New website changes and 2010 CSA info

Hello subscribers, land-lenders, helpers and friends of the farm!

I hope you’ve all been staying warm during the very cold weather. The 2009 CSA season for Calliope’s Table ended just before Thanksgiving, and the very wintery weather seems to have provided a closure to the season with beds being covered and tucked away for winter. It’s also given me an opportunity to get to work on plans for 2010, and you can now see those changes on the website.

Here are some of the changes for you:

The 2010 CSA season is now underway and you can find subscription info and all the details on the CSA page. The CSA distribution will be moving to the RiverHouse farm in Sellwood where I’m now in residence, and there will also be some new options for picking up your produce. Among them are a delivery option that will get your CSA share to your doorstep and also a Sunday pickup at the Hawthorne Urban Farmers Market.

There is also a new 2010 CSA Info Sheet that has all the details of the 2010 season including an updated crop list. Among the new things that will be in your CSA share this year are herb and vegetable starts and cut flowers.

I’m keeping the CSA the small, intimate size it was in 2009 which is going to give me time to do some other food and farming things I want to do like more cooking and canning the harvest, feeding some folks that need a good meal, helping to get some new folks started growing some of their own food, and raising a few chickens. I talk more about this on a new Foodshed page. There’s a new video there that talks about Neighborhood Foodsheds too.

I’m going to be doing more farming this coming season with my friends Marie of Sellwood Garden Club and Nikki from RiverHouse CSA which will help all of us accomplish more and give us more time for the other things we want to do. We’re quite a combination of experience, philosphies, and temperaments, and we love working together.  Among the projects we’re already working on together is doing a remediation and creating a garden space at Radius Studio in Portland’s industrial eastside. We’ll keep you updated on our progress. We’re also working on building some raised bed gardens for folks while we have a bit of spare time this winter, offering 100% sliding scale to accommodate those that really need some help getting some food growing. You can read more about how we’re planning to do that on a new Garden Box page.

I’ve also learned a lot this past season about growing food in other folks’ yards, and so I’ve added a new Yardsharing  page to talk about those things and find a few more folks that want to have us grow some food in their yards.

We’re planning a gathering here at the RiverHouse sometime in late January when everyone gets back from the holidays so we can hang out and eat some food in this wonderful space. I would love for you all to visit and see what amazing things have been done here and are planned for the future. I’ll keep you posted on that.

I thank each of you for the part you played in one of the best years I’ve had in this life. I feel it’s just the beginning of a fabulous life as a farmer. I also wish you the best of the holiday season. See you soon!

Peace and peas,
Calliope

 

Harvest Moon 2009

Peace and blessings at the Harvest Moon which occurred last nite.

I have been taking a break from as much technology as I can since you last heard from me. Farming activities have evolved from keeping crops alive during the record number of 100 degree days we’ve had this year, to the planting of this year’s winter crops, to the continuing staple foods harvest which will be the focus this week due to the window of sunny weather we’ll have. If you’d like to help harvest staple crops, get in touch with me or Farmer K of Sunroot Gardens.  Everyone that helps in the harvest gets some of the crop.

While I’ve been away I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and a lot of thinking about what has worked well this season and what I’d like to do differently. There are a few changes happening that you should know about.

One of the most important changes is a new addition to the CSA. Many of you have met Annette who lives at the garden where the CSA distribution is held. Annette is back from her summer job and has agreed to help me run the CSA. Much of what you see manifest in that lovely garden space is due to Annette’s energy and contributions, and I have really enjoyed working with her. Her absence this summer was very noticeable. Thanks Annette! It’s good to have you back!

Having help with the CSA is going to allow me to work on some other projects that are important to me such as cooking and feeding some people, preserving more of the harvest, developing some more variety in what’s growing such as staple food crops and medicinals, and organizing some skill shares to pass along things that are working for us.

I’ve also been spending time with Nikki of RiverHouse CSA in Sellwood and we’ve decided to do some farming together as well. The gardens there are truly magical with Crystal Springs creek running through the land. The first time I visited I knew I wanted to help preserve and add my energy to this wild space in the city. It’s also a likely place for skill shares and cooking and eating, so I’ll keep you posted.

I’m very happy to be continuing my work with Sunroot Gardens as well. Collaborating on growing more crops in bigger spaces where the work is shared has been a very successful part of the season and the huge amount of winter crops now growing shows that. Sunroot is also where I find the most innovative approaches to growing enough food to matter, and what’s turned out to be a very important part of the farming, getting the food to people that are going to eat it.

One aspect of this that I believe is unique to Sunroot is the Friday “helper” pick and distribution. If you are someone that contributes to Calliope’s Table in a non-monetary way (land-lender, garden helper, bike mechanic, healer, etc.), you can join us on Fridays 4pm to dusk for fresh produce, impromptu socializing, and usually some farm cooking. It’s at the Firepit garden in the Hawthorne district, another wild space in the city you should see if you haven’t. Get in touch for directions, etc.

Just a reminder, the 2009 Spring/Summer CSA runs until Thanksgiving week in November, with weekly distributions on Wednesdays from 4-7pm. If you can’t make it by 7pm, or at all, get in touch and we can arrange something.

After Thanksgiving week the CSA will be converting to a monthly subscription that will offer produce year round. More details soon.

Enjoy the beautiful autumn weather!

Peace and peas,

Calliope

 

Calliope’s Table CSA Distribution #10-August 5, 2009

Hello Subscribers,

The hot weather we’ve had all week is shifting back to days in the 70’s, but it’s been enough to start ripening tomatoes all over the SE…including these in one of your gardens. This pic was taken on Monday so I expect to have the first tomatoes of the season for you this week.

For me, there is nothing that speaks so loudly of the difference in store-bought produce and local, organically grown produce, than the tomato. You all know what I’m talking about. I don’t believe there has ever been a store-bought tomato that tastes like one grown outdoors, on a small scale, and nurtured by hand. As your farmer, I performed the all important taste test last week on the first ripened tomato and it sent me immediately back to last summer when I last ate them. It’s why I haven’t bought a tomato in years, or notice one in food from a restaurant.

The tomatoes this week will be early season slicing tomatoes, which are so good on sandwiches, salads, and my favorite, Caprese Insalata. This simple salad from Capri, Italy is so refreshing and easy, and really fits the season when everyone is so busy with work and play.

Simply place slices of Mozzarella cheese on a plate, top with slices of tomato, then basil on top, and drizzle with a good quality extra virgin olive oil. Provide salt and pepper for everyone to season to taste. One of my fave dishes, this can also be the basis of a pasta salad I used to make at one of the kitchens I worked in.

Also this week, I’ll have basil you’ll need for the recipe above, broccoli, chard, zucchini and greens.

Have a great week, see you soon!

Peace,

Calliope

 

Calliope’s Table CSA Distribution #9-July 29, 2009

Hello Subscribers,

It’s the dog days of summer we all dream about during the cold winter months. It will be very hot today during the produce distribution. Bring ice packs or an ice chest if you can to help get the veggies back to your house in good shape.

Today there will be broccoli, zucchini, carrots, beets, mustard greens, and salad greens. And you never know what else. Last week after sending out the blog I discovered the green (and purple and yellow) bean patch I’m sharing  had been picked for the first time this season and so some of you found some of those lovely beans at the distribution. Things are starting to come in from other gardens and so you may find additions to the list by the time the afternoon rolls around. It’s usually an hour by hour thing on Wednesdays.

I came up with an interesting recipe for beets a couple of weeks ago that should really work in this weather. I call it a Beet Mojito and it goes something like this:

Peel and cut a beet or two into 1/2″ cubes. About a cup of cubes is fine.

Place in a bowl and add:

olive oil to coat generously

minced garlic, 1 tablespoon

minced ginger, 1 tablespoon

minced red onion or shallot, 1 tablespoon

juice of 1/2 lime

mix well and let marinate and chill in the refrigerator for an hour or two. When ready to serve, stir and squeeze a bit more lime juice onto the top. Very refreshing on a hot day.

See you this afternoon. Stay cool!

Peace and peas,

Calliope

 

Calliope’s Table CSA Distribution #8-July 22, 2009

Hello Subscribers,

The warm weather the plants have been needing is here, and then some. Keeping all the gardens watered becomes a good deal of the activity every day in weather like this. I’ve seen signs of a tomato or two starting to ripen, and the squash are really starting to come on, so I’m very happy to bike to the gardens and spend time with the plants while watering.

This week I’ll have broccoli, chard, summer squash & zucchini, a few more peas, basil, and more greens.

The weather this week dictates cold foods like salads. You might try a salad with broccoli, a few peas, basil, and even some thinly sliced summer squash. Use a combination of salad greens and/or some of the summer greens I had last week like orach and chicory. Toss with your favorite salad dressing, and serve very cold with some crusty bread. Perfect for our dinner time weather this week.

For desert you might try something I haven’t even tried yet, sliced summer squash with honey. Sounds great to me. Thanks to Ethan for that one. Is anyone else coming up with interesting things to do with your CSA bounty? I’d love to hear what you’re cooking up, and if you’d like I would love to post your recipes here too.

I’ve also been reminded to remind you that our produce distribution is on Wednesdays at the Ginger-Olive garden on SE Woodward. The time is set for 4-7pm, however if you come right at 4 you might still find me doing some harvesting. If you can’t make it by 7 or at all, give me a call and we’ll arrange something that works for you.

Have a fabulous week, and stay cool!

Peace and blessings,

Calliope

 

Calliope’s Table CSA Distribution #7 – July 15, 2009

Hello Subscribers,

A variety of things, new and continuing, await you this week at the distribution such as peas, chard, broccoli, BASIL!, and maybe even a first showing of the root crops. Even with the cold weather we’ve been having lately – it’s summer! That means we’re finally shifting from spring into the heat of summer, whatever that means this odd weather year. So, salad greens are on their way out for a bit, and squash, tomatoes and basil are in. Well almost.

The nearly 100 summer squash plants around town have started producing as you saw last week, and are just waiting for a couple of decently hot days to take us into that time of year when folks start hiding them at friends’ and neighbors’ to get rid of them. I will stop by those gardens today and see what we can find there that is ready.

On the tomato front, about 50 plants of different varieties are planted and have fruit set on them. An indicator of our cold season is that the early season varieties are only slightly ahead, if any, of their mid-season cousins. There is green fruit set on most every plant in the first wave, and again, we just need some warm weather to remind them it’s time to ripen some of that fruit.

Today I will be harvesting the first of the Basil. Woohoo! I love basil so this is always a special turning point for me in the summer. I can eat a handful of it every day, so it has been so hard for me to just pamper them and not pick them up to this point. Another wave of basil transplants are now in and growing down the street from this first batch so we will have plenty this season. They are in fact growing right next to (yes, tomatoes do love basil as you’ve heard) those heirloom tomatoes I posted about seeding back in April. Hopefully it will all come in at once and be a big part of some canning and preserving we’ve talked about. If you are still interested in doing/learning some canning this season, please mention it to me as I’m starting to think about rounding up all the right people and equipment to be ready when the plants are.

The chard is making a fine comeback after the recent leaf miner raid that left them less than eatable last week, but already has some nice new growth that will be harvested today. Thanks to Carmen for her Zen-like approach in culling out the damaged leaves and singing to the plants while she did. That kind of attention really does wonderful things for the plants.

On the greens front it looks like we’ll be making a transition from salad greens back to cooking greens, or maybe somewhere in between. There may be one more picking from the lettuce mix you (and especially me!) have been enjoying these past weeks, but time is really up for them now and with the New Moon coming up next week it’s time to replant those beds. This will likely take us right through the fall with salad greens when they make their appearance in a couple of weeks.

There are lots of the Tatsoi mustard greens left, even as they try to bolt, and also Orach and Chicory are now at a harvestable size. I’ll have a mix of these available today for you to try as either a cooking green or give them a try as a summer salad mix. Think of Orach as a summer spinach, and chicory as well but with a bit more bitter taste.

Did anyone try a pasta salad with the Broccoli? I did and came up with two versions. The broccoli is the sweetest I’ve tasted in some time, and I’m enjoying eating every bit of it, stalks and all. One salad had Rotini (corkscrew) pasta, broccoli, sliced red onions, matchstick carrots, minced ginger, scallions, snow peas, cilantro and dressed with a honey-dijon salad dressing. The other had less of an Asian influence and left out the carrots, ginger and cilantro.

Another simple pasta creation that will work for this week is taking the hot pasta and mixing it into sautéed greens. For pasta shape, try a medium spaghetti or linguine. In a skillet in which you’ve sautéed sliced onions in olive oil over medium-high heat until mostly translucent, stir in the chopped cooking greens and continue cooking keeping everything moving until the greens are wilted. Toss in a good amount of minced garlic, turn the heat down to low, toss well to mix, then add the hot drained pasta and keep mixing. Add a bit more olive oil if needed to coat the pasta, and serve when everything is well mingled. Black olives with a bit of its juice works well in this too. Serve in a bowl with grated parmesan on top and crusty bread.

You might also try the greens mix this week as a salad too. Use your favorite salad dressing or you might like to try this one I ran across that sounds great too: Whirl in a blender or whisk in a bowl: 1 clove roughly chopped garlic, pinch salt 1 teaspoon (scant) dijon mustard, 2 teaspoons plum jam or any other jam available, 4 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil. Thanks to Marquita Farm CSA for that recipe. Check the link for more recipes from them.

In other farm news, there will be regular gatherings at the Ladd’s Addition garden on Saturdays at 9:00am. If you’d like to help us turn this lovely space back into a community garden, please join us on any Saturday starting this week, July 18 at 9:00 am. We would love your help to make this space a food production garden that will help supply the new Food Not Bombs-style serving that is being developed in SE Portland. Help us grow high-quality, nutritious fresh food to supply these servings, and help us vision the direction this community garden will take in future seasons. Across from the East Rose Garden in Ladd’s, straight down the Harrison hill into Ladd’s if you’re on bike. Get in touch if you need better directions.

Also, for the next 3 weeks, I will be the farmer-in-residence at the SE Urban Farmer Collective produce booth at the new Hawthorne Urban Farmers Market. It’s 1-6pm on Sundays at SE 43rd and Hawthorne next to the Hawthorne Auto Clinic. There’s lots more than produce there, natural soaps, Reiki treatments, furniture, cut flowers, and live music, all truly local, with a down-home feel you’ve not seen the likes of at a farmer’s market for some time. Come see the new market, enjoy the music, sit a spell, and meet some of the urban farmers and artisans in your neighborhood. The new market will be featured in a piece on National Public Radio this week. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/marketplace_money/ It’s on Friday night here, from 8-9pm (91.5fm). Tell everyone!

A most wonderful and blessed week ahead to you!

Peace, Calliope

 

Calliope’s Table-CSA Distribution #6 July 8, 2009

Hello Subscribers,

It’s finally time to share some of the Broccoli we’ve been watching grow all this time, and some of you had a sampling of last week. In fact, it’s a bit past the time of the first heads being ready. One of the challenges I find in distributing produce with the CSA model is that it only happens once a week. And the plants are working hard 24/7 to reach their ultimate goal of producing flowers and then seeds. As you remember from the many flowering mustard plants this spring, that can happen quickly, and our goal as cultivators and eaters is to swoop in just before that happens which is usually the time they are at their peak eating.

With the several days of 90+ degree weather we had last week, several of those big broccoli heads decided it was time to show some flowers just two days after last week’s distribution. There are more plants ready for this week, and others just starting to head, so no worries, but I wanted to use this example to show you how this food thing is really an everyday affair. I think often about how to accommodate the plants’ schedule and get produce to you at it’s peak. I know at least one of you think we could really help this situation with tweets on Twitter. And I’m thinking they might just have something there based on my limited knowledge of Twitter. “Broccoli’s ripe! Meet at the garden this afternoon!” It gives me much food for thought how to evolve the CSA. Your thoughts?

So for this week, besides Broccoli we’ll have scallions, peas, the last of the salad greens for a while, cilantro, parsley, mint, and lemon balm.

I’ve been re-inspired by Jeff Kingman, who writes the Kitchen Dances blog and has been helping get some press for the new Hawthorne Urban Farmers Market, to get you some recipe ideas every week for the produce available. He is a credentialed chef who can throw together a menu in a heartbeat, as you’ll see in his blog he did for Week 2 of the Hawthorne market. So here are some ideas around this week’s produce.

BTW, a huge thanks to Marie of Sellwood Garden Club for the many hours she’s putting in to help shape and promote the new market. This besides the very long days she puts in as an urban farmer. If you haven’t been to the new market yet, go check it out, and support a farmer’s market that is more like the one’s of older days than you will see anywhere. Everything from the best local produce around to local flowers, soap, furniture, a Reiki healer, and live music. Sundays 1-6 PM at SE 43rd & Hawthorne next to Common Grounds Coffeehouse.

Here are some recipe ideas for the week’s produce, rather than step by step instructions. If you need a little more detail you can do a Google search on any dish name or combination of ingredients and find many detailed recipes. I want to give you some of the basic building blocks of a dish and some options to go with them. If you’d like to peruse some good recipe sites I suggest Allrecipes, Food Network and CDKitchen.

Broccoli Pasta Salad
1 lb pasta cooked al dente (slightly underdone). Any pasta will work but best with a bigger shape that will stay on a spoon like Farfarelle (bowtie), Rotini (corkscrew), Shells, or Penne.
1 large head of Broccoli cut up into bite-size florets (uncooked)
2 or 3 scallions sliced at an angle for eye appeal
Cheese 1/2 to 1 lb, shredded or cut into small cubes. Cheddar is good, crumbled Feta for Greek style, or try your fave.
Nuts 1/2 cup. Try slivered almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts.
Fruit or Herbs for a little zing. Fruit can be grapes, raisins, cranberries, currants, something that won’t break down in the salad too easily. For herbs, anything will work but fresh herbs are really good here. From the garden this week you can try cilantro, parsley, mint, or even lemon balm.
Salad Dressing 1 bottle or jar of your fave. You can try Cole Slaw dressing, Blue cheese (maybe omit the cheese above or crumble in more blue cheese), Ranch, etc. Or you can make something yummy yourself from plain yogurt, mayo, veganaise, sour cream, and some herbs, etc. You’ll need about 2 cups.

Toss everything together reserving just a bit of the salad dressing, and chill in the refrigerator for an hour or two. You can toss the salad before serving with the rest of the dressing.

There you go, Pasta salad 101. Ask me if you need help (or need a bigger challenge). And when you’re creating, try doing as chefs do. Think of the flavor of an ingredient in your head (sometimes I like to munch the ingredient as I’m creating), think of another ingredient and see how it would taste with the first, and find combos that seem appealing. Most good chefs can create a recipe this way without ever touching the food.

Something else chefs do is just vary a few of the ingredients of things like a pasta salad to get a different ethnic themed dish. For a Greek pasta salad add Feta cheese, olives, and a little fresh oregano or parsley. For an Asian Pasta salad try a Sesame-Ginger salad dressing, snow peas, shredded carrot, scallions, cilantro and maybe some sesame seeds. The snow peas you’ll receive this week are a perfect mix to add some of the younger ones whole, and the bigger ones that have swollen up you can add the shelled peas and thinly slice the pods to add.

Happy eating!

Peace and Broccoli,
Calliope

 

Calliope’s Table-CSA Distribution #5 July 1, 2009

Hello Subscribers!

This is hopefully the start of a new trend where I get you info about the weekly distribution before it happens, and even some recipe ideas.

This week look for more peas, chard, onions, assorted herbs such as cilantro, parsley, and lemon balm, and probably the last of the salad greens as I fear they will not survive the heat wave we’re expecting later this week. There’s also more raspberries to pick so you might want to get there a bit early. I’ll try and remember to pick a few ahead of time so there will be a few available, but I can’t promise I won’t eat most of them. They’re good!

Also, a sneak preview of the broccoli you’ve been watching get bigger these last few weeks. There are a couple of heads big enough to harvest, and while it’s not enough to provide you all a share’s worth, I’ll have some broccoli and dip for you to sample the first harvest. More center heads are coming on quickly, and these varieties (Thompson and Umpqua) were chosen specifically for their ability to keep producing side shoots the rest of the season after their center head has been harvested. If you have an interesting dip or sauce you’d like to bring, please do.

I’ve been doing some interesting things with the pea harvest from last week including more stir-frys, an ingredient in salad rolls, and also part of an Asian breakfast scramble with eggs. Yum! This week could be the last of our peas so if you’d like to save some for later, here’s a link to info on how to blanch and freeze them. http://www.farmersalmanac.com/blog/2006/06/05/freezing-snow-peas-and-sugar-snap-peas/

Here’s an idea for some of the chard coming this week which looks like it will be a weekly offering for some time. Last nite I sauteed onions in olive oil until they were just about translucent, added chopped chard (and any other cooking green you have such as kale or collards) and let it cook down until just about wilted, turned down the heat to low and added minced garlic. Mix it around a bit to warm the garlic and get everything coated in the oil, and then add cooked and drained pasta (best right from the pasta pot on the next burner where it’s been cooking all this time). Toss it around a bit, add some more olive oil to make sure everything is well coated, and salt to taste. Serve in a nice big bowl with grated parmesan on top. I didn’t use any other seasoning as I wanted to get all that greens goodness. It was yum and made me feel like I was in Tuscany for a minute.

I hope you’re enjoying the salad greens too. I really love growing greens and am calculating how soon I can get some more growing without being affected by the summer heat. I’ve been eating them as a garnish on everything from peanut butter sandwiches, bagels with hummus, eggs, rice and beans, and even as salads.

It could be pretty hot by pick-up time tomorrow. If you’ve got some ice or an ice pack, or a small cooler it could help your produce make it back home while still looking perky. I’ll have the distribution table set-up under the grape arbor again to keep things cool, but all the produce will likely be inside the coolers and we’ll all need to work fast when taking things out so the coolers are open as little as possible.

See you Wednesday, 4-7pm!

Peace and (blanched and frozen) peas,
Calliope

 

Happy Summer Solstice!

Happy Summer Solstice!

It was great to see all of you at the CSA distribution last Wednesday. Not all of you knew but it was my birthday and I had a great time sharing the day and the fruits of some long, rainy spring months with you.

This major turning of the year when we celebrate the longest day of sunlight, and then start the half year journey back to Winter Solstice and the longest night, seems like a good time to update you on what’s happening with Calliope’s Table.

The gardens are loving the weather and have really started growing. The plants have been through rain, heat, wind, and not always at the right times. Next week you will see the first of the Swiss chard, more salad greens and peas, and probably some beet greens. In the next few weeks some of the summer staples like squash should start to appear as well. Thanks for your patience as the plants decide they are now finally ready to start flourishing.

One of the challenges in getting more produce sooner has been not having enough growing spaces ready at the right time, and not being able to jump on new spaces that were offered. I think I am finally figuring out what and how much I need in that area, and am already working on next season in that respect. I am going to start the “Got Grass?” campaign again soon to find and get ready a few more plots in the right places that will be either for winter crops or ready for early planting next Spring. If you know of spaces that might work please get in touch. The amazing garden space in Ladd’s Addition came to be farmed by me in just that way. Thanks again!

I will be looking for the collaborations with Sunroot Gardens and Otis’ Farm to yield some harvest for the new Hawthorne Farmer’s Market in the hopes of generating a few US dollars for things like rent, bike parts, and the occasional cup of coffee. This is a separate effort from the gardens that grow food for your CSA. While I intend to get you some of the produce from those collaborative efforts that I did not have space to grow on my own, produce from the few gardens where I am growing food for your CSA are not part of that farmer’s market joint effort.

Along those lines, the newly formed Portland Urban Farmers Co-op was/is an attempt to form an association of other urban farmers operating here in the greater Portland area. So far, just 3 farms are participating, Calliope’s Table, Sunroot Gardens, and Otis’ Farm. The intent in forming this organization was to share resources when it made sense, save some money when buying tools, seeds, and amendments, and collaborate on projects that were too big for any of us individually. Some of that has happened, and some is still trying to take shape. I’m looking for involvement from other local urban farmers for this to be the kind of association I am hoping for.

Through this association I was able to buy some amazing field hoes from Rogue Tool in Missouri for almost 50% off by buying through a group order. These hoes (one of which you can see in the movie, “The Real Dirt on Farmer John”, if you look closely) are made of recycled plow steel, which is better grade steel than we make in this country anymore. With care and good maintenance these hoes will likely outlast me, and represent money that will not have to be spent again.

I am becoming more and more focused on what works best for the farming and sustainably growing the most food, rather than embracing any ideal such as traveling or moving materials exclusively on bike, or digging all the plots by hand if I can borrow a rototiller and put gas in it to get a new garden going. When it comes to the ideals around the food, I will never waiver there. I will embrace and use techniques that are “beyond organic”, as Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms puts it. “Beyond Organic” is a term he coined when the authorities prevented him from using the word “organic” because his operation was not certified. Joel is one of the smartest, most successful farmers in the country, and his customers are happy to buy what he produces, some driving over 100 miles.

“Beyond organic” for me means I embrace the original intention of organic in that it means more than not using pesticides. It also means care of the soil and fair wages for the people that grow the food. While I’m not able to give fair wages even to myself yet, I am improving the soil in every plot I farm. If you take a taste of what passes for certified organic produce at your local grocery store, I think you will see that even as far as growing the food, some of that ideal has been abandoned. You will also not be able to convince me that those growers are giving their workers good wages and conditions, and I doubt the soil is being improved. One of the reasons I grow salad greens like you all received this past week is that I don’t know where I can buy greens for myself that taste like that except maybe another CSA.

The idea of investing in those hoes ($200) is that I can personally take out an entire lawn by myself if that ends up being the way it needs to happen. I was happy to prove this to myself this week, just one day short of being 53 years of age, when I did clear a decent sized area from some tall pasture grass and blackberry bushes at an amazing new space I am starting to prepare for later this season and into next year. I felt much like Jack LaLanne and the feats he regularly performs on his birthday.

The new farm is at the base of Mt. Scott on Johnson Creek and just a couple of blocks from the Springwater Corridor bike trail. There are more blackberries to clear this summer, and a former horse corral (with all that yummy manure just waiting for veggies to grow there) with very tall weeds that need to be prepared for winter crops. I have very high hopes for this space and envision this being the space I can finally have my own hoop house for greenhouse growing. Besides all that it is the closest thing I’ve found to being in the country since I got back from the Umpqua Valley this winter. Maybe we can plan to take a ride out there sometime this summer and check it out.

Oh, it’s also just a short bike ride from my new residence in the Outer SE in the Arleta/Mt. Scott neighborhood. That’s right, I’m living indoors again! I’m back sharing my apartment from last year with my awesome roomie Ann. It has made all the difference in my quality of life, which translates directly into my farming, and I’m now able to cook some of the bounty from the gardens in our own little cozy kitchen. Thanks to all of you who were so supportive during the past months while I worked to find my place in the city!

The new garden (at least new to me) in Ladd’s Addition is really starting to take shape. I have been getting more and more help from Ethan who some of you have met on the distribution days. So far there are over twenty zucchini bushes planted, nearly 30 tomato plants, and over 60 Giant Kohlrabi. We are planning to plant corn there in the front of the plot as has been done in past years, this Sunday, June 21 at 10:00am, if weather permits. This is planned to be a more intimate work party than you are used to seeing announced on the Portland Urban Farmers Co-op list. I’m only announcing this to the subscriber group and a few close allies to provide a chance for some of you to meet each other and chat a bit at a time other than Wednesday afternoons when it’s harder to linger and socialize. If you’d like to help us plant, or just come share the morning with us, the garden is on Locust, just across from the East Rose Garden in Ladd’s. Call me for directions if you need it. I’ll be leaving at around noon to do some picking for the first day of the Hawthorne Farmer’s Market, but you all can linger there as long as you’d like. Maybe I’ll also see some of you later at the market. We’re trying to make this a farmer’s market like the ones in days of old before excessive regulations changed the very intention of what a farmer’s market is all about.

Much of the food at the Ladd’s garden is intended to go straight to hungry people, bypassing organizations like the Oregon Food Bank which I believe is not as effective as it could be in feeding the hungry. One way this will happen is through a brand new effort in conjunction with SE Food Not Lawns. The Outer SE no longer has a Food Not Bombs serving, and we hear nothing from FNB about any intention to again serve this area, which has a very underserved population of homeless and underemployed people. My vision and intention in this area comes from a book that thinks anyone alive and breathing deserves to eat. I am one of three urban farmers in Outer SE that will be supporting this new effort to feed some hungry people. We’re still in the planning stages, but if you’d like to help, get in touch.

Finally, I have the new WordPress blog I’ve been longing for. I’ve moved all the blog history over and will be using this new space for weekly announcements about the CSA, and my occasional ranting about our industrial food system. I know many of you had trouble subscribing to the old blog, but if you will give another try at subscribing to this new one I think you will have better results. Just hit the RSS Feed icon on the far right side of the address bar in your browser. It’s an orange square with white curved lines. Subscribing to the blog will send you an alert when it is updated and I can use it to send you weekly news about the CSA.

My copy of The Mad Farmer Poems by Wendell Berry just arrived at the library and one of the poems seems so appropriate at this moment. I hope you like it.

Thanks for all you do! I love being your farmer!

Peace and peas,

Calliope

Don’t worry and fret about the crops. After you have done all you can for them, let them stand in the weather on their own.

If the crop of any one year was all, a man would have to cut his throat every time it hailed.

But the real products of any year’s work are the farmer’s mind and the cropland itself.

If he raises a good crop at the cost of belittling himself and diminishing the ground, he has gained nothing. He will have to begin over again next spring, worse off than before.

Let him receive the season’s increment into his mind. Let him work it into the soil.

The finest growth that farmland can produce is a careful farmer.

Make the human race a better head. Make the world a better piece of ground.

Prayers and Saying of The Mad Farmer

- Wendell Berry

 

April showers bring…more showers?

The rain just keeps coming, but one of the things I can do in a rainy period like we’re having is to take a few minutes to catch up with the blog.

The ground is still wet with the recent round of rains we’ve been having. The last two dry cycles offered some drying out for new plots waiting to be prepared, even if just for a day or two before the rain is back again. It’s all about being ready to work the windows of good weather when they arrive. This new garden was within hours of being ready to plant when the day ran out before the two farmers present could finish it all. By later that evening the rain was back and it will be another week before this one can be worked on again.

It’s often just this kind of close timing that makes the difference in farming. Had we been able to start earlier that day, had we had just one other helper, well, you get the idea. The difference might have allowed us to get this one planted out with the salad greens we plan there. And that’s a huge difference. Everything that is planted at this point is doing fantastic! While it seems unusually rainy to me, a check with the National Weather Service confirms that so far it’s a fairly normal year precipitation wise here in Cascadia, and by August we’ll actually be a bit short on rain. If you like geeky weather stuff their Climate Prediction website shows you just such things.

By the way, these pictures are from a stylish new cell phone given to me by a farm supporter when he learned about the “farmers without phones” dilemma posted about recently by Farmer K. Thank you! I have been waiting to take some pics of what’s going on in the gardens and now I can.

Rainy weather usually means more work in the greenhouse, and last Sunday the moon cycle, the right day, the materials, and my quest to have my favorite hot peppers to cook with for years to come, finally came together. I spent that beautiful spring day starting seeds for several of my faves, and also got to eat lunch with the bees there. I enjoyed starting Peacework Sweet Peppers beside two heirloom tomatoes, Burbank slicing and San Marzano paste, with seeds from Seeds of Change. That would be pre-Mars, Inc.-Seeds of Change as these seeds were bought last year but never got planted. These are two of my favorite heirloom tomatoes, and when I bought the seeds last year expressly for growing out and saving the seed from them I didn’t realize it would be that much more important as another “organic” company sells out to agribusiness interests.

Last year Seeds of Change was quietly sold to Mars Inc. of candy bar fame. This is the same Mars candy company who will now be using GMO sugar beets for the sugar needed in their products. Mars is claiming innocence about their part in non-GMO sugar beets becoming essentially unavailable, but I will no longer patronize them, nor will I trust them to preserve the heirloom varieties that are important to me.

This mission statement can be found on the Seeds of Change homepage: “In 1989, Seeds of Change began with a simple mission: to preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable, organic agriculture. By cultivating and disseminating an extensive range of organically grown vegetable, flower, herb and cover crop seeds, we have honored that mission for 20 years.” Maybe so, but I have strong doubts about that intention going forward. So these two tomato seed packets will be my last seeds from Seeds of Change, now that Seeds of Change has changed. Another company that started out trying to do the right thing suddenly becomes part of what they fought against. If this were a rare thing you could just say it’s an anomaly. But do you know how many small organic producers end up being owned by an agribusiness company? Lots. Check out this chart on Organic Industry Structure.

How does this happen? I don’t think they all sell out for the money. But when companies like Dagoba Chocolate and MaraNatha Peanut Butter end up being owned by Hershey and Heinz it makes you wonder how this happens. Perhaps it’s an issue of scale. Do these companies just get too big for the comfort of the big food companies? Does the popularity of the products grow the companies too large to hang on to their ideals? Maybe it’s when a regional company goes national that is the dividing line. In the case of Ben & Jerry’s, now owned by Unilever, it apparently started when Ben & Jerry’s collective ownership of the company fell to less than a majority share and they could no longer insist that their vision be embraced. I think it will be important in the future that we hang on to our regional producers lest we lose the ability to make that product on a local basis in enough quantity to matter.

In other news I’m happy to tell you a newly built bike trailer for me is just days away from being completed. I borrowed a similar trailer from the trailer builder last week and did the first compost pick-ups from the coffee shops last week on the bike. It was so great to just zip up and park next to the front door on the bike and change out the buckets. Sweet!

I’ve been picking up coffee grounds from 3-4 coffee shops on Mondays and Thursdays for a couple of months now and have been using the grounds to amend beds and start new compost piles. It does take time away from other farming activities but it’s something I’m committed to. Coffee grounds are concentrated tropical nutrients, high in nitrogen, available for free. If you’ve got a garden, go talk to your nearest coffee shop and ask for their grounds. The key is coming back regularly to pick them up. Most coffee places have experience with people picking up the grounds for a while and then fizzling out. If you’re someone who would enjoy an hour or so zipping around to a few places on a bike twice a week to pick up compost, let me know. I can hook you up with a trailer and there’s often a free cup ‘o Joe in it for you.

I’ve also started picking up the veggie scraps from the awesome people at Soup Cycle. I ran into one of their soup delivery people delivering soup to the residents of one of the gardens, and we got to talking. It seems we’re all kindred spirits in cooking great food, using good organic ingredients, and bike delivery! Hopefully some of the compost from them will help grow veggies that will make their way back into a future batch of soup. I’ll keep you posted!

If you want to contact me about helping out, my new phone number is: (203) 962-2741. Just give a call on a day you want to come out to one of the gardens and find out what we’re doing that day. There is much to do and plant in the next 6-8 weeks, including a huge new plot in Ladd’s Addition that was once a community garden! It’s in a fantastic, very visible spot across from one of the rose gardens, and I would like to infuse some community growing there again. Besides planting corn which has been a tradition there in the past, I think it would be awesome to grow some things like Giant Kohlrabi which people don’t see growing very often in a city. Much thanks to J & J who made the land-lender aware of Calliope’s Table and what’s going on with urban farming!

Come out and join us as we turn these spaces into food production sites. With so much to be done, we can accommodate all ages and skill levels and help you find something to do that lets you find your happy space while in a garden. See you soon!

Peace and peas,
Calliope