Urbanity Sanity

May 31

Food, Inc. looks fantastic and I’m looking forward to checking it out!

This film is coming out June 12th in SF, LA and NYC. It really needs to be debuting in DC, a town of politics and influences that are at the crux of our food issues. It’s a quandary that this film isn’t opening in the cities and towns that need it most, like DC and the largest farming states that produce the most industrialized agriculture in America, like CA’s inland countries, Illinois, who grows the most soy, and Iowa, who grows the most corn! Getting this information out to those who need it the most would really be revolutionary. Preaching to the choir is fuel for the mission, but let’s be real rebels and roar across the U.S. upon the deaf ears and blinded visions!

May 28

Bracket: ISSUE #1: ON FARMING

The typically architecturally-centric online magazine, Bracket, has turned towards the topic of urban agriculture, published at the end of Winter 2009. They followed the tide of change in the design cosmos towards more socially minded and environmentally conscious projects—no, this is not new, but man it certainly feels like it’s still a new turn in the way “we” approach the built environment.

Does form follow function or function follow form? This question may be an unsaid thread that is woven throughout the piece and definitely seemed very poignant during the call for entries. Are our architects of today and tomorrow going to draw from this archaic archetribe more consciously now, or will the mass of designers continue to tout the phrase within the ivory tower, but divorce it when economics and egos come into play? This Bracket issue pierces a hole into the design and planning world that has indeed been swayed—it’s been a slow wind, but the movement has ebbed and flowed with Buckminster Fuller’s Geodesic Dome and the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 to Dr. Despommier’s Vertical Farm Project.

I have a positive perception of how “we” are building and planning for “our” lifestyles of tomorrow in response to how we’ve been living yesterday. The interest in farming and building, as we briefly see in some of these projects published in Bracket, reinforces this. Maybe the next wave in architectural and planning revolutions will be to negate encapsulating our needs and lives and integrate our culture and land—this is not new either, but man, it certainly feels prepubescent.

May 11

The Old Town Alexandria farmers market gets started in the Spring and continues on into the Summer and peaks in the Fall, dwindling in the winter to nothing but random antiques and shipped in produce—terribly disappointing for a region with so much potential and growth. However, this is not about winter’s destitute. No, this is about the abundance that comes from not having anything but shipped in produce and random antiques for months to having lovely corn and onions from Maryland and Northern Virginia within a 10 minute walk from my house. Like Spring’s coming, I do not take the presence of edible life for granted, regardless of their magnitude or depth of their spread. Where this market lacks in size and outreach to less fortunate neighbors, it makes up for in climax. It presents itself with a sudden bang of life, an overnight miracle.

The fruits and veggies and flowers are clambered around by diligent dog walkers and upper class delicatessen shoppers. There’s not a whole lot of diversity to say the least (in produce of connoisseurship), but boy is there expectation, and who doesn’t like a good build up, a brilliantly planned ascendancy only to pinnacle at mediocrity. Though I don’t gripe when I am there chatting up my Maryland farmer over his radishes with fresh coffee in tow, in fact I may even blend completely into the mesh of regulars, but it certainly gets me thinking in hindsight.

Apr 23

Community Plotlines

“The Series: We track the progress of Dino Kraniotis and his fellow gardeners at Glover Park Community Garden through the season.”

Urban agriculture is a hot topic on the tips of every-one’s tongues these days, both novices and erudites alike. It’s a way for urbanites to connect to the land, have access to cheaper food, improve health and well-being, and connect with one another. These are just a few reasons why many city dwellers are turning towards community gardening, but represent the crux of the movement.

The Home and Garden section in the Washington Post has a series of documentary films that delineate a couple city farmers experiences cultivating in the Capital. These films are not only aligned with the nation, but represent a growing interest in farming in DC. The People’s Garden kick-off is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce out here. The USDA has more plans for cultivation on government property, or near government property, in the near future. Lets heed the lessons learned and questions asked in these documentaries and keep our senses on alert for future agricultural happenings in and around our Nation’s Capital.

Apr 15

“The truth about gardening
A veggie plot at the White House will no doubt lead more Americans to embrace this green fad. But prospective gardeners, beware: This hobby isn’t cheap — or easy.
Alcestis “Cooky” Oberg
898 words
15 April 2009
USA Today
FIRST
A.10
English
© 2009 USA Today. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
When Michelle Obama recently decided to plant a kitchen garden at the White House, I was pleased. Fresh vegetables from the garden are great. Better yet, the recession has made gardening popular again, as vegetable seed sales are up nearly 20% over last year.
But like any fad, this craze is full of hype and short on facts. Recent articles tout how some people have saved “thousands” of dollars with kitchen gardens, perhaps paving the way to freedom from the grocery store. Burpee Seeds enthused that $50 spent on gardening supplies can multiply into $1,250 worth of produce annually.
Don’t bet on it.
While “victory gardens” did provide 40% of the nation’s produce during World War II, American agriculture has since become more efficient, cost-effective and productive. Bargains abound at grocery stores. Besides that, vegetables and fruit are only one small portion of the family food budget, which usually includes dairy, grain, meat and other products we can’t provide for ourselves.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been a gardener for more than 40 years, and my yard is one big edible landscape full of fruit trees and vegetable beds. There are many good reasons to grow your own produce, but saving money shouldn’t be the main one. People who are thinking about starting a kitchen garden need to know a few real- life facts:
*Gardening is not cheap. That first garden might require the purchase of tools (shovels, hoes, cultivators, tomato cages, fences, water hoses), maybe some machines for big plots (tillers, weed- eaters and their fuel), soil amendments (fertilizers, mulches, composts, manures, top soils), seeds or transplants, and water. Organic gardeners like to add composting bins to that sizeable bill, in order to recycle cut grass, leaves and other refuse.
*Gardening is not easy. You don’t just put a seed in the ground and walk away until the harvest. You have to concern yourself with weeding, watering, soil enrichment, drainage, mulch, keeping kids and soccer balls out of the garden — to say nothing of varmints such as squirrels, birds, raccoons and deer that show up uninvited at the backyard deli.
*Purely organic gardens will probably fail in many places. I live in Texas. The bugs are going to win here. So if vicious, poisonous fire ants try to set up a colony in my garden, I have to kill them. Co-existence is not an option. Ditto for other voracious insects intent upon destroying my crops. I use the mildest chemical possible (organic products are chemicals, too) only when and where it’s needed, and I always follow the directions.
*Some locovores — people who insist on eating only locally grown food — are misleading new gardeners into thinking that a kitchen garden can provide everything. I like Bing cherries, Honeycrisp apples, Golden pineapples and apricots — none of which will grow on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Some vegetables and herbs don’t want to live here either. The best place to go to avoid gardeners’ remorse is the local county agricultural extension service, which provides free fact sheets telling you what will or won’t grow in your area.
*There are impractical fashions in gardening, as in clothing. For instance, heirloom tomatoes are fashionable now. However, as my veggie-mentor, garden author Tom LeRoy, told me darkly: “There’s a reason some old varieties aren’t grown anymore.” That very year, my Brandywine heirlooms produced exactly one tomato and died of a disease, while the modern Better Boy right next to it produced 40 pounds of delicious tomatoes. Today, I have a sensible mixture of old and modern vegetable varieties, and I’m always eager to try something new — a white cherry tomato or a purple carrot. I praise American agriculture and science for creating modern vegetables and fruit that are wonderfully resistant to diseases, grow easily, taste great and are far more productive than some of the oldie-goldies.
The benefits of gardening go well beyond the bounty. My kids did well in science partly because they learned botany firsthand, in the garden. There is a special peace and empowerment one gets by growing one’s own food, working closely with the plants and the seasons.
But I’d be dead if I had to live on what I grew. Like many gardeners, the Obamas might find their garden produce to be more of a delightful seasonal addition to the table, rather than a reliable and life-sustaining one.
Many of my crops failed, or had good years and bad ones, depending on the weather. I have real respect for professional farmers who endure all that and keep producing. Last year when my spinach crop didn’t produce, I was invited to harvest some at a church garden nearby, run by a couple of retired farmers. Their acre of tough Texas land was as beautiful as a royal garden, and the row of spinach was so perfect it was humbling.
“These guys know how to grow food,” I confessed.
Alcestis “Cooky” Oberg is a veteran gardener, author of several gardening books, and a member of USA TODAY’s board of contributors.” Food and Nutrition Service News Clips
Richard Dengrove CGA, HQ, Editor

Apr 9

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Songs for Teaching: Dirt Made My Lunch

Mar 20

The Whitehouse Grows a Garden

The South Lawn at the White House will see the greens and reds, and yellows and oranges, of the seasons soon enough! With the initiative instilled by Michelle Obama and a culinary task force interested in local food production and consumption, all of the President’s men (and women) will partake in tilling and eating their backyard, which is planning to have over 55 varieties of garden goodness. To add to this long awaited urban farm—the last one the White House saw was Mrs. Roosevelt’s Victory Garden after WWII—local school children will help plant the seeds and experience the fruits of their labors. Maybe this will further inspire and proliferate the farm-to-school movement on the east coast; good job Alice Waters!

“The Obama’s will feed their love of Mexican food with cilantro, tomatilloes and hot peppers. Lettuces will include red romaine, green oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf and galactic. There will be spinach, chard, collards and black kale. For desserts, there will be a patch of berries. And herbs will include some more unusual varieties, like anise hyssop and Thai basil. A White House carpenter who is a beekeeper will tend two hives for honey.”

Check out the map of the South Lawn’s planned garden, accessed on the side bar through the New York Times multimedia site. Additionally, the Daily Green has an excellent article that expounds on Michelle Obama’s goals for the White House garden, Secretary Vilsack’s plans for sustainable garden projects on USDA grounds here in DC, as well as some more history on victory gardens hosted at the White House (the first garden endeavors were taken on by John Adams).

Mar 18

“

Urban Gardening Talk Series 2009

Presented by the Historical Society of Washington (HSW), DC Urban Gardeners, and Washington Gardener Magazine.

The monthly talk timing is 1-2:30 except where noted with a *.

The talks all take place at the HSW auditorium, 801 K Street NW, Washington, DC.

They are FREE and open to the general public.

This series is specifically aimed at the urban, beginner gardener and getting DC gardening.
It is open to anyone and seating is first-come.

March 28
Urban Tree Care and Tree Giveaway Program by Jim Woodworth, Casey Trees

April 18
The Best Vegetables to Grow in DC by Cindy Brown, Green Spring Gardens

May 30*
Landscaping with Natives by Cheval Force Opp, Garden Tours (*10:00-11:30)

June 27
Growing the Perfect Tomato by Elizabeth Olson, Maryland Certified Professional Horticulturist

July 11
Rain Barrels and Water Management by Barry Chenkin, Aquabarrels

August 22
Canning Your Harvest Bounty by Liz Falk, 7th Street Gardens

September 19*
Raising Winter Greens by Brett Grohsgal, Even Star Organic Farm CSA (*2:30-4)

October 3
Building a School Garden by Grace Manubay, DC Schoolyard Greening

November 14
Putting Your Garden to Bed for Winter by Kathy Jentz, Washington Gardener Magazine

December – none

Full listing is also posted here:
http://www.washingt ongardener. com/index_ files/Events. htm

” DC Urban Gardeners and Garden Magazine

Mar 17

“Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields,
not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps.” Henry Thoreau
From the essay “Walking

Mar 13

Urban Food Enterprise

Input Invited on Urban Food Enterprise Center

Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are seeking stakeholder comments on a new program created in the 2008 Farm Bill that is to be initiated this year, known as the Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center or HUFED. A total of $1 million per year for three years is available for the non-profit organization that wins the competitive award for HUFED funds.

According to a notice published in the Federal Register of March 3, 2009, the main mission of the Center will be to increase access to healthy affordable foods in underserved communities. The Center will also “collect, develop, and provide technical assistance and information to small and medium-sized agricultural producers, food wholesalers and retailers, schools, and other individuals and entities regarding best practices and … assistance for aggregating, storing, processing, and marketing locally produced agricultural products.” Sub-grants to other groups may be made to provide the listed services.

Comments on HUFED may be submitted by email, fax, or regular mail and are due by April 2, 2009. For further details, refer to the Federal Register notice at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-4384.pdf.

Farmland owners merging with Farmers: Deal/No Deal?

The Airlie Foundation, with the mission “To study, promote, encourage and foster knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the interrelationships which exist in the physical and social sciences…“ is hosting a project called “Hosting the Small Farm Dream,” which is attempting to connect farmers with the land by locating available resources, providing education and positioning themselves as liaisons of the future.

Where there is entropic land, there are energies amassingwith the desire to cultivate it’s vitality. The Airlie Foundation is presenting an excellent opportunity for land owners that subscribe to the “sustainable soil-sustainable social” school of thought to realize the potential position of activation they are in. Fueled by this notion, the land owners ideally then join forces with the small farmers, who in turn toil and till the fruits of their labors in the name of the cooperative union. The formal arrangement of operation seems to be left up to the players involved and the situations that present themselves; maybe there are tax credits, easements, or produce allotments. Regardless of the negotiations, this platform for formation seems fruitful for land owners, farmers, and society. I look forward to seeing how this conference progresses, and how the energies confluence to fortitude.

“

Hi all -

We are constantly being asked for locations of local community garden plots and are trying to create a comprehensive listing for everyone to use as a resource. We have it started here:

http://www.washingt ongardener. com/index_ files/CommunityG ardens.htm

Thanks to Bea, Mandy, and Judy for the big head start on the DC listings!

We need YOUR help adding any that are not on this listing page. We know there are garden plots at retirement homes, apartment complexes, and on government property that are hidden and only known of by word-of-mouth. We want to hear about them!

Share your community garden plot information with me us emailing me back (off-list) or directly at WGardenermag@ aol.com.

Please pass along to any other local area gardeners you may know.

Sincerely,
Kathy Jentz
Editor/Publisher
Washington Gardener Magazine
826 Philadelphia Ave.
Silver Spring MD 20910
301-588-6894
WGardenermag@ aol.com
www.WashingtonGarde ner.com

” DC Urban Gardeners

Mar 5

REposting from DC Urban Gardeners

DC ROOTING FORUM ROUND-UP: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/03/rooting- dc-forum- a-huge-success. html ABOUT UPCOMING EVENTS: - March 7 free honeybee seminars at Behnkes: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/03/free- honeybee- seminars- at-behnkes. html - March 14, free vegetable-growing seminars at Behnkes: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/03/free- learning- events-at- behnkes.html - March 31, April 4, DC Schoolyard Greening Workshop http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/02/schoolya rd-greening- workshop. html ON-GOING PROGRAMS - DC’s Backyard-Sharing program: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/03/sharingy ards-dc-makes- gardens-happen. html helps makes gardens happen. - Vegetable-growing garden coaching, the newest eco-career? http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/03/vegetabl egarden-coaches- the-newest- ecobusiness. html ABOUT THE GREENING OF U.S. GOVERNMENT PROPERTIES: - Local picks for White House “farmer” http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/02/local- picks-for- white-house- farmer.html - Another approach to the White House food garden - back to school: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/02/white- house-food- garden-time- to-go-back- to-school. html - The USDA headquarters: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/02/the- greening- .html OTHER DC-GARDEN NEWS: - Inaugural damage to the Ripley Garden: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/02/post. html HOW TO START VEG SEEDS INDOORS - This is on the Washington Home and Garden blog, but I can’t resist a guest-post by the beloved gardening teacher Gene Sumi, now gardening educator at Homestead Gardens, previously in the same role at Behnkes: http://www.whgmag. com/648-prepare- your-garden- in-the-winter

Feb 20

NYC Oasis Maps - Mapping urban gardens in NYC

This has got to be one of the most useful, and exciting, mapping sites for urban agriculture that I have found (especially if one is interested in food systems in NYC)!! The site offers a search engine for all of CENYC farms and gardens in NYC, inlcuding my beloved Red Hook Added Value farm in Brooklyn. Once the engine has produced a block and lot map with all of the Department of Planning’s trimmings; land use, zoning..ect, you can check out the surrounding lots, demographics, earned income, and other useful census information that can help plan for future community farms. I find this to be an all-encompassing one-stop-shop site for urban agricultural mapping in NYC. I wonder if Manhattan’s Burough President, Scott Stringer, will be utilizing similar technological mechanisms to plan for his policy work, “Food in the Public Interest: How NYC Food Policy Holds the Key to Hunger, Health, Jobs, and the Environment.” I know I’ll be using this site like it was my religion in the very near future.

Jan 29