Slow Food is hosting an exciting talk that we here at GCG are very much looking forward to. Details Below:
A Discussion with 'Farm City' Author Novella Carpenter
Location: Fort Point Artists Community store, 12 Farnsworth St, Boston
Cost: Free When: Friday, 11/13/2009 5:30PM
Details (From Slow Food's Site) Novella Carpenter lives in Oakland. I mean, really IN Oakland. As in downtown. But that certainly hasn't stopped her from farming - and she has now written a memoir chronicling the transformation of her backyard from bare land to full-blown animal & veggie paradise!
The book, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, is newly released, and we've coaxed Novella out of sunny California to cool New England to read from it and talk more about her experiences. By doing so, we hope to be inspired to make a little more out of our available space on rooftops, outside windowsills or in yards.
In order to tie Novella's work back to local issues, we've invited Belmont resident (& resident chicken expert) Joan Teebagy to join us. More people are opting to raise their own hens for eggs, and Joan teaches classes on the subject at Codman Farms in Lincoln. But be sure to check your town laws! As many of you may have read, there is an on-going battle in Arlington about residents rights to keep backyard chickens.
So join us right after work on Friday, November 13th at 5:30pm. We'll have some light nibbles, a little cider, and enjoy the reading & discussions that commence. Advance RSVPs and a $10 donation to the Slow Food fund that supports local agriculture are duly requested!
Directions: Made in Fort Point, the FPAC Store is located at 12 Farnsworth St, just off Congress Street and next to the new Flour Bakery.
The gallery space is a 5 to 10 minute walk from the South Station Red Line T, or the Court House stop on the Silver Line. There is also street parking in the area.
Jessie Banhazl, Green City Grower's Managing Director/Owner was invited to take part in a panel discussion following Harvard Pilgrim's (HPHC)/MOS's special screening of "Food, Inc." The conversation was moderated by Louisa Kasden (health & lifestyle journalist) featuring Gary Hirshberg, Founder/CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm and Jody Adams, Founder & Executive Chef of Rialto. In addition, Judith Frampton, RN VP of Medical Management for HPHC and David Sittenfeld, the MOS's Forum Program Manager offered their comments at the beginning of the screening, warning of the potential "discomfort" some of the images would generate as well as the great opportunity we had to engage with the panelists.
If you're at all interested in food and asking questions about where it all comes from then watching this movie is probably a good thing. If you've already read Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, Eric Schlosser, and others and the well-known books "Omnivore's Dilemma", "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and "Fast Food Nation" then you probably will not learn anything new, and just might reinforce what you already know; that our industrialized food system is good at what it does, create "food" and "food-like-substances", and has generated many unintended consequences along the way.
This not a movie review (click here for Roger Ebert's and David Edelstein's reviews) or a synopsis, it is a brief overview of some of the interesting topics and themes.
What was so fascinating about this film is the fact that there is no one bogeyman that we can both finger and pin the blame on. Sure, it's easy to target Monsanto, McDonald's, Wal-Mart, IBP, Smithfield, Cargill, and any number of large companies for suing farmers to protect their patented seeds, providing salty, sweet, and fattening food that we are hard-wired to desire, and making aisles and aisles (the average supermarket contains ~47,000 products) of inexpensive products available. But, didn't the market demand this? Sort of; policy decisions, most notably the continued subsidization of corn and soybean production, the raw materials that end up in many manufactured foods, contribute to our poor eating habits and the environmental and animal welfare issued illuminated in the film.
It's easy to notice the revolving door from industry trade associations and companies to the federal agencies that are charged with regulating these industries, the FDA and the USDA. At one point in the film, we see business cards with Federal officials' titles on the screen flip over to display their "corporate" alter-egos; it was quite interesting. It's easy to blame the politicians for appointing these "regulators". It's easy to blame the billions paid to lobbyists to represent the interests of the large companies at the expense of the average American consumer/taxpayer. What about the consumers that demand affordable food (in the US we pay the lowest proportion of our earnings for food in the world)? Ultimately, it is not one thing, person, or organization that we need to stop or change, but the system we are all part of, the way we treat what we put into our bodies, the level of consciousness we dedicate to what we eat, how it's grown and harvested, and our role in the political processes that create the systems we are all part of.
Upon the completion of the film, the crowd filling Cahner's Auditorium was invited to ask questions of the panelists and continue the conversation about food. There were some good comments and without providing a transcript of the event here's some of the key points made by the panelists:
Jessie of Green City Growers: We're continuing to use our business as an educational tool for individuals and businesses, building and maintaining raised-bed organic farms in people's backyards and helping them understand that they can indeed grow their own food. They're also very interested in working with schools (an issue currently focused on by Slowfood USA), helping them grow healthy food, teaching them where it comes from, and creating young advocates for locally produced food. We certainly have challenges of scaling, considering the logistical needs of a distributed farming model. We're collaborating with MIT graduate students to use appropriate technologies that support our mission for sustainable food production.
Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm: The consumer is king. He made continued good points that as much as the industrialized food system appears like an overwhelming giant, we have the power to vote for the food we want with every dollar we spend. He also reminded us, "do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Yes, the organic food industry is not necessarily energy neutral and free from the same issues that afflict the traditional industrialized food economy, and it is moving us in the right direction.
Jody Adams of Rialto: Jody talked about the balance she seeks to achieve (a very difficult one) between meeting customers' dining expectations and maintaining her mission to healthy eating. She commented on the serving sizes of protein in her entrees, specifically following nutritional guidelines for portion size and sometimes not meeting the expectations of her customers. It can be a delicate balance seeking to guide your customers' behavior without making them feel patronized.
The answer is never simple and straight-forward. There are multiple actors in this on-going real-time play and their roles change based upon the winds of the global economy and the political leanings of administrations and the public.
At Green City Growers, we're striving to create a local business that contributed to the well-being of our customers, our employees, the communities we work in, and the environment we are all a part of. Perhaps we'll be building a mini-farm in your (or your company's) backyard in the near future.
Thank you for reading, and remember that the money you spend on food makes a difference.
SEPTEMBER 30TH EVENT Featuring. Jessie from Green City Growers. ALMOST SOLD OUT!!! Register ASAP to save your seat.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has teamed up with the Museum of Science to show the critically acclaimed Food, Inc., by filmmaker Robert Kenner.
The film features interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward-thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farm's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farm's Joel Salatin. Food, Inc. reveals surprising — and often shocking — truths about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation, and where we are going from here.
Following the screening, Stonyfield Farms Chairman, President, and CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg; Rialto chef / owner Jody Adams; and Green City Growers Owner Jessie Banhazl discuss possible solutions to the environmental concerns raised by our current methods of food production and consider questions from the audience.
The screening takes place on September 30th in Cahners Theater; doors open at 1:30 p.m. The event is free, but space is limited; please register by following the link here:
This is taken directly from the Wickedlocal website, and we should have had it up months ago. As part time "marketing guy", Renewacycle apologizes.
An organic farm is sprouting on Route 9, within sight of thousands of commuters.
In an effort to promote a healthy lifestyle, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is offering its employees the chance to learn how to grow organic vegetables at its Wellesley and Quincy offices. Partnering with Green City Growers, a Somerville-based group specializing in building farms in urban locations, more than 50 employees have signed up to be a part of the project. Their harvest will be donated to Second Helping, a Greater Boston Food Bank program.
“This organic farm started with the notion that people don’t know how to use food that’s whole and fresh,” said Judith Frampton, the company’s vice president of medical management. “My hope for the company, for the people that are volunteering, [is] that some learn how to garden that didn’t know how to before, but that everybody learns how to use nutritious, whole food in ways they never knew before.”
This is the first time Harvard Pilgrim has gone the route of farming. Frampton said the program will be a test run and if it goes well, the company will encourage its members to try and grow their own organic peppers and eggplants. The farming not only encourages people to eat locally and more healthily, but it also gets employees out of the office during warm summer days. “I just jumped to it,” said Yvonne Kantak, who works in general accounting. “I love gardening. I find it very calming.”
At the company’s Wellesley headquarters, more than a half-dozen wooden frames have been installed in the lawn. While most of the beds lay flat on the ground, two are raised to about waist height, for employees who have bad backs or knees and can’t bend down to tend to the vegetables. Each frame is divided into 16 sections, with different plants growing in each square.
“Harvard Pilgrim is the first health-care provider to ever do this,” said Green City Growers co-founder Jessie Banhazl. “It’s the first corporation that we’ve worked with and, I think, that is doing anything similar in Massachusetts. The … prospect of doing something on this large of a scale was really exciting for us.”
This past Monday, Banhazl stopped by the Wellesley headquarters to check up on the vegetables. She showed volunteers how to mulch the plants. Throughout the summer, members from Green City Growers will also come by to offer advice and helpful tips to the volunteers. “The beauty of this, too, is that we’ve got volunteers from across the company, but also from a wide range of gardening experience,” Frampton said, who has grown peppers and tomatoes before, but not much else. “We’re going to have people with lots of experience and people who have never put their fingers in the dirt before.”
Harvard Pilgrim plans to donate around $25,000 in produce to Second Helping, said Frampton. Although the summer has been rainy and not the best weather for growing plants in, Banhazl said she still expects a strong harvest.
Frampton said the farm will last through the fall. There will be tasting sessions and lessons on how to cook what is being grown. She said Harvard Pilgrim would be interested in joining with local schools and sponsor educational programs around healthy, locally grown, organic food.
“This is a commitment,” she said. “We are definitely going to keep doing this.”
Kantak and co-workers Andra Barnette and Linda Fei were enthusiastic about the vegetable beds. Wearing gardening gloves from home, the three women walked around to each frame, carefully tending to individual plants. In some cases, the seeds had been planted too close to one another and were separated. The ladies also put mulch around every plant.
“I think it’s just a wonderful project,” Barnette said. “If it will get other companies to start thinking the same way, it would be really good. Plus, you get to come out in the sunshine and feel like you’re doing something good.”
Your raised bed farm utilizes a technique called square foot gardening, developed in the 1970’s by Mel Bartholomew. It allows for you to grow more crops in less space, and with less work. Raised bed farms are easy to tend to and care for, and can be placed anywhere with adequate sunlight, including driveways, decks, or rooftops.
An important general tip is to never stand on top of your raised bed. This will compact the soil and make it difficult for your plants to grow.
Planning
Plan your garden before you start planting. Group together plants with similar watering requirements, and plant companion plants together. Companion plants can help each other grow in a variety of ways, while antagonistic plants impede one another’s growth.
Consider the time of year you will be planting and which crops will grow best at that time. Remember- you can have a spring, summer and fall crop in your backyard farm.
Plant your taller crops are on the north side of your raised beds. This way, they won’t shade your smaller plants.
Remember to calculate how many of each plant you will need before going to purchase your seeds or seedlings.
Planting
There are two ways to plant: by planting seeds directly into the ground or by using transplants that you have purchased or grown indoors. When a spring crop is finished, you can replant that square with a summer crop, and later for a fall crop.
For both: Draw a grid with your fingers inside each square foot to make the appropriate number of squares (4, 9, or 16) and plant seeds or seedlings in the center of each newly drawn square. Always remember to label where you have planted which seeds or transplants.
Seeds
Generally, seeds should be planted at a depth of two to four times their size (around 2 in cold weather, 4 in hot weather.) This is about 1/8 to 1 inch. Plant seeds below a moist surface to prevent them from drying out. After planting, gently tap the soil down on top of the seed to bring it into contact with the soil. The best way to water newly planted seeds is with a light mist or spray from the hose so that they are not unearthed.
Transplants
The best time to transplant is in the early morning or on cloudy days to minimize stress on the new plant.
To transplant, dig a hole slightly larger than the container in which the seedling is growing. With vegetables, bury the plant up to the first set of leaves. Pat down the soil firmly around the plant and smooth it around the stem at a slight decline so that water drains toward the plant.
When you plant transplants, check to see if the roots are rootbound (if they are growing in circles.) If they are, cut off the bottom of the roots and soil or gently tease the bottoms of the roots before transplanting.
Climbing Plants
“Vertical crops” such as peas, pole beans and cucumbers grow well on trellises, which will conserve space. Plant the seeds in a line underneath the trellis and train them to climb by twisting the main stem through the trellis once a week.
Watering
Keep newly planted seeds moist, not drenched.
After transplanting, water each seedling immediately and every day for the next few days until they are established.
To water, pour warm water directly at the base of the plant. Warm water is better for the plants (they can absorb more nutrients from warm water and in the spring and fall it helps to warm the soil.) Make sure to water close to the ground so you do not form puddles in the soil. Only water the base of plants- wet leaves are more susceptible to fungal diseases. The best time to water is early in the morning.
Water frequently (every one or two days,) based on the weather how your plants look, and what the soil feels like. Plants need more water if it is hot and sunny than if it is cool or cloudy. If plants turn yellow, they are getting too much water. If they are wilting, they are not getting enough. If the top one or two inches of the soil feel dry, it is time to water. Water the soil deeply to encourage deep root growth.
Mulching
Mulching helps to conserve moisture and keep weeds under control. Spread a thick layer (several inches thick) of straw, shredded leaves, compost, dried leaves, or anything else that can be used as mulch, around your bed once your plants are established.
Weeding
Weed when the weeds are young and when the soil is wet. Always take care of weeds before they bloom to prevent having more of them the following year.
Extreme Weather Conditions
Hot, Dry Weather: Frequent and heavy watering.
Heavy Rains: If soil has been washed away, recover any exposed roots with soil; eliminate snail and slug hiding places (such as under rocks,); watch for fungal and bacterial disease.
Late (or early) Frost: Cover plants with a protective covering such as a storm window cover or even newspaper.
Further Resources
Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening is a great resource for learning more about square foot gardening.
As an ad-hoc/occasional member of the Green City Growers team, I'm clearly interested in the concept of local food production. I've also taken an interest in the concept of peak oil, not so much for the "end of the world" elements that some might believe in but because of the re-localization of our economies that it will hasten. Seems that the former Chief Strategist of CIBC World Markets Jeff Rubin agrees. In his new book "Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller" Mr. Rubin spends some time on the future of food in a world made smaller by expensive shipping fuel. On page 221,
Where is the food of the future going to come from? Your own backyard. That shift in food supply is already starting to take place. An increasingly carbon-conscious and energy-conscious food consumer in North America is already clamoring for more homegrown food. Not only does replacing foreign food with local food save energy, but in the process it reduces carbon emissions - a double win in an economy that not only had to contend with triple-digit oil prices but that will soon put a price on burning oil as well.
I guess I'm a "part-time" member of the Green City Growers (GCG) team, working on a business plan with a team of fellow BGI students based upon GCG's business. Of course, I know little to nothing about farming or gardening besides gleaning information about our incredibly energy intensive and "unhealthy" industrial food system from reports like this one from the Post Carbon Institute and (of course) Michael Pollan's and Mark Bittman's books on the massive changes required in our industrialized food system.
Anyway, I decided to stop by at the Heartbeat Collective in Jamaica Plain for a little while at the Urban Intensive Workshop and see what it's all about. Most of my work with GCG has been through e-mails and phone calls with Jessie and Gabe, and for all my hemming and hawing about local food, I'd yet to plant a single seedling in anything. In fact, the Cyclamen I bought for work lasted a few months before I managed to kill it (I think with too much water, at least that's what Joe the Gardener thought).
It was great! There were about ten "students" there listening to Gabe passionately talk about the creation of urban food systems. Jessie mixed up a great salad along with a vegan pasta salad for lunch. Then we dove in and built a 4'x4' raised bed complete with soil mixing (1/3 Intervale diverse compost. 1/3 sphagnum peat, 1/3 coarse horticultural vermiculite - the "lite" is for more than one reason!). I loved the fact that Gabe talked about the fact that the materials going into the construction of the bed were NOT local nor sustainable; the wood came from Home Depot (GCG is working on gaining access to New England Fir), the Intervale compost is from The Intervale Center in Burlington, VT, the peat's from somewhere in the UK (GCG would prefer to use a material derived from coconut shells, but its availability is spotty and it comes from the East Indies) and the vermiculite...who knows.
GCG is acting, not waiting for the perfect solution; they'll help develop it.
The hands on construction project of the bed was great, and we all pitched in to the completion. Their commitment to making a micro-farm that has the best possible odds of success for the urban farmer (or one of their customers) was clear to me. They used the best possible soil mixture for this climate, planted their own starts, and installed a timed irrigation system to ensure the proper plant hydration.
Now, to develop a solar powered rain catchment with a timer system to provide the watering system (the WPI geek in me is re-emerging!)
