March 3, 2010
Will this book, by Scott Calhoun, feed my maverickiness?
We’re halfway through our fifth year at this house. Tater Tot is big enough to help out in the yard–or at least occupy himself while I work outside. See where I’m going? I’m rethinking our overall landscape vision.
For some context for those of you unfamiliar with our yard, we live in South Central Texas, up in the top Northwest Bexar County. Our house is situated on part of what’s called the “Edwards Plateau,” and like a lot of suburban homes out here has the one-two punch of caliche clay compacted by the developer’s crew. To make this more, er, challenging, we live at the bottom of a low hill on land where a horse farm once stood.
Finally, to top it all off, I live in Sunset’s Climate Zone 30. This means that while I get more rain than residents on San Antonio’s South side, I also get more cold, wintry weather–on top of a hotter-than-hell summer. This information more or less explains why early German settlers, deadset on sticking to their traditional ways of planting crops, wound up… dead. From starvation. It also explains why people in these parts eat so much meat. Cows, after all, can eat the low grass that grows here. Keep reading →
March 2, 2010
Bill Bishop over at DailyYonder.com forwarded this link to Amber Waves as a follow-up to last week’s “food deserts” chat. (Thanks, Bill!)
In the piece, the idea of “food deserts” versus “food swamps” stood out most for me:
Food desert studies have focused on the lack of access to healthy foods, such as fruit and vegetables or whole grains. The flip side of the problem is an abundance of less healthy foods available from convenience stores and fast food restaurants. Easy access to less healthy, energy-dense foods, particularly if they are convenient and cheap, may swamp out healthier choices [Emphasis mine]. Some researchers have used the term “food swamps” for neighborhoods that have relatively easy access to less healthy foods compared with access to healthy foods. Keep reading →
March 1, 2010
If only they'd had Facebook...
Remember the flash mob phenomenon that started back in 2003?
Say hello, friends, to “crop mobs.” Basically, a bunch of young people organize via technology and social media to help out en masse on small, sustainable farms. The farmers provide the work–and lunch.
My prediction? You’re gonna hear a lot about ‘em during 2010.
The movement’s got a blog, a new Twitter account (@cropmob), a Facebook fan page, and a spiffy mention in New York Times Magazine this past weekend.
What I’m waiting for next? Someone to figure out how to mash-up crop mobs, Mafia Wars and Farmville.
Just sayin’.
Explore More:
• This page will explain the U.S. Crop Corps promoted in the old poster up top.
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March 1, 2010
I love both of the following ideas, and they’re competing this month online (with others) at Change.org (@change).
• American Farmland Trust (@farmland) has a plan over the next five years that “carves a clear path to a sustainable future for agriculture and our communities, a future in which all Americans can enjoy farm-fresh food on our tables, the pleasure of an open country road, the security of clean water, and farms contributing to local economies.” (Facebook group)
• D.C.-based Ethan Genauer, a new teacher-gardener, wants to see a revival of the nationwide school garden initiative. Genauer writes that “Although my vision for Universal School Gardens is ambitious, I believe that now is indeed the ideal moment for a new nationwide mobilization of Americans dedicated to the common purpose of achieving this delicious dream. “ (Facebook group)
Both ideas are intriguing–and ambitious. To vote on your favorite, visit Change.org.
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March 1, 2010
Catalog Shot (credit: Womanswork)
For some reason, ever since I opened my package from Womanswork and pulled out the lovely High-Performance Gloves they sent my way for review*, I’ve had the lyrics to a particular Beatles song in my head.
Funny that.
The new gloves couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Since I enjoy the rustle of dry leaves during our (mercifully) brief winter, I typically skip an intense fall garden clean-up in favor of a spring one. So into our front beds the new gloves went almost immediately. There they were required to hold their own while I undertook all sorts of work: digging, hauling, clipping, shoving, etc. I also used them to remove a Belinda’s Dream rosebush that died in last year’s drought. To add to the excitement, I didn’t clip my own long fingernails before slipping the new gloves on.
The result? Save for an unfortunate wound resulting from my cavalier use of the clippers (oops), these gloves held up beautifully. I concede to having pushed the envelope in removing the rose bush. That remains a task best reserved for specially designed rose gloves. However, with careful, calculated movements on my part to work around thorns, the High-Performance Gloves did help me get a proper grip to pop that sucker out of the ground. Keep reading →
February 25, 2010
I respect the way Mrs. Obama is including rural America in the “food deserts” discussion, because food insecurity is a real and pressing problem out here just as in the inner cities.
I’d also like to hold up the lens of history and share with you the map on this page (you’ll have to scroll down). The red spots indicate places (gardens and gardeners) mentioned in Charles Lathrop Pack’s 1919 book, The War Garden Victorious. Pack, you may recall, spearheaded war gardening during WWI and helped re-brand it as “victory gardening” after the war ended. One of the reasons he wanted to do so was to encourage people to provide for themselves through urban, suburban and rural gardens to fight food scarcity even in peace time.
Now take a look at the map of local food sources on LocalHarvest.org’s site.
Do you see a similar “hole” in the two maps? What do you make of the modern Western “food desert”? Is it solely the byproduct of a challenging climate? Is it a population issue? Keep reading →
