Thanks for a great write up on your experiences Kollibri. It’s a sobering read but also very inspiring. It was very interesting the idea of people paying what they think it’s worth and I’m curious, apart from the one household that was taking the piss, did people generally pay what it was worth or did they tend to be a bit more generous?
My veggie beds have laid fallow for over a year now but I’ve got several drums of compost ready to go and reading your words here have been a bit of a kick in the butt.
Yes, except for that one household, people paid an amount that was adequate for, or exceeded the worth of what they took. Most of them were people who were already subscribers, so they tended to base their amount on the prices that had been set before. Also, being that this was in Portland, which had a lot of CSAs, people had a general sense of current market prices.
A very informed read, chiefly because you had all that direct experience in Portland. There is still that belief here in Toronto that a green lawn is preferable to a rows (or not rows) of crops. We rent here, so we have no choice of what can be in out front and back yards.
Even so, there are probably bylaws that control so much of what can be done. There are bylaws, for example, on the height of the grass. We have a modest backyard garden of tomatoes in our backyard; we plan to add to it a few vegetables.
But this is to supplement what we buy at the store. There is no possibility that our small backyard garden would be able to meet all our food needs for the year. It would require, as your article mentions, a concerted effort to have community gardens of some sort on every street corner. Given how real estate is viewed, this is not likely.
You're very welcome, Robin! I do believe that we must re-localize our food systems to make them more sustainable, and cities will need to be an important part of that. The fact that the food will taste better for being fresh is a big bonus!
Do you have anything about food forests? I’m not a food grower yet, but have friends that are. And this is something I’ve seen where you create almost an ecosystem that requires very little maintenance compared to a garden once it’s up and going.
I am familiar with the concept of food forests, having known lots of permaculture people in my time, including many in Portland. I have also see a few initial attempts at making food forests, but they take many years to develop (decades even) and have not observed any at this stage yet.
I will add here that, if non-standard approaches are implemented, gardens can be established that require less work. The standard approach is annuals grown every year, with everything "cleaned up" in the fall, and then starting over again in the spring. First, food-bearing perennials like berry bushes can be added, as well as medicinal plants. Secondly, I didn't discuss it in this article, but I began exploring what could be called "re-wilded" gardens or "half feral" gardens, where annuals are allowed to go to seed, and biennials are allowed to go through the winter to seed in the spring. Over time, one is changing the seedbank of the soil so that more and more of what volunteers are food plants. That is, you're changing your "weed profile" (volunteers=weeds), which means much less work over time. An advantage of this is that it takes the guesswork out of spring seeding, because the seeds are already there and will germinate when conditions are optimum. They know better than us after all!
I could add a third, and a fourth, etc., but that's enough for now, as this would really be a whole essay. I'll add it to the list!
Thanks for a great write up on your experiences Kollibri. It’s a sobering read but also very inspiring. It was very interesting the idea of people paying what they think it’s worth and I’m curious, apart from the one household that was taking the piss, did people generally pay what it was worth or did they tend to be a bit more generous?
My veggie beds have laid fallow for over a year now but I’ve got several drums of compost ready to go and reading your words here have been a bit of a kick in the butt.
Thank you and best wishes to you !
Hi Leon, thanks for the comment.
Yes, except for that one household, people paid an amount that was adequate for, or exceeded the worth of what they took. Most of them were people who were already subscribers, so they tended to base their amount on the prices that had been set before. Also, being that this was in Portland, which had a lot of CSAs, people had a general sense of current market prices.
Best of luck with your veggie beds this year!
A very informed read, chiefly because you had all that direct experience in Portland. There is still that belief here in Toronto that a green lawn is preferable to a rows (or not rows) of crops. We rent here, so we have no choice of what can be in out front and back yards.
Even so, there are probably bylaws that control so much of what can be done. There are bylaws, for example, on the height of the grass. We have a modest backyard garden of tomatoes in our backyard; we plan to add to it a few vegetables.
But this is to supplement what we buy at the store. There is no possibility that our small backyard garden would be able to meet all our food needs for the year. It would require, as your article mentions, a concerted effort to have community gardens of some sort on every street corner. Given how real estate is viewed, this is not likely.
Thanks for the interesting read about urban farming—something rarely heard about!
You're very welcome, Robin! I do believe that we must re-localize our food systems to make them more sustainable, and cities will need to be an important part of that. The fact that the food will taste better for being fresh is a big bonus!
Do you have anything about food forests? I’m not a food grower yet, but have friends that are. And this is something I’ve seen where you create almost an ecosystem that requires very little maintenance compared to a garden once it’s up and going.
I am familiar with the concept of food forests, having known lots of permaculture people in my time, including many in Portland. I have also see a few initial attempts at making food forests, but they take many years to develop (decades even) and have not observed any at this stage yet.
I will add here that, if non-standard approaches are implemented, gardens can be established that require less work. The standard approach is annuals grown every year, with everything "cleaned up" in the fall, and then starting over again in the spring. First, food-bearing perennials like berry bushes can be added, as well as medicinal plants. Secondly, I didn't discuss it in this article, but I began exploring what could be called "re-wilded" gardens or "half feral" gardens, where annuals are allowed to go to seed, and biennials are allowed to go through the winter to seed in the spring. Over time, one is changing the seedbank of the soil so that more and more of what volunteers are food plants. That is, you're changing your "weed profile" (volunteers=weeds), which means much less work over time. An advantage of this is that it takes the guesswork out of spring seeding, because the seeds are already there and will germinate when conditions are optimum. They know better than us after all!
I could add a third, and a fourth, etc., but that's enough for now, as this would really be a whole essay. I'll add it to the list!
Thanks for that.