Category: garden

  • Why Americans are Going Local

    Yesterday Kristen and I listened to an author, Andrew Potter, describe the American movement towards all things local and eco-friendly as conspicuous consumption.

    It felt like an elitist slap in the face.

    His book is called, The Authenticity Hoax. (I’ve not read it) You can see the transcript to the Marketplace segment, “The new holier than thou” here.

    Basically, the author claimed that the real reason why Americans are going to farmers markets, growing their own food, shopping at locally owned business, and otherwise supporting their local economy is really to show off our wealth publicly. The entire tone of the interview seemed to mock and misrepresent a major shift in public opinion. (For a more reasonable interpretation of the same movement, check out this link in Business Week.)

    I couldn’t help but wonder if the author was just a tool or if he was a corporate tool who didn’t understand how inverse relationships work? As people’s distrust in “global” increases, their trust in “local” increases proportionally.

    Some examples of inverse relationships in the going local trend

    1. We are social creatures. With access to worldwide communication, its a natural human reaction to seek out local connections. People going local is an inverse relationship to a global society.
    2. Micro-economics makes sense. It doesn’t take a PhD in economics to understand that if I choose going to a local eatery vs. McDonald’s more of my money stays in my community. People eating locally is an inverse relationship to a global economy.
    3. The general public is coming to understand that our food chain is under-regulated and unsafe. As I’ve written about before, thanks to some great documentaries the general public is now aware that corporations are more concerned with profit than public health. People growing their own food is an inverse relationship to a global, unregulated food supply chain.
    4. The food decision wheel is turning more quickly. Each time there is a flaw in the food chain it just emphasized what the general public is thinking already. Bad eggs leads to “I need to buy my eggs from a farmer I can trust.” Now that people understand that most of our corn products are genetically-modified, people are starting to look for products containing no corn product. Every bad news story about food spins the wheel a little faster for people and centrifugal force is tough to fight for long. People trusting local farmers is an inverse relationship to a distrust of mega-farmers.
    5. Conspicuous corruption leads to local consumption. Look at the case of “special foreclosure courts” being set up in Florida to supersede constitutional rights in favor of corporations making a quick buck. This isn’t some conspiracy theorist… it’s the New York Times! Apparently the 7th amendment isn’t the law when courts are busy? No one in their right mind would trust that the government will rule in favor of a common citizen right now. So, people are investing their money in local businesses and things they know they can understand and trust. People investing in local banks is an inverse relationship to our distrust of a global banking society and the governmental corruption it has inspired.

    What are other examples of inverse relationships that are leading more and more of us to go local?

    Do you think that the shift to local really is conspicuous consumption? Is this just yuppies finding new ways to show off?

  • Garden Awesomeness

    Adolescent watermelon, originally uploaded by mclanea.

    There’s lots of fun stuff happening in our garden. Watermelon are coming in strong. And we’re hoping to pick a big batch of jalapeño this weekend. Right behind that are a whole heap of eggplant.

    Our little garden experiment is going quite well. Thanks to all who encourage us.

  • Garden Update: Success and Failure

    Note: This was my first iPhone movie. Stupid me didn’t use the HD end of the camera. Sorry about that!

    Here are a few more pictures I shot this evening.

  • What’s growing in the garden?

    Our backyard organic garden experiment started about 6 months ago. Way back in January we had no idea that by July we would have a wide variety of vegetables. But the picture above shows what our normal biweekly harvest now looks like. On top of that,  herbs, summer squash, eggplant, jalapeño, and the occasional strawberry.

    Our 2010 goal is to allocate 20% of our food to come from local sources. I don’t know exactly how we are going to measure that! But between what we are growing in our yard and our CSA box from J.R. Organics we have pretty much eliminated the produce area of the grocery store. (Things like bananas and potatoes seem to be the hardest to replace locally.)

    Lots of success, some failures

    We’ve done pretty good for first year gardeners. But we have had some failures too. We planted the summer squash, acorn squash, and cucumbers way too close together. This caused the acorn squash to never fully develop and we had to pull that out last week. Our sweet corn was doing very well but suddenly stopped growing and produced only a few kernels on each ear. We planted garlic at the wrong time of year. So it’s still green but hasn’t done anything. We have one tomato plant which has taken over the tomato and strawberry area. It’s been fun to see the plant grow about 15 feet tall… but it’s also kept two other varieties of tomatoes from developing fully.

    Watering schedules and bugs are still ever-present issues. And our worm composting… still just going so-so. Weeds and snails were a problem in the Spring, but with the drying out of the climate both have stopped.

    Out with the old

    With Kristen and I leaving the country in 7 days, we’re going to do a little garden maintenance this weekend. We’ll pull out the sweet corn, trim the summer squash way back, and eliminate a couple herbs which aren’t doing so well. I’ll also spread some organic fertilizer. (Very expensive fish poop!)

    The cool thing about San Diego is that our growing season essentially never stops. So we’ll pull out some of those things and head over to the nursery to scout out what will take its place. We’re hoping to get one more summer harvest in before we have to think about fall plantings.

    We are encouraged. Heading into this I wasn’t sure that we could do it. And I really wasn’t sure we’d enjoy it. This year has proven that we really can do this and we really can have a good time doing it.

    Children’s Garden

    Megan and Paul have been involved since day 1. Each day, Megan and I take a garden tour where we carefully inspect the progress of every plant. As the months have passed we’ve started to talk about the kids taking ownership of an area of the garden. So we are trying to figure out how to make that happen.

  • J.R. Organics Farm Tour

    We’ve got this crazy idea that we want to know where our food comes from.

    It’s odd for me to think that oranges grow in my backyard but an orange I buy at Vons probably comes from Australia. Walking through your grocery store there are literally foods from every corner of the globe.

    Supporting local agriculture

    Not only do we like knowing where our food comes from, we’d prefer if it came to us locally. Of course, a growing chunk of our produce is coming from our own backyard. But as we learn how to do that (and time that) we’ve depended on the CSA (community supported agriculture) of JR Organics in Escondido. They help us city dwellers maintain a connection with farmers in the country.

    Since January, our family has gone over to the North Park Farmers Market each Thursday to pick up our box of produce from the farm. I don’t get to go very often, but when I do Megan dutifully leads me through the various vendors to “our table” where a member of the Rodriguez family takes our recyclable box and hands us a new one full of fresh fruit and veggies.

    Yes, we probably pay a little more per item than we would at the grocery store. But we know where the food comes from and we know that the money we pay goes directly to the farmer… no middle man. No corporation. No buyer. No warehouse. Stuff in our box Thursday was likely picked Tuesday or Wednesday. You can taste the difference.

    The Tour

    As the pictures show, we went on a tour yesterday. The kids started off with high expectations and were let down that it wasn’t as much fun as Sea World from the time we left the car. But as you can see as the tour goes on, they get more and more excited. I loved watching from a field away (they had an adult tour and a kids tour) our kids running up and down the hills as they explored and learned about farming. At the end of the tour the family rolled out the red carpet and fed us a fabulous lunch of fresh stuff from the farm. Soups, salads, juices, roasted veggies, chicken, and an amazing dessert.

    The tour provided a rich afternoon of learning and connection to the farm. As we drove away Kristen and I just couldn’t stop talking about how nice everyone was, how cool the farm was, and how excited we are to see more than 100 people show up for the tour. (It sold out!)

    Find a CSA

    If you live in San Diego county and are looking for a CSA, I highly recommend JR Organics. They aren’t the cheapest option out there, but they are fantastic.

    Believe it or not, CSAs exist all over the place. If you’re ready to give it a try, check out this link to find one in your area.

  • Bean Crazy

    Crazy beans

    Our summer garden is coming right along.

    This is our bean patch. We’ve got climbing pole beans in the front. You can see that the pole beans have gotten to the top of my makeshift bean-o-matic. So I just thought I’d encourage the growth some more by extending the twine from that bean-o-matic over to the fence.
    Three tomatoes

    Our amazing tomato plants continue to explode. Our yellow tomato plant is now over 10 feet tall! The harvest has officially begun. I have a feeling we will be giving away a lot of tomatoes.

    Cucumbers, eggplant, jalapeño, green pepper, and sweet corn are just weeks away.

    BONUS QUESTION:

    Mystery flower

    What the heck is this flower growing in our garden? Identify this flower and win.

  • Urban Farming Inspiration

    Kristen and I are now 5 months into our experiment. Our goal is to grow or purchase 25% of our food locally in 2010. So far, it’s been a fun experiment! And in the process we’ve found a hobby that the whole family can participate in.

    One thing that has been incredibly satisfying is knowing that we aren’t the only family on this journey. I’ve met a number of co-workers, friends, and youth workers who are leading their families on similar experiments.

    It’s been super encouraging and satisfying to discover that you don’t have to have a lot of acreage to feed your family. In fact, we’re pretty confident that if we keep improving the soil quality, expand to just a few more planting beds, and a few more seasons of experience under our belts, that we can actually produce much more than 50% of our families produce right here in the city. (Thank God for a landlord who loves gardening!)

    Here are two bits of inspiration for Kristen and I. One of which we discovered months ago while the other we only discovered this weekend.

    City Farmers Nursery This place is legendary in San Diego. A massive organic nursery in the heart of City Heights (aka, the hood)

    Path to Freedom One families attempt to live off the land in the city of Pasadena. Now they are launching a movement the are calling, Urban Homesteading.

    Here’s a rundown of what is growing in our garden right now:

    • Artichokes
    • Cilantro
    • Oregano
    • Coriander
    • Parsley
    • Rosemary
    • Thai basil
    • Sweet basil
    • Peppermint
    • Chocolate Mint
    • Mr. Stripey tomatoes
    • Traditional beefsteak tomatoes
    • Acorn squash
    • Zucchini
    • Cucumbers
    • Sweet corn
    • Eggplant
    • Jalapeños
    • Roma tomatoes
    • Yellow tomatoes
    • Strawberry
    • Spinach
    • Watermelon
    • Green beans
    • Green peppers
    • Tangerines
    • Grapefruit
    • Oranges
    • Peaches
    • Plums
    • Mandarines
    • Lemons
    • Sunflowers
    • Pumpkins

    What’s really crazy is that this probably only takes up 20% of our backyard. Here are some things we want to add in the next year:

    • Chickens!
    • Herbs in the front yard
    • 2-3 raised beds
    • Avocado
    • Triple our worm composting (we have 1 container, need about 3 more to capture all of our food waste)

    Some quick facts:

    • No, this isn’t taking over our lives. If anything, its a major stress reducer.
    • No, this isn’t expensive. There are some start-up costs with getting drip irrigation, basic tools, and composting equipment. We’ve spent less than $500.
    • No, we don’t have a rain barrel yet. Shame on us.
    • Yes, we are spending more money on gardening stuff and our CSA. But that is offset by less money spent at the grocery store. And we’ve already down-graded to the smaller box of our CSA.
    • Yes, the kids are involved. They love helping! There’s nothing quite like the joy of picking carrots or strawberries with your kids.
    • Yes, we really can have chickens in the city. Our neighborhood is zoned for up to 25. (No roosters) There are people near us with goats and pigs, too.
    • Yes, we really are doing all of this on property we rent!
    • Yes, we do live in the city of San Diego. (Though not a super urban neighborhood.) We live in a quiet neighborhood about half a mile from San Diego State University.

  • The harvest is coming!



    Yellow tomatoes, originally uploaded by mclanea.

    Yesterday Paul and I were doing our daily look through the garden. He leaned in and yelled, “Daddy, check this out! We’ve got lots of tomatoes!”

    In just a couple of weeks all of our summer garden plants will mature and start producing produce. We can’t wait!