Fiskars Project Orange Thumb, the Home Depot Foundation, and the City of Baltimore are teaming to make over an area in a local Baltimore neighborhood in just one day. This Thursday, 80 members from all three groups and people from around the community will build a new garden in the Oliver neighborhood. They will break ground at 8 a.m. and complete the project just in time for the ribbon cutting that will take place at 4:30 that afternoon.
If you’re looking for the small, family farm, you can find it in history books. Or in Iowa. Amid the oceans of corn and hogs being raised by giant industrial concerns is a small but tenacious under-current of small farmers determined to make it on 60 acres, give or take, on their own terms.
These small business owners (they’re not just in Iowa of course) are gambling that America’s taste for organic and naturally grown vegetables, grains and meats will sustain them as they revive trusted old methods, (like enriching the soil with natural compost), and incorporate technology that fits with their humane, sustainable model.
There’s hope on the horizon for these mavericks: Consumer demand for natural products is soaring. Organic agricultural production, despite more than doubling in the last decade, can barely keep up. Groceries and schools are increasingly looking for local food sources.
Phil and Marjorie Forbes, with part-time help from both their parents, are one farm family trying restore the land to feed this growing market. We talked with Phil during a visit to central Iowa, where he’s been farming outside of Kolona since the 1998.
The movie FOOD, INC. opened this past weekend in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
It’s not the first film to tackle the problems of our industrial food complex. Indies like Chris Taylor’s Food Fight (2008) and King Corn (2007) a handful of few bigger releases, like Fast Food Nation (2006) have been chipping away at this story for a few years now.
But FOOD INC. arrives at a time when the American public seems primed for the message in ways it wasn’t before: We better recognize today that our mass-produced food is threatening our vitality and tearing up the arable land we need; that food that’s been processed beyond recognition has also been stripped of nutrients; that packaging can’t substitute for flavor and that local food often tastes better it has a lower environmental cost (OK, not everyone gets that last point, yet).
We chat a lot about farmer’s markets here on the website, but it’s a pet topic for some good reasons. Who can argue with buying local food, which carries a lower carbon footprint, is more nutrient-rich (according to recent studies) than less fresh options and also supports the local economy?
Here’s a new twist on the concept that we stumbled upon – a farmer’s market that comes to your workplace. They started one in Chester County, Penn., last year and are bringing it back this summer.
The impromptu, lunchtime markets provide both gastronomic and economic benefits. Farmers get a new outlet for their goods and the county employees are treated to fresh produce, allowing them to skip the daily chore of stopping at the grocery on the way home.
Get there as soon as the market opens … the bigger the market the more customers there will be … vendors are in a better mood than we’ll be later in the day …
BRING YOUR OWN BAGS
All vendors have bags but with the exception of the odd paper bag vendor (they cost vendors more money than plastic, so fewer have them) you’ll be toting home thin plastic bags.
BRING CASH
All vendors take cash, many take checks and none take plastic. Few Farmer’s Markets have ATM’s conveniently nearby, so cash is king.
We all need to start eating closer to home, and with all due respect, I don’t mean down at the corner KFC.
I’m talking about finding fresh, locally grown produce for home cooking. Do we even need to list the reasons? Buying local food cuts down on polluting “food miles”, bypasses refrigeration trucks, supports local farmers and puts nutrient-rich foods on our plates.
But unless you grow a lot of your own food, how can you distinguish what came from your friendly local farmer in Illinois (or Texas or California) from what came from a rain forest-encroaching big-Ag operation 2,000 miles away?
Our Mother’s Day feast was a deliberately local meal. Now that Texas farms are rolling out produce, we were able to pick up some spring green beans and Hot House tomatoes at the farmer’s market, along with some locally made pasta.
Our youngest noted that our meal was doubly green — green spinach pasta and local veggies. Oy, they get so smart in public school, no? (Yes, that’s a joke.) At least her green awareness is growing.
But about that local food. This brings me back, sort of, to a topic I wanted to revisit: CAFOs. Buying locally supports smaller farmers, and reduces the “food miles” borne by the meal, and thereby cuts greenhouse gas emissions. Which is all good.
The bunnies are bountiful in our backyard this year; they’re large and prolific. They’re rabbits.
So it was with an eye out for trouble that we installed the garden this past weekend. This is a second veggie garden, which we put in to test the Evo Organics handy-dandy Weed Free Garden Watering Blanket.
As Earth Day approaches, one of the most significant things you can do is to help a child celebrate nature and embrace a greener lifestyle. Here are ten ideas for creating a fun and meaningful Earth Day celebration.
1 – Picnic (with local food)
Get outdoors and enjoy a snack with the squirrels and ants. To really get the most out of this, take your favorite kid(s) to the market in preparation and let them search out local healthy foods. Even young kids can participate, choosing the apples, veggies and cheeses they want to include. So introduce them to the farmer’s market or local foods section of your neighborhood grocery. Look for organic and lower your impact by using reusable dinnerware and plates, or biodegradable paper plates.
Want to dress just like Michelle Obama, but can’t afford to? You can replicate her garden instead!
Local Harvest (.org) has put together a list of seeds similar to those that will be used in the presidential veggie garden. If you’re considering your own home-ag project, it’s worth a look. The carefully plotted White House garden will feature a lot of green leafy stuff with at least five varieties of lettuce as well as spinach, snap peas and broccoli (apparently the Obamas are NOT broccoli-phobic), promising a bounty of antioxidants and a lot of fun times for the receiving chefs. All this seasonal cool Mid Atlantic produce we assume will be followed by tomatoes and squash later on.
You’ve probably heard that efforts to persuade the Obamas to turn over some turf to a veggie garden have been victorious: the first family will be planting a “Victory Garden” on the South Lawn.
Technically, it won’t be a “Victory” garden per se, but will be the first food-producing garden to grace the White House compound since Eleanor Roosevelt oversaw a real Victory Garden during WWII.
Still, it’s a victory for local foodies and specifically Eat the View, the prime perpetrator of this movement to turn back the grass and turn up the turnips, which is now asking folks to thank the Obamas via a form at their website.
It’s already mid-March and that means the snows will melt and if the ground’s not too saturated farmers will soon be planting seeds for the food that will feed us this year.
Since time immemorial farmer’s markets have been with us: farmers harvest, bakers bake, dairy farmers milk their cows and they all meet at a central location where there’s lots of foot traffic … and they sell. The common theme: the food is fresh.
will build a new garden in the Oliver neighborhood. They will break ground at 8 a.m. and complete the project just in time for the ribbon cutting that will take place at 4:30 that afternoon.
