‘Fresh’ Screening – Meet Joel Salatin and Ana Sophia Joanes

On Sunday, March 21, there will be two showings of the movie FRESH at 2:30pm & 6pm, with film Director Anna Sophia Joanes and Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.  FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system (http://www.freshthemovie.com)  Forging healthier, sustainablealternatives, the move offers a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.  Joel Salatin, made famous in Michael Pollans book Omnivore’s Dilemma, is one of the farmers featured in the film and will be discussing his views after both screenings.  Director Anna Sophia Joanes will also be available to answer questions.

GET TICKETS HERE! NEARLY SOLD OUT!

There will be a Local Food Vendor Fair from 2-6pm, featuring samples of:
shrimp from Marvesta Shrimp in Hurlock MD; oysters from Circle C Oyster Ranch in Ridge MD; bison from Gunpowder Bison & Trading Company in Monkton MD; beef from Roseda Beef in Monkton MD; milk from Nice Creamery, American Corner, MD; goat cheeses from Cherry Glen Farm in Boyds MD; cheeses from Chapel Country Creamery, Easton MD; and Thai Pumpkin Soup with gourmet vinegars from Dragonfly Farms, Mount Airy MD;  Several local restaurants will also be sampling from their spring menus like Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore MD; Great Sage in Clarksville MD, Level Small Plates Lounge, Annapolis MD and more.

DOORS OPEN AT 2:00 PM

There will also be Gardening Workshops:
- A Children’s Workshop: Grow it and Eat It for Kids 7-12
- Gardening 101
- Advanced Gardening and Composting

CHILD CARE IS NOT AVAILABLE

We are striving for a trash free event so please BYO cups, plates and utensils.

Please reduce your carbon footprint and carpool there is limited parking.

Testifying for the Future of MD Farmers

One of the great things I love about Maryland is the HUGE community of local organic farmers! I’ve been taking my daughter to Clark’s Elioak Farm in Howard County for years, she plays with the chickens, rides their ponies (Flashlight is her favorite) and we go on hayrides in the fall. Their blackberry preserves are amazing, by the way.  The Anne Arundel county Farmers Co-op is right down the street from me and they work with local farmers to supply seedlings and growing supplies, even chicks in the spring. The Sunday Farmer’s Market under the Jones Falls Expressway in Baltimore is extremely popular and a great place to find just about any kind of food you’d want (I hear the Takoma Park market is great too).

The Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association is a great group of farmers, businesses and consumers spreading awareness about local organic foods.  The Univ. of MD’s Cooperative Extension has a campaign called ‘Grow It, Eat It’ which now has over a million Maryland growers in their network.

I take pride in supporting local farmers and natural markets, I know these business owners are putting their heart into their products, they’re growing and operating in harmony with nature and providing a whole, nutritious food source that you just can’t get anywhere else.  That’s why I get concerned when this last “real food” source is threatened in any way.

These farmers work with their county governments to develop the regulations to best suit the local economies and markets and to keep the public safe. These are not factory operations and really need a different set regulatory procedures in place than those imposed on factories. The local county governments have done a great job of working with their farmers and the public to develop standards which promote their economies and the health and well being of organic eaters.

Today, we’re facing two seemingly harmless bills (HB166, HB167 in the House AND SB198, SB199 in the Senate) which are being pushed through without any opposition. These bills will take the regulatory and licensing procedures out of the democratic arena of the county governments and consolidate them in the UNelected official’s hands at the Department of Health. This bill is being sold as an easier way for local farmers to get their products to market, they’ll only have one licensing procedure to go to and as long as they follow the standards and regulations set in place by the Dept. of Health, everything will work out just fine.

I want to know; Who is developing these standards and regulations? Who is going to have the power to change these regulations in the future? Are these people going to have any vested interest in big agriculture, grocery stores, fast food, govt. subsidies, etc.? Would these connections prevent them from making the most ethical choices when dictating what local farmers and consumers are going to be allowed to do in the market place and the privacy of their own farms and homes?

There are a million ways that the local farmer, who is already at a disadvantage in the market place, could be further handicapped. They could be regulated to use certain kinds of costly harvesting or processing equipment or charged excessive fines or violations or even licensing fees eventually. There could be excessive sanitary standards put in place that would prohibit these farmers from operating in an economic way. There could labeling standards requiring paid inspections of all products before going to market. I could list all of the potential weapons that could be used against the farmer, but I think you’re starting to get the point.

Something told me that I just had to go and voice my opinion on this matter, but I didn’t have much time to prepare a speech or get my facts ready, etc.. I made a few notes, grabbed some old research, an apple and out the door I went. The hearing was by the MD House Health and Government Operations Committee at the Lowe House Office Bldg. in Annapolis.

The second bill, HB167 supposedly sets up a licensing process to be able to provide customers with samples of your product. It was explained to me that it is currently illegal to cut up an apple and give a potential customer a slice to try, but this new legislation would make the opportunity available to the farmer once they registered to give out samples. This would make the public safe from the fly by night, wild west mentality of today’s farmer’s markets. Thank god someone’s going to regulate this sampling process, I wouldn’t want my child to sample real, raw organic food without the government watching over everything.

I made it to Annapolis, found the building and made my way to the hearing. I entered the hearing room which was very nice, wearing my “give peace a chance” t-shirt, jeans and boots. The committee were seated at the horseshoe shaped formation of desks. A couple of other bills were being discussed before HB166 & HB167 and I took this opportunity to make bulletin points on what I wanted to discuss. After listening to testimonies for these other bills by doctors, scientists, teachers, nurses, department heads, delegates, etc.. I realized that not one person in the room that day was there to OPPOSE any of the bills being proposed. I thought that was odd, maybe not unexpected, but a little off you could say.

After the discussions of the first few bills, Delegate Hubbard, who proposed this bill, was then called to testify on the basics of HB166 & HB167. He said that he didn’t know much as he was asked by some Senators to propose it to the House and that he probably wouldn’t be able to answer any questions. One of the delegates on the board made the comment that he knew the bill was being supported by a large meat company, but Delegate Hubbard wasn’t sure of who it was or why they supported it. There was a brief discussion between the committee and Delegate Hubbard about some e-mails they had received opposing the bill, but they were downplayed as being only about raw milk, which is not what they were there to discuss.

The proponents came up to testify next, who were all members of various state departments, including the Dept. of Health as well as a man named John Sullivan who works for Howard county I believe. Their explanation was that the bill was being proposed to make it easier for farmers to get their products to market because they currently had to abide by the different regulations imposed by the counties and this bill would consolidate these regulations into one simple and efficient licensing process for them.

Sounds pretty good huh?

After all these people praised this bill over and over, I finally had my chance and was called to testify. I was the sole opposition to the bill. I apologized for my appearance, I had just left a  garden this morning and that I must have left my razor and suit in my other Maserati! This got a big laugh! Well I informed them that I was not a scientist or doctor or head of any big important company, but I had been eating since I was born. Another big laugh! I must be on the right track here.

I informed them that I was the kind of person this bill would effect since I get almost all of my food from local growers or my own backyard. I haven’t heard any complaints about the regulation process from any of the farmers I deal with NOR from any of the consumers I’ve spoken with. In fact, the local, organic, sustainable movement has gained a lot of speed recently and I believe WE now outnumber those who don’t care what’s in their food or where it comes from. I went over the effects of government regulation in the food industry which has set very strict standards to be able to label your product “organic” (I held up my apple which had an organic sticker, bought at David’s Natural Market in Millersville) but there were currently no requirements to label genetically modified food, fertilized food, pesticides used, artificially ripened, etc..

One of the other bills discussed that day was about banning products with bisphenol-a. I explained to the committee that I supported the banning of BPA (I held up my Nalgene water bottle which contained BPA) but I was MORE concerned about the fact that government regulated water treatment facilities allowed viagra, prozac, birth control and fluoride in treated water but didn’t have to report it.

I explained how pesticides were discovered in WWII when scientists found that Nerve Gas worked just as well on crop-eating insects as it does on Nazis. I’m sure they had not yet heard of back-hauling, a practice truckers use to transport, oh say, asphalt from New Jersey and bring broccoli or milk back from California in the same container. I also made them aware of big agriculture’s process of shipping unripened fruit, and spraying with an artificial ripening agent right before they got to their destination. Back in the day, this was done manually, now it’s done with automated sprayers built into the trucks. How else are you going to get produce to look good when you’re transporting across the country?

I told them how local farmers already had a hard time competing in the marketplace because the government subsidizes big agriculture’s production of corn and grain meaning the Monsantos of the world can sell their pesticide laden, genetically modified “food” for less then it actually costs to produce it! I wondered why local food was so expensive for so long and that was the missing puzzle piece. I held up a copy of ‘Harvest for Hope’ by Jane Goodall and explained that THIS was where they should be getting their information from if they were really trying to help the local farmer.

I continued with how I spoke to over 200 people, one on one, at the Home Show convention in Baltimore this past weekend and that only 3 people didn’t grow their own food or weren’t interested in growing their own food. I made them aware that the only reason e. coli exists is because cattle is fattened up with corn and that creates the perfect environment for breeding e. coli and that the bacteria wasn’t found on local organic, sustainable farms feeding their cows grass.

These proposed fees and regulations were only going to severely handicap the already burdened plight of the small local farmer and I questioned who actually stood to benefit from the legislation? What kind of support were these people getting and from whom? I challenged them to bring a single local farmer or consumer forward who supported this legislation and proposed an inquiry into the health and economic effects related to the new regulations going to be put in place by the Dept. of Health if this bill were to pass. I wanted to know who “watches the watchers”. It seemed to me that this consolidation of power would mean that ALL MD farmers were now going to be subject to the will of a few, without the benefit of taking place in a democratic process to establish the regulations effecting their livelihood and OUR food.

I proposed an alternative, regulate all local farmers to place a sign on their stands warning consumers that their raw products are unregulated by the government. I joked that it would probably HELP their sales. Haha!

Oh wait, I think it would…

I concluded by informing them that I am a US Army veteran and a patriot.

“STOP MESSING WITH MY FOOD!”

“Thank you for your time.”

I was met in the lobby afterward by half a dozen proponents of the bill and let me tell you, they weren’t ready for me. They really thought they could convince me that they were on my side and this bill would HELP MD farmers. One by one, they left the discussion in the lobby till it was just two of them who followed me out the door. I asked these gentleman to forward me copies of the regulations being considered by the Dept. of Health.

Wanna bet I get these in my inbox any time soon?

Well, this battle is far from over, the State Senate has it’s hearing on these bills (SB198 & SB199 for the Senate) on Thursday, February 4th at 1pm. Anyone wishing to testify on the bill must sign the witness register by 12:30 p.m. If you have written testimony, please submit 25 copies to the committee staff by 12:00 noon for distribution prior to the hearing.

The address and phone number for the Senate Finance Committee hearing is:

3 East Miller Senate Building,
11 Bladen Street,
Annapolis, MD 21401-1991

410-841-3677 Annapolis/Baltimore Area
301-858-3677 Washington, D.C. Area

Please don’t let me be the only one fighting this bill, if you are a local farmer or get your food from a local farmer, YOUR FOOD SUPPLY WILL BE EFFECTED! Stand up and be heard, it’s exhilarating and it’s the right thing to do!

Feel free to contact me with any questions or to catch a ride down to Annapolis on Thursday.

seth@myGroFarm.com

Links to the bills:

http://mlis.state.md.us/2010rs/billfile/hb0166.htm

http://mlis.state.md.us/2010rs/billfile/hb0167.htm

http://mlis.state.md.us/2010rs/billfile/sb0198.htm

http://mlis.state.md.us/2010rs/billfile/sb0199.htm

A Path With a Heart

A path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. This question is one that only a very old man asks. My benefactor told me about it once when I was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it.

Now I do understand it. I will tell you what it is: Does this path have a heart?

All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. My benefactor’s question has meaning now. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you….

A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it….Before you embark on it you ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path….The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men van stop to deliberate, and leave the path….

For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. Ans there I travel, looking, breathlessly.

- Carlos Casteneda

From Carlos Casteneda, ‘The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way Of Knowledge’ Copyright 1968 The Regents of the University of California.

I read this excerpt in a book by Steve Andreas titled ‘Is There Life Before Death’ pg. 6-7, Copyright 1995 Real People Press

A New Raised Gardening Bed

I was determined to own a raised gardening bed after reading Mel Bartholomew’s ‘Square Foot Gardening’ book and setting off on my own organic growing “revolution” a few years ago. Close friends, family members and people sitting next to me on airplanes all quickly became aware of how exciting Mel’s method was. I remember telling my mother about how easy it seemed to start growing your own food and she should read Mel’s book, she replied in her calm southern accent “It is pretty neat isn’t it? I read that book in the seventies.” to my surprise. I didn’t know she’d ever heard of these techniques and found out she had actually been interested in growing her own food again, but health issues had prevented her from moving forward.

I started searching around for some sort of ready made product, a way for the masses to begin growing, something I could try out and recommend to interested growers. I wasn’t very satisfied with what I found…There was nothing! No instant gratification at all! No “iPod” of garden beds seemed to exist.

No problem, I have tools.

An organic raised weed free no dig vegetable garden would be an ideal way to grow your own food in your backyard and Mel gives you instructions on how to make your own, but you need to be handy with some light construction tools, not to mention have access to some. This was no problem for me because of my work experience and began building myself and my family all different sizes of raised garden beds, even a big four foot by eight foot raised bed with legs that was self draining!

I know the elderly, the disabled and children may have a much harder time building a garden from scratch and simply may not grow their own food for this very reason. I’m sure many seasoned farmers and gardeners give up the craft as they age, perhaps on account of aches and pains or a complete inability to perform the necessary upkeep.

By the end of that summer, I had built about a dozen raised gardening beds of all different sizes and materials; some had trellises, some used old tires and concrete for support, some were made from composite decking and some pine or oak…but ALL produced that season.

All kinds of organic tomatoes, organic garlic, organic potatoes from stacked tires, organic brussel sprouts, big beautiful Russian mammoth sunflowers, organic zucchini and many more kinds of produce were harvested throughout the season. In addition, a twelve inch round vegetable container sat on my deck and provided many delicious bowls of crisp mixed salad greens.

I followed Mel’s organic vegetable soil mix preparation and it worked beautifully. He calls for one third each of: organic compost, coarse vermiculite and peat moss. I have experimented with other mixes too, but his works just as well as any. I recommend using local resources to make your soil mix, more articles to come on that!

Any ways, I was ecstatic about the entire experience, growing my own food had permanently and radically changed my life. My daughter has developed this wonderful connection to the land and understands that food starts as a seed and doesn’t actually come from a box or a can. My entire family enjoys the freshest local organic food possible right out of their own backyards.

My friend Brok and I had worked together in our gardens, shared tips about backyard composting, compared produce size, etc. and got to talking one day and asked ourselves a sobering question.

Could we design an easy to assemble, no dig, weed free, organic vegetable garden that could be used all year round indoors or out? We thought we were up for the task, after all we had managed to harvest a couple of successful seasons and we had become acquainted with quite a few experienced organic farmers.

Brok and I then set out on our own brand new organic growing revolution, one aimed at bringing awareness to people who had never had a close relationship to their food before. The people we wanted to reach have never planted a seed in soil before or watched as it became a seedling, much less picked an organic tomatoe from their own back porch. We wanted to share this wonderful opportunity with people who never knew it existed and knew we had to put all of our hearts into making this a possibility.

We began with the idea that food grows pretty well in nature, sometimes it just needs a little nudge here and there, a little nurture, maybe some shade from the high summer afternoon sun or a sprinkle of diatomaceous earth to keep some pesky insects away. There had to be a design that could work in harmony with the natural process already set in place to grow nutritious vegetables, sweet fruits and aromatic herbs.

We started to design a gardening system that EVERYONE can grow their own food with, something that works WITH nature, not against it.

Building the raised gardening bed thirty inches by forty eight inches makes it large enough to produce a substantial amount of food, ten square feet of growing space, so 120 carrots, 10 tomatoes and any combination in between. Elevating the garden bed to waist height allows planting, watering, maintenance and harvesting to be done without bending over. Those with health issues can now garden and grow with a little more ease.

The trellis system is integrated into the main unit and doubles as a frame for it’s all weather cover. Having the trellis in the center of the unit allows all the plants to be trained onto the net for stability and support, while the cover slows down evaporation and heat loss. A made to fit cover allows the grower to plant earlier and extend the fall season a little more as well while requiring less watering throughout the entire season. Rain saturated crops become a thing of the past as well.

Both Brok’s family and mine have been composting their kitchen and garden scraps for a few years now and have been using the rich, nutritious compost in our gardens. Why not make the bottom portion of the unit a composter? We did. It could also be used as a storage area.

The size of the unit actually makes it well suited for the urban environment and is ready to be placed on sunny porches, rooftop decks, patios, sunrooms, kitchens and anywhere else where you have a sunny two and a half foot by four foot space. If you don’t have a sunny space, you’re still in luck, with the proper lights setup, you can use the myGroFarm to grow indoors all year round.

To be part of a general solution, we decided to manufacture the myGroFarm here in the United States, to cut down on carbon emissions and to create more jobs for the local economies. We also settled on using a recyclable material for the main body of the unit. While the technology isn’t in place yet to use recycled materials for the construction of this new system, we are working closely with industry leaders to make that a reality in the near future.

That was the conception of the myGroFarm and the rest was history…

Well not really, we actually are just starting to see the myGroFarm vision become a reality.

We’re working very closely with the local school system in Tulsa, Oklahoma to help bring organic vegetable gardening into the curriculum. We’re also working with a few non-profits to develop a universal fund-raising platform to provide revenue for educational systems and non-profits while giving children a once in a lifetime opportunity to start their own organic gardening revolution. On top of this, we are establishing partnerships with activists, industry leaders, authors, business owners, educational institutions and farmers to spread awareness about how easy it is to grow your own food and how beneficial this is for the planet’s health and our own.

We are facing troubling times when more and more of our food is produced by unscrupulous means; genetically modified organisms, poisonous pesticides and fertilizers, water and soil depleting farming practices and profit minded captains of industry. The choices we make about where our food comes from speaks louder than anything I can write, so I encourage you to plant a seed, visit a farm or do some more research.

You’ll find growing your food is simple, anyone can do it and you may just surprise yourself at how well you do or what other miracles you’ll discover in that new raised gardening bed of yours.

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

Link to article from Time

Our food in America does come at high price, to the environment, to our children’s health and the future of our entire civilization. Big business agriculture has placed profits first, while completely disregarding their responsibility to provide healthy, sustainably grown food to the masses. The choices we make as consumers speak louder than words and the first step to making responsible buying decisions is to become informed.

Thirteen Acre Learning Garden in Portland, OR

Link to article

The Learning Gardens Laboratory, across the street from Lane Middle School, is a vibrant project that is strengthening ties between a diverse group of students and their families and communities. While they are growing vegetables for Lane’s cafeteria salad bar in the spring, students are learning skills in math, writing, sustainable agriculture, garden construction and cooperation.
The middle schoolers–always interested in food–learned the conditions necessary for growing spring and summer vegetables. Then they divided into three groups and walked across the street to the farm-sized garden.
After examining, tasting, and smelling native plants and trees, and learning about compost and soil enrichment, the students gathered in the warmth of the Green Thumb greenhouse to taste “Oregon tea” (made from native plants), and to make raffia cords from cedar bark. Bluehorse, also a renowned herbalist and educator affiliated with the PPS Indian Education office, explained the customs of her ancestors–the Nez Perce, Chickasaw, and Cherokee–and told a story about gathering cedar bark.
The Learning Gardens are many things to many people. Tim Hahn, a retired PPS Buckman and Lane teacher who previously worked with PSU’s FEED Program, is now a volunteer at Lane Middle School.
“People see a garden and think ‘food’,” he comments. “I see this as a garden that welcomes community, where parents and students gather together to work with their hands and build friendships.”

Growing Vegetables at School Supports Community and Education

Link to article

Besides the popular science lesson objectives to growing vegetables, extending the lesson to planting a garden plot at school provides connections to many other subjects as well. Deciding where to plant provides students with opportunities to communicate and negotiate with school administration about the location. Determining whether to plant in the ground or as a container garden also addresses communication, but it can also pull in economic considerations for costs of containers verses fencing.
Mathematics are involved as well. Economic considerations include purchasing supplies and cost savings of growing vegetables for school lunches. Geometry can be applied to designing the plot area and designing trellis structures for tall or vine plants.
Social studies and social skills are also a part of planning and maintaining a school victory garden. Students can be given supportive tasks, such as weeding, watering or harvesting. Older students could be given supervisory or scheduling authority. Students can use the garden as a place to study or as a foundation for learning about the history of victory gardens or volunteerism.

A Three Sisters Garden: Corn, Beans and Squash, an ancient trio

Link to article

Several dozen educators, culinary experts, teachers and school gardeners from Bay Area schools gathered at the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley in April 2001 for the first of four talks aimed at delving deeper into existing connections between practices in education and the natural world. Wendy Johnson, a garden consultant to The Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, spoke from 25 years of experience gardening, teaching, and meditating and mothering at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. She discussed the importance of the “Three Sisters” to gardening in schools as a meaningful context for education.

Venice High School Learning Garden in CA

Link to article

The Learning Garden is much more than a garden. For the students of the high school it is an opportunity to be closer to nature, a place to learn about respecting the environment and taking care of plants and animals. For the teachers it is a place of solace. For the community it is a place of visual beauty. For those who have dedicated thousands of hours to making the inspiration of the garden a reality, it is a joyful and fulfilling accomplishment. For all who come, whether to a single event or as a regular volunteer, The Learning Garden is a remarkable and unique place that touches something deep in the heart and soul.

Classes Sprout in Food Garden At Lord Roberts Elementary School

Link to article

The 250 enthusiastic students of Lord Roberts have been learning valuable lessons about science, nutrition and how their environment works by planting, tending and harvesting vegetables. At the same time, they’ve helped beautify their concrete neighbourhood, while gaining a new understanding and respect for the miracles of nature.