The economic crisis has a bright side; it will be the catalyst for the rebirth of the local small farm. These will be the kinds of farms that we need: diverse, organic, and educational.
Diversity is the Key
The new generation of small farms will be more diverse than the previous generation. During the era of cheap [...]
The most well-known and celebrated harvest festival, Thanksgiving, is such a great holiday: families and friends coming together to give thanks for a bountiful feast. To my understanding, Thanksgiving originated from Native Americans helping the pilgrims through their first winters, by teaching them grow their own food.
Some of the first crops they learned to [...]
If you’re an amateur of fine cheese and organic dairy products Tilamook county Oregon may seem a fine and familiar place.Unfortunately, when it comes to other types of local foods the pickings are extremely slim, so to speak.Despite a 10 month growing season and incredibly fertile soils there is not a single certified organic producer [...]
Jonathan Stevens and Cheryl Maffei of Hungry Ghost Bakery in Massachusetts are making strides in the “local food” movement through their distribution of wheat berries (seeds) to customers to plant 100 square foot plots of wheat in their yards. Stevens and Maffei are testing out several heirloom wheat varieties to see if they could be [...]
Something’s stirring in Portland, Oregon. According to a 2007 report released by the Corporation for National and Community Service, 35.8% of Portlanders find time in their schedules to volunteer in their community, ranking Portland sixth in the nation among cities with the highest rate of volunteerism.
Everyday, individuals restore wetlands, rebuild bikes, help at farmer’s markets, [...]
Gretchen Ferrell motivated by her interest in locally produced, healthy and organic food decided to seek ways to improve her communities access to natural produce. With only one health food store in her area of Neptune Beach, Florida, organic produce was available, but very little was grown locally.
The Beaches Local Food Network, a non-profit organization, [...]
In early 2007, three women biked out of Washington, D.C. with video equipment strapped to their backs, prepared for a 3 month bicycling trip to Montreal and back. On the way, they stopped at different food-producing garden projects across the continent, the new faces of American farming.
They observed and taped the trend of farmers [...]
Casper Candles is a candle company in Eugene, Oregon, that hand-makes candles out of local beeswax and cotton wicks. Stephen of Casper Candles gave me the lowdown on the difference between his candles and others made with paraffin, soy, or palm?
First off, beeswax: “Beeswax is simple,” he says,” It burns clean, many think it releases [...]
Today I biked by a yard full of freely roaming chickens, and decided to knock on the door to check out the situation. A generous woman named Alice let me in, gave me some fresh colorful eggs, and then took me outside for a tour of her small but productive yard.
She has had the chickens [...]
You can’t get more local than eating vegetables dug up from your own yard! Many people are realizing the benefits of not only supporting local farmers, but becoming small-scale farmers themselves using plots of land in their own neighborhoods.
Besides decreasing the amount of fossil fuel required to bring food to our plates, growing food [...]
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