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.

Fiskars’ Project Orange Thumb, started in 2003, has helped over 100 communities and given more than $200,000 in garden grants. “The overall mission of Fiskars Project Orange Thumb is to encourage and develop neighborhood beautification, horticultural education, sustainable agriculture, neighborhood involvement, community development and outreach,” said Brent McHenry with Public Relations and Communications for Fiskars. The Oliver neighborhood garden will be Project Orange Thumb’s 6^th makeover this year.

For each makeover, Fiskars partners with a corporate sponsor and a local community organization. “Fiskars coordinates, develops and manages the day-long makeover. The Home Depot donated all the planting materials and supplies for the project and will assist with the garden installation. The City of Baltimore also will assist in installing the garden and will help manage its maintenance upon completion, ” said McHenry.

Joe Lamp’l, known as “Joe Gardener” on Fresh From the Garden on the DIY Network, uniquely designs each garden for Project Orange Thumb. The Oliver neighborhood garden will feature shade trees, hundreds of vegetables, flowering annuals and perreniels, as well as a sitting area.

“We strive to find locations that will benefit from this type of build, including densely populated areas, priority neighborhoods with a vast population,” said McHenry.

Do you know of a place in your community that could use a makeover? You can nominate an area for a new garden by emailing orangethumb@fiskars.com. With your submission, provide information on where the location is, a brief history of the area, and why it deserves a new garden.

(If you’re wondering why these green projects are dubbed Orange Thumb, it’s because of the company’s iconic orange scissors, first sold in the 1960s. Fiskars, a Finnish company, is among the oldest businesses in the world, having started as an ironworks in 1649.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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 Kalona since the 1998.

He explained how he’s created a system of inter-connected parts, designed to work together and assure the well-being of the farm. He uses Percheron draft horses, for instance, because they “force me to think smaller.” Sheep are a big part of the operation because they produce wool for prized natural yarns, and also lambs for meat, and they (along with the horses and the heritage chickens) eat grass, which is grown on the farm.

This new paradigm takes the conventional wisdom that’s grown up around farming as it evolved in the past 50 years — believing that bigger was always better, pesticides were necessary and focus on main crop was helpful and the final product was sold on the commodities market — and discards it, or turns it on its upside down.

“Weeds here indicate ‘poor farming’ (to conventional farmers) but to me they indicate an opportunity for sheep to graze a lot,” says Forbes, who grew up in Oregon, but moved to Iowa in the 1990s to begin a career in farming. Weeds also create “edge” which gives his farm a border of wild prairie and shelter that houses wildlife, wildflowers and beneficial insects.

It’s not assembly line, says Forbes, who sells his veggies to the New Pioneer Food Coop in Iowa City and his eggs to neighbors. Nor is the idea that this must be back-breaking yeoman’s labor. Working with horses can be “hard work,” Forbes admits. But the goal is to have everything humming toward the same ends, toward soil that is enriched year after year by the animals that graze the pasture; and biodiversity that’s enhanced by crop rotation, livestock variety and a tolerance of all insects, bad and good.

With the right systems in place, a farm can be a manageable, profitable enterprise.

“I keep thinking ‘less work’,” says Forbes, 46, who gets part-time help from his parents and his father-in-law who grew up farming with horses in an Amish community. Forbes himself still works a day job at a nearby natural creamery, but he’s proud that his farm is sustainable,  profitable and organic. “It’s better for the land. It’s better for the people.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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).

This Magnolia Pictures release, headed right for major theaters across the country starting this weekend, could tip us into rebellion. It’s got great early reviews, and it aspires to start a movement. Perhaps this film that promises to show us the “underbelly” of industrial agriculture – and took six years to create – will be so eye-opening we’ll start on a healthier path (soon as we’re done eating some cheap meat for the 4th of July!).

Producer/director Robert Kenner and co-producer Eric Schlosser have the right idea. It is time the American consumer gets a look behind the scenes. Early indications are that some of the material will make your next visit to the grocery a scary one. And getting queasy might be a necessary first step (you know, like with AA, acknowledging the problem). We’ll just have to see if Americans swallow it.

Meantime, FOOD INC. offers these “Ten Simple Things You Can Do” to get started.

1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.
You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).
2. Eat at home instead of eating out.
Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.
3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.
4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks.
Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.
5. Meatless Mondays-Go without meat one day a week. An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.
6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides. According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.
7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer’s market. Farmer’s markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.
8. Make a point to know where your food comes from-READ LABELS.
The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.
9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you. Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.
10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections. Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.

I would add that you could also:

11. Grow some of your own food, and teach your kids how to do the same. It’s frugal and it TASTES BETTER.
12. Clue in to fiber. It keeps you de-toxified.
13. And about those Meatless Mondays. Consider adding a few more meatless days, but do it like real vegetarians, adding protein-rich beans, lentils, tofu, nuts, brown rice and whole grains instead of just subtracting the meat.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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 often 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, Pa., 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.

The arrangement also pleases the county HR folks, who can sneak in a punt for good nutritional habits.

“One of the goals of our County Wellness Program is to provide opportunities for our employees to eat more fruit and vegetables,” said Terence Farrell, Chester County Commissioner Chair.

And there will be plenty a veggies at the weekly grower’s markets, which also will offer seasonal fruits, free-range chickens, eggs, cheeses, honey and whole grain breads. The food comes from the Westtown-based Stratton-Wynnorr farm, in conjunction with eight Amish families and other local farmers.

For those of you outside of Chester County, which is west of Philadelphia, let our story Getting the Most From Your Farmer’s Market inspire you to find your own nearby produce outlet.

(Four locations will host the Chester markets: the historic Chester County Courthouse on High Street in West Chester; the Government Services Center on Westtown Road in West Chester; the Exton Library rear parking lot; and the open-air pavilion at Pocopson Home on Route 52. Each Thursday during June, July and August, the market will be based at one of these four locations, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Thinking of heading out to your friendly farmer’s market to celebrate the start of summer? Here are some tips to help you maximize the experience.

COME EARLY

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.

DRESS COMFORTABLY

Dress as though you’ll be on your feet for a period of time, because you will be. Dress for the weather: it’s usually chillier in the morning so layer. If it’s an afternoon FM wear a hat and comfortable clothing. Shoes are especially important: not flip-flops or clunky boots. You’re there for comfort, not fashion. All too often we see people come to our windy seacoast New Hampshire hilltop market in October shivering in shorts and a thin jacket. What were they thinking? And parking is often inconvenient so think about walking back to the car with armloads of groceries; it’s not a supermarket so there are no carts or baskets.

DON‘T RUSH

Relax, enjoy yourself! When you get there take some time to walk around, see what’s what and who does a nice job of displaying their goods, who looks serious and who looks like an amateur. Depending on the time of day and the weather, get a drink and something to nibble on while you cruise. Eating as you go is key to how much you buy: if you’re hungry you’re apt to buy more food than you need. If you’re not so hungry you’ll buy in proportion to your needs.

PICKING THE BEST PRODUCE

It’s all fresh, so the rule of thumb is to pick the produce that most appeals to your eye. I’ve set out 30 pint boxes of berries and had customers stand there agonizing over which box looks the best. No point telling them they’re all the same because to a customer they’re NOT all the same. If it’s something you have chosen then you feel you got a bargain it tastes that much better. If you have a particular need for a smaller amount than you see ask for a smaller amount … you’ll usually get it. If not, go to another vendor.

A tip on corn: if the stalk (cut) end is moist and white, it’s fresh.

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?

Increasingly, grocery stores are helping us get smarter about food. They are labeling produce as local, organic and “conventionally grown”. Recently, I found myself bathed in info at a large Whole Foods Market. There I gaped before a mouth-watering, six-foot-high tower of neatly sorted cruciferous and root vegetables, squash and herbs stacked and organized according to the Dewey Decimal system. There were many signs. Some of the food was local, some was organic, and some, but only some, was local and organic. And because experts say that choosing organic is important, and also that choosing local is vital, I thought my head might explode.

That same week, I found myself at a farmer’s market being handed green beans that were supposed to be local. But it didn’t seem quite possible that they actually could be…unless they’d been planted very early…in a greenhouse. Maybe they meant loco?

It’s not always so easy, greenies. So how do you nail down what’s local?

Obviously, you can grow some of your own — it’s guaranteed local. You can join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) network. You could lurk at your farmer’s market and eavesdrop on people who appear knowledgeable and drug-free. And you can learn the seasons. It needs to be in season to be local, and if it’s local it is certainly in season. See a tautology! This will only trip you up when someone ships apples from Washington to sell in New York, which harvests apples at the same time. Because of our complex food system, this sort of thing happens regularly. At least you can compare apples to apples.

If you want to skip the Farmer’s Almanac portion of this learning process, go straight to this great resource: The Natural Resource Defense Council’s Local Food database. There you can type in your state and the month and pop up a list of produce that a shopper could reasonably expect to see harvested somewhere in that state at that time.

In Illinois, by late May, for instance, you could expect to find: Asparagus,Cabbage,Cherries, Greens, Leeks, Lettuce, Onions, Peas, Radishes, Rhubarb, Spinach, Sprouts, Squash, Strawberries.

But in Texas, in late May, look for a fruitier selection: Blackberries, Blueberries, Cabbage, Cantaloupes, Carrots, Cucumber, Grapefruit, Herbs, Honeydew Melon, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Nectarines, Onions, Oranges, Peaches, Pears, Peppers, Potatoes, Summer squash, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Turnips, Watermelon

And so on. Happy May.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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.

CAFOs work in reverse, supporting big agricultural operations by concentrating animal feeding in big lots, then shipping the meat outward, around the globe. It’s a big wheel with many far-flung spokes, instead of the series of small, overlapping circles formed by local food networks.

The topic of CAFOs came up during the recent swine flu scare, when some people speculated that the ginormous pork operation near the little village in Mexico where the virus is believed to have hit the first human victims played a role in the spread of the disease. However, no pigs or workers were recorded as having the flu, according to the U.S. operators of the facility.

Some people remain suspicious, though, among them, Tom Philpott, a long time sustainability advocate and agriculture writer for Grist. Philpott flagged the pig operation early on and has more in an article posted today, “Another symptom of swine flu: instant amnesia”.

In the piece, he reviews the case against CAFOs, explains that “pig zero” in the flu outbreak might still have come from there because pigs don’t always exhibit symptoms.

It’s a worthy review. These large CAFO operations may have grown out of our need to feed an exploding global population, but they carry side effects, serving as a breeding grounds for host of pathogens. We know that animals raised or “finished” in such environments often require antibiotics to fend off diseases. Consider too that many of these facilities have caused environmental damage just from seeping manure catchments.

And these are just the health considerations. We haven’t even addressed the humanity of treating animals this way.

MORE FROM GRN

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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.

This intriguing product claims to block out weeds (the blanket covers the ground, like mulch only better) while supplying the plants with an efficient, water-conserving, drip-line irrigation system.

I’ll admit, I’m really sucked in by the promise of no weeds and significantly reduced water use (up to 80 percent less water according to the package claims) but leery. Drip line irrigation is more efficient, but this much more? We’ll find out. I’d be happy with a 50 percent reduction.

So now, if the bunnies don’t like tomato and pepper leaves (I don’t think they do, but please send email if you know otherwise) Jed and me’ll be growin’ some food for the young ‘uns. We’ve planted Romas, some other tomato varieties, some Mexican peppers and bell peppers. And we’ve got room to grow in this 8 x 10 foot patch.

I’ll update you as we go. And we’ll talk with the Evo Organics folks. The installation was not difficult by the way; the hose line slipped out of the blanket once or twice, causing Jed to mutter under his breath and stomp off briefly. But after threading the hose back through, it was smooth going. Really. A piece of cake. Here are the pictures:

First step, begin with a ph test (this comes with the Evo Organics kit). Ours found that the clay soil was ok, acid-wise. So we didn’t amend anything.

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.

Then head to your favorite city park or nearest lakeside picnic spot to relax. Note the trees, the wildlife, the wonderful spring flora, the plastic bags wafting in the breeze…what!? Be a good scout and pick up a bit of trash during your visit.

(Photo credit: Sebcz/Dreamstime.com)

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.

The kitchen garden also will be a wonderfully aromatic venue with lots of herbs like sage, chamomile, thyme, marjoram and rosemary. And there will be flowers, in particular, marigolds and nasturtiums, which are known for attracting beneficial bugs and deterring pests, demonstrating the technique of “companion gardening” popular with organic growers in which flowers complement and assist the veggies. Think of it as bipartisan support.

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.

Eat the View had organized a year-long campaign and petition drive (signed by more than 100,000 people) asking for a White House edible landscape project that could serve as a high profile demo. The group’s mission is to plant the idea of planting produce in highly visible places, so the White House announcement this week that it would install a garden was a coup de grace.

Apparently gardeners know how to grow a good viral campaign. The Eat the View project, which has been featured in dozens of media outlets since it began in early 2008, was the brainchild of Roger Doiron, a local food advocate in Maine and the group he helped found, Kitchen Gardeners International, a non-profit association of more than 10,000 gardeners. Their motto “promoting the ‘localest’ food of all, globally” rather says it all.

“It’s a wonderful day,” Doiron said Friday after receiving confirmation of the White House plans. “It’s a wonderful day for gardeners. It’s a wonderful day for Americans. For everybody I think. It’s a very hopeful news.”

“There’s part of me that says, ‘What do we do next?’ ” But all subsequent projects — in schoolyards, on city hall and suburban lawns — should be easier with the First Family setting an example, he said.

“There are many different places where new gardens need to go in.”

The White House planting begins next week when Michelle Obama and a crew of volunteer elementary school students will break ground. Reports are that it will include 55 varieties of produce.

Need inspiration for putting in your own veggie garden? See Doiron’s charming video of his front lawn garden. When he first installed it, his wife visited with neighbors to alert them to what they were doing in their suburban Portland, Maine, neighborhood. The neighbors response was “overwhelmingly supportive” and as the garden took root, so did new social ties. “We know our neighbors better now because of that.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Advertisement

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.

In addition to the standard organic fruits, vegetables and eggs, farmer’s markets offer items you wouldn’t usually consider: hand-made brooms, herbs, bath and body care products, lobster rolls, wine, organic teas and “traditional handcrafted leather goods and repair”, rabbits, natural and dyed yarn and spinning supplies, photographs of local scenes, elk and moose meat, organic spice blends and increasingly, fresh fish.

1. It’s locally grown

Most but not all Farmer’s Markets in the US require vendors to have grown, produced or crafted what they sell at the market. Most vendors are small, one- or two-person operations and they grow only what they can manage. They grow what’s in season and it’s local. Ask the farmer if they grew what they’re selling, ask if it’s organic. Don’t buy until you’re satisfied with their answers.

2. You know the farmer personally

You know where the farm family lives; you’ve seen their farm, your children go to school with their children, you see each other at church or at Little League games or at a movie. You know the farmer and you trust him. He’s a neighbor.

3. It’s where the chefs and restaurateurs shop for fresh produce and baked goods

Patrick Soucy, chef at a Portsmouth, N.H. restaurant that specializes in New American cuisine, buys at the local farmer’s markets because of the “better health, better quality” of the food.

“And the produce defines ‘tree-ripened’. It’s fresh. ”

Raj, chef at an Indian restaurant in southern Maine, buys there “because it’s local, within a 20-mile radius. It didn’t come here from California. Also, I support the local community.”

4. Prices are often cheaper than supermarkets

… but not always. Organically-grown and the small-operation produce is very labor-intensive. Individually planted by hand, individually nurtured during the growing process and then individually harvested by hand obviously takes a tremendous amount of time. But the local farmer doesn’t have the tremendous labor, mortgage, transportation and other expenses of a supermarket, so cost comparisons show that all-in-all the farmer’s market sells food for less than a supermarket.

5. There’s less of a carbon footprint: field to farm

What about the bananas at a supermarket in America that come from El Salvador, the berries from Chile, and the kiwis from Australia … how can they possibly be their freshest when they were harvested so early in their growth process and they grew older on their journey? Local produce usually travels less than 10 miles from field to market. Take a bite from a store-bought peach and then take a bite from a locally-grown peach. As chef Patrick Soucy says, “I needed five napkins to wipe my mouth after biting the locally-grown peach”.