Announcing the 2009 Hen & Harvest Garden Challenge:

If you are reading this, chances are food is important to you. You are passionate about gardening, or local food, or healthy eating, food security, organic farming methods, land stewardship… All of the above?

Maybe the seed catalogs are piling up. Maybe next year’s garden is taking shape in your head — and this time it’s going to be perfect. Maybe you’ve decided to take the plunge and finally get a few chickens. Maybe you want to give your children the healthiest food possible, or restore the land in your care to a more natural state. Maybe the headlines you see every day scare you just enough to browse that seed potato catalog. Or maybe you’ve been running a successful market garden for years now and are thinking about how to make it just a little bit better.

And who could blame you? Our primary food system is a mess. We increasingly rely on fossil fuels and chemicals to create processed foods that are probably eligible for frequent flyer miles. Poor nutrition is leading to increased obesity and other health problems. We have no idea who grew our food or how it got to our table. Or even what it’s made of in some cases. Large-scale farmers are struggling to get credit from banks, and commodity prices have fallen so far they may have trouble making their money back anyway. When you walk into the store, you worry that the milk is full of hormones, the grains are genetically modified, the meat is irradiated, the vegetables are contaminated, and the soil that produced it is lifeless and disappearing all too quickly.

For all his charisma and leadership, Barack Obama can’t fix this problem. Tom Vilsack won’t fix it either. Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver and Wendell Berry can’t even fix it. Fixing it is up to me, and you ,and anyone else we can influence.

This is why we are challenging you, right now, to turn your passion into something bigger.

It’s no secret that food pantries all over the country are struggling right now. As the economy falters, soup kitchens, shelters, and other under-the-safety-net entities are getting fewer donations and more clients every day. But… If we were to collectively donate ten percent of our harvest to our nearest food banks, soup kitchens, or other appropriate organizations, think of all the positive benefits. The people with the worst access to healthy food would at least get a little delicious, fresh, local produce. Kids whose only fault has been bad luck will get nutrition from something other than a box. Chances are very high that we’d get to meet some wonderful, dedicated people. We’d have one more excuse to get dirt under our fingernails and sunshine on our faces. And our gardens might even have fewer weeds if we’re doing it for a cause, rather than just killing time on the weekends.

Besides all that, it probably won’t even take much extra time, effort, or money on our parts. So our seed packets are a little lighter at the end of planting. So our lawns are a little smaller. In exchange, our local food security will get a little better, and our hearts might feel a little bigger. And we can drool over those seed catalogs a just little longer.

We’re challenging you to give at least one tenth of your produce to some worthy cause. If you can’t find a charity or other appropriate organization, see if a school cafeteria can use it. Or even your neighbors. Maybe it’ll inspire them to start a garden of their own. Food security is food security. And if the economy keeps going down the path it’s on now, food security is going to become more important all the time.

If you’ve never grown a garden before, we’d suggest you not worry about donating this year, and just get your hands dirty. Learn from the rest of us, and aim for donating next year. And if you get a bumper crop of something the first time out, find it a good home.

To keep everybody honest and on the ball, we’re going to have regular check-ins and discussions in The Barnyard, on the fifteenth of every month. In February, we’ll ask you about your plans, and maybe have some discussions about starting seeds indoors. In March we’ll look at some more details on what you’re doing, whether you’re using cold frames, row covers or any other tricks to get an early start. As the season progresses, we can all share tips, ideas, troubleshooting techniques, successes, and failures.

Once that garden finally starts to produce, we’ll have you report back with what’s growing well for you, how much you’ve been able to harvest, and who you found to donate it to.

Remember that every garden has its duds from year to year. If something’s not growing well, let us know and somebody will share ideas for next time. And there will be no garden police. If you only harvested ten strawberries, you don’t have to deliver one of them to the church basement. You can make it up in zucchini later.

We know we’re not the first to come up with an idea like this. (Plant a Row for the Hungry has been around for more than a decade.) But we also think that it’s more important than ever to issue a challenge like this.

We’ll primarily focus on gardening, but maybe you’re in a better position to donate baked goods, or eggs, or meat, or honey… whatever you feel is appropriate is fair game and welcome in the discussion.

So who’s in?

Head on over to The Barnyard’s brand new Garden Challenge group and tell us about yourself. Maybe where you live, how long you’ve been growing food, how big of a garden you’re hoping to grow, what level of commitment you’re willing to take on, who you might donate to, and anything else you want to share.

Let’s see what we can do…

[ NOTE - You don't have to join The Barnyard to participate. You can also just leave a comment on this post to let us know you're in. ]