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 get 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!

Portland Urban Farming at People’s Co-op

Just got back from a great event at the People’s Food Co-op in SE Portland.  It was a community meeting and discussion on the topic of urban farming.  I first want to thank everyone who showed up to explore this topic of urban farming and what it means for our community.  I also want to thank Calliope from Calliope’s Table for organizing this event.  I’m sure this is the first of what will be many community efforts to explore and develop the concept of urban farming.  It’s all so new to so many of us.  While the concepts have been around for a while, widespread acceptance is just now starting to happen.

So many of the people driving this important effort where in attendance tonight.  I want to take the opportunity to highlight just a few of the shining stars of this budding movement.  First, there was Martin Barrett co-founder of City Garden Farms.  He was an inspiration to all.   Just a year ago he worked as a retail manager at Powells Books.  Now he is motivating others to follow their dreams of becoming a farmer.  You could say that he is leading by example.

Martin Barrett, co-founder of City Garden Farms

There were so many that I’ll just list a few of them here:

Farmer K -  Sunroots Gardens

Bob New – Interstate FarmersMarket Manager and Portland Urban Farming Project

Naomi Montacre – Concentrates

Philip Yates – Singer Hill CSA

And so many more…

I spoke to a really nice guy outside as I was leaving and he told me a story about someone he knows in Florida who was trying to find out more about the concept and trying to understand how to get the laws changed there so that urban farming would be made legal.   “Legal!?!  Growing vegetables and selling them is illegal in Florida?!?”, I thought.  That’s actually the case in many places.  Residential zoning excludes any agricultural uses in many cities and towns around the country.  Inevitably, the search for information on urban farming brought the Floridian to discover Portland, OR.  Portland is obviously the epicenter of this movement.  Portland is once again on the cutting edge of a new movement as it has been so many times before.  I realized, as I have so many times before, how lucky I am to live in Portland, OR.  It’s so good here that some parts of the city government, like the Office of Planning and Sustainablity, are actually encouraging urban farming.

Portland is hungry for local food.  Portlanders want to know how to grow their own food.  The time is ripe for food security.  POP Farming can help.

Urban Growth Bounty – Urban Farming Classes

The City of Portland is putting on the the best gardening and urban farming classes in the area.  They’re calling this series Urban Growth Bounty.

POP Farmer - Dan Bravin is presenting at Urban Growth Bounty!

These are the classes you’ll want to attend to really get up to speed on producing lots of vegetables in the space you have.  Everything you want to know about gardening is covered here.  The best and most interesting class in the series is being presented by one of our own POP Farmers, Dan Bravin.  Check out the SPIN Farming workshop and learn how to grow your vegetable garden.  You’ll learn how to use the techniques of intensive gardening.  Are you familiar with John Jeavons‘ biointensive technique or Eliot Coleman’s 4 season harvest?  The work they’ve done is some of the inspiration for SPIN Farming.

Don’t let this season go by without starting your vegetable garden.  It’s a great time to learn to grow your own vegetables.  Food security sure is a good feeling!

Landscaping with vegetables and ornamentals

Food security.  The tanking economy.  Self-sufficiency.  These related topics are in the news and on everyone’s minds these days.  The boom in interest in urban agriculture and local food is everywhere now.  Some people want to rip up their lawns to grow vegetables and build a chicken coop in the back yard to ensure they have a regular supply of locally grown, high quality food.  Some people want to learn how to can fruits and vegetables to put away a little something for the hard times to come.  Some want a way to simplify and change the way they live because they’ve seen that the culture over-consumption just isn’t working for us.  There are many ways and many steps people can take to move toward these very sensible goals.

In my recent backyard farming travels I’ve been introduced to a new breed of landscaper.  These guys aren’t your typical “mow the lawn, trim the shrubs, install a hardscape” kind of landscaper.  They are interested in food crops as an integral part of the urban landscape.  They incorporate  permaculture techniques as well as complete vegetable garden systems into their designs.  If you’re not ready for Food not Lawns or a neighborhood egg co-op these are the people you want to call on.

I met one of these new kind of landscapers at the B-ISA Summit put on by Sky Vegetables in Berkeley, CA in December.  What a revelation!  Landscapes and food all in one!  It doesn’t have to be one or the other.  Joshua Thayer, owner of Native Sun Gardens in Berkeley opened my eyes to the possibilities.  It’s not strict vegetable gardening.  It’s not strict permaculture.  It’s not strict landscaping for asthetics only.  It’s a hybrid that I think is going to make sense to many of you out there.  Take a look at Joshua’s website to see what services he provides.  See if you can find someone in your community who is doing the same thing.

Victory Gardens 2.0

It’s time to move from reminiscing about the Victory Gardens of WWII to building the movement for Victory Gardens 2.0.  It seems as though we are in middle of the perfect storm to make this happen.  We are at this important point in time due to our deep economic recession, unstable fuel prices and our country’s new found desire to raise chickens and grow food our cities.

POP Farming - Start a Victory Garden for Food Secuity today!

First thing you can do is start your own garden this spring.  If you don’t know how to garden go find yourself some help in getting one set up.

Beyond growing your own garden, you can become part of a national effort to encourage President-elect Obama (only a few more days until I can remove the “elect” from that phrase!  woo hoo!) to get on board with this idea.  There are actually two different groups dedicated to lobbying the President-elect to install an organic food garden on the White House lawn.  Eat The View and The WHO Farm have started petitions to bring this movement into the public eye.  Check them out and sign their petitions!

According to change.org:

The many successes(1) of the first Victory Garden movement were the
result of effective public policy, bold leadership(2) at a time of
national crisis, and the commitment of millions of citizens who were
ready to roll up their sleeves for the greater good.

(1) Victory Gardens (behind homes, schools, in vacant urban lots, etc.)
produced 40% of the nation’s produce at their peak, helped conserve
food and natural resources at a time of crisis, resulted in the highest
consumption rates of fruits and vegetables our nation has seen, and
helped keep millions of Americans physically fit and active.
(2) First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden on the White
House lawn in 1943 over the objections of the USDA, inspiring millions
by her example.

Just imagine what would happen if there were a food garden installed on the lawn of the White House.  How many people would then take that same step and begin to see the importance of growing their own food?  Just that simple gesture would change the mindset of many thousands of Americans.  We would be one step closer to food security, healthful living and reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil for our food.  (Yes, all that conventionally grown food you buy at the store is grown with fertilizers that are directly derived from petroleum products.)  Victory gardens during the WWII era supplied up to 40% of all fresh produce consumed in the US for those years.  Let’s do it again.

Farmer Shortage!!!

Dan Bravin from City Garden Farms, an urban farm in Portland, OR

We need new, young farmers!  According to a recent article in Oregon Small Farm News, a publication put out by Oregon State University’s Small Farm Program, “farmers are getting to be a rare, old breed in America, comprising a scant 1% of the U.S. population compared to 40% in 1900″.  We are ignoring one of the ideals upon which our country was founded.  Independent family farms supporting an agrarian society were to be the backbone and strength.  We move further and further from that ideal everyday.  Commitment from local and federal governments to supporting and encouraging new farmers is more important than ever.  It has never been considered the place of local governments to encourage farming, but now is the time to start.  I call on our mayor elect, Sam Adams, to take seriously the concept of urban farming.  Mayor Adams needs to start discussions with those who are already exploring the concept of 21 century urban farming and lead the way, as Portland always does, to building this progressive movement.  Urban farming makes sense in so many ways.  It is a necessity that we will very soon understand.   Agriculture will become the backbone of our society once again and it will take local governments to start the process of making public land available to small urban farmers.  Let’s start making all of that underutilized land out productive once again.  So what do you say Mayor Adams?

US Backyard Farming: MyFarm – San Francisco

A backyard farm installed by MyFarm in San Francisco.

The Portland Organoponico Project is dedicated to bringing to light the small urban farm efforts around the country.  They seem to be popping up all over the place.  Michael Pollan recently wrote an open letter to president-elect Obama (have I mentioned that I love saying that) called Farmer in Chief. In that piece he suggests the new green economy must include programs to train a new generation of farmers.  Since the family farm has been in decline for decades these new farmers, in the numbers that we’ll need, aren’t going to be coming from rural areas.  Many of them will be from the urban centers.  They will cut their teeth on urban farming projects like Portland Organoponico Project (POP).

Another urban farm that has received considerable attention lately is MyFarm in San Francisco.  I had the pleasure of meeting the founder of MyFarm, Trevor Paque, while we were both attending the B-ISA summit (more on that in another post) in Berkeley, CA last week.  Trevor has quite an impressive operation going on there.  His farms are small but quite productive.  He also had a NYTimes article written about his operation this year.  Go Trevor!  You are the future of farming.