A Tale of an Urban Farm: And So It Begins…

The realities of an urban farm inspire both dread and awe.  It is work, lots of work–complex, urgent, and at the mercy of Mother Nature.  Stress abounds, networking confounds, but all of it is worth it!  That is if you can take it and appreciate the beauty and amazing bounty you are producing.  Even more so if you can revel in the science and experimentation of natural farming, whatever the scale.

Indeed, farming is a business, and urban farming even more so.  You can’t survive as an urban farm without realizing that, without selling direct and marketing your business.  I know that and have experienced what a lack of outlets can do to a new small scale farm through my farm, Magic Bean Farm.

Last year there was plenty of bountiful produce, of lessons learned, and of new ideas, but few selling options.  However, I think the worst part was the lack of moral support from connecting with those truly excited about what you are doing, and a community of fellow urban agriculturists and food lovers of one form or another.  The appreciation while standing in the field and looking at all that beauty, ecology, and luxuriant plant life was the only thing that kept me sane and continuing.

And it was truly a wonder to behold.  Life everywhere, bountiful, springing with jumping tree frogs and a multitude of buoyant blossoms above a field of green.  Tomatoes, cucumber, beans – all towered on trellises, cascading multi-colored fruit, delicious heirlooms of all shapes and sizes.  Waves of color and texture ripple across the rows of greens, bulbs, heads, roots, shoots, squash, and melons.  Insects, mighty little protectors and pollinators, whizzed about the jungle of foliage, partaking in the nectar and preying on the more villainous of critters.

In fact, natural farming itself requires wonder and observation.  There are no magic chemicals and uniform methods.  A complex play of actors that Shakespeare would be mystified by requires a dynamic and resourceful interest that loves solving problems and coming up with new solutions.  Everything is different and everything changes – every climate, every soil, every business, every ecology, every moment.  For some of us, this fuels our desire to continue to learn and persevere, even though moments make us question everything!  And it was thrilling to watch as things changed and problems were solved and new knowledge was applied, and to end the season with this beautiful, living, crumbly soil when we started with next to nothing.  If only the business fared as well.

But the time came to move, and what a change it was!  West Seattle beckoned and my romantic partner, Shabnam, and I heeded the call.  It grew only louder after we settled in.  Within a month or two the multitude of connections around food and urban agriculture in the community brought me to community colleges, community orchards and edible parks, food security plans, enthusiastic land partners to host Magic Bean Farm plots, and many more food lovers and food growers!  We redoubled our efforts, expounding on our website and marketing materials, outreach for land and connections. Soon we had people contacting us for many reasons including articles here and elsewhere.

Certainly a change from the previous year, Magic Bean Farm was on the move, and Shabnam and I were connecting with a lot of great people!  Ah, but all was not well.  Physically, the farm was being delayed for weeks.  It began with a long wait for soil tests when we were already preparing to make beds and plant.  Bunches of Red Torpedo and Cippolini onion seedlings sat in boxes next to La Ratte and All Blue seed potatoes, all in need of a new home.  A frustrating couple of weeks passed, waiting, waiting… Until they finally arrived!

Oh, happy day!  Time to get minerals and other amendments now.  We ended up having to travel down to Black Lake Organics in Olympia just to get what we needed in some of the minor and trace minerals.  Bags of a whole spectrum of natural mineral amendments from soft rock phosphate to glacial rock dust was piled into the truck, in quantities from a few hundred pounds all the way down to only a pound or two.  Besides minerals, we also needed nitrogen meal for our poorly depleted soils, along with biological inoculants and mycorrhizae to kick start and build the life in the soil.  This soil life will build organic matter and provide nutrition to the plant roots, becoming more and more self-sustaining as time goes on.  Some will even protect the plants from disease and pests!

We would have been well on our way, if it weren’t for the other arrival just behind the soil tests – rain.  Rain, more rain, and after just enough sun to get your hopes up for some moderately dry soil, rain again.  Tilling up wet ground is far from ideal, and would inhibit good mixing of the amendments.  So we waited, hoping for a couple days of dry sunny weather.

It did eventually come, as we bit our nails in anticipation, eyes constantly on the weather forecast like a stock junkie.  But all was not quiet.  We continued building connections, working on community projects, building our presence, developing our plans and working with culinary elements such as farm Chef Mike and others.  We connected with fellow urban agriculturists like those in the Harvest Collective, finding some friends in the process, and dreaming up a Seattle urban farmers cooperative for businesses and organizations to support each other and share resources.  Last but not least, there was farm work, cozily hidden within the confines of our house on a rather medieval looking home-built seed starting rack.  Seed starts were booming, even if the outside farm was not.

The soil dried enough, and we were lucky enough to have a good break to prepare quite a bit of space to get the ball rolling.  We cleared the grass first, and tilled up the ground, removing weed roots as much as we can.  Roots, especially the thick white cords of broadleaf grasses, can seemingly be a never ending process!  But there we have it – fresh soil, ripe for amendments.

Amendments are carefully measured for each property based on the specific soil test results.  The full spectrum of minerals and soil needs are accounted for, right down to the many miniscule amounts of trace minerals that are nonetheless essential.  The buckets of mixtures and of living compost are spread by us, along with our friends and great volunteers.  In our dire need to get land into production, our friends came out to help, and volunteers enthusiastically came to us to learn and experience urban farm life.

The dusty white powders coat the ground like a baker’s counter, even ourselves from the waist down in a way no baker imagines!  The crumbles and compost and powder are all tilled in, thoroughly mixed with the top inches of soil to begin the process of remineralization and of building life and organic matter in the soil.  These are quite literally the bedrock of the health of the plants to come.

The crumbly earth sinks under our feet as we begin the process of making beds, babying the freshly tilled soil as we hill up the rows, forming depressions for paths and cover crops in between.  Then we plant!  Finally!  Now the fun part – playing in the dirt with seeds and seedlings.  And seed we do, from potatoes and onion seedlings to just about every cool season crop we have.  During the land conversion process, a small greenhouse was erected as well, providing many more seedlings to transplant into the newly forming rows of beds.

Ever since, this has been the process of re-starting Magic Bean Farm in West Seattle – clear, till, amend, de-root, make beds, plant.  We plant almost as soon as a few beds can be made.  Mother nature and soil test delays had already put us behind, and we have been in a constant process of preparing land in order to plant the next few beds.  But progress is being made, and tender green shoots sprout across the fields.  Cover crop seeds have been laid and continue to grow.  Even some summer crops have already started moving from the greenhouse to the field.  Magic Bean Farm is taking shape, and preparing for the Queene Anne and other farmers markets ahead, and the beginning of the 2010 CSA season.

Mother Nature continues to whip-saw our plans, but we continue to connect, continue to have others contact us, continue to build and grow, and continue to be in awe of the life and community we have found here.  We can only look forward to the months and years to come!

Joshua Parkinson is an urban farmer and photographer/designer in West Seattle and founder of Magic Bean Farm, specializing in seasonal, ecological, and nutrient-dense gourmet vegetables, herbs and specialty items. He maintains the Magic Bean Farm Notes blog, which is full of updates, photography, adventures, tips and recipes. To keep up on the latest news, become a fan on Facebook.

Related posts:

1. Seattle Urban Farm Company: Transforming the Urban Landscape with Edibles
2. The Elusive Commercial Urban Farm: Can it be Done?
3. Rainier Beach Community Makes Plans for Urban Farm

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