Urban Aqriculture Explodes in Seattle

It seems like almost overnight urban agriculture has bloomed in Seattle. According to Seattlepi.com, residents in Seattle have a few love, and are utilizing every patch of land to begin urban garden plots. Local churches and community centers have even torn up their traditional landscaping to make room from garden plots. The Seattle Central Community College is even offering the city's first, and quite possibly the country's first, program focused on sustainable urban agriculture. The classes are already filling up. What is it exactly that has caused this boom in urban agriculture? Seattle is known far and wide for being a city very much concerned with the environment so is it really any surprise that residents are now desiring more fresh, local and seasonal foods? One of the biggest challenges so far is finding spaces for these gardens (a problem we are more than familiar with here in Charleston). The solution came with one woman's idea to create a website that matches farmers with available plots around the city. There are currently 400 listings on the site. (Maybe this is an idea that Charleston could use if the interest picks up enough in the years to come?) Urban gardens are springing up in the most unusual of places, such as the front lawns of churches, but the idea is catching on and one by one people are lining up to get a plot of their own.

I feel like this is kind of what is happening here in Charleston. A year or two ago the idea of urban gardening was a foreign one to me and there were few, if any, urban gardens around town. It seems like in these past two springs, this one especially with the birth of the Bogarden, have marked a turn in the popularity of Charleston's urban agriculture scene. Who knows what next year will hold. With the growing interest and public awareness of the various urban gardening projects around town who knows how many gardens we will see pop up next spring.

Farmer Pete

I really enjoyed the visit to Ambrose Farms last Friday. Farmer Pete was an extremely nice guy, who is passionate about local produce and has very good intentions. It was very nice to try fresh crops as we were strolling the farm. He grows everything from strawberries and asparagus to eggplant and olive trees (which takes about 7 years to grow!) It was very interesting seeing all the different methods that Farmer Pete used, and he even shared some of his little tricks, for example he doesn’t use biodegradable plastic because the very bottom doesn’t degrade so you still end up having to pull it up! (Suggested invention…) It was a great closing to Urban Agriculture as we saw everything we talk about in class and read in Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle come together.

Farmer Pete had great ideas about ways to be more resourceful. For example he wanted to put a pipe through his mulch pit to energize his green house! One of the main problems he saw was the lack of connection between local farms and the community. Although CSA does great things, he felt that even a simple sign could help connect the two. Essentially, there should be a better middleman between the farmer and the consumer. How do we improve community outreach? With frontline activism, local food can move more into grocery stores and citizens have more options to buy local produce. I feel that many people would buy local but do not know where to find it. Like Tavner mentioned, we really are so lucky to have so many local farms surrounding us and we should really take advantage of that. Local foods should be sold more at the grocery stores, and may be eventually the infrastructure of the global food trade can be recentralized.

Ambrose Farms Field Trip!

It was a pleasure to meet and talk with Pete Ambrose, owner of Ambrose Farms on Wadmalaw Island. He welcomed us to his farm last Friday, narrating his experiences while welcoming us to try his organic strawberries and asparagus – fresh off the plant! I never realized how delicious asparagus could be raw! A farmer for 35 years, Pete Ambrose begun making the transition to organic farming about 3 years ago. At first he was apprehensive about the change – he preferred his rows of vegetables tidy and free of weeds, and wasn’t sure organic farming would do the job. However, members of his blossoming CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program appeared to want it. This consumer demand combined with encouragement from a fellow farmer convinced him to try. Today, this farm and CSA program is a success! A member of his CSA program myself, I can verify the value and quality of Ambrose vegetables. I received my first share of the season that day, including arugula, garlic, sweet onions, icicle radishes, turnips, asparagus, and of course strawberries. For more information on their CSA program, please visit their website at http://www.stonofarmmarket.com.

While an evaluator can come out tomorrow and label Ambrose Farms as USDA certified organic, Mr. Ambrose wishes not to due to the amount of paperwork and hassle. It can be quite difficult for smaller farms to be labeled as such. Fortunately, by dealing directly with consumers, this doesn’t matter much. The community seems to be in strong support of Ambrose Farms. This was particularly evidenced by the huge outrage that broke out last December when a former race car driver and his wife, who live next to the farm, filed a civil suit against the business due to grievances over the U-Pick operation, even though it was in place before they moved there. Here’s an article that further details the situation, and the eventual dropping of the lawsuit: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/dec/12/farmer-relieved-ex-racers-suit-dropped-but-still/.

Everyday brings new challenges and opportunities to the farm. Things are always changing, every season is a little different, and it takes real experience to make a farm work. As Mr. Ambrose said, “You can’t read a book and farm.” Always looking for ways to improve, he is currently experimenting with such things grafting tomatoes and growing different heirloom varieties to see which will work best. Support from the community in these endeavors is essential. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to my next box.

Ambrose Farms

I really loved our trip to the farm on Friday. It was so cool to see everything that we have talked about in class up close. Mr. Ambrose was an articulate and knowledgeable individual. It was surprising to learn that he was not pursuing the organic label mostly because of the tremendous amount of paper work involved. I had not ever thought about that but it makes a lot of sense. If he is growing his crops in a sustainable way, then why does he really need some label?

It makes me wish that Whole Foods carried more local growers. The one in Mt Pleasant has some fantastic produce, but why should I buy an organic tomato from California when I could have one of Mr. Ambrose's tomatoes from just a couple islands away? The whole experience of being out on the farm and picking my own strawberries ans asparagus really highlights our responsibility to support local farmers. It is a privilege that we live somewhere where there is an abundance of local produce to choose from, and makes me regret my decisions in the past to purchase out of state.

Marion Square Farmer's Market

It was a nice day to spend wandering the farmer's market yesterday and full of great finds. My roommate and I had planned to pick up some produce as we normally do, but quickly started buying up the makings of about three different meals for the week. Though the fruits and veggies weren't as myriad and local as I would have liked, for obvious seasonal reasons (one stand was mostly Florida produce) there was still plenty to choose from, and even more items I hadn't been expecting. I think I noticed at least two different places selling local, grass fed beef and pork (at about $6/lb the ground beef was comparable in price to the GF ground beef from NC I bought at Whole Foods last week) and at least two stands selling raw milk! *For those of you who have never tried it but want to, you can buy an 8oz individual serving for only 75 cents* In addition, there was goat cheese, eggs, breads, and my favorite stop--the fresh pasta/ravioli. I was happy to discover that even if I couldn't grow and make all this stuff myself, there were plenty of options to purchase local products for a week's worth of meals. Alas, here is what we bought and will be having this week:

-Fresh crab, bacon and corn ravioli with a chive and garlic butter with sautéed grape tomatoes

-Chilled strawberry, melon, honey and mint soup with spinach and strawberry salad

-Corn on the cob, fried okra, red potatoes and grilled asparagus

*We got EVERYTHING I just listed at the farmer's market for less than $40! Also, in addition to the usual stands along the far end of the square, Fields to Families has their produce set up about midway through the King St. section--good selection and great cause to support!

Wild asparagus

I was out in my yard yesterday and was pleasantly suprised to find some wild briars poking their heads out of some of my flowerbeds and other un-frequented parts of my yard. Usually people don't like dealing with the mess of climbing vines that shoot up overnight and have thorns, but to me they are a delicious part of spring! Those knarled devils walking sticks are the best for eating with thick stems and resemble asparagus in taste and smell (darker thicker stems left and right). They're super easy to spot because only the edible tip is without nasty thorns, so it is really important to get them while they're shorter and easier to reach. there are some other littler briars that are thinner but taste just as good (they're the brighter green ones in the picture above). Just saute them in some butter for about ten minutes and they're good to go! I would suggest just taking the top 6" off the plant to eat. The plant will sprout another tip within a few days so frequent checks mean more chance of getting a good haul. This is the only type of asparagus I'll eat. I hate the store bought kind so to me fresh is best. I really hope those of you without a cultivated asparagus patch try this! Happy hunting :)

Ambrose Farms Field Trip Details

We are going to meet out at the farm between 2-2:15. It is a good way from campus, so give yourself time. I have promised rides to two students and have room for one more. If you need a ride, please comment on this post so we know. There is no assigned parking, but I'll be parking in the u-Pick area. We'll hang out, maybe pick some strawberries or admire the crops until Pete or Babs can meet with us.

Speaking of which, the Strawberry U-Pick is open. If you like strawberries, bring some cash! I believe Babs said they are $2 per lb. They are delicious!

Here is a link  for directions.