I came across this video today of a group of like-minded people working together to improve their lives. They call themselves the Grow Food Party Crew, a part of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, their goal is to work together to build their local food shed and strengthen their community. They employ permaculture principles as their design approach to food production and land use. Projects include vegetable gardens, rainwater harvesting, as well as natural earthen structures. All the while having a great time doing it!

Why not start a Grow Food Party Crew in your neighborhood!

This is a guest post by Wendy from Home Is… From reading her blog I knew she had chickens, and since she lives in Maine her knowledge of building a coop that will hold up to cold weather could be quite useful.  I hope you enjoy her story of how she got chickens and how they keep them at her house.

Before I ever made my foray into chicken-ownership, I spent some time researching what I was getting into. Barbara Kilarski’s book, Keep Chickens, was a wonderful resource for everything from choosing a breed to providing information about how big their enclosure needed to be. While my hope was that they would be able to also spend some time free-ranging around the yard, my plan was to build the coop big enough that they could spend all of their time in there, if they had to.

We only have a quarter acre of land, and while my neighbors on either side, who have a half acre and an acre respectively, like my chickens, I didn’t wish to push my luck by letting my chickens loose to roam in their yards. They probably wouldn’t care … much, but as Frost’s neighbor observed in the Mending Wall, “good fences make good neighbors”, and as there is a fence there, it’s probably best that I keep “mine” on this side of it.

In addition, with only a quarter acre, space is a premium, and none can be wasted or under-utilized. Every side of my house has some edible plant or planting bed, especially the south-facing backyard. Chickens can really wreak havoc in a newly planted garden bed. They like to scratch things, and soft, newly planted soil with tasty little seedlings is too much to pass up. Don’t ask me how I know.

Not to mention that during the winter, with several feet of snow on the ground, I knew the chickens wouldn’t be doing much “free ranging”, and so they’d likely spend at least four months cooped up.

The first requirement, therefore, was that it be large enough to allow the chickens room to spread their wings, as it were.

Ms. Kilarski’s book gave me the basic dimensions we needed to ensure that the chickens had enough room, but I spent some time online looking at different designs. We had just come out of a pretty harsh winter. Our driveway isn’t big enough to plow, and so it must be shoveled. In addition to the driveway, which is roughly the size of two large parking spaces, we shovel a path from the road back to the oil and propane tanks, and ever since we moved here, we’ve always had rabbits, and so we’ve always had to shovel a path back to the rabbit cages. Plus, at some point during the winter, the snow just gets too deep for our dogs to squat anymore, and we will usually help them out by shoveling a little place for them to take care of their business. Snow. It’s a real thing here. I knew that my chicken run would have to be covered, because there was no way I was going to be shoveling it out.

Thus, the second requirement was that it have a roof of some sort – something to keep out the snow and to protect the chickens from the rain.

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Kitchen Gardeners International featured this interesting video tracking the history of how the White House grounds were used to grow the food that the White House needed.

Treehugger featured a story recently about gardeners in Sweden using construction debris bags as planters.  It’s an interesting way to create a garden where previously there was none.  Not to mention allowing the gardener to grow on a parking lot without having to rip up the parking surface first.

In fact, this article talks about using wading pools as the container, and includes a link to other container gardening information.  Apparently there are plenty of different ways to create a garden where ever you might want one.

Picture courtesy of the Treehugger article.

This is a new favorite, which can be consumed as a dessert, and appetizer, or even a snack.

Ingredients:

• Pear
• Cheese – your favorite local type (recommend blue, gorgonzola, brie, cheddar)
• Fresh Sage
• butter
• olive oil
• pepper

Slice pear in half. Use a spoon to scrape out seeds and stem. Grind pepper onto both sides of the pear halves.

Heat about 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Place sage flat into olive oil. Fry sage until edges are crispy. Remove from oil and place onto a plate to drain.

Melt butter in a pan. Place pears into hot pan. Cook until soft.

Place cheese onto the pear and slightly melt.

Remove the pears from heat.

Top with one piece of sage.

This is a guest post by Susan Wittig Albert.  She is a self-taught herbalist who gardens in the Texas Hill Country. She is the author of a series of mysteries featuring Texas herbalist China Bayles (the latest: Nightshade), as well as numerous articles for The Herb Companion, Country Living Gardening, and other magazines about growing and using herbs. She also writes The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter and (with her husband, Bill Albert, as Robin Paige), a series of Victorian-Edwardian mysteries.  You can read more about Susan at her blog, Lifescapes.

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Sumac is an easily recognizable tree in our Midwestern landscape. The trees are small with an umbrella of green leaves and clusters of cone-like clusters of red berries. The red berries ripen in late summer — generally July and August. The species with the red berries are not toxic; poison sumac has white berries.

The red berries create a wonderfully refreshing drink, tart like a lemonade. As a bonus, the berries are high in Vitamin C!

To make this tea, you simply need to:

• collect the berries (keep them in their clusters)
• slightly crush the berries
• soak in cold water for a few hours
• strain through cheesecloth into another container
• add sweetener, if desired

Kitchen Gardeners International has developed perhaps the most innovative fundraising activity I’ve ever heard of.  They are auctioning off virtual pieces of the White House lawn to raise money for their organization (which supports local foods and growing your own), and raise awareness of the need for the President to support local, healthy foods.

From the article:

So here’s the deal: with one First Family moving out 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the next few months and a new one moving in, KGI is taking it upon itself to organize a little “lawn sale” on their behalf, but not type you might think.

We’re selling the White House lawn itself on eBay in parcels of 1′ x 1′ at a fixed price of $10 each. Please allow me to explain. As a law-abiding nonprofit group, we of course can’t really sell you the South Lawn any more than we can sell you the South Pole or the Brooklyn Bridge. We can’t do it and we don’t have to. The First Lawn already has an owner: the American people!

But, if you’re like me, the White House’s sprawling grassy landscape doesn’t feel like it’s yours. It doesn’t look like it would look if you were Landscaper-in-Chief because it’s missing a key element: an organic kitchen garden. It’s had one before and, given the changing times, it should have one again. Hence the idea of a “lawn sale.” What better way to give people a renewed sense of ownership and control over something than to give them a chance to buy it back?

We’ve checked with the listing experts at eBay and, although we can’t sell and ship you a real piece of “First Turf”, we can sell you a virtual one (regardless of your nationality) provided that you agree to donate it virtually back to the American people for the digging of a new food garden in 2009.

I think you’ll agree that it’s an extremely creative and innovative way to raise money for their organization.  Head over to their site and consider a donation today.

There’s even a petition you can sign if you want to petition the White House to tear up that grass and put in a garden.  Heck, it might even be nice for the President to do a little work in the garden instead of going jogging with 12 secret service people.  Gardening is good exercise and a good stress reliever.

Kitchen Gardeners International

The leaves are slowly changing colors and dropping to the ground. Chipmunks and squirrels are rapidly collecting black walnuts and storing them in our shed. They know that winter will soon be approaching. As I watch them in their frantic search, I realize how much like a squirrel I can be.

In the back of my mind I have been keeping a tally on the amount of food that is needed to feed my children throughout the winter. It is my job to protect my children. Part of that protection includes making sure that they have food and the knowledge and ability to grow, preserve, and cook food. I think food storage is important so that we are prepared for any type of event that may affect our ability to go to the store and purchase food (plus local food tastes much better even when preserved).

This summer we have spent a lot of time getting ready for the winter months. Every week we had periods of slicing, boiling, canning, dehydrating, or freezing food that would feed us through the winter months. In spite of all of this squirreling away of food, it can be difficult to know what is enough. In the past I have referred to a LDS food storage calculator so that I can determine how much wheat, rice, salt, oil, and beans are needed to sustain life. These are all important factors to take into mind when planning for food storage, but we also need to know how to make eating during the winter enjoyable.

This evening I sat down and made a rotating 6 week meal plan. This will help me decide the amounts of particular foods that I need to put up for the winter. For instance, we eat homemade pizza every Friday night. This means that we use about a pint of sauce per Friday night. 4 pints per month will be necessary. I will put up enough through May (last year tomatoes were available at farmer’s market in early May). I count the number of pints of jam that will be able hold us through the school year, as well as the amount of applesauce that we use. I recognize that I many not be able to store enough for the entire winter, but I hope that with each passing year I will get better at planning our meals around what we have stored and storing enough for our family.

This process of growing, harvesting, and preserving our own food is something that our mothers and grandmothers were skilled at. I challenge you to make a meal plan and see how much of that you can store for a month. One month is achievable. After that, try for two.