It's all about the seeds!

The theme has been seeds this week. The second and last of the big orders has gone out and now I can breathe a sigh of relief and start focusing on where things will get planted. I still have a few more things I plan to buy if they remain available for another few weeks, and I've also received some very special seeds, mostly medicinal herbs, from a friend. These seeds were from her deceased mother-in-law who was a sign carrying peace activist in the ‘60’s, and started an organic gardening store in Hillsboro some years ago where she sold seeds among other things. I am very proud to find new homes for her babies.

So with the medicinals and what I still plan to order, the 75-100 varieties I had envisioned planting this year will likely end up closer to 150. It’s all about the diversity for me, and finding and trying some new things to see what does well in our region. I'm also investing cash in seeds as I believe they will soon become a more valuable currency than what we are now using, at least for me.

Last year orders doubled at many of the big seed companies, and this year I think seeds will become in short supply even earlier in the season. If you have any intention of buying seeds this year I would really consider doing so in the next couple of weeks if you’re ordering online. There will be the very small sampler packets available at local nurseries and such a bit longer, but your choices will decrease quickly.

In the next few weeks I’ll be getting some seeds started in cold frames, which were built Friday, and starting to prepare beds for planting.

I’ve gotten a lot of emails asking what type of volunteer opportunities there will be, and so here is the start of a list:

Gardening:
Removing lawns, brush, blackberries, etc., preparing beds with rototillers and shovels, planting seeds and transplants, building trellises, and seed starting. And of course in a month or two there will start to be things to harvest, distribute and get to market. As the summer season winds down and shifts to autumn there will also be the putting to bed of some of the beds, and preparing and planting fall and winter crops.

Have I mentioned that many things can and should be grown here in the fall, winter, and early spring? We are blessed with a unique climate here in the Maritime Northwest, and while it takes some work to grow heat-loving species like peppers and eggplant, we can grow the most amazing, delicious greens and root crops here in the winter that taste like nothing you can buy that is grown out of our area.

Soil Health – This will be about composting, making and applying compost teas, and setting up worm bins. This is a great way to learn about soil biology and beneficial critters in the soil.

Transportation – Bike transportation for hauling materials to and from the gardens, biking a regular route a couple of times a week to pick up organic waste from restaurants and coffee shops, and the occasional truck transport to/from outside the city for things like manure.

Farmer’s Market – I’m planning on selling at one of the farmer’s markets here, probably on a Sunday in SE, so if you like chatting with people about veggies and love the atmosphere of a market, this could be for you.

I’m also looking for one or two people interested in learning how to keep chickens for laying eggs. If you’re interested in learning how to develop your own local egg business or CSA, let’s talk.

Tool & Equipment Person- If you like tools and have a knack for organizing things you might be interested in learning to be a tool librarian. It would involve keeping track of where tools go and when they come back, and learning basic tool maintenance.

Volunteers are a very important part of urban farming and running a CSA. There will be an equal amount of produce available to all the volunteers as there will be for CSA subscribers. So you can essentially earn a CSA share by regular volunteering. The difference is the CSA subscribers have a more formal arrangement as they purchase (or barter) for their share in advance of the growing season. For volunteers it’s on a week-by-week basis throughout the season. If you’re looking to do some regular volunteering let me know and we can figure out what you’d like to do. This is also a fantastic learning opportunity as whatever area of the gardening/CSA you are interested in, you can see the whole cycle from seed to seed, and season to season.

That’s it for now. I will start updating the blog on at least a weekly basis, and if you’d like to be on the list, as it were, hit the feed button up at the top right here and you will be notified when I update the blog. As the weeks progress I will try to provide at least one or two gardening get-togethers for each of the season’s activities. In the next few weeks there will be some opportunities to see how a new garden is developed, and also some seed planting. I also think a social event will soon be planned so we can all meet each other. Stay tuned!

Peace and peas,
Calliope

Back to farming!

It was a great gathering at People's Co-op on Wednesday nite to talk about urban farming in Portland. I thought it was important to come together for a second year with more farmers, and certainly more viewpoints. It was great for so many of us to meet each other too. I saw and heard collaborations and alliances forming even before all the chairs were put away. Yes! This is what I think has made the event such a huge "success". For me, just getting you all in the same room was what I was after. Thank you to everyone who helped fill the room with your creative energy.

I also got what I had wanted out of the conversation too, as I heard new ideas being talked about. It made me think about the different kinds of work more of us will be doing as we start to tranisition to new situations in our world. I see lots of folks with new jobs like compost person, seed librarian, and barter specialist. I also think we will all adopt new skills that will become neccessary to live well. I don't think it will be long until we are all involved in food production in some way. I see a return to gardening as something we all did a bit of for our food back before we got used to running to the supermarket for things.

If you're reading this blog you likely already get it. So for us it's a matter of finding out how we can work together, starting right now, to begin to develop local food networks involving farmers, folks working with us to grow some of their own food, and those that have other necessary skills to provide us other things we all need besides food. The interesting thing is going to be finding out what those other "neccessary" things really are. No doubt that is going to be constantly redefined as we humans learn to live on just our fair share of this planet.

So I think many people, especially here in Portland, are going to be thinking about these things and developing new skills that we will need. If you have skills like bike mechanic, or bike messenger, or bike taxi, or I guess anything with bike in the title, you have skills that will be in demand.

Just how we intend to "charge" for these services is quite another thing. There will likely come a time when U.S. currency is not the main trading currency. Something like local dollars, time banks, and just good old trading will then prevail. We will need to start thinking in terms of skills that are needed, and that people are willing to trade for, rather than skills that command the highest monetary compensation in the job market. Many of those skills that pay huge sums of money now will not always do so, or be good trading currency in the new economy.

So come out and work in the gardens, help us make new compost piles and create new growing spaces, and figure out more about how food can be grown in the city. I'll be organizing an email list in the next couple of days for all of you that have contacted me about working in the gardens. I am going to be collaborating with a couple of other urban farmers on growing things in common and sharing some of the bigger growing spaces, so there should be lots of opportunities over the season to see lots of different growing conditions, see the life cycles of many varieties of veggies, grains, herb, and medicinals, and watch the seasonal cycles of the gardens themselves.

And now...back to farming! It was a weird and wonderful week last week as I made the rounds handing out flyers and talking about urban farming, but it left me feeling very ungrounded to not be very focused on my own farming for that long. That situation was remedied yesterday as I helped transition a new 1/4 acre lot to growing food. It felt good to dig in the dirt!

Peace and peas,
Calliope

It's sprouting up all over the place!

It's been quite a week out promoting the Portland Urban Farming 2009 event at People's Co-op next week. It's been so exciting to be in places like the People's Farmer's Market last week handing out flyers and seeing this spark in people's eyes when they realize what I'm talking about. So many of you get it about this local agriculture thing and growing food in the city. Yes!

As our own Farmer K said recently, urban farming is sprouting up everywhere.

I want to thank some of the wonderful businesses and business owners I ran into last week that really get what this is about, and were so helpful and encouraging about making this event happen. Most of them need no introduction, like the people at People's Co-op, who greenlighted this event and made it happen in the course of about two weeks when they learned what we are trying to do.

But then there are some others you may not have heard of yet. These are people that are trying to do something a little different in a humble way, and deserve your patronage.

First of all, the amazing folks at Camera Graphics who whipped out the flyers for the event at light speed. Thank you!!

My friends at Steiner Storehouse on SE Division where you'll find the most amazing collection of Biodynamic agriculture books anywhere.

Also my friends at Blackrose Infoshop on Mississippi where they are having a 50% off sale this week. Blackrose is a collective that runs a lending library, resale book and other cool stuff store.

The folks at Mirador Community Store at SE Division and 21st where you will find all kinds of cool things from kitchenware to prayer flags.

And the guys at A Better Cycle a block east on Division, who are a worker owned and collectively run used bicycle shop.

I have also run into so many friends and people I know that I have missed so much while traveling around Oregon in search of agricultural enlightenment these last two years. It is so good to be back in the City of Roses.

I have just put a link on the CSA page of the website that has the 2009 CSA Summer Share Info that I have been sending out individually to some of you. If you know anyone that you think would be a good fit for what I'm trying to do with my CSA, please pass it on to them. It's looking like I will likely be full for the Summer season in 2-3 weeks. If you feel like Calliope's Table is just the flavor of CSA that you're looking for and you have a challenge with that timing, please get in touch with me anyway. To the extent I am able, I am more interested in finding the right people who get what I'm doing, than any rigid dates, etc.

If you're planning on attending the urban farming event at People's next week, I encourage you to get there a bit early. It's likely we will have more people than room based on the response we've been getting. I hope to see you there!

Peace and peas,
Calliope

Portland Urban Farming 2009

Here's more info about the Portland Urban Farming 2009 event at People's Coop on Feb 18. It's going to be an opportunity to meet some of the farmers who are growing the concept of urban farming here in Portland. You'll be able to learn about their methods, philosophies & where we’re going with urban farming here in Portland.

It's planned that the Q & A discussion panel will include farmers, land-lenders, CSA subscribers, community organizers, farm volunteers, and others involved in some aspect of urban farming here in Portland. Collectively we are all working to create an urban foodshed here in Portland.

Bring your questions about the who, what, where and how of urban farming, Community Supported Agriculture, and getting involved.

Wednesday, February 18, 5:30-7:30 pm
People’s Food Coop Community Room
3029 SE 21st
No charge to attend

For more info: puf2009@calliopes-table.com

I hope to see you there! Pass this on to someone you think my be interested too.

Peace and Peas,
Calliope

It's great to be back!

Just landed back in the City of Roses and it's so good to be back. Growing food has led me to So. Oregon the last couple of seasons, but it's the culture in Portland that always brings me back. I am so glad the consciousness is expanding about farming in urban areas. I think I can get everything I'm after now in one place.

I will miss watching the barn owls and Perrigrine falcons hunt in the field, and the big herd of chilled out cows grazing in the pasture with the forest behind. There were lots of postcard moments from my vantage point in the garden. Gardens are definitely the best offices I've ever had.

But the revolution in food we so badly need is a few years away from really happening in places like the Umpqua Valley. They are very focused on timber, cattle and sheep with really no plant agriculture except for grass for grazing, and the new wineries.

And then there's Portland. We're not the only people that are getting it about urban agriculture, it's happening all over. But it is starting to bust out here. It's no surprise to me that so many Portlanders are seeing the future of food as we are out in front of so many social issues here. Look at what's happening in the Phillipines where by executive order the president has declared the country will become more independent in their food supply by farming backyards.

The date has been set for "Portland Urban Farming 2009". It will be held at People's Food Coop on Wednesday February 18, 2009, 5:30-7:30 pm. It will be happening in conjunction with the farmer's market held there on Wednesdays. Look for a panel discussion from Portland urban farmers that will show you some of the different things being done with urban farming here in Portland. Some of the panelists use a CSA approach to their farm management so bring your questions about how CSA's work, the different approaches CSA's here use, and you might even find a CSA that is still accepting subscribers for the summer 2009 season, like Calliope's Table.

I'll be back with more details in the next few days after I finish landing here. It's great to back!

Peace and Peas,
Calliope