Johnson's Backyard Garden

I had a full work day at Johnson's Backyard Garden yesterday. This is currently a 15 acre organic vegetable farm that has an 800 member CSA program. It started as a small personal garden in Brenton's backyard about 5 years ago, and is now the largest CSA in the southeastern United States. They have plans to expand and just recently purchased a new plot of land.
During my work day we separated garlic, sorted tomatoes and transplanted cabbage. To transplant we sat on a tractor attachment similar to this one with a rotor in front of us that we dropped the seedlings into. It was pretty bizarre. Pictured above are pipes for their irrigation system.

I brought home one of the seedlings that got left behind when we planted. I think this is a russian red kale.
The interns and several of the workers were twenty-something college graduates. They were listening to the Decemberists and other hipster music. The other workers were all Hispanic (most likely Mexican) men in the 30-50 age range.

This is the first time I have seen okra plants. They look a lot like hollyhocks, because they are both in the Mallow family.

Oak Hill Farm and John Lash

Saludos desde Tejas !
After a summer working in a garden in Colorado I'm still left wanting, so here I am trying to find a job as a farmer (kind of). A week ago I visited Cora Lamar at Oak Hill Farm in Poteet, the Strawberry capital of Texas. Oak Hill (10-15 acres?) sells the majority of its produce to Central Market and other grocery stores. The farm is known for its spinach, which I have yet to try. Cora showed me around her farm where her dogs were running around peeing on lettuce (don't worry it gets washed, but you should probably wash it too). John Lash, of Farm to Table, was there picking up lettuce and offered to help me find a farm to work at. Farm to Table finds and delivers produce, meat, cheese, etc. from local organic farms and distributes them to restaurants and grocery stores. He was an interesting guy, always on his cell phone trying to make arrangements and very curious about whatever new produce Cora was growing. Cora introduced me around the farmers market but I didn't have much luck making connections there.

Food aid refused

CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, is dropping its financial aid that comes from selling American agribusiness crops in the African countries it is assisting. Read the article here. "CARE’s idea is that a profitable business is more likely than a charitable venture to survive when foreign aid runs out." This raises the question, how can you effectively support developing communities/countries without harming them? A major component is supporting local businesses in a way that allows them to become self sustainable.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all! If you're eating turkey tomorrow I would recommend getting a Heritage turkey from a good family farm (it's a little late for tomorrow but for next year). The best way to support diversity and regrow the disappearing breeds of vegetables and livestock is to eat them. Yay! I thought I would leave you with a recipe that I made for our feast tomorrow.

Food Security

Here's a fun little animation video about food security in Japan, found Treehugger. "While the stats are specific to Japan, the concepts are universal."

Michael Pollan at Wash U

Michael Pollan will be speaking at Washington University in the Graham Chapel on November 20th. Pollan has authored several books about food, including the very popular Omnivore's Dilemma. Can't wait!

Election Day

As we are making decisions about who we will vote for in the upcoming election, if you follow this blog you should consider the presidential candidates stances on farm policies. Sounds like the candidates will have to be kicked in the face before they seriously consider that our food system needs revolutionary changes. Starting with dropping subsidies and laying down the law on pollution. On another note, I thought it was strange that the author still thinks that ethanol was the sole cause of the food shortages in the past year. It really was not a substantial cause, as I noted in an earlier article. Food shortages were linked directly with the increasing cost of transportation, or fuel prices, and increased demand for food with decreased production.