Fir Ridge is another SUN Community School and the site coordinator there has a strong interest in gardening and food education. She is also passionate enough to write and receive a substantial grant towards these important topics: gardening, land conservation and nutritional education.

Enter Jared Goodman (Good Man Eats)

Through Scott (the SUN coordinator at FLMS), I was recommended as a food educator. The next thing I know I am discussing my curriculum and finding out a way to bring my educational workshop to her school. Fast forward a week and I am sipping tea with the gardening educator. I learn from him that the school has 18 raised beds of an 8×4 size! For those of you who don’t know this – THAT IS HUGE! The amount of food that can be grown in that space is really tremendous.

• We could start a CSA for the community…
• We could sell produce at the farmers market…
• I could teach food preservation classes or provide more cooking classes to the youth…
• We could donate food to places in the community…
• Throughout this amazing process, the students are creating, planting, harvesting, cooking and possibly selling the fruits of their labor.

As you can tell, my excitement is boiling over. I am thrilled by the wonderful possibilities of food education AND the long-term goals of sustainability. If the garden takes off, we can sell produce to raise money that can go into making the project larger and “greener.” I am so lucky to be a part of this new school project. All of this makes my work and teaching so much more meaningful and powerful for the students and the community.

Food revolution – here I come!

Related posts:

1. Guess Who Received a $4,000 Grant?!
2. Session 1 Complete!
3. Cooking Class Conundrum

My name is Doug.

I am a poultry farmer.

I am a freshly-minted, small-scale, unlikely poultry farmer who was lucky enough to have settled in one of the most beautiful spots on the eastern seaboard, Martha’s Vineyard’s Tisbury Great Pond.

My wife Emily’s family has farmed and maintained their hundred-acre property for three generations, its main products being baled hay, lamb, eggs and beef. To their grass-based grazing system I have added a fleet of three 12 X 12 foot A-frame “chicken tractors.” In these humble huts I have raised approximately 800 Cornish Rock Cross chickens in the last three years. They have all been slaughtered on farm and sold (until recently) to end-users that, in a CSA-inspired model, paid a deposit for their birds. I have tried my hand at raising Pekin duck and heritage breed cockerels as well.

As you can well guess, this meager poultry operation I have started hardly pays the bills. My day jobs include assisting at a local middle school where I hope to teach once I finish a Master’s program this coming spring. I teach guitar privately. In the summer I have worked at camps…catered. A mixed bag of employment you might call it. I have a five month old son, Milo, a beagle named Winston and two dairy goats named Sophia and Chokey. The goats’ milk is a key ingredient in the hand-made, cold process soaps that my wife makes and sells at retail stores and farmers’ markets.

With these introductions out of the way I can now tell you why I have asked Jared to carve out a little space on his blog for me now and again…

During my extremely short career in agriculture I have experienced a lot of the hardships and successes that come with small scale farming in America today. For example, I have been served a Cease and Desist order from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for selling chickens off the farm…which as far as I can see is completely within my rights. A whole shipment of 160 chicks arrived D.O.A. at the farm. I have had a chicken tractor hurled across the barnyard during a late summer storm. Dedicated customers have been supportive during my ‘troubles’ with the state, while other members of our small Island community have apparently ‘informed’ on me…or so I am told. When I moved to the Island I was a suburbanite that had literally never known the origin of his food. Now, I am a person that regularly slaughters animals of all sorts and spends the better part of his daydreaming hours hatching feathered, egg-laying schemes.

I have enjoyed modest financial success with my poultry business but also discovered that the farming gods are fickle and will swiftly cost you time, money and the better part of your sanity. I thought that there may be just a few people that might like to hear about my humble efforts in pasture raising chickens.

So…what now? The quiet Island winter approaches. In the name of optimism…and in an effort to keep my spirits up as the days grow shorter I won’t dwell on this summer’s setbacks and will instead look forward to next spring and the poultry rearing season I intend to pursue. In order to do so, I will need to introduce you to the backbone of my (and most) meat-variety chicken farms: the Cornish Rock Cross Jumbo Broiler.

Related posts:

1. CRX: The Bird That Built a Nation
2. Killing Chickens vs. Processing Chickens (part I)
3. Turkey Dealing in the Parking Lot

In many ways, the collective is the manifestation of my culinary aspirations and a strong step towards my dietary ideals. Specifically, creating a direct connection between myself and the food I consume. This new Portland-based food project will attempt the following:

The Portland Meat Collective brings local meat to local people. It’s a network of Portland citizens who are looking for a cost-effective way to buy meat directly from Oregon’s small ranchers. While PMC is modeled after traditional meat CSAs that are popping up around the country, it is also an up-close-and-personal traveling butchery school. Once PMC procures that whole cow, pig, or lamb, members can take part in master butchery and charcuterie classes with Portland meat masters. They’ll get to decide how they want their animal carved up. They’ll wield knives and bags of curing salts. And they’ll learn what to do with all those specialty cuts once they’re at home in the kitchen. PMC brings a dynamic, local, sustainable approach to buying and eating meat straight to the people.

There are many reasons for excitement to ensue:

1. The PMC will facilitate a bulk purchase of meat for a community of members, which brings down the total cost per pound and works toward sustainable carnivorous habits.
2. The collective’s members will foster a real relationship with the farmer and the animal, strengthening the community of producers and consumers.
3. Members will learn the necessary techniques to prepare a carcass or a particular cut of meat. Empowering oneself with butchering skills connects the individual to the food, gaining both knowledge and respect for the animal and its life.
4. The collective provides a sustainable means to eating meat – purchasing, slaughtering, butchering and distributing – ensuring food security and healthy food for the members and the broader community.

The PMC is driven by Camas Davis, the former food editor for Portland Monthly. The little I know about her I read in this great article, “Ethical Butchers Do It Better,” published November 4, 2009 in Willamette Week. The focus of the piece was on Davis and another local meat advocate, Berlin Reed. Though both individuals provide interesting contexts for learning more about butchering animals, the direction of Davis is of far more relevance for me. Part educational and part accessibility, this project has great potential to support local farmers and strengthen food literacy in the community.

Related posts:

1. The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 4)
2. The Grass-Fed Manifesto (Part I)
3. The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 3)

Urban farming – what are its forms? Is it a reasonable means of food production? How is the individual and society at large affected by this growing agricultural movement? These are some of the questions to consider when we examine this trend in the local food movement and its roots in urban communities.

When I think about this question I picture a scale that ranges from big to small. At the top you have large-scale means of food production, think industrial agriculture. Currently, industrial agriculture practices monoculture farming (growing a single crop over a large span of land), which destroys the land, animal species and the general flow of nature. With monoculture farming pesticides are used. When farming only one plant there is no “circle of life” to prevent bugs and improve soil conditions, etc. All the problems of modern industrial agriculture come from this idea of planting large harvests of single crops each season. Ultimately, this means of production has devastated our top soil, polluted our water supply, depleted water sources, decimated animal populations and killed family farming.

In cities we cannot mimic this means of production because there are not hundreds or thousands of empty acres to plant crops. To feed the masses in the cities there is an idea known as vertical farming. Instead of growing plants on a horizontal plane, why not grow crops on a vertical one? Cities are composed of buildings, and some cities have really high buildings. What if some of these structures were full-fledged farms?!

Defying seasonality, these structures could possible provide all the whole foods available at Whole Foods.

This picture is one of many designs in the realm of possibility. As far as I know, in the United States nothing of this magnitude has been built, and yet I can definitely see us moving in this direction. With the reluctance of current politicians to take any drastic measures against climate change, I think we may have to consider this means of farming in the near future. Vertical farming on this scale is of great interest to me. The pictures I have seen that reflect the various forms of vertical farming are mesmerizing and rather fantastic. At the same time, when food production is in a building, I wonder if organic means are feasible. Clearly the food could be local, but would the constraints of the structure prevent sustainable crop growth? In this picture you can imagine the use of solar energy and grey water systems, maybe some sort of modern permaculture will develop to meet these needs.

In simple terms, permaculture is “a set of techniques and principles for designing sustainable human settlements” (see Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway.) Another way to understand permaculture is as a landscape design that attempts to emulate the symbiotic relationships in nature between microbes in the soil, insects, birds and plants. If agriculture is modernity imposing his or her needs on nature – tilling the soil, planting non-native plants and disrupting the natural flow of the environment, then permaculture is the antithesis. People who practice permaculture understand the larger system that enables certain plants to thrive in a given environment. If this idea is harnessed properly, one can grow a multitude of foods in absolute organic method.

A smaller scale of urban farming that employs permaculture and feeds the masses is happening now. The man behind this remarkable venture is Will Allen and his farm is called Growing Power.  He also uses vertical farming techniques.

On 2 acres he's got a biodiversity of produce, livestock, bees and even fish, not to mention 25,000 pounds of compost a month!

As long as vacant lots are expensive I think the potential to expand on Allen’s ideas are limited. Nonetheless, I am highly optimistic of his model. One of my dreams is to recreate his farming model in Portland. If he can do this in the midwest where the winters are literally frozen, than surely Portland can practice his methods.

Allen is committed to food justice and his work reflects this passion. In the context of urban farming I do not know if the focus is on low-income communities, as they are less likely to purchase and eat whole foods when the cost is high. That said, I think the focus should be on low-income communities since their health will impact everyone else and vice verse. Thinking of this picture to the left, Allen wants to teach people how to fish(in the sense of empowering people to grow their own food,) and I think that is the future of localized food systems.

On that note, consider smaller plots of land dispersed in neighborhoods throughout the city and not just community gardens. I have nothing against community gardens, but as their popularity grows there will be longer lines to join the club and then less access to local food. I am intrigued by the potential of CSAs because if you cannot grow your own food, the CSA model seems to provide the best access to affordable whole foods. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is when an individual or family purchases a share of a farm’s product. For example, if you buy a winter share on a farm, you will receive x amount of produce every week for a set period of time. Everything the farm grows, you get a piece of. If you want to eat seasonally, I think CSAs are the way to go.

For the most part, CSA shares are provided by farms outside the city. In urban farming, this is a smaller and sustainable means of providing local and affordable food. In the urban CSA model there is a ceiling on growth, and ideally these “farms” could provide for the immediate neighbors. In Portland there are two examples I know of working in this direction: Shortcut Farm and Fruits of Our Neighbors Market Garden. Even as these two farms are at different stages of development, both are working towards CSA models for the immediate neighboring population.

Recently made beds at Shortcut farm. Here salad and winter greens will grow.

So we have gone from vertical farming in skyscrapers to vertical farming on 2 acre lots; here we have urban CSAs on single lots. Another form of urban agriculture, maybe the most prolific of them all is at home. Around the country people are returning to the act of gardening, no matter the size of their yard. Whether people garden on the land they have, build raised beds or attempt container gardening, these are all popular methods for growing your own food. And yet all of these methods require some amount of space outside the bedroom or kitchen.

For people in dense cities like New York City, even container gardening is an impossibility. But yesterday I came across a new direction to tackle this common obstacle. Consider the idea of a window farm!

Anyone with a window and a Do-It-Yourself attitude can participate in the new trend.

Yesterday I read an article on window farming on Civil Eats, one of the best blogs for commentary on food politics. The details of the technique are rather complicated, but I gather that the plants grow in 2 liter bottles and a slow-drip system is used to water the plants. Basically, this is vertical farming in the home on an individualized scale. Very cool. I don’t even live in a dense city but trying out this method would be quite the experience. Growing food like this definitely requires a sense of mechanical knowledge, but there is a great site devoted to sharing this skill set. To learn more about this gardening system, check out Window Farms. The site offers tons of information on how to build this structure. Since this means of food production is in the early stages of development, I think the site also serves as a place to discuss problems and solutions for the building process. Maybe this is the new and improved urban means of container gardening!

The possibilities in urban farming mentioned here are likely the tip of the iceberg. As populations grow and resources grow scarce, inventiveness will prosper. If anything, the future of urban food production will probably be vertical and hopefully embrace elements of permaculture. Different cities will require different means of production, but the goal will always be to localize our foods and to ensure accessibility and affordability.

For next time, I hope to consider whether or not these forms of urban agriculture are reasonable – can they feed the masses?

Related posts:

1. Urban Farming in Portland (part 1)
2. The Urban Farming Revolution
3. Introducing Permaculture

Why live off the ‘food grid?’ you may ask. Without going into another rampant tirade on the pitfalls of industrial agriculture, let me try to keep the answer simple.

I care about my health and the health of my friends and family. I care about the earth and the numerous ecosystems that inhabit the multiple corners of this planet. I care about the community I live in and the work that employs the members of this micro and macro setting. I do believe that sustainable food production is possible, but within the confines of our capitalist economy these systems are limited. For example, if profit is the end goal then what the animal eats and how the animal lives is not important. I guess I’m less interested in profit and more focused on health – for the individual and family, for the environment and for the community at large. What can we do do improve the health of these different settings? As you might imagine, I think living off the food grid is a step in the right direction. As capitalism requires, demand influences supply. If the food movement demands the farmers will supply. It’s happening across the country, but more needs to be done.

When I think about food in my home I consider 4 main categories – meat, dairy, grain and produce. If I want to live off the ‘food grid’ then these are the categories to consider. Our main protein and fat source comes from the meat; and the meat comes directly from the farm, Afton field farm to be exact. Once a month the meat is dropped off at someone’s home and I pick it up and throw it in the freezer for the month. We get farm fresh eggs (the best I’ve ever had), chicken, lamb and beef. We spend 80$ for the whole month on meat and eggs, and to be honest that’s more than we need. But I like having extra quantities so that we can host friends and feed them wholesome food too.

As of this evening I found a great source for dairy (milk, yogurt, butter and cheese.) The Noris Dairy not only sells organic dairy products that are not homonogized, but they also deliver directly to your door! We are talking about old school milk – glass jars filled with rich milk, even chocolate milk, as well as other products. They deliver to your door and you leave a cooler for them. The following week you leave out the empty bottles and they bring you more milk. I love it! This is what I have wanted for some time. New Seasons, the local grocery store that everyone loves, does not have locally sourced milk. They sell similar milk (organic and non-homonogized) but it’s from California. Why buy milk from California if you can get it from Oregon, from less than 50 miles away no less?! And it’s important to note that the cows that produce this milk are fed grass, they roam all day on open pastures, and they are treated kindly by their farmers. Thus, this rich, creamy, fatty milk is actually healthy!

Once we plan out our dairy consumption with this farm, we are left with grain and produce. Grain, unlike everything else, requires me to look beyond the confines of a local (100-mile) food system. I can honestly say I don’t know all of the grains grown in the Northwest, but I’m fairly certain the ones I like or want are not local. And as someone who is gluten-free I am especially unlucky. For those of you who do not share this awful food allergy, you do have a local source of grain! Check out Bluebird Grain Farm. They even have a grain CSA. I would be there in an instant if my stomach did not have such adverse reactions to wheat. To eat grains and live off the food grid, I will have to buy grains in bulk so that my frequency to the bulk food item section is minimal. This decision is underway. Basically I have to discuss with my wife what bulk items we want in large quantities. Personally, I think we ought to get brown rice, cornmeal, polenta, black beans (and maybe other beans), oats, white flour (for my wife) and nuts (which are obviously not a grain.) Instead of limiting this category to grains, let’s just say “bulk food items.” That is a broader category that encompasses more of the items I am considering.

The last concern is produce. I can tell you that we are totally set for hearty greens this winter. We have a crazy amount of kale and chard. I mentioned in a previous post the idea of buying some bulk storage produce, i.e. potatoes, onions, beets, carrots and some winter squash. If we go the seasonal route we can buy at the farmers market. In Portland there is one year-round market I know of – People’s Food Coop Farmers Market - and this may fulfill that need for “February produce” (is that an oxymoron?)

This is an ongoing project and if I am successful, then all of our food will come directly from local farmers and each item will be seasonal (except for things we froze or canned.) The only items that will not meet the standards are oils, vinegars, sugar, spices, and gluten-free flours.

If we eat off the ‘food grid’ we will be healthier for it. We will act with our fork and not just our vote. We will impact others and live by our ideals. And of course, we won’t support the evil and destructive industrial food industries!

Related posts:

1. Grocery-free Living
2. Good-Bye Grocery Store (part 1)
3. A Failed Experiment

Shortcut Farm - an urban agriculture project

Today I had the opportunity to volunteer with an up-and-coming urban farm in North Portland, Shortcut farm. Near the corner of Garfield and Shaver lies a once empty half lot of land, neighboring a large empty lot. In the last year or so this smaller parcel of land became a community garden. The land is owned by OSALT – Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust, a local non-profit devoted to preserving land for the use of agriculture, both rural and urban. As of recently a new project has taken shape on this piece of land, one that is also in conjunction with OSALT. This new ‘development’ is Shortcut farm.

The premise is simple: turn this otherwise empty neighborhood lot into a fully functioning urban farm, complete with apiary, fruit trees, permaculture designs and a rainwater catchment system. Today’s work was “part 2″ of the tilling, bed building and planting process. Here are some images to give you a sense of the space and its uses:

Crisscrossed raised beds dominate the front half of the lot.

The pattern of the beds is not only intentional but reflects some means of sustainable design. This simple layout prevents excessive runoff. Native plants will grow near the sidewalk to absorb the rain that is not absorbed by the beds. On the other side of the sidewalk sit strawberry and blueberry shrubs as well as another fig tree. Most of these rows have seeds already growing. Upon closer inspection you will notice various mustard greens, onions, kale, lettuce, salad greens. Along the right side lay gnarly raspberry bushes and other shading shrubbery.

Little baby greens are growing!

The bulk of the beds shown in these photos were completed a couple weeks ago. Today’s work included the construction of many more beds along the other side of the lot and all along the rear. The deep beds back there will be home to many root vegetables – turnips, rutabagas, radishes, potatoes as well as beans, brussels sprouts and other scrumptious veggies.

I volunteered for a couple hours and helped rake rows and build beds in the back. Many of the folks involved play an important role in the farm:

• Jes Larson lives next door to the land and plays the role of liaison for OSALT; she is also directly involved with the outreach and community building pieces of the farm.
• Gary Nash and Amy Bartholomew are urban farmers and farm other lots around the city, selling their produce to local restaurants.
• Ben Meyer is chef and co-owner of the neighboring restaurant, Ned Ludd. Since his restaurant will receive most of the farm’s produce he is extra engaged in the process of creating this wonderful place.

As far as I understand the setup, most of the produce will go to Ned Ludd and during the harvest parties, volunteers will also receive a portion of the product. Eventually (read next year) the goal is to create some CSA shares that are ‘bought’ through a work/trade agreement. In other words, starting next year those people who can volunteer 3 hours a week will receive a full CSA share. It is correct to assume that I hope to be one of those people! Though, who knows, maybe other exciting food sources will also develop in the coming year. But as someone who helped build this farm I would surely enjoy harvesting even a little bit of the fresh food.

The fruit of today's labor.

From under the cherry tree and facing the back wall of Ned Ludd.

What excites me the most about this whole project is the opportunity to learn and experience urban farming. Today I found myself musing on the idea of subsidies for urban farms. It seems like one big obstacle is the cost of land. I wonder if one day cities will be willing to subsidize land use when it is devoted to food production. As someone who believes that oil will one day go dry, I cannot ignore the possibility of incredibly high food costs for conventionally grown food. One day there will be a grand awakening regarding the importance of local food systems. And when I say ‘local’ I mean within one’s neighborhood!

The prospect of urban agriculture is of great interest to me. I look forward to documenting the growth of Shortcut farm and sharing my knowledge and thoughts on this new and expanding food system.

Related posts:

1. Urban farming – a world of possibility
2. Grow(ing) Your Own Food
3. The Urban Farming Revolution

For one, my wife’s birthday is Tuesday and we are going out to eat at a new restaurant called Ping. I first read about it in Edible Portland, a seasonal publication devoted to local foods – restaurants, farms, CSAs, seasonal recipes, etc. I think it’s a rather fantastic publication and it is available in cities across the country (for free no less). And of course each city’s publication revolves around local food in that area. When we lived in Minneapolis we enjoyed it as well. Edible Portland is an excellent source for those interested in finding a CSA in the Portland area or tapping into the enormous local food movement here.

Anyways, in a past issue they wrote an article on a new restaurant called Ping. Since I’m not one to review restaurants and there are plenty of other sites devoted to that, I will not say much more of the place other than I look forward to eating there next week. Eating out always throws off the menu planning even though it also serves as such a pleasure to avoid dirty dishes and heating up the already hot kitchen.

The next night we are attending an “art and food opening” at our friends super-cool vintage photo and book store, Ampersand.     Each month during the summer he has an art opening. This one is right up my alley. In conjunction with Slow Food Portland he is bringing in the artist, Mark Menjivar, whom is unknown to me but his work looks awesome. As far as I understand he traveled America taking photos of people’s refrigerators to capture the essence of American food culture in the home. The art show includes a potluck and Q&A with the artist. The Slow Food influence suggests that any food brought to the potluck contain locally sourced and seasonal ingredients. At the moment I am thinking of bringing a blackberry and peach cobbler.

One other wrench in the system occurs on Friday night with our first “cuisines of the world” potluck. Borrowing a friend’s idea, I am coordinating the first of (hopefully) many potlucks in which the host chooses a cuisine from anywhere in the world and everyone prepares a dish from that culture. I am really excited about this because a) I love potlucks b) I love learning how to cook in other cultural cuisines and c) each month we will get to experience a new world of food. Although not particularly esoteric, we chose Vietnamese. We both love Vietnamese food and since I am gluten-free this type of food is especially fitting. I have chosen to prepare a noodle dish with fish, herbs and mushrooms and my lady has chosen a beef roll with dipping sauce. After the event I intend on posting some photos of the food and commenting on the overall experience.

Aside from all of this action, I am planning on some meals. To keep things simple and cheap I am thinking we will cook,

• Beans, rice and broccoli
• Vegetable stir-fry with miso
• Braised lamb shanks with polenta and greens

The last dish may sound “fancy” but we have the shanks from our last shipment of meat. I have polenta in the cupboard and greens are plentiful this time of year. All in all, I think this will cover our budgets and stomachs. Just in case, I think any leftover cash will go towards other make-shift meals.

So that’s the “vision” for next week. I look forward to posting on the Vietnamese potluck and maybe getting a photo of the lamb too. We leave this afternoon for a weekend of hunting the chanterelle mushroom (very very excited)!

Related posts:

1. Cuisines of the World potluck – Vietnam
2. Kale, how I love thee (weekly menu 5)
3. Seasonal and then some (weekly menu 4)

I really want to pickle the cauliflower!

Only in the last couple of years have I entered the world of gardening. Our first garden was in Seattle and we planted a whole mishmash of herbs and veggies. Over time my interest in cooking affected my investment in growing. Once I learned what herbs I liked most or what veggies were most used, I wanted to focus on those. And now with my food passions at full speed I want to plant everything! I can see the use of so many herbs, veggies and fruits – one day I may just have to start a mini-farm to stock my kitchen with all these desires.

Here in Portland there is a collective buzz around growing one’s own food. It is fairly common to see people intentionally killing their lawns so they can plant food. Personally, I find this inspiring. I want to think that such behaviors can spread across the nation, but the bubble that is Portland may not influence the actions of others. At the same time, once the cost of oil continues to climb and food costs continue to soar, I think folks will have to catch on to the gardening trends.

An important piece of the puzzle is accessibility. By this I mean the ability to grow food – to have the space to grow. For many urban folks, millions and millions of people have minimal room to grow food. And yet, there are still possibilities. I am no expert but I want to share some of the different ways of growing one’s own food. Consider the size of your home or space and maybe some of these options will work:

• Container gardening: If you don’t have a yard but maybe a porch or a large window sill this option may be best. The goal is what you might imagine – to plant flowers, herbs, produce, etc in containers. These containers could be boxes, buckets or boots. The link I provided is just one of many online, but I thought this one provides a good introduction to the art of container gardening.

• Raised-bed gardening: This is my new favorite kind of gardening. When we lived in Minneapolis we had a large backyard, and more than half of it had become a garden. Here in Portland our “backyard” is more a gravel lot that has been converted to a ‘green space’ for us tenants. As far as I understand, this method of gardening is best when your soil is not so great. By building a raised bed you can determine just how much space you want to devote to the planting process – how wide, how long and how deep. As you can see with the picture above and the picture below, we have built some raised beds for ourselves.

Gotta have them salad greens.

In this picture you can see two rows of spinach (on the far left), one row of lettuce and two rows of mixed greens (on the far right.) In this bed, unlike the other picture, we planted the crops from seed instead of starters. Another great aspect to this gardening technique is the control you have over weeds. When your crop base is so contained it is far easier to weed out the unwanted plants. When we lived in Minneapolis with a large standard garden, weeding becomes a huge part of the maintenance. If you are lazy or short on time, I highly recommend building and planting in a raised-bed setup.

• Gardening: For those of you with land this is the most conventional method I know. Again, the link I provided seems like a good resource but I’m sure that millions of other sites too. My thought is that if you have the land and good soil then gardening is your best bet. If you have bad soil and limited land use, then you should consider raised-beds or container gardening.

No matter the circumstance I do believe that growing your own food is the way to go. For most of us, we cannot grow everything we want to eat. But once you identify your favorite plants, why not try to plant just those? The more you cook the more you will want to grow.

*

In the case that growing is impossible or its impossible to provide yourself the diversity you want, do consider a CSA share. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The premise is simple: for ‘x’ amount of dollars you purchase a share of a farm’s product. Most CSAs provide produce, but nowadays you can find some that provide dairy products, meat, flowers and honey. An excellent resource for finding a CSA near you is Local Harvest.

Related posts:

1. Urban farming – a world of possibility
2. Introducing Permaculture
3. Urban Farming in Portland (part 1)

I know that we can buy our meat and eggs directly from the farmer. I mentioned in other posts that we joined a ‘meat buying club’ and will now be buying all of our grass-fed and pasture-raised animal products from a farm in Corvallis, OR – Afton Field Farm. A number of friends and acquaintances have mentioned dairy cooperatives that run similar to the meat buying club. In short, I order ‘x’ amount of milk containers or pounds of butter and then I meet the farmer in someone’s driveway to make a friendly exchange. Though in the past, I have learned that these transactions are more costly than I desire. At this point in my life I seek out milk that is sold in a glass container, one that I return after use to receive a small deposit. The buying clubs I have encountered charge something like $7-8 for a half gallon of milk, when we easily pay half that at the coop.

I can’t say that I am dissatisfied with the dairy products we currently purchase. The Rose Valley Butter that is sold in the coop and grocery store in our neighborhood is the kind I want to buy. The cows eat grass and hay in the winter and the butter is healthier for it. Plus, purchasing the butter supports a cooperative of Oregonian dairy farmers which is also great. Speaking of which, we are getting some tasty milk at the Alberta Coop. But to end my fix on shopping at the store I really will have to make the extra effort in finding the right diary club to fit our needs.

The next question is grain. I have decided that I want to create a spreadsheet that outlines all of the grains, beans and nuts that can be bought in bulk. For example, I am considering black beans, polenta, brown rice, polenta, peanuts, maybe some other beans, cornmeal, and some flour for my wife (as I am gluten-free.) All the other grains, beans and nuts can either be avoided or rotated in and out with each passing shipment. The question becomes, how much do I order at once and where do I store all of it? To be honest, I have no answers yet on the dry goods factor.

Fruit is easiest. Since fruit doesn’t really grow here in the winter I can rely on what we have frozen, canned, jammed or dried. After last year’s winter of no fruit, I know not to expect fresh fruit in January (unless we are visiting family in Hawaii.) And lastly are the vegetables. I really like eating seasonally. I love the foods of the fall and winter. The main problem is storing them so that I can buy them in bulk. I want to research the winter storage of beets and carrots. I have heard that both require a wet sand mixture and I think I may be able to put that together. I definitely intend on buying a big box of onions and potatoes and maybe some bags of garlic and shallots to help us too. In our own garden we will have some hearty greens growing all winter long. And if other plans work for us, we will be volunteering weekly at a new urban farm to earn our full share of a CSA! That would be the icing on the cake.

Maybe with a little foresight and some planning we can really eat all or meals from farm to plate with no middle men in between. That is my goal and I think we can do it.

Related posts:

1. Good-Bye Grocery Store (part 1)
2. Living off the grid
3. A Failed Experiment