The monsoon rains finally made it to our gardens and we had 2 inches in the last 10 days. Everything changes and all plants respond with vigor including the weeds, of course. Often the highly ionic charge of nitrogen rich rainwater makes everything radiant and vibrant. It creates a new atmosphere and experience in the garden. The humidity reminds us of so many microclimates depending what is growing where. Its fun to discover what each plant or plant family does in relationship to other plants. In the CSA movement across the world many people awaken to seasonal food for the very first time, and it assists in all around health and vigor. The varieties of vegetables increase and so we need to make choices what to send every week. We switch them around so you’ll see some varienties every other week or just once a month. I hope you enjoy this as we do. If there is a special need just let us know and we look into what we should do. Feedback is good; we are learning and growing together.
Another feature we want to introduce soon is our own grassfed beef. We have rich and beautiful pasture land here and after starting a small herd of cattle about three years ago we can offer now this very special food for those who love beef. In a few weeks we have it all packaged and available. We will offer grassfed beef - shares with different cuts. about 5-8 # at a time. We are still discussing the sizes, cuts and price. If you are interested send us an email and we take reservations. We hope we can offer this throughout the next few months. Like the seasons change there is lots of grass growing and all the animals are very happy on our pastures

Hope to see you all,
-The Avalon Gardens Family

CSA Harvest List:

• Greens Mix ( Mizuna, Pak Choy, Michihili, Red Amaranth )
• Garlic
• Basil
• Yellow Onion with Greens
• Summer Squash
• (new) Cabbage
• Cucumbers
• (new) Okra

Okra is a powerhouse of valuable nutrients. It is a good source of vitamin C. It is low in calories and is fat-free.

Okra can be served raw, marinated in salads or cooked on its own, and goes well with tomatoes, onions, corn, peppers, and eggplant. Whole, fresh okra pods also make excellent pickles. Its mild flavor can be compared to eggplant, though the texture is somewhat unusual.

Okra Recipes

Stir-Fried Okra Recipe:

• 2 cups fresh okra, washed, trimmed, thinly sliced
• 1 large tomato, peeled and sliced into 8 thin wedges
• 1/4 cup green onions, sliced, white and green
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon leaf thyme, crushed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons butter

Prepare all vegetables as indicated and have ready for cooking. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Fried Okra Recipe:

• 1 pound okra pods, stem ends cut off, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• salt
• cold water
• yellow cornmeal
• salt and pepper

Put sliced okra in a bowl, sprinkle generously with sal; cover with very cold water. Refrigerate the okra for at least 1 hour. Drain; roll okra slices in cornmeal seasoned with salt and pepper until well-coated. Fry in a deep skillet in about 1/2-inch of hot oil until browned and crisp. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

Farmers Market Tucson(Thurs.) / Farm Stand Tubac (Sat.) Harvest List

• Beets
• Arugula
• (new) Baby Leaf Hot Red Mustard
• (new) Baby Leaf  Red Amaranth
• (new) Hot Peppers
• Daikon Radish
• Fresh Garlic
• Purslane (Verdolaga) Greens
• Fresh Onions w/greens
• Okra
• Eggplant
• Fresh Elephant Garlic
• Summer squash

Upcoming Events that Support Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm, and Ranch:

 Click here for More Info

Sustainable Agriculture News: WhyHunger on Community Supported Agriculture

When you join a CSA - a Community Supported Agriculture program - and buy a share in the harvest of a local or regional farm, you cross a threshold of discovery. You discover where your food comes from, who your farmer is, and who is in your community.

Fresh Basil from a Church Basement

The first discovery is the pleasure of local food. You subscribe to a share of a farm’s produce, typically paying up front or in stages, and then receiving a box of produce every week throughout the growing season. The CSA farmers harvest the vegetables that are ripe and bring them to the pickup site, which may be a church basement, a college courtyard, a community center, or the farm itself. Each week you receive the bounty of a local farm and it is always a surprise — fresh, nutritious, full of taste and health.

You enter the rhythm of the seasons — the first tender greens of spring give way to the tomatoes, peppers, herbs and fruits of summer, the squash and root vegetables of fall, and the potatoes, carrots, onions, and greens of winter. You learn that individual CSA programs can supply not only vegetables, fruits and herbs, but also bread, milk and yogurt, eggs, cheeses, meats and honey.

Everybody Eats

In the words of CSA pioneer Robyn Van En, “growing food is the common thread throughout the world, in that everybody eats. It connects everyone across all party lines, all ethnic and religious differences.” There can be challenges in eating seasonally and experimenting with new vegetables — many of us feel we don’t have the skills or the time to cook and eat together. CSA programs have responded with cooking and nutrition classes, sharing recipes, and potluck suppers. We are rediscovering the joy of cooking, of connecting with our ingredients, of sharing food with our families and friends. Connecting with each other over the week’s fresh eggplants and the best soup recipes builds community along the way. CSA can then be a great entry point to get people talking to their neighbors across race and class about food justice issues.

Food Justice for All

A priority of many CSA initiatives is to bring healthy food into low-income communities. Through various pricing options — including spreading out payments over time, work shares, sliding-scale prices, accepting SNAP (formerly “food stamps”) and selling shares to food-assistance agencies — low income CSA members often get the greatest produce bang for their buck (or for their SNAP benefits).

Well-managed CSA can be the beginning of real food system change for everyone from the lowest income member to the farmer. With just a pickup site, a willing farmer, and active community organizers, CSA can bring just-picked, delicious produce to an area where vegetables are scarce — making CSA a relatively simple change to a neighborhood’s food system, as compared to opening a market or grocery store.

CSA initiatives are essential to farmers as well. As Tom Spaulding of Angelic Organics learning Center points out, CSA is not a middle-class movement of rich farmers. “CSA farmers who themselves lack healthcare and sustainable livelihoods are subsidizing the production of the highest-quality food in a society that is focused on cheap food.” A strong relationship between farmer and shareholders can ensure that the CSA is just and advantageous for the farmer. Beginning-of-season payments provide cash at the beginning of the season when the farmer needs it most, and members contribute volunteer labor and administrative duties as they share the risks and benefits of the harvest.

Knowing Your Farmer

CSA farmers describe how much contact with members means to them, how the hard work of farming is changed “by this human web.” CSA members cross another threshold of discovery in getting to know their farmer. The farmer may visit the pick-up site and talk to the members, write a newsletter about the farm, or invite CSA members to visit. Knowing the farm is an extraordinary experience for many of us living in cities: learning how a farm can flourish, how soil can become more fertile through sustainable growing methods, and how animals are an integral part of the whole cycle of life.

CSA Past and Future

CSA came to the USA from biodynamic farmers in Europe and from models in Japan, where it is called teikei, meaning “food with a farmer’s face.” CSA pioneer and farmer Elizabeth Henderson estimates that there are about 1700 CSAs in the US now, with each farm having as many as several hundred or as few as a dozen shareholders. CSA programs continue to thrive around the world, and CSA is connecting with many diverse institutions — schools and colleges, soup kitchens and food banks, farm stands or farmers’ markets, restaurants, hospitals, and businesses. CSA is succeeding and expanding because it represents not just a different way of farming, but a different social and economic model, one based on principles of community, cooperation, and justice.

People join CSA programs for various reasons: they need fresh, nutritious food, they want their children to know where their food comes from, they want to support local farmers. Often they find that fresh, high-quality produce is just one of the many benefits they receive. Through contact with other members, farm newsletters and special events or work days on the farm, members often make new friends, gain a sense of community, feel more connected with the source of their food, learn new ways to prepare and enjoy produce, and feel the satisfaction of supporting a model of farming that reflects their values.

—-

Many Thanks to WhyHunger

Founded in 1975, WHY is a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world.

WHY is convinced that solutions to hunger and poverty can be found at the grassroots level. WHY advances long-term solutions to hunger and poverty by supporting community-based organizations that empower individuals and build self-reliance, i.e., offering job training, education and after school programs; increasing access to housing and healthcare; providing microcredit and entrepreneurial opportunities; teaching people to grow their own food; and assisting small farmers. WHY connects these organizations to funders, media and legislators.

At WHY, we envision a world without hunger and poverty. If we can shift the prevailing viewpoint on why hunger and poverty exist, then we can influence the policymakers and put an end to this human tragedy.

WHY sponsors two major fundraisers each year. Hungerthon is WHY’s largest annual public outreach. It is broadcast during Thanksgiving week to more than 6 million people with essential information about hunger and poverty. At the WHY Awards Dinner each spring we honor excellence in grassroots organizations and the media with cash grants.

WHY is a not-for-profit registered 501(c)(3) organization founded by radio talk show host and present Executive Director Bill Ayres, and the late singer-songwriter Harry Chapin.

Last week at the Santa Cruz Farmer’s Market there was a tremendous effort made by all vendors to show good spirits even in 110 plus degrees. Everyone found joy in serving our customers. We heard laughter and lots of conversations felt like a large family reunion. In this spirit of giving and receiving all of us benefited. In our gardens the same occurs. My favorite hours are when we come together as a community once a week and take care of whatever the gardens need. Last week we processed beets to make KimChi. Others harvested very large amounts of Hopi Red Amaranth for seed. The weeds surrounding the Swiss Chard plants were pulled and the plants mulched with compost. Red onions were pulled and laid out to dry in the barn. The harvesters came home with cucumbers and summer squash, and of course more weeding was done wherever needed. Then there were the animal care people feeding the chickens, horses, goats and other critters. The goats were brought back from the pastures to be milked for the second time of the day. The cooks prepared a great meal and all the younger children found joy in their play with their caregivers. Sometimes those simple joys like gardening as a community can fill up your heart and mind and rejoice. There is a special treat for the senses when you visit the Epic Cafe on 4th Ave until end of July. You will find one of our teenagers Desmanae Dell’Erba showing her artistic expressions through photography. Most pictures were done in the gardens. Its a true feast. Go and see for yourselves and let us know what you think…..

Hope to see you all,

CSA Harvest List:

• Beets
• (new) Asian Green Mix
• (back) Rainbow Chard
• Garlic
• Basil
• White Onion with Greens
• Summer Squash
• (new) Red Round Radishes
• Eggplant
• (new) Cucumbers

Farmers Market Tucson(Thurs.) / Farm Stand Tubac (Sat.) Harvest List

• Beets
• Arugula
• Daikon Radish
• Fresh Garlic
• Purslane (Verdolaga) Greens
• Fresh Onions
• Okra
• Eggplant
• Fresh Elephant Garlic
• Summer squash

Vegetable of the Week: Eggplant

The ancient ancestors of eggplant grew wild in India and were first cultivated in China in the 5th century B.C. Eggplant was introduced to Africa before the Middle Ages and then into Italy in the 14th century. It subsequently spread throughout Europe and the Middle East and, centuries later, was brought to the Western Hemisphere by European explorers.  Not until new varieties were developed in the 18th century, did eggplant lose its bitter taste and take its now esteemed place in the cuisines of many European countries.Eggplant is a very good source of dietary fiber, potassium, manganese, copper and thiamin (vitamin B1). It is also a good source of vitamin B6, folate, magnesium and niacin. Eggplant also contains phytonutrients such as nasunin and chlorogenic acid.

To tenderize the flesh’s texture and reduce some of its naturally occurring bitter taste, you can sweat the eggplant by salting it. After cutting the eggplant into the desired size and shape, sprinkle it with salt and allow it to rest for about 30 minutes. This process will pull out some of its water content and make it less permeable to absorbing any oil used in cooking. Rinsing the eggplant after “sweating” will remove most of the salt.

Eggplant can be baked, roasted in the oven, or steamed. If baking it whole, pierce the eggplant several times with a fork to make small holes for the steam to escape. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 25 minutes, depending upon size. You can test for its readiness by gently inserting a knife or fork to see if it passes through easily.

Recipe for Baba Ganoush

• 1/2 lb. eggplant
• 1 clove garlic(minced)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Prick eggplant with a fork and place on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Bake the eggplant until it is soft inside, about 20 minutes. Alternatively, grill the eggplant over a gas grill, rotating it around until the skin is completely charred, about 10 minutes. Let the eggplant cool. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, drain off the liquid, and scoop the pulp into a food processor. Process the eggplant until smooth and transfer to a medium bowl. On a cutting board, work garlic and salt together with the flat side of a knife, until it forms a paste. Add the garlic-salt mixture to the eggplant. Stir in the parsley, tahini, and lemon juice. Season with more salt, to taste.

Sustainable Agriculture News: Urban Farms Are Popular, But Can They Be Profitable?

By Sena Christian, Earth Island Journal
Posted on June 29, 2010, Printed on July 13, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/147252/

Sean Hagan shoves a digging fork into the soil and pries out a bunch of carrots. He ties the bunch together, then stops and looks across the crops to another farmer calling for his attention. She holds a gnarly root in her hand.

“Do we have something against large turnips around here?” asks Sonya Ciavola.

“I have something against turnips in general,” Hagan says. He’s not fond of their taste.

On a gloomy February morning, the blond, 29-year-old Hagan trudges through muddy row crops growing on six acres of agricultural land operated by Soil Born Farms Urban Agriculture and Education Project, a nonprofit farm in Sacramento, California. Soil Born has two other acres for pasture and plans to plant a three-acre fruit tree orchard this fall.

But this isn’t exactly the bucolic landscape typically associated with farming. The fields sit on the outskirts of a residential area. Down the street is a high school, as well as a shopping center with a Dollar Tree, grocery store, and gas station. A check-cashing business is nearby.

For all its uniqueness, Soil Born Farms illustrates a larger national urban agriculture movement. In recent years, urban farming has become all the rage. Farms and community gardens in city centers seem to have struck a chord with an American public increasingly hungry for fresh, local, organic produce. Urban food plots have become media darlings, profiled in The New York Times Magazine and O, the Oprah magazine. They are attracting big grants from major philanthropies and enjoy the support of chefs at upscale restaurants.

City farms are sprouting in all sorts of unlikely places: in empty lots next to apartment complexes, across from high schools, and in old industrial centers. Sizeable food-production plots have sprung up in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland, Milwaukee, Boston, Detroit, and San Francisco. The Food Project in Lincoln, Massachusetts involves more than 100 teenage farmers annually. Brooklyn boasts Added Value in the working class Redhook neighborhood. Phoenix has the aptly named Urban Farm.

Although part of the broader sustainable food phenomenon, many of the country’s urban farms seek to tackle issues that Whole Foods, with its relatively high prices and affluent customers, is not addressing. The urban farm movement aims to take control of food production away from large-scale industrial agriculture and root it within local food systems that attempt to ensure food access for the urban poor. Often located in low-income neighborhoods, many city farms operate off the basic premise that healthy, affordable food is a basic human right. “Food justice” is the mantra of most, if not all, of the organizations in the urban farming movement. That means serving the estimated 14 percent of Americans who experience food insecurity – 49 million people who are unsure where they’ll find their next meal.

Yet urban farming’s potential to address the challenges of our food system remains unclear. Although popularity and trendiness can be big boons to business, these urban farms haven’t yet found a way to thrive in the market economy. Most rely heavily on volunteer labor and grant funding. They may be at the forefront of ecological sustainability, but economic sustainability eludes them. And that’s a problem because they are unlikely to fulfill their aspirations and make a meaningful dent in the problem of food insecurity if they are forever running on the treadmill of foundation funding.

“The most fundamental question is about scale,” says Brahm Ahmadi, co-founder of People’s Grocery in Oakland.

By “scale” Ahmadi means the ability of urban farming projects to satisfy the demand for sustainable food that exists in a given community. According to Ahmadi, in many food-insecure neighborhoods 60 to 70 percent of food dollars are spent outside the community. Most urban farms are able to close only a fraction of that gap, about 10 percent.

“If we’re going to address food justice to make any significant effect on this massive issue, we’re going to have to scale different,” Ahmadi says.

Let Them Eat Kale

On this Friday morning, the workers at Soil Born Farms gather arugula – an item planted at the request of a local chef at a fancy restaurant. Arugula will also be added to the farm’s community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes, along with collards, chard, beets, carrots, mustard greens, and broccoli. A couple of teenagers help harvest vegetables. They earn $8 an hour to work about 20 hours a week as part of the organization’s Green Corps program to provide job training to local youth.

After harvesting, the group lines up boxes on a long table and unloads crates of produce. A cow moos. Soil Born Farms has seven sheep, 11 lambs, 80 chickens (that lay eggs to sell at the farm stand), four cows, and one pig that roams around aimlessly. A few yards away, Porter the dog runs through the fields. He keeps coyotes at bay. While the farm is adjacent to commercial and residential buildings on one side, the American River flows down the other side of the farm, offering a touch of wildness.

During winter, Soil Born harvests two days a week to fill 60 CSA boxes – 80 boxes in the summer. In a CSA, consumers pay for their weekly produce boxes in advance of the growing season, which gives farms a cushion from market forces and unpredictable weather, and provides consumers with food from a source they can trust.

This is Soil Born’s first attempt at a winter CSA program. The expansion is intended to raise funds and please customers who want local produce year-round. “We’ll make it,” Hagan says of the experiment. “But it’s going to be close.”

Soil Born Farms began as a small for-profit farm in 2000. In 2004, it transitioned into a nonprofit organization. “The plan was always to morph into an urban farm and education center that best addressed the diverse issues: food education, production, and improved access to healthy foods,” says Soil Born Farms co-founder Shawn Harrison. “Once we determined that we had the capacity and ability to grow food and be good farmers – [co-founder] Marco Franciosa and I did not grow up in farming – becoming a nonprofit was the natural choice.”

Harrison and Franciosa determined that in order to tap into community and foundation financial support, and more easily access public-land resources, becoming a nonprofit organization made the most sense.

In addition to the CSA, Soil Born runs a farm stand and sells food to restaurants. The farm also has an explicit social mission. It organizes a volunteer fruit-gleaning group, which donated nearly 20,000 pounds of produce to local food banks in 2009, and serves 1,500 children a year through its educational programs. Staff members also work closely with the city’s large Hmong community to increase market opportunities for Southeast Asian growers. Balancing farming responsibilities with time-consuming educational programs can be challenging.

“I think the urban farmer takes a certain kind of mold,” Hagan says as he ties bunches of carrots together. Most farmers only want to grow food, he says. Urban farmers, on the other hand, must also engage the public.

The organization is doing its best to sustain itself through sales, which isn’t easy. In 2009, the organization’s budget was $780,000; the 2010 budget is about $1 million. Nearly 60 percent of the organization’s revenue comes from private foundations and government grants. What Soil Born Farms could use, the managers acknowledge, is a big revenue-generating idea.

“We’ve yet to make the farm self-sufficient,” Hagan says. “I think we’re close.”

Gardening as Self Sufficiency

Two hours west, the San Francisco Bay Area boasts several urban farms. In Richmond – a city isolated by freeways and railroad tracks and best known as the home of a giant Chevron oil refinery – the Eco Village operates on five acres of land surrounded by blackberry vines as well as oak and walnut trees. Down in West Oakland is City Slicker Farms, which residents founded in 2001 in a predominantly African-American neighborhood that now includes a growing number of Latinos and Asians. The organization’s staff works out of a building next door to a barbed-wire fence. Across the street sits a boarded-up brick building.

On a Saturday morning in March, neighbors congregate for a weekly farm stand in front of one of City Slicker Farms’ seven garden sites. Customers try samples from a plate of honey while bagging up carrots and bok choy, self-determining what price they can afford. The organization uses sliding scale pricing so no one is turned away for lack of funds. The first level is for those out of work whose unemployment check maybe hasn’t yet arrived – City Slicker Farms asks for no explanation – and these people get carrots, lemons, collards, celery, and other items for free. The second level is intended for people living paycheck-to-paycheck who would otherwise search for deals at Safeway; they pay between 50 cents and $1.25 for a bunch of greens or a bag of carrots. The third level is for people who can afford to shop at Whole Foods but would rather support the farm stand and can afford to pay a little more. They pay between around $2 for a bag or bunch.

“Good to see you, it’s been awhile,” says City Slicker Farms Executive Director Barbara Finnin, hugging an elderly African-American woman named Edith. Finnin moved to West Oakland 11 years ago but has farmed her whole life, having grown up in a Mennonite agricultural community in Pennsylvania. The two chat and Edith comments on her backyard garden, built by City Slicker. “I love it,” she says.

City Slicker Farms hosts a backyard garden build every Saturday for low-income residents. It’s like a traditional barn-raising, with everyone and anyone in the neighborhood invited to chip in. Participants in the program help build their garden beds, with soil, plants, seeds, and a fruit tree donated by the organization. For two years, a garden mentor provides horticulture advice to participants. Since the program started in 2005, the organization has built 112 gardens; 99 of those families remain involved.

As morning turns into afternoon, Abeni Ramsey, the group’s market coordinator, walks through the garden behind the farm stand, the place where it all started in 2001. Now the site acts more as a demonstration garden, with a worm bin, an outdoor classroom, and growing tubes that sprout parsley, green onions, and celery. Every summer growing up, Ramsey traveled from Berkeley to Queens, New York, to help her grandfather prune tomatoes and harvest corn at his urban farm. About a decade ago, Ramsey recalls, the only grocery store in West Oakland closed down.

“I had a hard time getting access to healthy fruits and veggies,” Ramsey says. One day, she biked through the neighborhood and saw signs for City Slicker Farms. “I couldn’t believe someone was advertising fresh produce in West Oakland.”

Before long, the organization built two garden boxes in the shambles of a backyard behind her old Victorian house. Later, she acquired chickens and goats, recognizing that the once-empty space could provide food for her whole family.

“Just because [West Oakland] looks like a barren wasteland, it doesn’t have to be like that,” says Ramsey, who serves as one of City Slicker Farms’ eight staff members.

As Ramsey and Finnin visit with neighbors, two young men venture up to the farm stand, one holding a video camera and the other air-monitoring equipment. They’re part of a youth media group investigating the Bay Area’s “Toxic Triangle”: San Francisco’s naval shipyard, Richmond’s Chevron refinery, and the Port of Oakland.

The air pollution and lead in the soil in parts of many US cities compound another critical roadblock for food-access folks: the lack of land available for urban farming. City Slicker Farms doesn’t own any of the land upon which it grows. Neither does Soil Born Farms. Finnin wants the city of Oakland to allocate land specifically for agricultural use. She wants the city to repurpose parks and turn them into edible gardens.

The group’s long-term vision involves West Oakland growing 40 percent of its own fruits and vegetables. City Slicker staff estimate that meeting that goal would require 77 acres of land, or 3 percent of the community’s total area.

“We’re trying to build capacity for self-sufficiency,” Finnin says. “We want this to scale.”

City Slicker Farms’ food-justice mission is driven by the ideal of neighborhood empowerment: Teaching local residents how to garden and feed themselves.

But City Slicker Farms, like Soil Born, faces the classic challenge of nonprofit organizations – a dependence on grants. The question remains: How can City Slicker Farms get bigger? It’s the same problem faced by most urban farms and food-access organizations.

Take, for example, Milwaukee’s Growing Power, widely recognized as one of the most impressive urban farms in the country. Growing Power operates 14 greenhouses situated on two acres in a working-class neighborhood, near the city’s largest public-housing project. The farm produces a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of food a year, which feeds 10,000 residents through an on-farm retail store, restaurants, schools, farmers’ markets, and low-cost CSA shares. Founder Will Allen, whose father was a sharecropper in South Carolina, started the organization in 1993. In 2009, he was honored with a MacArthur “genius” award. Allen uses millions of pounds of food waste as compost – some of which is sold – and plants seeds at quadruple density to maximize space. From a sustainable-agriculture standpoint, Growing Power is a success. But it’s not financially self-sufficient. In the past five years, Allen has received at least $1 million in grants.

Produce to the People

People’s Grocery, another food justice organization based in West Oakland, believes it has a plan to be both economically self-sufficient and meet its core goal of increasing food access for low-income households: opening up its own neighborhood grocery store.

In 2003, the organization started distributing organic food in the area with its “mobile market” – a mediagenic biodiesel-powered, brightly painted converted postal van that cruised the neighborhood, stopping on corners to sell all the offerings one could find in a typical health food store. While the effort was a huge success in terms of public education, it was a financial drain. Sixty percent of the market’s revenue came from philanthropies, and the organization shuttered the van in 2006.

Since then, People’s Grocery has pivoted its focus to food production. The organization has two garden sites in Oakland and a 3.5-acre farm 35 miles away. Its CSA program – called GRUB – serves roughly 300 customers. Like City Slicker Farms, People’s Grocery has a graduated pricing system. People on food stamps, or those suffering from chronic disease, pay a discounted rate, while more affluent customers can purchase a “sponsorship box” at a premium rate to subsidize the program’s costs. The GRUB boxes generate close to $50,000 a year in revenue, but People’s Grocery remains reliant on donations and grants.

“We realized we had to spin off and do the venture to demonstrate that an inner-city store can be successful, and that a local-food project can exist without a charitable structure and subsidies,” says co-founder Ahmadi.

Not a single large grocery store exists in West Oakland, a neighborhood of about 24,000 people covering five square miles. But some 50 corner stores operate there, which equates to about one store for every 500 residents, as opposed to the middle-class neighborhoods of Oakland where one corner store exists for every 7,000 people, according to Ahmadi. Additionally, he says, corner stores charge 30 to 100 percent more for the same items sold in grocery stores.

A 2008 study found that West Oakland residents spend about $54 million annually for food for at-home consumption. Sixty-eight percent of this annual expenditure is not met locally, which equates to almost $37 million lost from the local economy. Or, put another way, even in this relatively poor neighborhood there’s a $50 million food economy, which means there should be some way for the economics to pencil out for a sustainable food operation.

After that study came out, Ahmadi totaled the revenues and weight of food distributed by five West Oakland food-access organizations – including People’s Grocery and City Slicker Farms – and compared those to the identified food-spending power. Together, the organizations’ total activities met about 1 percent of the community’s demand.

“That was a very humbling experience, and a very important moment for me to realize how far we have to go,” Ahmadi says. “We have to scale, that’s the bottom line.”

To reach a scale that can meet demand, food access organizations have to offer a broad selection of products, large quantities of those products, accessible locations, and convenient operating hours – the same basics that customers at Whole Foods in the more upscale city of Berkeley expect – with the added bonus of affordable prices.

“Low-income residents want full selection across a broad array of categories, which is why they spend a lot of time, money, and effort traveling to outlying grocery stores that are large enough to offer a suitable selection,” Ahmadi says.

The group is about to start lease negotiations on a site that was once a popular shopping center. And Ahmadi believes he can leverage the nonprofit’s history of success to attract investors. The store, to be called People’s Community Market, is set to launch in early 2011.

Growing Profits

As even its ardent protagonists acknowledge, city farming’s potential is limited. The United States’ small-scale city farm projects are micro-enterprises with modest revenue and distribution. They provide an important entry point for city dwellers to learn about the need for sustainable food systems, but they will never feed the country.

“Urban agriculture is just a piece of the food system, but it’s an important piece to educate the consumer and get food to underserved communities,” Soil Born’s Harrison says. “It provides an opportunity for people to touch the food, to feel it, for it to be more present in their daily lives.”

The best strategy for urban farm organizations might be to simply let the fruits and vegetables speak for themselves. At least, that’s the approach taken by Greensgrow, an urban farm started in 1998 in a low-income neighborhood of north Philadelphia, that has figured out how to both turn a profit and make local organic produce available to nearby residents. The organization has a one-acre plot of raised beds and greenhouses on the site of a former steel-galvanizing factory. It sells vegetables, herbs, honey, and seedlings produced on-site, along with produce, breads, meats, and cheeses from local producers. Greensgrow also makes biodiesel from waste oil produced by the restaurants that buy its vegetables.

“We are extremely diversified,” says co-founder Mary Seton Corboy. She says this diversification partly explains why her organization is financially self-sufficient, while many other urban farms are not. In 2009, Greensgrow had an income of $825,000. That’s earned income from CSAs, farm stand sales, restaurant sales, and nursery sales. Their profit of $85,000 was then invested in community programs, including workshops, tour visits, and plant giveaways.

While diversification is important at Greensgrow, “we have a linear vision and stay on track,” Corboy says. “I think some groups try to do too many things at once. Sometimes you just have to grow the peach and sell the peach.”

Greensgrow is, technically, a nonprofit. The group recently started a community kitchen and received $20,000 in grants to cover initial costs. The farm is starting a low-income CSA later this year, and because there’s an educational component to the program, the organization is looking for outside funding. But with a social mission focused on incubating ecological entrepreneurship, Greensgrow has always operated as if it were a for-profit company.  ……….

Sena Christian is a freelance journalist and newspaper reporter based in Sacramento, California. She covers feminist, environmental and social-justice issues..

© 2010 Earth Island Journal All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/147252/

Our CSA newsletter is now posted every week on our Avalon Gardens Farm report site; you can now refer your friends and family to it; and you can send us any comments or questions on the blog attached to each week. We are planning to have an archive set up for all the newsletter with all the vegetable of the week info and recipes, so those who sign up later in the season can be send to this reference site. We’ll keep you posted.

The garden is finding its new rhythm with some vegetables retiring and some are emerging from their long hibernation with full energy. This week we decided to send only a little amount of greens to give the plants (and us?) a deserved rest. Instead we are sending you some homemade KimChi. We did send you some a few weeks ago (see CSA news #7) and everyone seemed to like it. For those who are new to fermented food all we can say its very very good for you, similar to sauerkraut. It goes great as a side dish with all kinds of foods.. Many cultures serve it with every meal. Ours is made from Swiss Chard and Carrots. Enjoy it, it will also have a cooling effect to your body, good on a hot day. The exciting news this week is that the tomato plants are growing stronger and if all goes well we should have some by the end of July. The melon plants are stretching their arms and should be ready by end of August. But the good news is that the cucumbers, okra, eggplant and noodle beans are making their reappearances. We don’t have enough to send out yet, but after Wednesday morning harvest we know better, so you might get some okra or cucumbers; if not for sure next week.

Hope to see you all, 

-The Avalon Gardens Family

CSA Harvest List:

• Beets
• Daikon Radishes
• Garlic
• Purslane (Verdolaga) Greens
• Onion
• Summer Squash
• (new) KimChi made from Swiss Chard, carrot, green onions, garlic, ginger, salt, honey
• Eggplant
• maybe (new) Cucumbers

Vegetable of the Week: Beets

Here are some interesting facts about beets:

• Both beets and Swiss chard are different varieties within the same plant family (Amaranthaceae-Chenopodiaceae) and their edible leaves share a resemblance in both taste and texture.
• The wild beet, the ancestor of the beet with which we are familiar today, is thought to have originated in prehistoric times in North Africa and grew wild along Asian and European seashores. In these earlier times, people exclusively ate the beet greens and not the roots.
• The ancient Romans were one of the first civilizations to cultivate beets to use their roots as food.The beet has a long history of cultivation stretching back to the second millennium BC. The plant was probably domesticated somewhere along the Mediterranean, whence it was later spread to Babylonia by the 8th century BC and as far east as China by 850 AD.
• Beets are an excellent source of the B vitamin, folate, and a very good source of manganese and potassium.
• Beets are a good source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorus.

A Few Quick Serving Ideas for Beets

• You can use both the tops and the roots of beets. To use greens, cut stems where the leaves start. The greens are mild, similar to spinach.
• Grate the roots and use uncooked on salad, or use grated root to add a beautiful color and earthy flavor to risotto.
• If you are cooking the whole root, it will retain more vitamins if cooked with its skin on. Beet roots can be boiled or baked/roasted like potatoes.
• To roast beets, brush or mist with olive or other mild oil and place in a heavy pan in a 350 to 400 degree F oven for 45 minutes or more depending upon the beets’ size. Beets will soften like a baked potato. Alternatively, brush them with oil and cook them on your grill like as you would a “baked” potato.

Sustainable Agriculture News: Philly’s Greensgrow Farm: An Unconventional Hybrid That Works

by Breaking Through Concrete team

It’s sunny and 94 degrees, and the pavement’s steaming after a thunderstorm rolled sideways through north Philly. Mary Seton Corboy wears a full-body, white bee suit. She stands atop a small trailer’s grassy roof on a vacant city lot. Smoke puffs from the antique-looking box in her hand, and the bees calm down.

“We put these up here originally just for security,” she says. “Figured no one would bother the equipment with a bunch of bees around.”

Many of Greenpoint’s market customers come on bike. Mary has created a small world, called Greensgrow, here on one block. The trailer under the beehives holds farm tools. Beside the trailer, tanks for the biodiesel conversion operation transform used cooking oil into fuel for Big Yellow, the delivery truck that collects fresh produce and meat and dairy products from farms within 75 miles of this square of green in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. That food goes into the homes of 400 CSA members, some of them low-income, and for sale at the farm’s market. That is to say, the Greensgrow farm and nursery is a little bit of everything, and all of it connected, somehow, like any good old city.

Farming in Kensington, now a low-income neighborhood largely populated by Russian and Polish immigrants, is no more new than it is throughout Philadelphia. Community gardens, backyard gardens, and “guerrilla” gardens on vacant lots have been producing thousands of pounds of fresh food annually for over a century. The Vacant Lot Cultivation Association, begun in 1897, helps people access land and start market gardens. War rationing during WWI and II spurred Victory Gardens, as they did in many cities. And the early-to-mid-century exodus of African-American farmers from the sharecropper South brought a new agrarian population to the city.

The Breaking Through Concrete team is taking a 21st century road trip to document the American urban farm movement, visiting 14 diverse projects that are, in distinct ways, transforming our built environments and creating jobs, training opportunities, local economies, and healthy food in our nation’s biggest cities. The team is proud to have WhyHunger as a major sponsor of the tour.

Who we are: David Hanson (text)- David is a freelance journalist living in Seattle. He was the founding travel editor for Cottage Living Magazine and current Editor-at-Large for Coastal Living.

Michael Hanson (photography) - Michael shoots for The New York Times, Outside, Patagonia, Coastal Living, Budget Travel, NPR, Sunset, among others. He recently won American Photo Magazine’s first prize in portraiture for his series on Ethiopia’s Omo Valley tribes. Charlie Hoxie (videography) - A documentary filmmaker and freelance multimedia journalist living in New York City, Charlie has worked on projects for PBS and the Biography Channel, as well as feature documentaries with Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney. He is currently an MA candidate in the News & Documentary program at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Center for Journalism. Edwin Marty (farming) - Edwin is founder and executive director of Jones Valley Urban Farm, a non-profit, education and working production farm located in downtown

We are truly blessed with the abundance of our gardens. In the desert and in the food deserts of the world we have learned to grow and adapt to many circumstances. All of us are amazed at some of the greens that are still growing in 100 plus degrees. Sometimes we call it the miracle garden. And all the efforts become even more worthwhile when we see our CSA members and the wonderful people we meet at the Farmer’s Market in Tucson and our Farmstand in Tubac and the smiles and appreciation of all of them for us to grow it. We all feel very much supported by a community, an enlarged family of friends.

This week we like to bring you more greens. We have tried several Asian Greens, and we are sending you a small bag of Michihili looseleaf Chinese Cabbage Micro greens. Its so mild it reminds you almost of lettuce. Also a favorite of ours is Baby Kale. To our surprise its still tender and sweet. Enjoy them. And of course with all the other goodies you should have a great week of different meals.

There is more to gardening than technique. We hope you can smell and taste the celestial presence and help. Its a truth often forgotten, but if we all think, act and live closer in divine pattern the veil between this and the next dimension becomes thinner. The angels truly want to assist all of us and when there are no clouds they can assist the plants somehow to adapt better. And there is of course the love and service mindedness that create more vibrancy. So as you receive these vegetables with appreciation you add some more love and thats a whole meal by itself. We call this reality DEO.

Thank you again for all your support to make this local Deo Food movement grow. See you soon…..

-The Avalon Gardens Family

CSA Harvest List:

• Rainbow Chard
• Beets
• Daikon Radishes
• Baby Turnips
• Baby Kale
• Garlic
• Michihili Greens (Chinese Lettuce)
• Basil
• Onion
• Summer Squash

Vegetable of the Week

A Few Quick Serving Ideas for Basil

• Combine fresh chopped basil with garlic and olive oil to make a dairy-free variety of pesto that can top a variety of dishes including pasta, salmon and whole wheat brushetta.
• Enjoy a taste of Italy by layering fresh basil leaves over tomato slices and mozzarella cheese to create this traditional colorful and delicious salad.
• Adding basil to healthy stir-fries, especially those that include eggplant, cabbage, chili peppers, tofu and cashew nuts will give them a Thai flair.
• Puree basil, olive oil and onions in a food processor or blender and add to tomato soups.
• Enjoy a warm cup of invigorating basil tea by infusing chopped basil leaves in boiling water for eight minutes.

Sustainable Agriculture News: The Organic Food Solution

Many Thanks to Organic Consumers .org for providing this article.

• A new book details why buying organics might be the best thing you can do for your body–and the planet
  By Maria Rodale
  Women’s Health, March 2010
  Straight to the Source

Long before organic food was a fashionable eco-trend, J.I. Rodale—who in 1930 founded Rodale Inc., publisher of Women’s Health—began cultivating the organic movement. In 1942, he launched Organic Farming and Gardening magazine, and five years later, he created a nonprofit (now known as the Rodale Institute) to research the benefits of organic agriculture. J.I.’s son, Robert Rodale, was one of the first people to recognize the need for getting the USDA organic certification in place so the public can trust that when a food is labeled “organic,” it truly is.

Eighty years after the company’s inception, Rodale’s commitment to exploring the many benefits of eating organic food has never been stronger. This month, Maria Rodale, chairman and CEO of Rodale, publishes Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe. This excerpt from the book gives you a taste of how much healthier an organic life can be: Organic farming is better for the environment, the evidence is clear. And research has shown that it’s more profitable and productive over the long term. So why hasn’t every farmer switched to organic methods, especially if farming organically can also stop the climate crisis, save the limited oil resources for other uses, and eliminate the majority of the toxins from our soil and water?

Because first, attitudes must change. And that starts with us. To help you understand the issues and give you ammunition to talk about them with others, here are nine things you need to know. No spin, just the facts (OK, with a few opinions thrown in for good measure).

1. Agricultural Chemicals Destroy the Soil’s Natural Ability to Store and Process Carbon.

Mycorrhizal fungi are our greatest ally in the fight for our survival on this planet: They’re fungi that grow on the roots of plants and contribute to taking greenhouse gases out of the air. They are the hidden heroes beneath us. Chemicals kill these hidden heroes.

2. Chemicals Poison the Air, Water, And Soil.

The manufacturing, transportation, and use of chemicals for agriculture are energy intensive and poisonous to all things that come in contact with them. Most chemicals don’t biodegrade within a few months. Like nuclear waste, some toxins last forever, and many of the impacts are known to be horrible. Already, dead zones in the ocean are starting to spread, wells are contaminated, and we suffer increasingly from infections and diseases such as asthma, diabetes, MRSA, Parkinson’s, and cancers that are connected to these chemicals.

3. Smaller Doses of Chemicals Can Be Just As Dangerous As Large Doses.

Most of the government regulations on chemicals are based on estimated safe amounts of exposure. Doctors and scientists are finding, however, that small doses, and cumulative small doses, can be just as toxic as large doses. There really are no safe limits.

4. Chemicals Are Not Necessary to Grow Food.

Synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a substitute for thinking, understanding, and effort. They are necessary only to generate large profits for businesses and for disposing of our toxic industrial wastes. Virtually every food in the world has been successfully grown and made organically in modern, productive, and regenerative ways—from fine wine to white flour, apples, cherries, the most delicious gourmet beef, and olive oil.

5. Organic Foods Are Healthier And Safer.

Studies have shown that some organic foods are higher in antioxidants and powerful cancer-fighting nutrients such as conjugated linoleic acid. They’re safer because they are produced without dangerous chemicals, antibiotics, and risky (to say nothing of disgusting) and cheap practices like feeding dead cows to living cows, or putting contaminated sewage sludge onto farm fields. Certified organic products are the only foods available that have a government-backed guarantee that no chemicals, antibiotics, sewage sludge, or GMOs were used in the growing or processing of the foods.

6. Eating Organic Is Easier Than Ever.

Choosing to eat organic food does not condemn you to a diet of nuts, berries, and tofu. Today, you can find organic versions of the most popular foods, including such favorites as Hidden Valley ranch dressing and Heinz ketchup. It is possible to produce any food organically, even Cap’n Crunch cereal and American cheese.

7. Government Subsidies Are the Primary Reason For the Low Prices of Chemical Foods.

Without government subsidies, chemical food would not be less expensive, but rather much more expensive. Organic foods have no hidden costs.

8. Organic Farming Increases And Protects the Planet’s Natural Biodiversity.

If you are an animal lover of any kind, organic is for you. A recent report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature documents that “life on earth is under serious threat.” The report found that one-third of amphibians, at least one in eight birds, and a quarter of mammals are on the verge of extinction. Half of all plant groups are threatened. The toxic effects of chemicals have reduced all species’ abilities to survive and reproduce.

9. It’s Not Too Late to Change—and Get Healthier And Happier!

People who eat organic foods reduce their pesticide intake by as much as 90 percent, according to a study from the University of Washington. Further, research at the University of Colorado has found that certain strains of soil-borne bacteria not only stimulate the human immune system, but also boost serotonin levels in mice. Low levels of serotonin are tied to depression, and drugs that inhibit its reuptake in the brain are used as antidepressants. If we all farmed and gardened the organic way, we may not need all the antidepressant drugs that are ending up in our water supply.

Want to Know More?

Excerpted from Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe, by Maria Rodale (March 2010, Rodale). Available wherever books are sold.

Our interest in bats began in the summer of 2009 while looking for natural ways to keep our insect pest population down.  We read online that bats are the primary predators of night-flying insects and that they can eat over half of their body-weight each night.  The following is and excerpt from The Bat House Builder’s Handbook: “Just one little brown myotis [bat] can catch a thousand or more mosquito-sized insects in a hour and a colony of 150 big brown bats can catch enough cucumber beetles each summer to prevent egg laying that otherwise could infest local gardens with 33 million rootworms.  Cucumber and June beetles, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, and cutworm and corn earworm moths—all well-know pests—are just a few of the many insects consumed by these frequent users of bat houses.  In addition, many pests flee areas where they hear bat echolocation sounds.”

Needless to say, we immediately wanted to have these little guys as our allies.  We started researching how we could attract them to Avalon Gardens and roll out the red carpet to the feast of pests that were in our pastures.  The bats’ ears must have been burning because they arrived very soon after those first days of research.  Every night, huge colonies of bats could be seen hunting the desert skies above our land.  We were overjoyed to have them, but were a little disappointed when we found out that they had chosen our barns and the eves of our houses as places to roost.  As beautiful as bats are they make a mess!

We became very interested in setting up bat houses, artificial bat habitats, to encourage our fuzzy friends to relocate.  After many emails back and forth about receiving state funding and grant proposals, we were blessed with a private, anonymous donor who made the whole thing happen when they set us up with 9 bat houses to place throughout Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm, & Ranch.

We put the first two bat houses up in an old mesquite tree just to the west of our Northern garden beds.  Soon we will put the others up in different locations around the property to give the bats a choice of where to roost.  We’ll keep you posted on their progress throughout the months of Spring as we head toward Summer, the most popular time of year for bats in our area. 

Bat Conservation International has created an excellent website with tons of information about bats and bat conservation.  For more information, visit www.batcon.org/.  If you would like to help us here in our efforts to establish habitats for bats, please consider a donation to Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm, & Ranch.  We are hoping to humanely exclude the bats from the barn this Spring and you may be able to help cover the cost of supplies for this project.

Yesterday, we met with Chris Haynes, a soil conservationist with the National Resources Conservation Service.  Since we are planning major water conservation practices, we might qualify to get financial assistance from this agency.  It’s very exciting!

Stay posted and we’ll let you know how it goes.  If you are interested, call us right away.  Peace be upon you brothers and sisters.

-Tarenta and TaliSeen

Change Agents and Destiny Reservists

This winter was not an idle one, to say the least. We kept busy digging out the comfrey and nettles to transplant in our northern garden. We weeded, dug out, and mulched our fruit tree wells and many wintercrops. Many hours were spent doing and thorough seed inventory and update. The annual winter seed ordering took place, looking through catalogs and discussing what we’d try. We’ve nearly got our larger greenhouse completed in the lower garden, that we’re grateful to have been partially donated. That’s been a good project. Happily, in our climate here we were able to continue to grow beets, lettuce, spinach, kohlrabi, carrots, kale, daikon, radish, swiss chard, parsley, cilantro, collards, onions and broccoli over these quieter months. Our winter squash is still holding out for our meals.

Quite a pleasing sight it is for those garlic-lovers amongst us to see our long rows of green tops stretching out. We should have our biggest harvest yet coming up by the end of May, thanks to many hands sticking each little clove in. Amongst these helpers were different visitors, including WWOOFER’s, which we’re always grateful for.

Thousands of seedlings have been sprouting up lately, looking towards a new and exciting CSA season ahead of us. Months back we started the brassicas going in the smaller propagation greenhouse, and now they’re getting settled in out in the field. Getting them out provided room for the more tender tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basil, fennel, and celery. Many weeks were spent preparing a new area for the tomatoes, and thanks to a good neighbor lending us his auger the holes took a fraction of the time it’s taken us by hand in past years.

Another new project is transforming a large pasture field, which Kamon designed, and many people assisted with preparing the soil, fencing, and so forth. If all goes well we will have growing in abundance native winter squashes, growing besides various indigenous corn and Hopi lima beans. In addition the native sunflower root (Jerusalem Artichokes), mangel and sugar beets will provide lots of feed for our animals.

Connecting with more people has been a pleasure, through our outreaches at fairs, and festivals, giving talks, holding events in town and at the ranch.

Our eco-village is a thriving agrarian community of dedicated souls from all over the world. Come volunteer and/or visit us soon in this very rewarding work of finding solutions in a world crisis.

Japanese Daikon,

Rainbow Swiss Chard,

Spanish Bunching Onion and Shallot style Onions,

Avalon Garlic,

Golden Acre and Danish Ballhead Cabbage,

Southern Georgia, Morris Head, and Vates Collards,

Genovese Sweet, Lemon, and Cinnamon Basil,

Mexican Oregano, Mountain Rosemary,
Nantes Carrots,

Champion and Easter Egg Radish.

Week 2 - 6/26/08

Japanese Daikon,

Rainbow Swiss Chard,

Spanish Bunching Onion and Shallot style Onions,

Avalon Garlic,

Golden Acre and Danish Ballhead Cabbage,

Southern Georgia, Morris Head, and Vates Collards,

Genovese Sweet, Lemon, and Cinnamon scented Basil,

Mexican Oregano,

Mountain Rosemary,

Black Beauty, Ping Tung, and Koonce Eggplant

Shepard Sweet Pepper
Week 3 – 7/03/08
Japanese Daikon,

Rainbow Swiss Chard,

Shallot style Onions,

Avalon Garlic,

Golden Acre and Danish Ballhead Cabbage,

Southern Georgia, Morris Head, and Vates Collards,

Genovese Sweet, Lemon, and Cinnamon scented Basil,

Black Beauty, Ping Tung, and AiGua Eggplant, Purslane

Detroit Dark Red Beets

Week 4 – 7/10/08
Japanese Daikon,

Rainbow Swiss Chard,

Shallot style Onions,

Avalon Garlic,

Copenhagen Market and Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbages,

Southern Georgia, Morris Head, and Vates Collards,

Genovese Sweet, Lemon, and Cinnamon scented Basil,

Black Beauty, Ping Tung, and AiGua Eggplant, Purslane,

Summer Squash: Black, Lebanese, and Golden Zucchini, Scallop, Yellow Straight Necks, and Lemon Squash.

Sweet Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini

Week 5 – 7/17/08

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Shallot style Bunching Onions

Avalon Garlic

Golden Acre, Copenhagen Market, Early Jersey Wakefield, and Danish Ballhead Cabbages Southern Georgia, Morris Head, and Vates Collards

Genovese Sweet, Lemon, and Cinnamon scented Basil

Black Beauty, Ping Tung, AiGua, and Koonce White Eggplant

Purslane

Summer Squash: Black, Grey/Lebanese, and Golden Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, Scallop/Patty Pan, Bennings Green Tint, Yellow Straightnecks, and Lemon

Sweet Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden

Week 6 – 7/24/08
Shallot style Bunching Onions

Avalon Garlic

Golden Acre, Copenhagen Market, Early Jersey Wakefield, and Danish Ballhead Cabbages Southern Georgia, Morris Head, and Vates Collards

Genovese Sweet, Lemon, and Cinnamon scented Basil

Black Beauty and Koonce White Eggplant

Summer Squash: Black, Grey/Lebanese, and Golden Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, Scallop/Patty Pan, Bennings Green Tint, Yellow Straightnecks, and Lemon

Sweet Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini, Marconi Golden, Yellow Super Stuff and Bell Bush Beans: Purple Queen, Blue Lake, and Kentucky Yellow Wonder

Waltham Sprouting Broccoli

Week 7 – 7/31/08
Shallot style Bunching Onions

Avalon Garlic

Golden Acre, Copenhagen Market, Early Jersey Wakefield, and Danish Ballhead Cabbages Southern Georgia, Morris Head, and Vates Collards

Genovese Sweet, Lemon, and Cinnamon scented Basil

Black Beauty Ai Gua, and Koonce White Eggplant

Summer Squash: Black, Grey/Lebanese, and Golden Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, Scallop/Patty Pan, Bennings Green Tint, Yellow Straightnecks, and Lemon

Sweet Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini, Marconi Golden, and Yellow Super Stuff

Beans: Purple Queen, Blue Lake, Kentucky Yellow Wonder,

Week 8 – 8/07/08

Shallot style Bunching Onions

Avalon Garlic

Golden Acre, Copenhagen Market, Early Jersey Wakefield, and Danish Ballhead Cabbages Genovese Sweet, Nufar, and Cinnamon Basil

Black Beauty, Ai Gua, Long Purple, and Koonce White Eggplant

Summer Squash: Black, Grey/Lebanese, and Golden Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, Scallop/Patty Pan, Bennings Green Tint, Yellow Straightnecks, Lemon, and Tromboncino

Sweet Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini, Marconi Golden, and Super Stuff

Beans: Purple Queen, Blue Lake, Kentucky Yellow Wonder, and Chinese Noodle

Carrots: Imperator, and Royal Chantanay

Cucumbers: Armenian, Lemon, and English Telegraph

Okra: Clemson Spineless, Louisiana Velvet, and Alabama Red

Week 9 – 8/14/08
Avalon Garlic

Golden Acre, Copenhagen Market, Early Jersey Wakefield, and Danish Ballhead Cabbages Genovese Sweet, Nufar, Lemon, and Cinnamon Basil

Black Beauty Ai Gua, Long Purple, and Koonce White Eggplant

Summer Squash: Black, Grey/Lebanese, and Golden Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, Scallop/Patty Pan, Green Tint, Yellow Straightnecks, Lemon, and Tromboncino

Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Super Stuff, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden

Beans: Purple Queen, Blue Lake, Kentucky Yellow Wonder, and Chinese Noodle

Carrots: Imperator, and Royal Chantanay

Cucumbers: Lemon, Armenian, English Telegraph

Okra: Clemson Spineless, Louisiana Velvet, and Alabama Red

Week 10 – 8/21/08
Avalon Garlic

Genovese Sweet, Nufar, and Cinnamon Basil

Black Beauty Ai Gua, Long Purple, and Koonce White Eggplant

Summer Squash: Black, Grey/Lebanese, and Golden Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, Scallop/Patty Pan, Green Tint, Yellow Straightnecks, Lemon, and Tromboncino

Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Super Stuff, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden

Beans: Purple Queen, Blue Lake, Kentucky Yellow Wonder, and Chinese Noodle

Carrots: Imperator, and Royal Chantanay

Cucumbers: Lemon, Armenian, English Telegraph

Okra: Clemson Spineless, Louisiana Velvet, and Alabama Red

Week 11 – 8/28/08

Avalon Garlic

Genovese Sweet, Nufar, Lemon, and Cinnamon Basil

Black Beauty Ai Gua, Long Purple, and Koonce White Eggplant

Summer Squash: Black, Grey/Lebanese, Costata Romanesco, Patty Pan, Yellow Straightnecks, Lemon, and Tromboncino

Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Super Stuff, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden

Beans: Blue Lake, and Chinese Noodle

Carrots: Imperator, and Royal Chantanay

Cucumbers: Lemon, Armenian, English Telegraph

Okra: Clemson Spineless, Louisiana Velvet, and Alabama Red

Hot Peppers (various)

Cantaloupe Melons (various)

Week 12 – 9/04/08

Avalon Garlic

Genovese Sweet, Nufar, Lemon, and Cinnamon Basil

Black Beauty, Ai Gua, Long Purple, and Koonce White Eggplant

Summer Squash: Patty Pan, Lemon, and Tromboncino

Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Super Stuff, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden

Beans: Blue Lake, and Chinese Noodle

Carrots: Imperator and Royal Chantanay

Cucumbers: Lemon and Armenian

Okra: Clemson Spineless, Louisiana Velvet, and Alabama Red

Tomatoes (all heirloom varieties)

Melons! (various)

Week 13 – 9/11/08

Avalon Garlic

Genovese Sweet, and Nufar Basil

Eggplant: Black Beauty

Collards: Vates

Summer Squash: Patty Pan, Lemon, and Yellow Straightnecks

Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden

Beans: Chinese Noodle

Carrots: Imperator and Royal Chantanay

Okra: Clemson Spineless, Louisiana Velvet, and Alabama Red

Hot Peppers (various varieties)

Week 14 – 9/18/08

Avalon Garlic

Genovese Sweet, and Nufar Basil

Eggplant: Black Beauty, White Koonce, Japanese, Ai Gua

Collards: Vates

Summer Squash: Patty Pan, Lemon, Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, and Yellow Straightnecks Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden

Beans: Chinese Noodle

Carrots: Imperator and Royal Chantanay

Okra: Clemson Spineless, Louisiana Velvet, and Alabama Red

Hot Peppers: Ancho, Poblano, Cayenne, and Jalapeño

Melons (various)

Lemon Grass

Week 15 – 9/25/08

Avalon Garlic (a variety of strains)

Genovese Sweet, and Nufar Basil

Eggplant: Black Beauty, White Koonce, Japanese, Ai Gua

Collards: Vates

Tomatoes(all heirloom varieties)

Summer Squash: Patty Pan, Lemon, Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, and Yellow Straightnecks

Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden.

Beans: Chinese Noodle

Carrots: Imperator and Royal Chantanay

Okra: Clemson Spineless, Louisiana Velvet, and Alabama Red

Hot Peppers: Ancho, Poblano, Cayenne, and Jalapeño

Lemon Grass

Week 16 – 10/02/08

Avalon Garlic (a variety of strains)

Genovese Sweet, and Nufar Basil

Eggplant: Black Beauty

Tomatoes (a large variety of heirlooms)

Summer Squash: Patty Pan, Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, and Yellow Straightnecks

Sweet Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden

Carrots: Imperator and Royal Chantanay

Okra: Clemson Spineless, and Louisiana Velvet

Hot Peppers: Ancho, Poblano, Cayenne, Anaheim, and Jalapeño

Kale: Russian, Red Ursa

Week 17 – 10/09/08
Avalon Garlic (a variety of strains)

Genovese Sweet, and Nufar Basil

Eggplant: Black Beauty, Ai Gua, White Koonce

Summer Squash: Patty Pan, Zucchini, Costata Romanesco, and Yellow Straightnecks

Sweet Peppers: Banana, Shepherd, Pepperoncini, and Marconi Golden

Carrots: Imperator and Royal Chantanay

Okra: Clemson Spineless, and Louisiana Velvet

Hot Peppers: Ancho, Poblano, Cayenne, Anaheim, and Jalapeño

Kale: Russian, Red Ursa

Collards: Vates

Japanese Daikon Radish, Purslane

Week 18 – 10/16/08

Avalon Garlic (a variety of strains)

Eggplant: Black Beauty, Ai Gua, White Koonce

Cucumbers: English Telegraph

Carrots: Imperator and Royal Chantanay

Hot Peppers: Anaheim

Kale: Russian, Red Ursa

Collards: Vates, Southern Georgia, Morris Head

Japanese Daikon

Winter Squash: Butternut

Sweet Potatoes (various varieties)

Jerusalem Artichokes

Week 19 – 10/23/08

Avalon Garlic (a variety of strains)

Eggplant: Black Beauty, Ai Gua

Cucumbers: Marketmore

Kale: Russian, Red Ursa

Collards: Vates, Southern Georgia, Morris Head

Radish: Easter Egg

Hot Pepper: Anaheim (for Chile rellenos)

Winter Squash: Pumpkin (various varieties)

Sweet Potatoes (various varieties)

Jerusalem Artichokes

Week 20 – 10/30/08

Avalon Garlic (a variety of strains)

Cucumbers: Marketmore

Kale: Russian, Red Ursa

Collards: Vates, Southern Georgia, Morris Head

Daikon (Japanese Radish)

Hot Pepper: Anaheim (for Chile rellenos)

Winter Squash: Acorn & Pumpkin

Sweet Potatoes (various varieties)

Jerusalem Artichokes

Week 21 – 11/06/08

Avalon Garlic (a variety of strains)

Kale: Russian, Red Ursa

Red Radishes (various varieties)

Winter Squash: Tahitian & Pumpkin

Sweet Potatoes (various varieties)

Jerusalem Artichokes

Bunching Onions (various)

Beets: Chioggia

Week 22 – 11/13/08

Avalon Garlic: Inchillium, Polish Genn, California Late, and CA Early

Kale: White & Red Russian, Early Siberian, and Red Ursa

Red Radishes: Easter Egg, Crimson Giant

Winter Squash: Banana & Pumpkin

Sweet Potatoes: Georgia Jets, Japanese White, Centennial, Vardamon, and Beauregard

Jerusalem Artichokes

Beets: Chioggia, Bull’s Blood, Detroit Red

Bunching Onions: Spanish

Rainbow Blend Swiss Chard

Week 23 – 11/20/08

Avalon Garlic: Inchillium, Polish Genn, California Late, and CA Early

Kale: White & Red Russian, Early Siberian, and Red Ursa

Red Radishes: Easter Egg, Crimson Giant

Winter Squash: Spaghetti & Pumpkin

Sweet Potatoes: Georgia Jets, Japanese White, Centennial, Vardamon, and Beauregard

Jerusalem Artichokes

Beets: Chioggia, Bull’s Blood, Detroit Red

Bunching Onions: Spanish

Rainbow Blend Swiss Chard

Week 24 – 11/26/08

Avalon Garlic: Inchillium, Polish Genn, California Late, and CA Early

Kale: White & Red Russian, Early Siberian, and Red Ursa

Red Radishes: Easter Egg, Crimson Giant

Winter Squash: Banana & Pumpkin

Sweet Potatoes: Georgia Jets, Japanese White, Centennial, Vardamon, and Beauregard

Jerusalem Artichokes

Beets: Chioggia, Bull’s Blood, Detroit Red

Bunching Onions: Spanish

Rainbow Blend Swiss Chard

We’ve got the garlic in! That feels great. Takes a group effort to plant half an acre by hand. The early hard frost (24 F in the Lower Garden) in mid October knocked out our Basil, Eggplant, Peppers, Tomatoes, Okra, Cucumbers, and Summer Squash, altering the end of our CSA season, but this is part of the natural agricultural life: we are connected with the weather and seasons, and adapt to whatever comes our way. We still had plenty of others crops to continue with, and our first season ended successfully.

Now we’re enjoying our winter squashes. Each variety has its own character of flavor, texture, and look served in meals. Everyone seems to have their favorite kinds. Is it the acorns, Tahitians, the butternut, or Mayo? The spaghetti squash goes so well with our fresh goat cheese and a little red sauce. We’re also enjoying the sweet potatoes. Of course the different varieties have their own flavors too. For Thanksgiving we enjoyed some wonderful pies from these roots.

We gave thanks for our abundance this year in the garden, as we celebrated this day together. Now the beets are fat and the leaves vibrant before the cold gets at them. The chard is standing strong as the pests recede, the carrots are big and sweet, bunching onions ready, kale and collards pumping out, and the next round of radishes (daikon and red) are coming on as the latter are thinning out. Our lettuce is filling the big bowls at meal time, and the spinach is getting harvested. Even saw some little broccoli head swelling gently. The comfrey is going for one last round after being cut back. A little volunteer tomato sprouted up and has its own plans, its little yellow flowers are saying. Even the jaltomate’s tiny, delicate lavender flowers are persisting. Can anyone tell us what this plant is all about?

What’s next? There are the many pieces of a new greenhouse awaiting us. It’ll be a fun project to get it up and going. Our one greenhouse was already outgrown when we raised it last winter. Gotta start somewhere though. Number two will be filled right up too. The garden is ready to expand as fast as we can keep up with her.

The bees are hunkering down, and have needed a little feeding due to the early frost knocking out a lot of their nectar sources. Now is the quiet season, allowing us to get ready for next year. It’s going to be a big one! We’ll see how many millions of bees we can rescue in 2009. We’ve been told by a local expert that our ranch could support 200 colonies, so we’ve got a lot of boxes to get ready.

Again, we want to offer our ranch as a training ground for all persons seeking service and experience in the fields of agriculture, gardening, animal husbandry, and building. Recently we’ve appreciated the helping hands of four WWOOFERs who came through in time to wrap up the garlic with us, amongst many other things. We are a family all pitching in together, whether a visitor passing through for a few days, a guest for a few months doing a work exchange, a neighbor helping teach our young ladies in the kitchen, adult community members, one of our up-and-coming teens mentoring, or our kids pulling carrots with us. We understand our need for each other, and invite anyone called to jump on in with us for a bit. Why not join in this movement of agricultural and communal revival? You just might get a lot out of it if you give it a try.

A Little News from the Planetary Fields

- Purdue University’s apicultural researcher Greg Hunt has estimated about 23% of the world’s honey bee population has been lost. Last winter, U.S. beekeepers lost 35% of their colonies. In France they have banned a neurotoxic pesticide (manufactured by Bayer) blamed for their recent loses, and Germany has followed suit, after finding the buildup of the chemical in 99% of their dead bees.

- The NAIS (National Animal Identification System) has been suspended indefinitely, according to a recent court ruling. This is wonderful news for all those who have been fighting for their rights to leave their livestock free of chips for tracking by the USDA.

- We note the passing of the great farmer-philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka, author of the famous The One Straw Revolution. He was one who showed us all that less can be more and that nature might not need so much messing with to grow abundant crops.

- According to the ’08 report of the USDA’s Economic Research Service:

92% of soybeans planted in the U.S. were GMO, along with

86% of cotton

80% of corn

Unless you know the source is clean, you are probably supporting Monsanto when these U.S. products are bought, used, or consumed.

- According to a recent report from Iowa State University, the net profits for organic farming far outweighs the commodity farm’s, showing the former to be 5 times greater in this area.

To read more about these tid-bits, look for ACRES. This important publication deserves our support.

]]> http://avalongardens.org/report/2008/12/11/wrapping-up-for-the-winter/feed/ http://avalongardens.org/report/2008/03/11/winter-gives-way-to-spring/ http://avalongardens.org/report/2008/03/11/winter-gives-way-to-spring/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:45:55 +0000 Avalon Gardens http://dev.avalongardens.org/report/2008/03/11/winter-gives-way-to-spring/ Farm Report From
Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm, and Ranch in Tumacacori, Arizona.
2/08

February witnessed the preparation and anticipation of spring. In this climate spring sneaks in fast out of winter, and is gone into the blazing summer without waiting for anyone to catch up. We are getting our seedlings going in the greenhouse. When it is warm enough outside they will have that head-start to go right into the ground, for early produce. We continue to harvest plenty with our winter crops, along with beginning to enjoy the beets, parsley, and new round of carrots emerging.

We’ve kept busy building the soils with our own compost made from our goats, rabbits, chickens, horses, and cattle. We’ve mixed wood ash, charcoal, leftover food scraps the chickens overlooked, alfalfa shake, wood chips, and sprayed it with EM (Effective Microorganisms™) in order to assist break it down.

The winter so far has been warm and very dry. We can sure use any rain we get. The experts say we’re in a ten year drought out here in the West.

Recently we’ve begun to set in motion our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program for the surrounding area. Anyone from Tucson, Nogales, Green Valley, Patagonia, Aravaca, Tumacacori, Tubac, and surrounding areas that interested in having the freshest, home-grown organic vegetables possible can sign up to participate with us. E-mail or call us to get more details. We’ll appreciate all the support we can get doing our part here to realign our local food security and eating habits towards more bioregional, healthy produce.

We’ve had some visitors come by lately for our gardening exchange program. People can stay with us in exchange for helping out on the farm. We’re always looking for extra hands, so if any of you out there are interested in agriculture, and want to see what we’re doing here and pitch in, please let us know: we have a live-in agricultural training program, and will also accept day workers. We’d love to have ya.