Posts from — December 2011

River Cottage Urban Smallholding (1 of 5) “Beginnings”

During River Cottage spring (2008) Hugh helped a group of Bristol families start a smallholding on derelict council land.

A talented writer, broadcaster and campaigner, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is widely known for his uncompromising commitment to seasonal, ethically produced food and has earned a huge following through his River Cottage TV series and books.

His early smallholding experiences were shown in the Channel 4 River Cottage series and led to the publication of The River Cottage Cookbook (2001), which won the Glenfiddich Trophy and the André Simon Food Book of the Year awards.

[Read more →]

Soil Born Farms from Soil Born Farms on Vimeo.

Soil Born Farms Apprentice 2011

By Emily Pearson
December, 2011

When Shawn Harrison speaks he has the uncanny ability to make people listen. This has come in handy during his years as co-founder and director of non-profit Soil Born Farms – an urban agriculture and education program that is changing the way his native town of Sacramento thinks about food. The project’s home base, the American River Ranch is a testament to his vision and to the possibilities that urban agriculture holds for transforming our food system in North America.

The 40-acre property sits on one of the oldest pieces of agricultural land in California and is home to the multi-pronged approach that Soil Born Farms has to changing the way we think, interact and experience our natural and agricultural environment. Behind the organization’s many lofty goals and activities lies a powerful mission statement. Created in 2000, Soil Born Farms aims to “create an urban agriculture and education project that empowers youth and adults to discover and participate in a local food system that encourages healthy living, nurtures the environment and grows a sustainable community.”

[Read more →]

Community Services Unlimited Inc. in South Central Los Angeles.

Growing Healthy

The Growing Healthy program engages youth in urban farming and food based learning as a tool to help them adopt a healthier lifestyle and develop an awareness and political consciousness to the food access and environmental justice issues impacting their communities. The program currently operates at three sites: John Muir Middle School, Normandie Avenue Elementary School, and the Expo Center. We work youth and adults of all ages, from pre-school to seniors. We offer nutrition and gardening education and engage the youth in community research and projects aimed at understanding the food environment and improving access to healthy local food at their schools and in their community.

[Read more →]

Roadside vegetable market, Nr. Kampala, Uganda. Photo by Mike Gadd.

Trial at five contaminated urban agriculture sites in Kampala City, Uganda

By G. Nabulo, C.R. Black, J. Craigon, S.D. Young
School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham
Online: 28 December 2011.
Environmental Pollution
Volume 162, March 2012, Pages 389-398

Abstract

Concentrations of potentially toxic elements were measured in soils and five contrasting tropical leafy vegetables grown in a replicated field trial at five contaminated urban agriculture sites in Kampala City, Uganda. Soil contamination at each site could be tentatively ascribed to known waste disposal practices. There was considerable variation in metal uptake between vegetable types. Washing leafy vegetables reduced chromium and lead concentrations but exogenous contamination of leaves also depended on vegetable type, withGynandropsis gynandraL. showing a marked tendency to accumulate Pb and Cr.

[Read more →]

Produced by
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel
via The Horticultural Channel
Oct 20, 2011

The UK may be the heartland of allotments but throughout the world people are coming together and creating their own allotment site, or community gardens as they are often called.

Five years ago, the plot of land on the grounds of the Natural History Museum in Jerusalem was barren and unused. Today it has become the city’s largest community garden.

Designed as a space to grow organic crops, the garden — located just a stone’s throw from a busy street – is also an educational institution and an urban refuge for the people of Jerusalem.

By Dave Hamilton
Green Books
April 2011

Don’t like spending money in garden centres? Think you can make it yourself for a fraction of the price or find a cheaper option? Dave Hamilton shows you how. By recycling and reusing materials creatively and making the most of what you have, you can gather all you need to grow your food on a budget. Whether it’s building your own shed from scrap, constructing a path out of recycled materials or storing your harvest without a freezer, it’s all here.

[Read more →]

Broad Bean Wine, Pine Needle Cordial, Nocino, an Italian green walnut cordial, Carrot Whisky, Sloe and Damson Rum, Parsnip Sherry, Elderberry and Blackberry Wine, Pumpkin Beer, Broom Tonic, Meadowsweet Tea, Elderflower Champagne, Sloe Gin and Prison Brew

By Andy Hamilton
Eden Project Books
1 Sept, 2011

A guide that contains over 100 recipes including beer made from hops and also yarrow, mugwort, elder and other foraged plants, great tasting wines from fruit, vegetables and the hedgerows, cider and perry from apples and pears, cordials from the leaves of a range of trees, and teas and fizzy drinks from herbs and wayside flowers.

[Read more →]

Legislation that would exempt the city from a provision in the state’s Right to Farm Act restricting municipalities from exercising regulatory authority over agriculture.

By Jonathan Oosting
MLive
November 29, 2011

Excerpt:

Urban farming advocates say the law, intended to ensure all Michigan farmers operate under the same rules, is discouraging Detroit from allowing farms that would otherwise generate jobs and food.

“I see this as something that can bring real economic activity to the city of Detroit,” Smith told MLive.com. “I don’t think think there’s any other large urban area that has something like this going on. So we can be very innovative, and I really think this could help feed families and put people to work.”

[Read more →]

Success and failure in the worldwide urban agriculture movement

By Todd Major
North Shore News
December 28, 2011

Excerpts:

This has been a year of success and failure for the worldwide urban agriculture movement that is desperately trying to atone for past abuses against the environment and to respond to growing concerns about the safety and sustainability of modern food production.

[Read more →]

Video and story from Faircompanies here.

Is the City the Future for Honeybees? America’s Only Urban Beekeeping Store Owner Thinks So

Sami Grover
Treehugger
December 28, 2011

Excerpt:

We’ve already seen studies that suggest that big city bees may be healthier than their rural counterparts. And that’s something Bryon Waibel—proprietor of America’s only urban beekeeping store Her Majesty’s Secret Beekeeper—would agree with. Having seen his own urban bees thrive while his Dad’s bees in the countryside of Minnesota have struggled, Waibel is convinced that the city may be the home of the future for honeybees.

[Read more →]

Prospero Agricultural Swarmbots – The Future Of Farming?

By David Dorhout

Excerpt:

Today’s agricultural equipment has been designed around a person sitting in a chair. It cost a lot to employ a single person so the equipment grew larger in order to maximize the productivity of that one person. However, this method has its drawbacks. Farming decisions have to be made at the field level. Nature is chaotic and dynamic. Soil nutrients and moisture change from foot to foot. Having equipment that allows a single person to plant a thousand acres in a day comes at the cost of productivity per acre as a result of treating all those acres as the same. A swarm of small robots like Prospero would have the ability to farm inch by inch,

[Read more →]

Volunteers Gary Jenkins, left, and Curt Millington, right, and microbiologist Dave Love, center, of The Johns Hopkins Center for a Liveable Future, are lining the holding tank for fish at an aquaponics facility under construction in a greenhouse at Cylburn Arboretum. Photo by Amy Davis, Baltimore Sun.

People interested in self-sustainability, trustworthy food sources turning to aquaponics

By Timothy B. Wheeler
The Baltimore Sun
December 26, 2011

Excerpt:

The aquarium in the living room of Meir and Leah Lazar’s Baltimore County home isn’t just for decoration. The tilapia and bluegills packed into the 50-gallon glass tank are waiting their turn to wind up on dinner plates.

Out back, Meir Lazar is putting the finishing touches on a bigger new home for the fish inside a plastic-covered greenhouse. There, he hopes, the waste from the fish he’s tending will help him raise enough lettuce, tomatoes and other produce to feed his family of five year-round.

[Read more →]

3rd Prize Winner proposal for the Farmer’s Market Competition

By Lidija Grozdanic |
Evolo
December 26, 2011

Excerpt:

“Hop plant (Humulus Lupulus) is vigorous climbing vegetation and hops are used primarily as an important flavoring and stability agent in the beer making process. The proposal creates the sensual experience of a vibrant ‘garden’ where the hops are farmed on hop poles to create the building’s main green facade. The adjustable assembly systems of the modular vending bins are inspired from the natural material properties of hop pods.

[Read more →]

See the complete film here.

36 minute film

Director/Producer: Ella von der Haide
Produced in 2006 – Germany

Synopsis:

Urban community gardens are a phenomenon that is growing worldwide. In Berlin as well, more and more people are coming together in order to take responsibility for their surroundings collaboratively and to grow their own ecological foods. At the heart of the film are the activists from three inner-city community gardens,

[Read more →]

See larger format of the film here.

4o minute film

Director/Producer: Ella von der Haide
Produced in 2006 – Germany

Synopsis:

Community gardens are widespread in South Africa. Traditional methods and innovative technologies are being used to grow organic food and create communities. The community gardens are places of hope, solidarity, and sometimes of active resistance against official neo-liberal politics. The four examples from the film show three outstanding projects: Women Peace Garden in the Cape Flats,

[Read more →]

By Patricia A. Carney, Janet L. Hamada, Rebecca Rdesinski, Lorena Sprager, Katelyn R. Nichols, Betty Y. Liu, Joel Pelayo, Maria Antonia Sanchez and Jacklien Shannon
Journal of Community Health
Published online Dec 23, 2011

Abstract

This community-based participatory research project used popular education techniques to support and educate Hispanic farmworker families in planting and maintaining organic gardens. Measures included a pre- post gardening survey, key informant interviews and observations made at community-based gardening meetings to assess food security, safety and family relationships. Thirty-eight families enrolled in the study during the pre-garden time period, and four more families enrolled in the study during the post-garden period, for a total of 42 families enrolled in the 2009 gardening season. Of the families enrolled during the pre-gardening time period there were 163 household members. The mean age of the interviewee was 44.0, ranging from 21 to 78 years of age.

[Read more →]

Archive 2005 – 4482-A Beete/Geräteschuppen – Plant Bed with Shed. Rare item can be found at great expense on the Internet.

Playmobil toys for the City Farmer

From Wikipedia:

Playmobil (pronounced play-mo-beel) is a line of toys produced by the Brandstätter Group, headquartered in Zirndorf, Germany.

New products and product lines developed by a 50-strong development team are frequently introduced by Brandstätter. Some of these, such as promotional products, are only produced in limited quantities.

[Read more →]

A farmer’s food for thought in 7 minutes – Change starts in your own backyard

By Jessica Naudziunas
KBIA
Dec 16, 2011

Excerpt:

Soetaert’s talk began with a description of himself as a college-aged young man: pretty intense and wanting to change the world. The only problem was Soetaert didn’t have the tools to make much of any change, and eventually he felt like a naive young adult blowing a lot of hot air.

Then a friend of his showed him how to grow food in a backyard setting.

[Read more →]

Elide Bartole uses her balcony to grow vegetables and herbs for her family and neighbors. Photo by PWRDF.

A Growing Balcony

By Simon Chambers
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund
Dec 23, 2011

Excerpt:

Elide Barthole is lucky to still be living in her home in Carrefour, Haiti. Over half the homes in her community were destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. Elide’s home looks somewhat unique, however, among those houses still standing in the area: it has no open land around it, but her balcony is surrounded by greenery.

[Read more →]

Scott Terry helps 4-H student Laurentina Quintana plant broccoli seedlings on his urban farm in Hayward.

“I like to play farmer, and the rent from the two units on the property covers my costs. And I get to give food to people who need it.”

By Joe Eaton, Ron Sullivan
The San Francisco Chronicle
December 21, 2011

Excerpts:

Financial planner Scott Terry’s “hobby” in Hayward could be the fifth act of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” His property there was once part of pioneer farmer William Meek’s Cherryland estate, covered with orchards, before it was subdivided for housing. Terry is bringing back the fruit trees, as well as tomatoes, squashes, corn and greens, and a local 4-H club is helping plant and harvest. The proceeds go back to the community, by way of the Davis Street Family Resource Center in nearby San Leandro.

[Read more →]