Get yer farm-fresh produce here

A popular view of ag. Commentator John Schlageck promotes an upcoming program, “Taking Stock: Perspectives on Food Production in Kansas,” which he says public television stations in Kansas will be running in response to the scheduled PBS broadcast of Food Inc. Alas, Schlageck’s column is largely a series of platitudes that provides no evidence to counter the reality of farmers who must work off the farm to survive economically, who are cogs in the great agriculture machine run by a handful of huge corporations that control everything from seed to silo to feedlot to slaughterhouse. We can only hope the panelists on the television program scheduled for May 5 have something of substance to say. (Pittsburg, Kansas, Morning Sun)

This year, last year and next year

During the gathering of 60 or so vendors and others last month, farmers repeatedly referred to 2009 as “last year.” That was a bit of a surprise for me, considering the market at that stage was going to be open three more Saturdays. That view, though, is a testimonial to the planning that is an inherent part of farming. Most people show up for their jobs and do what they do. Farmers have to decide what to do long before they do it.

In any event,  I was pleased to hear Tom Buller, the market coordinator, report that most vendors had reported better sales in 2009 than in 2008. Not hugely better, but better. That was good news after early scuttlebutt that there were plenty of shoppers but not so many sales—in addition to the fact that 2009 has heralded a surge in home food gardens, a development that’s good for people’s diets but not necessarily good for market farmers.

Farmers Market members have one more shot at making some hay this year: the annual Lawrence Farmers Market Holiday Market. It’s 8 a.m.-3 p.m. this Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Knights of Columbus hall on East 23rd Street. Stop in and see the pickles, jams, woolens, baked goods and, unlike during the season, other handmade crafts.

West-Side Market?

Nothing is final (is anything?), but odds are that the market will have its Thursday weekday market next year in a west-side location off Sixth Street. Keep your fingers crossed that the stars align to allow it to happen. Buller has been doing a good job running the information down.

A west-side market would be a great opportunity for people who rarely get downtown to have another option for buying fresh, local produce from our market. Most vendors seemed excited by the prospect.

My season overview

As a customer but nonfarmer tuned in to the challenges of growing things, I’d have to rate the season as a definite “pretty good.” Many growers are learning better to manage our fickle weather with season-extending tricks such as hoophouses, which means we had fine greens in spring and fall despite unusually cold and occasionally damp conditions.

Some summer crops were disappointing, though. After last year’s flood of fruit, the crops were more modest this year, and the strangely mild summer meant tomatoes just didn’t perform as they usually do in these parts. Peppers seemed less plentiful too.

Still, between the market and the Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance, with occasional supplements from Hilary’s Moon on the Meadow CSA and Lynn & Dan’s Wild Onion Farm, I had all the local produce I could eat. Happily, I’m still enjoying some of the goods, thanks to my freezer. My first pot of post-Thanksgiving turkey soup, for instance, featured the rutabaga I blanched last summer, and it was wonderful! And I say that as someone who isn’t crazy about turnips and rutabagas.

How about you?

Was the season a success on your farm, or for your farmers? It’s so last year for the farmers, even if many of us are still enjoying the bounty. I can hardly wait for “this” year.

• Friday & Saturday (July 24-25): 4:30, 7:00, 9:20
• Sunday (July 26): 2:10, 4:30, 7:00, 9:20,
• Monday-Thursday (July 27-30): 4:30, 7:00, 9:20

Guess we’ll find out whether the run will last more than week, but Local Burger maven Hilary Brown tells me I have to see it. So I will.

It’s been brought to my attention that there’s an accompanying book—Food Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer-And What You Can Do About It—in case you want it.

If you go, let me know what you think!

On a local level

KSU photo

Having a field day. If this amazingly mild weather holds, I just may change my mind about skipping this Saturday’s (July 25) horticulture field day at Kansas State’s Research and Extension Horticulture Center in Olathe. The field day, which runs 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and has a $5 admission fee, includes lectures and tours highlighting flower, fruit and vegetable varieties that work well in these parts. Wonder if they have suggestions for window-box gardens (see item below)?

KC food garden tour. Forgive this belated posting of a report and slide show of the Kansas City Urban Farms and Gardens Tour, from the Pitch.

Bringing in the sheaves. If you’ve never seen a wheat harvest, Kristi Bahrenburg Janzen gives a flavor of the activity and significance of this important Kansas rite. (The [Newton] Kansan)

Farmer to head Kansas agriculture. Josh Svaty, a 29-year-old farmer, state legislator and law student, will set aside his lawmaking and law-student hats to become the state’s next secretary of agriculture. The news report (AP, via Cattle Network) gives hope that Svaty is willing to take a progressive look at agriculture.

Vote for your farmers’ market! Don’t forget to vote for your favorite farmers market! Mine’s the Lawrence Farmers Market, naturally. What’s yours?

On a grander scale

I haven’t been posting much lately on the broader food issues, but allow me now to recommend a few news items for you.

Grow vertical. I love this idea: window-box food gardening. As you may know, my yard is pretty shady, but I think I may just have a window or two with plenty of sunshine. How about you? Read more at Treehugger. The links are all in the UK, but the ideas would work here too. Now, if I can just figure out what to do about those pesky window screens. Anybody reading here who’s done this? Let me know!

Share the harvest. For those of you with bountiful gardens but not a garden business, here’s a great idea of what to do with the excess produce: Create your own neighborhood “farm stand.” I’ll bet the neighbors will love it, too. (Civil Eats)

MRSA and factory farms. Tom Philpott, drawing on a Prevention article, spotlights the link between current factory farming practices and superbug MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). If you aren’t already buying pastured or organic poultry, this report might make you consider it. (Grist)

Organic benefits. I don’t really care about organics for my own health, but I do love what organic methods do for our environment. Treehugger.com has this nice slide show that neatly summarizes those advantages.

Big food, big money. Naomi Starkman interviews author Robyn O’Brien about what she learned while researching The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick – And What We Can Do About It. (Civil Eats; warning: long article)

More on food problems. Also on Civil Eats, Paula Crossfield reviews Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It by Jill Richardson of La Vida Locavore.

Bean counting. If you’ve wondered whether it’s greener to use cook your own dried beans or to use canned, The Washington Post attempts to answer the question. If you don’t want read the long discussion, here’s the short version: Clear answers aren’t available, but beans are a good choice either way.

Farm stand photo courtesy Practical Farmers of Iowa

But other items are just plain free. There’s this perfect specimen (above) summer squash my nephew Rob gave me. He’s having fine success with his first garden. It’s a Saffron variety (Cornell U. description), he said.

And friend Lynn brought in three English-type cucumbers (RecipeTips description) and the following giant heirloom tomato, all grown on her farm.

I could have also had my fill of Linda’s sister’s zucchini excess, but it’s among the few bits of free food I’m able to decline—especially when the grower lets zucchini grow to monstrous proportions. I don’t have enough ways to make zucchini interesting, if you know what I mean.

Meanwhile, Hillary has made a fine harvest of chanterelle mushrooms from the yard, although I let her eat most of them since they don’t excite me.

How about you? Are you the lucky recipient of someone else’s bounty? What do you do to repay the favor, besides sharing meals with the kind friends and relatives (which I’d do anyway)?

Meanwhile, if you have more than a little excess, remember to check with your local food bank or homeless shelter to see whether they accept fresh food. You can find food banks at Feeding America. And for Lawrence readers, the city website lists several possible recipients.

Unlike my sisters, I’ve never had much success trying to grow food. In my gardening career, I’ve only had slight success and only twice. Once was with a tomato plant that my daughter started from seed (I think; memory fuzzy here). We must have gotten at least a half-dozen tomatoes, far more than any other attempts. The other “success” was with a tomato vine that grew out of my compost pile.

In the latter case, I can only surmise that a supermarket tomato’s seeds found their way into my compost. I almost never buy those sad excuses for tomatoes, but I must have at some time, because this vine produced at least a couple dozen perfectly uniform and tasteless tomatoes. I can hereby attest that such tomatoes don’t taste like much even when they’re allowed to ripen on the vine.

Better luck with herbs

Herbs have been my only real success, and even those don’t always work. My wonderful rosemary finally gave up this past winter, and the thyme I planted last year isn’t going to make it. The oregano and sage look like they’re in for the long haul. Not sure about the parsley. It never really prospered last year, but it’s put out shoots this year. I’m going to let it go to seed and if it successfully self-sows, I’ll claim it as a success.

Not discouraged, I’m trying thyme again this year in a new location, and the rosemary start I bought appears to be prospering. The bay tree is flourishing with new leaves coming on.

All of which means I can flavor food from my yard, and add color with certain edible flowers, but, basically, I’d starve if I relied on my horticulture—unless I started eating slugs.

The three sisters

Many people may know the “three sisters” as the corn, squash and beans of native American agriculture. I know my three sisters as Susan, Joyce and Lori, and they’re all superior gardeners. Superior, as far as I can tell, even to our parents, both farm kids who seemed content to buy food from the grocery store, except for the tomatoes that Mom usually planted each year.

Susan was the first food gardener in my generation, harvesting large quantities of zucchini along with other crops when she was still in her 20s. (Working from memory here; Susan, correct me if I’m wrong.) Since then, she’s gardened off and on, and currently is in an on state, going so far as to start more plants than she could use.

Some of those plants, very healthy looking tomato plants, to be specific, are growing in Lori’s garden, which I visited yesterday. She and her husband Mike, after huge success last year in their first year of gardening (remember the green tomatoes? And pickles?), are expanding their garden footprint this year, with a plan to put in melons and squash and maybe (long-term) strawberries. Lori said they’re experimenting with various things, but the Brussels sprouts (above) look gorgeous. Hope they produce before it gets too hot for them. And the apple trees they put in last year are showing some little fruits (below).

A wee apple

Joyce, meanwhile, is trying container gardening for the first time (if I’m not mistaken). She has a new patio in back and has two or three different varieties of tomatoes. She’s done herbs and flowers, and I give her credit for trying tomatoes too.

Gardens galore

All of which leaves me out of the current surge in home gardening. Here are my excuses: mostly a shade yard; tons of bunnies, squirrels, snails and slugs; and a dog that occupies the back yard, which has the only spot that gets anything close to enough sun.

I therefore want it on record that I am willing to help my three sisters consume their excess. It’s the least I can do to promote gardening, don’t you think?