkin soups all winter long, and am sad to see the last of them go with the end of these lovely little baby squash from my pantry.

So – DO try making a simple squash soup before it is too late!  Or, plant some of those seeds & by September you’ll be eating this yummy vegetable again… Seeds from my biggest squash are already to sow & start in the  “greenhouse that is becoming”…now, that is an exciting thought!  The miracle of the seed & the harvest, the on-going cycle of nature & the seasons…seed to squash to seed to squash to seed…

Blessings on your Planting and Eating,

MORE yummy squash planted soon – started in my own greenhouse…now, that is exciting & VERY LOCAL!

-Annie

PLANTING edible LANDSCAPES & GARDENS

The RED WAGON REVIEW

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PLANTING edible LANDSCAPES & GARDENS

It was a beautiful Saturday morning on April Fourth!

Four teams of Little Red Wagons left the Willits Little Lake Grange ready to plant veggies in neighborhood garden plots. We were loaded with cuttings from an easy to grow staple vegetable – the “Tree Collard” & lettuce donated by Brookside Farm, also broccoli & chard starts donated by Emandal Farm. Potatoes from Michael Stewart’s garden were also offered as a planting option. Thanks to all of our wonderful sponsors, donors and hardy volunteers!

Why were we walking the streets with vegetables? The future of healthy food begins at home – local, fresh – best when harvested daily. We can segue into larger kitchen gardens by creating an Edible Landscape – beginning with the introduction of 1 or more food plants into an existing flower bed, or large container of perennials or any landscaped, watered & tended area.

On Saturday, We planted over 15 different locations with an assortment of veggies, with grateful household recipients standing by, or helping to shovel the holes out! Who didn’t want a free plant? Some renters or older residents declined, they couldn’t care for it or didn’t like to eat those foods, but – mostly – anyone who was home, wanted us to help them get started! I found that meeting a number of my neighbors was a very great thing, not to be underrated. I encourage anyone to take on this simple and fun opportunity – share a garden with your neighbors, especially the ones you haven’t met yet! It could change you, the community, the world.

-Submitted by Anne Waters Weller

GOT SMALL POTATOES?

I moved into the great “new” house ( what do you call a new home that is very old –70 years old – but is “new to you”?) last August.

We had found a bag of uneaten potatoes from last fall before the move…they were a wonderful mix of colorful heirloom varieties – mislaid from Brookside Farm 2008 Organic CSA basket in a dark corner of the garage… Now – almost a year later – .they had huge 8” long sprouts on almost all of them.

The idea came to put them in our garden beds…a bit of a challenge as these beds had not been worked for a few years and had compacted soil (and not much of it) …but, what to lose? We stuck them in the soil, covered them with straw and watered a few times a week. Ten weeks later, the tops had been blasted by frost and so we dug them up…what a nice surprise! A bucket of smallest potatoes I had ever seen were our first harvest in this potentially wonderful garden. Some of them were the size of my small fingernail…no matter, I tenderly washed them all and made this simple dish ( see photo) from them…

Recipe: Wash potaoes & steam to almost done, cool. Toss with olive oil, herbs, garlic and salt. Bake or broil until slightly crispy on top. Eat. Yum!

Anyone can grow these hardy crop, a famine food for many peoples, and certainly a calorie booster to any one’s veggie garden mix. I suggest we all learn to grow potatoes – very soon!!!

Localize your food supply, you can’t start soon enough.

Let’s Plant a Garden and Lose Weight

So – the last few years it has been hard to maintain my weight…anyone else got this problem? I drive to work, sit at a computer most of the day, then drive home – stopping at the store for a bag of lettuce and squash that came from…where?

Turns out – that instead of having others grow my food, doing the labor of love and magic with seeds and water…if I do it myself, it counts as a workout! How about receiving the multiple rewards of tighter abs, flexibility in thighs and shoulders, better nutrition with local, seasonal & organic food – and – a feeling of satisfaction at being involved with the miracle of life!

Regular garden chores can burn anywhere from 250 to 400 calories per hour. Stress relief is another bonus as we are also outside, touching earth, getting sunshine and fresh air – that age old health giving solar friend. This is Healthy Body Permaculture – getting benefits on many levels at once. To repeat – the food is also healthier for many reasons, including calorie count!

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson – “When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.”

Bye for now – I am off to put on my hat and gloves…

Local Food Rant

Eating avos in winter? Lettuce in the heat of summer? Here’s the hard truth! We have gotten so off track on local food in just the last 30 years we don’t even realize what that means to our footprint.

~ I love world market foods, give me a Thai Green curry any day… But, let’s take a look at this addiction to variety, to exotic tastes…

In my childhood, (1960′s) hardly one had ever eaten an avocado or artichoke in the Midwest, and international food was a dream that was only real when you ate pizza (either in a restaurant on special occasions – or from a box mix)

This regionalfood style  was also unrelieved by hot new restaurants. Mostly people ate at home, in fact – they hardly ever ate out, except for church socials or community potlucks…this all a world from the past, from our rural heritage, and certainly a world that did not know what they missed…

Fast forward to today – where Trader Joe’s brings us Israeli cheese, Italian olive oil, and such things are very available in any corner market in the USA. We have gotten everyday habits that are going to be hard to break. Do we need to break the imported food habit? Is the 1500 mile salad, the supermarket dinner sustainable? To complicate things – we have gotten used to spending only 11% of our income on food, unlike most of the world – and getting the huge choices, big super sizes of everything as well!!

Yikes – time to reassess. Can we find happiness chewing on locally grown potatoes, broccoli in season, waiting for the peaches to come ripe? I say – YES! This is what local food means – grown nearby and in season. Your CSA shows the way – they give you a basket of whatever is ripe and ready to harvest in the garden. Try the Farmers Market for a great selection of timely foods, picked recently and by people you get to talk to while you handle their life’s work! Either is a simple and fun way to begin eating local.

Even more directly connected is your own garden, imagine how much more local can you get – than a 20 foot away dinner rather than a 1500 mile dinner! Check out your own slow food connection as you eat tomatoes that you grew – right off the plant, now that is a 1” dinner….the most local of all…now if only I didn’t need my hands at all – how much closer can I get? Mmmmm, a no-hands lunch! Ok, I am over the top – but you get the point… if I eat that tomato, ripe from the sun , my mouth filled with its just picked sweetness, I have just lowered my carbon footprint by a a factor of a thousand. Yay team! Let’s eat the imports, with grace and appreciation for their amazing availability, occasionally – as befits such luxury. Here’s to your health…please pass the spinach!

Check out this site for a localization conversation-locallectual

Also the movie – The Real Dirt on Farmer John!

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