rootsforchristmas.com
HANDS DOWN, BEST IDEA FOR THE HOLIDAYS!
What better way celebrate LIFE...Let's hope this spreads around the nation

FYI Stargazers: TONIGHT ~2-3a http://ping.fm/M5cX3

"Urbanization is here to stay"
Hope not...
If so, we MUST do a MUCH better job!
http://bit.ly/9qmKT5

PLEASE DO THIS RIGHT NOW, THE VOTE IS TODAY

11/17 I've asked Senator Dick Durbin(202) 224-2152 and Senator Roland Burris(202) 224-2854 to support the Tester–Hagan Amendment and the Manager’s Amendment to the Food Safety Modernization Bill (S.510). This comes up for vote today or tomorrow. These amendments will help protect small & organic farmers that aren't the source of food safety problems in the first place! http://bit.ly/alnofP

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST GUIDES I'VE SEEN FOR KICKING AMERICA'S MOST COMMON ADDICTION: SUGARS http://huff.to/9ULkZk

Besides hiding in most kitchen cabinets as a veggie quick-fix, BPA-filled cans overrun donations & community food banks http://bit.ly/9jeLUS

I triple dog dare ya: http://bit.ly/cOA1lS (5 foods you should avoid in 2010)

Kudos Ann Cooper! The Salad Bar in Every School Initiative application deadline is in 4 days! Please SPREAD THE WORD!
http://bit.ly/dm0nSD

Breanne Heath will be hosting a cold frame workshop this saturday 12p (5814 S. Wood St.)
You MUST RSVP! See ya there!
http://on.fb.me

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD! Black Urban Farmer/Gardener Conf in NYC 11/18-20. May organize a caravan...Interested? http://bit.ly/coYRNm

Vegetables are the NEW meat! http://bit.ly/d5BweI

I give up:
Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds http://bit.ly/cre763

Next stop: ChiTown!
http://bit.ly/9vl904

Movie Nite at Growing Home!

Join us at Growing Home's Wood St. Urban Farm for a screening of the film "The Garden" (http://ping.fm/Zt0R1) this Wed 11/3 at 4p. A short discussion of the film will follow.

This FREE event is a community potluck so please bring a healthy and tasty dish!

Growing Home provides job training for homeless and low-income individuals in Chicago through a social enterprise business based on organic agriculture. Our program provides experiential learning opportunities and employment in the horticulture field as well as a unique job readiness curriculum that helps reintroduces participants back into the workforce.

We look forward to seeing you there!

http://ping.fm/bOJpQ

Ever wonder why only a HANDFUL of animal species actually live anywhere near large groups of humans? BIODIVERSITY NOW! http://bit.ly/a9c1ZX

WORLD VEGAN DAY! Ya don't have to BE one to try it! What do you prefer in cake: Chicken Embryo or Applsauce? Just sayin http://bit.ly/csYDrd

Time for 4-Season Gardening...

WHITNEY YOUNG HS DOING BIG THINGS!!

http://bit.ly/a0S5du

BEST TED TALK I'VE SEEN: The roots of plant intelligence (THANKS THETIS!) http://bit.ly/9lOgnU

RT @Thetis Sammons: "To save our U.S. and global economy we must invest more in the tradables sector. Fresh perishable food is not considered tradables and it relies on strong local infrastructure to prosper. But process, extract, preserve and package and voila!!! you have a tradables commodity... people can swap and gamble on. See where this is headed." http://bit.ly/d1yrDQ

Analyses have revealed that between 25% and 60% of the final price of food stocks are transportation costs. For decades the government has only invested in the non-tradable sector concentrated in cities, while the rural sector was only inv...ested in to be export oriented with large scale factory farms growing commodities to be processed and traded upon by Wall Street and the world trading houses.
The expansion of municipal infrastructure in now empty convention centers and unused baseball parks to the exclusion of rural development has left us with a crippled sub performing local economy, with food deserts, continual waste and loss of valuable resources and effort due to dilapidated infrastructure and lack of government and community support.
Small farms and local businesses rely on government spending and locally provided infrastructure and services to make up for the lack of overall investment in their businesses over the last 40 years by the economy at large.
To say we need to again repeat the mistakes that brought us to our knees and shrink government spending at the local level, and rewrite the same old policies to yet again reinvest in the tradables sector is serving the mistakes of the past baked in a pie.
Human beings are designed to eat fresh, naturally grown "perishable" food that is full of live enzymes, vitamins, minerals, saponins, flavonoids, plant esters that can't be made in a lab, and a host of other elements, and believe it or not, coated in healthy residual soil fungi and bacteria.
Chemically adulterating and exponentially changing the world food supply so it can be made into non-perishable, tradeable commodities to create artificial, non-sustainable economies has lead to poorer health, declining mental and moral capacity of the human race, and social, cultural and ethno bankruptcy.

WeFarm @ Orozco Academy

A couple of weeks ago, WeFarm began installation of 15 garden beds at Orozco Community Academy in Pilsen (on 18th and Damen). We began by installing 4 raised beds in the front of the school. During the following three workdays, we undertook the more arduous task of installing 11 trapezoidal raised beds on a small hill behind the school. This endeavor marks the first time that WeFarm has built terraced AND trapezoidal raised beds. Impressed? The project attracted a lot of positive attention from the community and passersby during our various, sweltering work days; we even made a few friends who were impressed by our work. However, the principal at Orozco said it best: the end result was “shocking”.

Here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of how the project developed (sorry for any sweat on the lens!)

Our first day with the kids at Orozco: Seneca asks the kids to puttheir hands and plants in during a pre-build pep talk.

Spacing out the front beds. WeFarmers and Elev8ers rummaged through the neighbors' recycling for discarded boxes. WeFarm recycles the cardboard to make a biodegradable weed barrier for the bottom of every bed.

.

Plantingwas definitely the kids' favorite activity: shoveling soil and pushing wheelbarrows...not so much. Here, we have some lessons in transplanting heirloom tomato and pepper varieties. It was refreshing to see such enthusiasm from these six graders.

Finished product: planted, seeded, and watered. A few marigold seeds here and there...and that rounded out Day 1.

Who's idea was it to put garden beds on an incline? Fortunately, we had a steady supply of eager students begging for us to put a shovel in their hand. Here: students are leveling out the soil, getting the bed ready for some veggies. Majority of these trapezoidal beds had a regional vegetable theme (ex: African, Asian, and Latin American).

Strategic planning/planting with a smile.

End of Day 4. All that awaits our garden is a top layer of mulch and a lot of love over the summer months.

In the coming weeks we will see the installation of a rain catchment system. Funds permitting, the school will also get an irrigation system to ensure that their new crops are well tended throughout the scorching summer. Keep your hands in the soil...

A New Day

It starts today.
We must pledge to take a stand.
Change doesn't come.
It is made.
Plant the seed(s).

The growing season has arrived....


"This is your world. Shape it or someone else will."
Gary Lew

Winter!

Anyone's that been outside recently can tell that wonderful time of year, winter is knocking at the door here in Chicago. For those of you gardeners who haven't already migrated south with the birds, you know that this time of year offers a very unique opportunity to take a few moments for : reflection, consideration, and preparation. If you've got a garden, the time to winterize is nearly past. So hurry if you haven't already!

http://www.ehow.com/how_10817_winterize-garden.html

The Vegetable Assassin

Normally I'm pretty wary of the whole "Here's a list of easy things you can do to be green!" thing. Not because I'm so saintly that I already do all those things. Not even close. I have a long way to go to be where I want to be. I think everyone's a work in progress and that's really nothing to apologize for.

But dothegreenthing.com is a creative web site that, to me, is kind of like the people who hand the runners cups of water during a marathon. It hit me a little differently than so much of the suburban-soccer-mom-here-now-you-can-sleep-easier-because-you're-green! thing.

http://www.dothegreenthing.com/actions/easy_on_the_meat

Local is the new exotic.

French cheese, Italian wine and Belgian chocolates. These three foods show a unique decadence that has come to demonstrate classiness, and perhaps even show off cultural awareness in American food culture.  Of course the grass is always greener on the other side, and that guy’s car is always better than yours, and certainly any spiked fruit that comes from an unpronounceable country is delicious—it doesn’t truly belong to you.  It’s exotic.  This is not a unique American phenomenon.  In fact, exotic foods, pomp, and circumstance date back to the Roman Empire.

In lieu of airplanes filled with “fresh” produce, the Romans had military triumphs.  Caesar and Pompey used to hold military triumphs when conquering a new foreign land, and this city-wide party was not surprisingly popular among citizens. They paraded not only tasty food (usually new types of fish) but different species of animals and even dancing women from these foreign conquered territories.  But one day circa 80's BCE, Pompey, always trying to show up Caesar, decided to make his grant entrance by marching into the center of Rome with (perhaps atop) an elephant from a recently conquered territory.  Pompey had taken the exotic a bridge too far, and the oversized creatures were unable to fit through the city gates.  He had to dismount said elephant and walk in stag. How embarrassing for Pompey.

So, French cheese, Italian wine, and Belgian chocolates.  We may not think of them as carrying any sort of cultural or social stigma, but instead as a privilege that comes with new developments in our globalized age .  But now that we've consumed pounds upon pounds of them, a Hawaiian pineapple and a Colombian banana may evoke different feelings in some of us, and make us grab an apple instead.  American consumers are gradually learning that appalling working conditions, harmful pesticides, and environmentally detrimental byproducts are all condoned when purchase and consume bananas and some other exotic foods. Perhaps the structural issues and resulting embarrassment presented by Pompey’s elephants are being mirrored, two thousand years later, when we hold our imported foods, grown in lands we’ve never seen by people whom we’ve never met.

 I know that I haven’t eaten any fruit grown in Chicago.  But the thought of it seems appealing… maybe even exotic.

Lettuce and other such norms

(being my first blog, i'm hoping that a link to a funny video will appear with this post) And based on that funny clip of two guys going through life, and snacking on lettuce--wouldn't it be great if walking down the street and chowing on some lettuce was the norm, rather than listening to folks crunching on Cheetos or other such nonsense...cherries and apricots in season: that's what i'm chowing on. how about you?

A toast to the jam of seasons!

Keeping It Local

If you get a chance and haven't already, check out "Local Food, Farms & Jobs: Growing the Illinois Economy," the March 2009 report submitted to the Illinois General Assembly by The Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force.

The report describes the current state of Illinois' agricultural economy and presents a detailed plan calling for a more unified effort to keep the business of food and farming in-state. Right now, the percentage of Illinois food dollars remaining in-state is at just about four. The task force's goal is to raise that number to 10% by 2010 and 20% by 2020. 

Here are just a few important statistics from the report:

- Illinois consumers spend $48 billion annually on food; almost all of that money leaves the state.

- 80% of Illinois is comprised of farmland; 90% of that farmland has been deemed "prime" by soil scientists, the highest classification given, meaning we have some of the best farming potential on earth.

- Money spent at local businesses creates a multiplier effect, circulating the same dollars up to eight times within the local economy.

Among the primary objectives of the plan is the creation of an Illinois brand - an identifiable way of letting consumers know that the corn, soybeans, pork, or any other Illinois agricultural product they're holding in their hands was produced and processed here.

To make all this happen, all different aspects of the agricultural economy need to come together. We need more farmers and entrepreneurs, both of whom need to know that their investments and work have an awaiting market ready to buy in. Public awareness campaigns need to persuade consumers, businesses, and policy makers on the importance of seeking out and buying the Illinois brand.

Urban agriculture plays a large role. One obstacle is the lack of availability of local farm and food products in low-income, urban areas. The report describes these as "food deserts," virtually bereft of healthy choices, where so much of the food is bought in gas stations and convenience stores. All communities need easy access to locally grown food in the form of farmer's markets, as well as the opportunity to grow their own. Individual and community gardens are a way for people to increase their own sustainability and build an awareness and appreciation for locally grown food, helping to sustain Illinois' agricultural economy at the same time.

There's a ton more in the report, and it's pretty eye-opening. You can read it here:

http://www.foodfarmsjobs.org/

Veggie trading online.

I discovered Veggie Trader the other day - a free online marketplace to swap or sell your own homegrown produce with other growers - and I am fascinated.

What a great idea for all that excess produce that often comes with home gardening. Growing up, my parents kept a 500 sq. foot garden in our backyard that produced more than enough to feed our four-person household. I remember boxes brimming with leafy greens, bell peppers, tomatoes, gourds and string beans, as my mother and father went down their phonebooks in search of friends who might like to share our bounty. Veggie Trader would have certainly simplified the process.

The listing process seems very simple - create postings with what you'd like to buy, trade or sell (including pictures are encouraged) and wait for a response. When someone responds, your identity is kept anonymous until you feel comfortable enough to arrange your exchange. Of course, there are going to be an array of legal issues involved from licensing to taxes to general safety, so you must trade at your own risk. Still, the idea is a great one, especially in tough economic times - encouraging community values and representing the idea that variety and choice are still available.

Browsing through the postings, I was disappointed to find very few from the Chicago area. However, as a pilot effort by a couple in Oregon, the marketplace still has a long way to go. I do hope that with our collective efforts, Veggie Trader will eventually be in full swing over here in Chicago.

WeFarm Parties!!!

On May 6th, WeFarmAmerica and friends got together for our first ever WeFarm Party at Simone's on 960 West 18th Street.



The bar where we chose to hold our event is a bar that was built almost entirely from recycled materials. If you look around, you can spot seat belt straps that are being reused, science lab countertops used for tables, and other neat things. WeFarm is looking to partner with Simone's for a rooftoop gardening system and on this night we walked up onto the roof and saw some of the things they're starting with; a beehive and some basil and tomato buckets. Simone's is also looking to develop easy to use composting and we were able to discuss with them the possibility of composting with Bokashi as a solution. They were great hosts and we look forward to continue working with them in the future.



UrbanWormGirls were also present and it was an opportunity to learn about their mission and company. For those that are unfamiliar with their company, they provide a worm composting bin that uses red worms (I don't remember the exact type, just the color) to digest waste and turn it into soil. At Loyola's Earth day event they showed us one of their kits and it was interesting how it's setup and works. Additionally, these girls have been around for about a year and a half so it was informative to learn about they've done in that time.



Overall, it was a great opportunity to get everyone that supports us together in one spot to socialize and have a good time. A lot of drinks and laughs. Thanks to everyone that made it a great night. See you at the next one.

Food and Farm Bill

In an effort to improve IL's food system, the state legislature has presented the Local Food, Farm & Jobs Bill. Check it out: http://www.foodfarmsjobs.org/