S'meaches!

We made these for our summer thanksgiving party on the 4th of July, and they were amazing. Life- altering, consciousness- changing, enlightening- delicious. We did add the cayenne to the brown sugar 'cause that's how we do, but I hope you get to try it either way- straight sweet or with some heat!
S'Meaches from Claire Thomas on Vimeo.

Edible Education Online Class

Edible Education is an amazing online opportunity to listen to the super stars of the food movement speak passionately about the food revolution.

Nikki Henderson of the Peoples Grocery and Michael Pollan lead up this class being offered at UC Berkley with support form the Chez Panisse foundation. And thanks to YouTube we can all sit in on a class about the latest goings on in the food revolution.

The course consists of conversations with the all stars of the food movement... might I suggest starting with a rather inspiried talk by Director Peter Sellars. Other speakers include Slow Food predident Carlo Petrini, Marion Nestle, Jack Sinclair of Walmart, Ann Cooper "the renegade lunch lady," Eric Schlosser of "Fast Food Nation," Alice Waters and many others.

Tune into YouTube as the semester continues for all of the lectures, and an education in whats happening right now in the food revolution!

If They Cook It They Will Eat It

Thanks to Jackie for sending us info on  The Lunch Love Community project.  Visit their website to view any number of short films on the efforts made in Berkley to improve the awareness, skills, and health of Berkley school children through food.  Good Stuff.

Robyn O'Brien at Tedx Austin

My brother got to attend Tedx Austin a couple of months ago, and was really impressed by Robyn O'Brien's analyst mind and her work on improving the food system. Great talk- Check it out!

20 Great Ted Talks For Total Foodies

Thanks to Jasmine for sending us this! Just click here, and enjoy.

New film: Farmageddon

Watching Food Inc. was great a great way for us to understand the break down the general food system so that we could wrap our heads around it. Fresh is wonderful movie about how beautiful and natural farming can and should be. I loved King Corn because it didn't take itself too seriously, and because it gave a sympathetic look at how we got to this crazy place in the food system. The Future of Food taught us about the complications and ubiquitousness of genetically modified foods.

Now there is a new movie about our big ag food system- and the gloves have come off. Look for Farmageddon in 2011.

Farmageddon Trailer from Kristin Canty on Vimeo.

Shannon's Fish Pepper Video

If you like hot peppers, beautiful ornamental vegetable garden plants, or some local food history you can check out this YouTube video I did for Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden!

Meet the Vendors at The Market @ St. Stephen's, Part III

Fun market video by the RTD

Saint Stephen's Farmers Market- Meet the Vendors!

Shannon talks Apples on Virginia This Morning

 

Thanks to Anne at AgriBerry, and Chris from Thistledown Farms for their great apple knowledge and selection. Also, many thanks to the staff at Virginia this Morning for their support and for this fantastic opportunity.

Erin's Appearance on Virginia This Morning

 

Thanks to Virginia this Morning for having us on, to Warsaw Plants, Frog Bottom Farm, Amy's Garden, and Victory Farms for their generous donations of tomatoes, to Erin's mom who went to the market when Erin could not, and to Shannon's folks who recorded VTM shows to enlighten us. We are so grateful to our community for all of their good work- thank you so much!

Richmond Food Collective Featured on Richmond.com

The video of us enjoying the Byrd House Market last year was re-posted recently to Richmond.com! Check it out...

Cooking demos online

I just found these cooking demos on You Tube. The videos are quick, simple, seasonal and fresh. Check out the Farmers Market Cooking Series, and learn what to do with the veggies you see at the farmers' market!

VABF Conference Recap

Before we jump in to my report from the 2009 VABF conference, I wanted to draw your attention to the organization as a whole: the VABF is, according to the website, "an active network of citizens in and around Virginia whose primary focus is to provide information and services to farmers, gardeners and consumers about biological agriculture. Biological agriculture involves the use of natural methods and materials, and focuses on soil building, recycling of organic farm materials, and protection of wildlife and water resources." It's obvious the VABF and the Richmond Food Collective share some important goals. So with that in mind, you won't be surprised to hear that the conference was great!

Speakers I heard included the following:

Gary Scott, owner of Twin Springs Farm in Nelson County, VA. Since they are located outside the range of Richmond farmers markets and natural foods stores, I had never heard of Twin Springs, but it turns out they are a great little organic farm dedicated to 'ecological' farming practices, working towards sustainability and avoiding the use of pesticides at all costs. Scott's lecture was focused on production: the practicalities of growing crops for market. Though I'm not running a farm, I liked this lecture because the realities of making a living as a market farmer were set in the context of sustainable practices. Twin Springs focuses on high value cash crops like blueberries, strawberries and salad greens. Ron and I just bought a bunch of blueberries from Edible Landscaping (also in Nelson County) last week, so the detailed information on blueberry growing was very timely for me! I'd also like to mention that Twin Springs does U-pick blueberries in June and July...guaranteed clean fruit and a nice drive: can't beat that!!

Michael Clark of Planet Earth Diversified, a specialty produce operation with a focus on hydroponics located in Stanardsville, VA, showed a video from his project Meet the Farmer TV. Sporting a jaunty straw hat, Clark showed us around his own hydroponic greenhouse and introduced other farmers, chefs and extension agents. Check out the pilot episode:



Later on in the day, I noticed Clark interviewing Keith Langley of the Virginia Farm Bureau about his own green project of the moment: Save our Food, an effort to "educate consumers about the foods they eat and encourage everyone to seek out and sauté, bake, roast, fry and otherwise enjoy all of the delicious locally grown foods available." The Farm Bureau has just come out with a glossy mag called Cultivate, available to all Farm Bureau members, featuring local foods and farmers.

David O'Neill, owner of Radical Roots Community Farm, a market and CSA farm located in the Shenandoah Valley with a focus on education, including 3 interns each season, and permaculture design and practice. O'Neill explained some of the basics of permaculture, then went on to demonstrate how they are implemented at Radical Roots. There were some neat illustrations of the 'concentric circles of use' often seen in permaculture designs, wherein the resources on the farm most often needed are located closest to the living quarters, while rarely needed components are placed on the edges. We also saw some swales and some nice solar buildings. Very inspiring. I will say that it seems that whenever I talk to people or read about permaculture, there is some discussion of the impending agricultural apocalypse...the idea is 'peak oil' and 'peak soil' are either drawing near or have already occurred, and we urgently need to learn skills and implement systems that will allow us to live without oil and replenish soil as we look toward the greener lives we will be forced to live...it's definitely something to think about. Though folks disagree as to when these peaks will occur, these are very real concerns and permaculture is an amazing ideal I think we could all aspire to. O'Neill is doing some great things on his farm, and also happens to be a teacher at the Blue Ridge Permaculture Network, which is currently running an intensive course in permaculture design.

Will Allen of Growing Power Inc, an amazing urban farming and composting group located in Milkwaukee and Chicago, was the keynote speaker for the conference. Allen was a candid and warm speaker, inviting questions from the audience throughout his lecture. He talked about his massive composting operation in Milwaukee, where he collects food waste from all over the city and combines it with brewery waste and woodchips to generate massive amounts of compost. He discussed the importance of engaging the community, especially when initiating controversial urban projects. I was amazed to learn of Allens aquaponics projects (growing thousands of fish for local restaurants) and Growing Power's outreach programs.

That was Friday. On Saturday, we started bright and early with more Will Allen, and a workshop on vermiculture. A big part of Allen's farming operation uses worms to digest precomposted waste, transforming it into an ideal fertilizer. In the keynote speech we saw pictures of Allen's home 'worm bins,' which were atually huge wooden boxes full of dirt and worms. Here at the conference, he showed us how to make a small bin for home use. Owning worms, one must keep in mind, is like taking care of any small livestock -- you need to feed and monitor them frequently. However, there is nothing better for fertilizer, claims Allen, than fresh worm castings. Growing power has its own page about vermiculture: check it out here.

After Allen's lecture, we moved on to a really fun workshop on Farmscaping for Biological Insect Control by Dr. Richard McDonald, a passionate entomologist who energetically lectured on how to plant trap crops and control common crop pests. McDonald runs his own business doing consulting for insect control called Symbiont (check out their website: it's a great resource). I was really excited by his recommendations for different 'filter crops' and 'trap crops' to attract bad bugs away from cash crops, and draw predatorial insects onto the farm to eat the bad bugs. McDonald is clearly excited about his work and his mood was infectious.

The final lecture of the day turned out to be a lot more fun than I expected. During lunch on Saturday, I ended up with a winning raffle ticket, meaning I got to choose from an array of prizes donated by attendees and speakers at the conference. When I got to the table, I knew what I wanted: a 5 pound bag of oyster mushroom spawn! I've been interested in the idea of growing oyster mushrooms for some time now, and free spawn was just too good to pass up. I ended up getting to personally chat with Mark Jones, the owner of Sharondale Farm in Keswick, VA and a serious fungi fanatic. He gave me some tips on how to inoculate a log with my newly acquired spawn, and told me how long I'd have to wait before harvesting some delicious mushrooms (6-9 months). I was so excited I headed to Jones' mushroom lecture for my final session of the day, where we learned about different kinds of mushrooms and how to grow oysters and shiitakes. I hope to experiment with both kinds of mushrooms soon, though we won't know if we're doing it right until September, since it takes the spawn quite a while to grow through the log and put out mushrooms. Jones will hold a workshop on his farm on March 14th for those interested in further investigating mushroom growing. Click here for more information.

That final lecture brought the conference to a close. I really enjoyed all the lectures, as well as my visits to the Trade Show, where I chatted with folks from the Permaculture Activist magazine, Dominion Harvest (featuring home-delivered produce in the Richmond area), Cindy Connor and the Backyard Gardeners. All in all, a great time, and very inspiring! Now, if this darn snow would just clear up...we could get to planting!

Dirt! The Movie

Am I allowed to be this excited about dirt? Absolutely!! Soil is what gardening is all about, and it's also the subject of a new and (at least for me) exciting documentary called Dirt! The Movie. Dirt is definitely one of those ignored issues (especially when we're all up in arms about economic insanity), but it is without question more important than most people think. Check out the trailer for Dirt!:



Chris Lawrence, State Agronomist for the National Resources Conservation Service, recommended this movie at a recent horticulture conference.

Also, co-blogger Shannon recently recommended a book concerning similar topics: Dirt: The Erosion of Human Civilizations, by David R. Montgomery. According to a review on the Amazon website: "Montgomery...argues persuasively that soil is humanity's most essential natural resource and essentially linked to modern civilization's survival." I haven't read the book yet but I'm excited. When I went to see John Jeavons (GROW BIOINTENSIVE guru extraordinaire from California) speak at EMU, I remembered hearing him say 'peak soil' all the time. I was eager to hear more science and hard facts concerning the current situation with our total agricultural land and whether or not we have really reached a peak...

In any case, both of these resources sound like good motivation for getting your own compost bin cooking. Just because you're cutting down on 'discretionary' spending doesn't mean you can't afford a compost thermometer!

Genius Grant for Urban Farmer

Pictured above is Will Allen, CEO of Growing Power, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the community on home growing, food production and distribution within areas lacking viable options for fresh produce, and working to influence agricultural policy in a way that supports local economies and small farmers. Allen is now a 2008 MacArthur Fellowship winner, for his efforts as a farmer and community organizer. MacArthur fellows win no less than $500,000, and though the funds are unrestricted, Allen seems motivated to use all of his winnings to build his project even bigger.

Read the NY Times article here, which talks about Allen's farm and his plans for the future. I noticed Allen uses the term "food deserts" -- exactly the same term used by Mark Winne in his book Closing the Food Gap. I am really inspired by people like Allen and Winne. These kinds of leaders understand that in order to effect lasting change, actions must be taken to influence the structure of food systems and the communities that make use of them. Check out Growing Power's food policy initiatives -- exactly the kind of thing I'd like to be seeing in Richmond and the rest of Virginia.

More on Allen, if you're interested:

Cold Framing in the Median

It's time for the next chapter in the life of my median garden! Just this weekend, the garden transitioned into winter mode with our modification of the white picket fence into a cold frame. Since I have been taking Cindy Conner's classes at J. Sargeant Reynolds, I have become increasingly interested in season extension and gardening through the winter. I've been using the book Four Season Harvest by Elliot Coleman as a guide to transitioning this garden into one that produces greens all the way through the winter months.

A few weeks ago, we ripped out the summer vegetables -- peppers, tomatoes, a gourd vine (originally thought to be winter squash!) and transplanted in a variety of greens we had started from seed. I ordered a lot of my seeds through Seeds of Change, a great seed catalog that offers organic, open pollinated seeds. Currently growing are collards, arugula, Osaka Purple mustard greens (rumored to be extremely spicy!), spinach, mesclun mix and purslane (some people accuse purslane of being a weed but it's edible).

A key element in season extension is the construction and use of cold frames. These are essentially miniature greenhouses placed on top of a vegetable bed that provide a more stable internal environment for cool-season plants. Mediating the effects of temperature variations and wind helps the plants grow and stay alive. The addition of a cold frame can up your garden climate to Zone 8 or 9 (we're in 7 here in VA), meaning you can plant things later and they'll grow and last much longer!

To make our cold frame, we made three 'boxes' cut to fit on top of the fence so that they rest on the fence slats. We stretched plastic over the boxes, using staples to attach it around the edges. There are also bracer sections of wood screwed in at the corners to hold the box square and provide further attachment points for the plastic, which does dip down in the middle a bit. These cold frame tops fit on top of the fence fairly well, though the fence is certainly not square, meaning that there are some uneven edges. We also stapled plastic to the outside of the fence, using a limited number of staples so it's easy to remove next year. We will also make a device to prop open the boxes to allow air flow on warmer days, though we haven't done that yet...

Greens are growing inside!

There are lots of options for designing cold frames in your own garden. Some people make solid wooden boxes with glass tops; another option is row cover held up with hoops made of metal or PVC. There are a lot of great resources on the internet for learning how to build one. Check out this video:



One thing to remember is that the inside of the cold frame will still be cold. Greens don't mind the cold at all, and often are much tastier and sweeter after the first frost. The key is to provide a protected environment so the plants aren't battered by harsh storms, winds or even snow, and a more gradual transition as the temperature warms and cools throughout the day.

Hopefully I'll get back to you soon with a post on the harvest from this garden! Will we be eating salad all the way through spring? Stay tuned...

Watering With Hanna

Today was planting day! The flats we started a couple of weeks ago were full of seedlings and we had double-dug a new bed last weekend in preparation for fall crops. The best part of today's gardening session wasn't the bed preparation or the planting -- it was the watering! Prior to our bout with hurricane / tropical storm Hannah, Ron and I set up a rain barrel to collect water from his roof.

Ron had a flexible gutter attachment on hand and was able to fit it to the existing gutter (which previously had dumped directly onto the wooden floor of his back deck), routing the end to the top of the rain barrel. The barrel we used is a commercial model from the Great American Rain Barrel Company. Ron had already bought this one and all it needed was setting up. It already has a threaded spout at the bottom for a spigot and additional spouts near the top for connection to additional rain barrels in a kind of chain. We could have definitely filled up more than one -- by the time we checked the barrel on Saturday morning, it was already full! Rain barrels are a great way to make use of a widely available natural resource, and are definitely the way to go when we're under mandatory water restrictions.

Here is a great video from HGTV on building your own rain barrel, and more info about why you should be using them:



You can also check out this tutorial for a set of pictures and instructions.

We connected a small piece of hose to the spigot and filled the can with water from Hanna. The pressure is low, so be patient when you're filling the can! If water won't come out, sucking on the end of the hose can help initiate the siphon of water through the hose, which often bends upward above the level of the spigot. Rain barrels are a sustainable way to water your garden and can help you save money on your water bill. They are also a resource we may need to take more seriously in the future as we face droughts and a possible decrease in the availability of potable water.

This Lawn is Your Lawn

Here is a cute video recommended by RFC friend Laura:



Initially I thought the idea of petitioning the next president to grow a garden at the White House was kind of silly, but some good points are being made here. Sometimes grand gestures are important to influence public mindspace. I would love to see the next president take a more conscientious view of food and agriculture, encouraging the American people to do the same.

The website (http://www.eattheview.org/) says,

Here are a few things you can do to help:
1) Identify a landscape near you that you think should be "edible-ized". Residents of San Francisco are planting a Victory Garden in front of their town hall. The Governors of Maine and New York are already eating from gardens planted at their official residences. New school gardens are being dug across the country. What about your town, your local schools, and elected official's residence?

2) Sign our "White House Food Garden Petition" which we will deliver to the President-elect this fall along with a diverse collection of heirloom seed packets.

3) Vote for the idea of a food garden on the White House lawn at the website OnDayOne.org.

4) Join this campaign and website. Use this site to share your stories of edible landscapes you're creating, planning, or already eating.

5) Join our Facebook group

You can also put up one of these images on your website or blog: