Archive for the ‘Organizations’ Category
Local Urban Ag Resources From Mark Musick
Thanks to Mark Musick for a long list of local resources. Perusing all of these sounds like a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.
The sustainable agriculture movement is blossoming across the Northwest. Below are links to Tilth organizations in our region, followed by links to urban agriculture-related organizations, businesses and blogs in Seattle. Please let us know about additions and/or corrections.
REGIONAL TILTH NETWORK
Seattle Tilth is part of a regional network of local Tilth organizations active on local and regional levels. More…
Greenhorns: Serve Your Country Food
The Greenhorns breezed into Chandler Briggs’ Island Meadow Farm on Vashon Island October 4th for a young farmer meet-up that brought out well over 250 young farmers from around the Northwest.
Folks proudly brought their home grown farm salads and desserts to compliment a pig-roast, flowing drink from the tanks and vines of the NW brewers and winemakers, a screening of The Greenhorns documentary, and dancing to some great live music from The Tallboys.
The Greenhorns documentary, now in post-production, explores the lives of America’s young farming community – its spirit, practices, and needs. The young farmers at the Vashon meet-up, some with land, some still finishing programs in managing rural farms, were excited to get to know each other and share new skills.
I talked to young Seattle urban farmers from Alleycat Acres, Cascade Edible Landscapes, and the Seattle Farm Co-op, students more formally learning the nuts and bolts of managing a rural farm at the Greenbank Farm Training Center on Whidbey Island, Bullock’s Permaculture Homstead on Orcas Island, as well as talking to plenty of young farmers who are learning the ropes by working hard during the planting and harvesting seasons with local CSAs.
Bubbling with health and enthusiasm – our local young farmers are embracing and re-inventing a healthy local food system as a way of taking back control of the world.
King County Agriculture Commission
There are a lot of questions about how urban and rural agriculture intersect, and how funding for one could impact funding for the other. In an effort to inform this discussion we will be doing a few posts on rural ag starting with some of the institutions.
The King County Agriculture Commission, working with citizens, agricultural producers and public officials shall actively influence regional policy to preserve and enhance agricultural land; support and promote a viable agricultural community; and educate the public about the benefits of local agricultural products.
Refugee Farmers Growing Hope in the Kent Valley
Burundian-style eggplant
“Just look at those little eggplants,” said Serges Hakizimana, the manager of Burst for Prosperity’s 10-acre incubator farm in the Kent Valley. Holding up lush leaves to reveal a pale green fruit, he said, “This is a type of eggplant we grow in Burundi and the soup you can make with it is so good, it is unbelievable.”
Serges and a group of Burundian and Somali Bantu refugees, are raising the usual crops but sprinkled in amongst these are foods specific to his culture such as a pale green eggplant, amaranth and a special white bean. In an effort to provide culturally appropriate foods, and make this farm financially sustainable he is working on developing a market for these items and has customers as far away as Texas. More…
Clean Greens – Harvesting Community
From Martha Baskin via the Seattle PI blog, here’s news on the Clean Greens program. This group provides green jobs and gets healthy food into low income communities at reasonable prices. You can help make this program even more successful by joining their CSA program, volunteering to work out at the farm or joining their on-line forum.
Terrell James pulls up to New Hope Baptist Church in Seattle’s Central District with a van full of fresh produce. The produce is from Clean Greens Farm in Duvall. The farm is a project of the church to grow healthy food for the inner city. The fall harvest looks good. On a rainy morning crates of peas, squash, carrots and beets are hauled into the office for sorting. “We’re going to try to keep all the produce on one side and boxes on the other.” When corn, tomatoes and eggs arrive they’ll be added to the food boxes, or CSA’s, community supported agriculture. “We try to get the heaviest stuff on the bottom first. It’s a good project to be in. The farm is big out there. Kind of brings you back to God’s work.”
How Much Food Do Community Gardens Produce?
A big question that often comes up in community garden work is how much do community gardens actually produce? So far King County’s Goat Hill Garden’s harvest log says it’s up to 86 pounds of fresh organic produce!
Farming Concrete is a project based in New York City that is attempting to measure the total amount of produce grown on its public land. Here’s more:
Farming Concrete is a volunteer, citizen science project to measure how much food is grown in New York City’s community gardens. More…
Fighting for Sustainable Food One Mouth At A Time
Marra Farm harvest, photo by Steve Tracy
The following is an article from the Civil Eats blog by Helene York who is responsible for enforcing the purchasing policy of food service company Bon Appetit. Not only must she make the difficult decisions about what “sustainable food” actually is, she also has to defend that position tooth-and-nail against skeptics and at least one of the company’s gourmet chefs who has an affinity for bluefin tuna (a fish population that’s rapidly spiraling into extinction).
Bon Appetit’s stringent purchasing policy and campaign for low-carbon diets demonstrates the company’s commitment to sustainable food. And those decisions matter. Feeding thousands per day, the company is helping consumers make more responsible choices. Just imagine what would happen if other large food suppliers held the same standards and what impact that would have on our food system. More…
Seattle Farm Co-Op
Have you been looking for a source for local feed or a forum to discuss more urban ag topics? The Seattle Urban Farm Co-op is a great resource.
The Seattle Urban Farm Co-op is a community-based organization that purchases supplies for urban farmers in the Seattle area. They get supplies such as animal feed, fertilizers, mulch, seeds, etc., from local and sustainable sources as much as possible, and save money through co-operative purchasing. They also support the growth of urban agriculture by providing a place for tools and resource sharing, educational classes, community information, etc.
You can get more information from their Yahoo homepage or contact them through their group’s email address at: seattlefarmcoop@yahoogroups.com.
Growings On at the Danny Woo Garden
Jonathan Chen
“We have a new flock of chickens and they are amazing at composting garden waste,” said gardener Jonathan Chen as he looked at the new coop at the Danny Woo community garden. ”The other day there was a grandmother here with her grandaughter. She picked some grass and showed the little one how to feed the birds. This garden is all about positive energy and elders teaching the next generation where food comes from and how to raise it.”
The Danny Woo International District Community Garden is the largest green space in the Chinatown/International District and is managed by InterIm CDA. The garden was named after a member of the Woo family that has leased the property to InterIm CDA since 1975. It is home to more than 100 community garden plots where elderly Asian gardeners tend to vegetables such as bok choy, bittermelon, daikon and watercress. Younger gardeners experiment with strawberries, squash and other fruits and veggies. More…
Tips on Reducing Food Waste
As mentioned in an earlier post, when food is wasted, so is energy. By making the best use of your foodstuffs, you could be reducing the more than 90 billion pounds of food tossed in the trash every year, which uses up to 4 percent of all U.S. oil and more than 25 percent of our fresh water to produce and transport to consumers.
Sometimes it’s hard to eat a fresh, “mostly plant“-based diet without wasting food along the way because, unlike burgers from fast food joints, real food spoils. So here are some tips to help you prevent perfectly good food from going bad:
- Draft a menu – Plan what your family will eat for the week. Focus first on ingredients you already have in the house that are getting close to their expiration dates, and buy the ingredients you need to turn it into dinner.
- Make a grocery list – Making a list while you’re at home will help ensure you don’t buy what you already have lurking in the back of the pantry. And sticking to a list ensures you won’t spend extra on impulse purchases that may not be on the menu that week. More…
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