San Francisco Follows Multnomah County’s Urban Farming Efforts

Today San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom announced an executive directive to change the way San Francisco thinks about food.  One of the more important pieces of this move is the mandate to have all city departments conduct an audit of all unused and underutilized land in the city.  They have 6 months to evaluate potential land for new urban farming efforts.  This includes “empty lots, rooftops, windowsills and median strips” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Portland, ahead of it’s time…as usual, completed an audit of urban land a number of years ago in a study performed by a group of Portland State University students.  The study was called “The Diggable City” and can be found on the website of Portland’s Office of Planning and Sustainability.  While many sites were identified as potential urban agriculture sites, nearly none of them were available for a variety of reasons…future development plans, parks department space was seen as to be used for “recreation” only and a host of other reasons.

One effort that has moved forward in the local government in Portland is the County DIGS project to:

“promote opportunities for urban agriculture throughout Multnomah County by providing unused or surplus County property to individuals or organizations for use in growing food or agriculture products”.

Full disclosure…POP Farmer Dan Bravin is currently managing one of the County DIGS projects outlined in the previous blog entry.

The Multnomah County board of commissioners is making urban farming a reality in the Portland area with real tangible projects like County CROPS and County DIGS.  Hopefully San Francisco will be able to act on their audit of city land.  Urban farming is a hot topic right now.  If it doesn’t happen now, it is not going to happen.

POP Farming: Making Farming History

This photo from long ago show the exact field where the current County CROPS farm is located. What a wonderful project to use the old poor farm to once again feed the hungry.

Well, more specifically, farming on an historic farming site just on the edge of Portland, OR  in Troutdale…

Dan Bravin of POP Farming has been hired to be the farm manager for Multnomah County’s CROPS program.  This entails farming 2 acres of surplus county land to grow vegetables for distribution through the Oregon Food Bank (OFB).  This groundbreaking project is the brainchild of Marissa Madrigal, Chief of Staff for Multnomah County Commissioner, Jeff Cogan.  Despite the many nay sayers and skeptics, Marissa and Jeff have prevailed in making this incredible pr0ject a reality.   Since early 2009 they have been working to develop the idea and were finally were able to push through a vote on the project at the beginning of June.   While it was a bit of a late start for the gardening season, much progress has been made.  Soon there will be a steady supply of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, summer and winter squash flowing to the Oregon Food Bank.  This is significant for a couple of reasons.  First, Oregon is a state with one of the highest hunger rates.  Hopefully this program will help put a dent in that statistic.  Second, food banks traditionally get lots of non-perishable food, but not much fresh produce that is of decent quality.  They often receive produce that is near spoilage or beyond (i.e. compost).  This program will pick and deliver fresh vegetables to the OFB the same day offering OFB clients the same, high quality, organically grown food you might find at supermarkets like New Seasons.  Third, the project brings together many different parts of the local community to address the  serious issue of hunger.  County government, AmeriCorps volunteers, private businesses, individual community members, social service agencies are all part of making this project a huge success.

POP Farming offering micro-sized salad garden

Micro-garden example

Do you think you don’t have room for a vegetable garden?  Think again.  POP Farming is now offering micro-sized salad garden installation for as little as $75 (depending on the size).  Your micro-garden can be as small as 2′x6′ in a sunny corner of your yard.  Installation includes recycled wood raised bed, plenty of compost, initial organic fertilizer application and seeds planted to get you started.  We encourage you to watch while we plant in order to learn the technique.  This is nothing fancy but it will produce abundant amounts of salad for you through the growing season.  We can also teach you how to keep growing well into early winter.  Just think… lettuce, radishes, baby carrots, scallions, spinach, arugula and more all season long.  With POP’s advice and your appetite for fresh salad you can see return on your investment by the end of this season.  Do you want to dip your toes in what seems like the ocean of knowledge needed for growing vegetables?  Start with the micro-sized salad garden.

Contact us to get started gardening this year.  Now is the time to get started!

Dan Bravin Will Destroy Your Lawn*

*and replace it with tasty vegetables.

Check out the great Q&A with POP Farming in the Willamette Week today.

The Scoop

Willamette Week picks up on Portland's city hall food garden.

Last week the Willamette Week picked up on POP Farming’s efforts to help out on the Portland city hall food garden.    “It was great fun being able to work with so many dedicated volunteers who have spent months planning this effort.” Said Dan Bravin of POP Farming.  POP along with many other volunteers were able to transform the lawn in to an edible landscape in just a few days.All of the produce will be donated to Loaves and Fishes.  The OSU Extension Master Gardener Program will be involved in the ongoing up keep of the garden.  There are too many people to mention, but here are af few of the many contributors to the project:

Dave Barmon and Mark Parisien of Fiddlehead Landscapes LLC, Mary Bedard of Portland’s Food Policy Council,  Steve Cohen of the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainablility …and many, many more.

Thanks everyone!  POP Farming couldn’t be more honored to be invited to work with such wonderful and dedicated people.

POP Farmer to till up Portland City Hall Lawn!

That’s right.  This Friday, May 1, you can find POP Farming’s Dan Bravin with his trusty tiller ripping out the lawn at Portland’s city hall.  Dan along with many others in the community have been given the “go ahead” to install a garden there.  We’re very excited to see that Portland has followed the example of Michelle Obama and her White House lawn garden.  No doubt this will encourage even more people to start their own vegetable gardens this year.

See you at city hall!

Portland to install vegetable garden on city hall lawn!

POP Farming Ultra-local Veggies Now Available!!!

POP Farming Pea Shoots. Yum!

POP Farming is now offering a variety of very high quality, organically grow vegetables for sale.  Large quantities are available for restaurant and small produce market purchases.  Small quantities will also be available for sale at various locations around SE Portland to individual households.  Stay tuned for a future post detailing where you can find POP Farming vegetables for your family.

You can stat up to date on what is available by going to the POP Farming Produce Availability List.

POP Farming to offer Seed Starting and Composting Workshops

Growing a vegetable garden.  Starting your own seeds to grow vegetables economically.  Building a composting system in your back yard to recycle all of your kitchen waste and to improve your soil without spending a fortune for delivered compost.  This may sound like a daunting task for many of you.  POP Farming can help.

Don’t spend another year fiddling around in the garden with mediocre results.  This is the time to start really understanding how to produce food for yourself and your family…and maybe your neighbors as well.  POP Farming will be offering recurring classes on seed starting and composting throughout the 2009 gardening season.  We will soon post our schedule for public workshops.  If you would like to be on our mailing list to get updates on when our workshops are occurring please drop us a note on our Contact Us page.

If you would like a personal, in-garden composting session, we can do that also.  Just let us know what you need.

Ultra-local Food is the New Black

Lettuce Skirt as High Fashion

First we had the standardization of organic foods almost 10 years back.  Then local food became all the rage in the past few years.  Now it’s ultra-local food that everyone just has to have.  I can hear it now…

Elizabeth (local food consumer): “Emily, you should taste these wonderful local, organic carrots I just picked up.  They’re so crunchy and delicious…and soooo fresh!”

Emma (ultra-local food consumer): “Oh Liz, these are quite nice.  Where are they from?”

Elizabeth: “I only buy my produce at New Seasons…so that I know that it’s local.”

Emma: “Hmmm.  You know most of that stuff at New Seasons is trucked in from all over the Northwest and beyond.  800 miles isn’t all that local.  Sounds kind of  like ‘green washing‘ to me.  Especially now that there are so many ultra-local, seasonal, organically grown food options.”

Elizabeth: “Oh, well, I buy lots of stuff from the farmers market as well.  So, I really am buying ultra-local.”

Emma: “Heh.  Well, not really Liz.  Do you ever notice how far away those farms are from Portland?  Many of them drive from 30, 50 or even over 100 miles away to be at the Portland farmers markets.”

Elizabeth: “Geez Emma.  You’re making it hard for me to enjoy my locavore status.”

Emma: “Well, all I’m saying is that it doesn’t make any sense to buy vegetables from 100 miles away when you can buy the same seasonal produce that is grown right here in Portland.  There is a new breed of farmer popping up all over the city.  You should contact POP Farming to find out how you can buy your vegetables ultra-locally.“

Elizabeth: “Thanks, Emma.”

Emma: “No problem, Liz.  100 mile vegetables are sooo 2008.  I couldn’t let my friend be eating last years vegetables.  Ultra-local is the new black.”

Americans are becoming more savvy about the sources of their food.  We are understanding the concept of supporting a local economy and how sending our hard earned dollars hundreds or thousands of miles away just doesn’t make any sense.  Support your neighborhood farmer.  Eat Ultra-Local!

Vegetable Garden at the White House!

First Lady Michelle Obama gathers with local school children to break ground for the White House Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn.

Thank you Michelle!

According to the NYTimes, Michelle Obama will be installing a vegetable garden on the White House lawn.

While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at time when obesity has become a national concern.

The first lady herself said:

“My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

Let’s all follow her lead and start food gardens of our own.  The time is right.  The White House has a garden.  Let’s all get behind this movement.

POP farming can recreate the Obama’s garden in your own backyard.  They have published their garden plan and fortunately everything they are growing will also thrive in our environment here in Portland.  Drop us a note and we’ll help you install a garden fit for the President of the United States.

Looks like the White House kitchen staff could use some help from POP Farming!