Junk in the Trunk

Another pickup photo for my dear friend Kate........

A giant rosemary bush donated to the UVa Garden from the Farm at Red Hill.......I spread good smells all through Charlottesville driving around with this yesterday :)

Spring!

It's been a long winter, but spring is finally here! We had a fairly hard frost last night, but otherwise temperatures have been pretty warm and abundant sunshine has coaxed the daffodils and crocuses out.

As an early spring celebration, I forced some tulips in the house and had two beautiful blooms before the flowers outside arrived. What a great treat!

Outside, it's been a busy few weeks in the UVa Community Garden and out at the farm. Check out the blog (www.uvagarden.wordpress.com) for updates there - including some great pictures from the first workday last Saturday!

As for the farm - I'm so glad to be working again! Spring is in full swing at Twin Springs! The past few weeks, I've been primarily working in the hoop houses (the second one was finished in the fall), weeding, planting seeds, and transplanting up tomatoes and peppers that were started back in January (!!!). See a few pictures below from inside the hoop houses from Friday - it was rainy all day so I didn't get any good outside pictures, but I'm sure I'll get some soon.

Oh, and, yes, those are strawberries! The first of the season are just starting to ripen - I ate my first one yesterday morning - March 26th. Sweetest thing I've eaten in several months :)

Community Gardens in Detroit

Well, school is in full swing and the snow just keeps coming! I've had plenty of time to catch up on readings for class and dream about warmer days full of dirt and vegetables. I recently had an assignment to write an op-ed piece for my healthy communities class so I of course selected a topic that involved food. I did extremely minimal research on this, but thought some of you might find it interesting nonetheless - of special note, can you believe Detroit has over 40,000 vacant lots?! Does Detroit have an opportunity to be an urban agriculture leader? It seems they are off to a good start.....

Happy reading!

Is Urban Agriculture the “New Normal” for Detroit?

Even before the economic turmoil of the past year, Detroit, Michigan, was inarguably struggling. With high unemployment rates due to a reliance on a challenged automotive industry, fear of crime downtown, and high property taxes, Detroit has seen an exodus of residents to surrounding suburban counties and other states over the past ten years. The departure from downtown due to economic and public health concerns has left an estimated 40,000 vacant lots within the city.

Vacant lots lower surrounding property values, create a patchwork of disconnected communities, and are a financial burden for city maintenance departments. Rather than seeing the large number of vacant lots throughout the city as a problem, enterprising community members have seized the opportunity to infuse urban agriculture in the city fabric. Activists, churches, and community members have started community gardens on vacant lots throughout the city. Over the past several years, community gardening has sprouted where houses, businesses, and even gas stations once stood.

The proliferation of community gardens in Detroit helps provide fresh, healthy food in areas where it was previously prohibitively expensive or unavailable. With a crumbling economy and dilapidated infrastructure, many neighborhoods have seen grocery stores close or move to the suburbs in the past decade. The remaining residents are often unable to access larger, commercial grocery stores in the suburbs due to transportation barriers. The existing options for food are often convenience stores that stock their shelves with overpriced, highly processed, and unhealthy food.

The Detroit community gardens are reminiscent of “victory gardens” grown by individuals during World War I and II across the United States. Victory gardens were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted to supplement limited national food supplies during the war. It is estimated these gardens provided up to 40 percent of all vegetables consumed during the war period. The victory gardens also helped improve morale and support community building during a time of national stress.

The Detroit community gardens are serving a similar role – improving morale and encouraging strong communities despite disparate economic times in the city. City officials have recognized the value of community gardens and are working to change city ordinances to make farming acceptable. Zoning laws in the city currently ban raising crops and livestock for profit, but community gardens that provide free produce for volunteers and communities are serving the need in the meantime. If zoning regulations and other ordinances are changed to reflect the growing interest in farming for profit, urban agriculture could provide employment opportunities for many currently unemployed residents, reduce food transportation costs and negative environmental effects, and provide fresh, healthy food for the otherwise deprived residents.

When the economy and traditional built environment crumbles, Detroit residents are learning the value of rebuilding with raised beds, compost, and fresh vegetables. While many people view Detroit as a dismal “has-been” city, others are beginning to look to the city as a leader in the growing field of urban agriculture.

Is Cooking a Necessity?

I was on a conference call this morning to prepare for a panel I will sit on in a few weeks. The panel session, which focuses on women leaders in local food, is part of the Women's Leadership Conference at UVa. I feel quite honored to have even been asked to sit on the panel and really look forward to the discussion. I'll be sitting with three other women who have really played an impressive role in the local food movement. (As a side note - I'm finally convinced "real/local food" is a movement after Oprah hosted Michael Pollan on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure Oprah is the barometer for social movements these days. )

But back to the conversation today.....

We were discussing challenges of working in the local food movement (or maybe it was opportunities - sometimes I get these mixed up), and briefly talked about youth and young adults generally lacking cooking skills or knowledge. We didn't talk in too much detail on this subject, but a few comments really inspired some deeper thought. Specifically, encouraging consumers to purchase and eat whole foods implies a necessity for cooking and spending more time in the kitchen. Ok, this seems obvious when I put it in writing, but I had just never thought of it as a "necessity" to teach people cooking skills if we want them to buy whole food - duh. Until today, I think I've seen learning/teaching cooking as an enjoyable skill that would be a shame to lose. I've thought the same thing about canning and preserving food (see post from this summer) - a skill that is important because it is a part of our heritage - not a determinant of the success of a "social movement."

So now I'm left wondering - is learning to cook and preserve food a necessity? If so, what are the implications for "leaders in the local food movement"? On that same note, what are the implications for women in the local food movement? This is especially relevant for this panel for the Women in Leadership Conference and, of course, because I am a woman, but I think its worth pondering for anyone (including men) interested in food.

Women have spent decades working to get out of the kitchen. Are we suggesting a return to hours slaving over the stove and potentially "missing out" on professional opportunities? What about all of the women who fought so hard for women's rights and empowerment? (Laurel Thatcher Ulrich who famously said "Well behaved women seldom make history" would probably throttle me right now if she was reading this).

Well, my response is we shouldn't ignore this dilemma, but we also sure shouldn't let it stop teaching people to cook! I think there is a tremendous opportunity to think creatively and not only make "cooking cool" as was suggested on my phone call today, but to really think about how we cook and who is doing it. Cooking should become thought of as an opportunity to spend quality time with people we love creating something delicious and nourishing. Too poetic? philosophical? Probably a little, but not a total long shot. Cooking real, whole, local food doesn't have to be daunting task. Cooking should be fun!

So how do we make it fun? How do we teach people the skills while still recognizing the busy schedules many people juggle (single mothers/fathers especially)? How about those hours I've already put in sweating over a stove canning pickles and making applesauce? A memorable experience, but one I'm not sure most people would find "fun" and especially not "cool." Do people need to just get their priorities straight and commit more time to cooking (as I've heard suggested by more than one "foodie")? Are cooking skills really a necessity to the success of the local food movement?

I clearly don't have answers to all of these questions, or really any of these questions for that matter. But after spending at least a few hours thinking about this, I am sure it will take many more hours and many more ideas to come up with innovative solutions. To get that process started - what do you think???

In the spirit of this conversation about cooking local, real, whole food, here's a picture of vegetable soup I made a few weeks ago. Carrots and cauliflower fresh from the UVa Community Garden, green beans and corn from the farm and garden put away in the freezer this summer and fresh herbs clipped from outside my front door. A lot of work or a delicious masterpiece???

Mid-week entertainment

These are two photographs from earlier this winter.......thought they might provoke a little chuckle.....

This is when the UVa Community Garden moved the cold frame up to the Hereford garden. I was confident it would fit in the back of my truck before we loaded it. Did I mention it is 12 feet long? Oh, and I drove on the road with it like this - I had to climb in the passenger side to get in the truck....and Wynnie rode in the back to hold it steady. Not the brightest idea we've ever had. I think we'll enlist someone with a full size truck to help if we move it again.

This is one of my sister's hand crafted chicken houses at her house in Arkansas. She really enjoys building things out of scraps, although rarely fully finishes a single project (note the lack of shingles). I thought this one was especially creative. I think she should make a series of them - the chickens could then decide which house to roost in depending on their mood. :)

Happy Wednesday!!!!

Sprouts

**disclaimer: I have no idea why this is all underlined in blue - just consider it a snazzier version of a normal post....

Well, the new year is off with a whiz, bang, boom! I've spent the past two weeks of "break" as busy as ever between a one week business class at Darden and a one week externship at the Local Food Hub. Both educational, entertaining, and interesting experiences - maybe I'll write about them sometime.... :)

For now, I wanted to share pictures of my sprouting herbs. My sister gave me a windowsill herb planting "kit" for Christmas. Since my beautiful and plentiful herbs finally went kaput after the mega snowstorm dumped on them, I decided to try planting these inside. The kit contained seeds for sage, oregano, and basil - what some would consider the classic kitchen herbs.

So, I planted them a few weeks ago in two sets of three pots, put them in a sunny window, sprayed them with water twice a day, and waited.......

Now the seeds in the middle pots are sprouting! Of course I didn't actually label them, though, so I'm not really sure what is sprouting. With just the cotyledons showing, I won't be able to tell until the first true leaves come along either - darn. I really need to get better at record keeping and organization. Oh well, for now, I'll just enjoy the little sprouts.

There's something inspiring about planting a seed and watching it grow. It's really pretty amazing what can come out of such a small seed. I once read an article/essay/something or other about tomato seeds as the most amazing, efficient energy packets. It was an interesting thought - how the tiny seed (which is very easy to transport) can grow and produce so much energy (in the form of food calories) with minimal inputs - sun, water, soil. I wish I could find that article again - I bet I have it somewhere around the house. Hmm......again, I should really get better at that thing called organization......

I'm also trying to grow some mint from a sprig plucked from the garden - supposedly it will grow roots in a cup of water--I'm still waiting to be impressed. For now, I share my herb sprouts - any guesses what they are?

Did I mention I also potted some more spider plants? I think they are on a mission to take over our house..... I'm also still trying to figure out this new camera - lots of jazzy options.

Blizzard

Okay, okay, it's been over a month without a post - eeck! The fall semester finally wrapped up with the completion of a major project and a few papers turned in last week. I unfortunately had a terrible cold for the past two weeks (I think my immune system just gave up) and ended up with a sinus infection AND tonsillitis at the same time - gross! After hours of sleep, gallons of chicken noodle soup, a few boxes of tissues, and plenty of cough drops, I'm finally feeling more alive - just in time for playing in the snow and the holidays!

And about that snow........

It started snowing in Charlottesville at about 3pm on Friday and didn't stop until Saturday night. Total accumulation (on our back patio) was 22 inches! It was really beautiful to watch all of that snow accumulate and enjoy the quietness a blanket of snow brings. Fortunately, our electric stayed on (mostly) and Scott, Charlie, and I have been snug as three little bugs in a rug. We ventured outside yesterday to walk down to Washington Park expecting to see people sledding on the giant hill. Much to our surprise there was hardly anyone there - apparently when snow is that deep the sleds just sink! We did catch a few folks with innertubes bouncing around. We went back again today and it was a different story - hill was covered with people with all sorts of sledding "equipment." My personal favorite by far was the people who just wore trash bags and flung themselves zipping down the hill - classic.

Anyway, here are a few photos of the big snow. Scott and I are hopefully headed to Arkansas tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with my family (if we can make it out of Charlottesville). I'm sure there will be great stories to share after that adventure :). One of these days I'll also make it back to the farm and have some updates for you about "winter farming." I've missed the past few weeks due to the wrath of sickness, but I hear there's still a lot happening, including the completion of the second hoop house, and more........

A female cardinal on our back patio

Scott lounging in the snow yesterday at Washington Park - still snowing at this point and hardly anyone else around.

The road in front of our house on Saturday

Charlie bounding in the snow - running was out of the question with snow over his head!

Our car.....under there somewhere. We dug it out this morning - hopefully the roads will be clear enough to load up and go to Arkansas tomorrow.....

Classic Charlie with snow on his nose

The hill at Washington Park today - full of people sledding!