A place to discuss Local Food

[She-ra]

Another member and I were just discussing starting a thread here in the interest section of the forum devoted to Locally Grown Food. Please feel free to add anything and everything you would like to add here regarding gardening, local farmers and farmers markets, buying or producing any other type of local food, raising your own chickens, farm fresh eggs, any recipes you want to share, seasonal foods, any "tips" that have worked for you in the past, any historical aspects you'd like to share, current events, hydrating, canning, fermenting...YOU NAME IT...you can post it all here

I will start this off by quoting a random article about Eating Locally Grown Food:

Locally Grown Food Tastes Better

John Ikerd, a retired agricultural economics professor who writes about the growing eat local movement, says that farmers who sell direct to local consumers need not give priority to packing, shipping and shelf-life issues and can instead select, grow and harvest crops to ensure peak qualities of freshness, nutrition and taste. Eating local also means eating seasonally, he adds, a practice much in tune with Mother Nature.

Read article here: http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/locally_grown.htm

Have fun and I can't wait to see what things are posted here

[bubblykiss]

I started 3 tiny plots in my backyard.

Using charcoal mixed with gardening soil (next year I will integrate broken terracotta pottery as well).

During the height of summer I intend to ax some dead trees and start working on a pergola. I figure I can get 6-7 comfortable furrows along the main strip and then convert an old aviary into a "bean house". Then there is an unused courtyard in front I want to turn a multilevel gardening greenhouse ( just need PVC pipe anchors and a thick, semi-clear plastic sheet) that opens into my dining room. So picture coffee in the fall surrounded by dozens of peppers, squash, heirloom carrots and piles of potatoes growing in straw bundles in the warm wet air of a greenhouse, just lovely.

I am also thinking about placing 2 avocado trees in the front and one in a back corner of the lot.....but that back corner is where my evil cat likes to sun herself. So I am not sure how much she would like a tree to appear in her spot-which is, of course, the entire yard.

And then....of course, I am thinking about straw bale gardening, building intensive use raised beds with scrap wood, making my own claypots for buried irrigation.

The next few years are gonna be a ton of fun.

[Ealdwita]

Great idea, She-ra.

As the proprietors of a fairly substantial smallholding, we grow about 80% of our vegetable needs right here, and Mrs.E's in charge of the herb garden etc. Hens and geese supply our eggs and any surplus (of anything) usually goes to the farm shop in the village. Milk comes direct from the accredited herd of Poll Herefords down the lane and a lot of our meat and fish is 'taken from the wild' so to speak. We don't produce bread here, but the village bakery is excellent.

Elderberry and gooseberry wines feature quite prominently in our outhouse, as does sloe gin in season, although I rely on the local hostelry for my Old Ale, (as I'm very fussy!)

Supermarkets are mostly for hygiene and medicinal products, and we enter them only when absolutely necessary!

Anyway, I've been doing this for a number of years now, so if there's anything you have a problem with, just let me know. (I shall be keeping and eye on this thread for tips etc.)

[.ZZ.]

This is our first growing season here. We have always lived in cooler climates, and it's great to be able to plant so soon.

We now have several different kinds of tomatoes,sugar snap peas, cucumbers, pumpkins, and we are planning more.

Around these parts, strawberries have been hitting the shelves for some time already, and they are very sweet.

[She-ra]

I started 3 tiny plots in my backyard.

Using charcoal mixed with gardening soil (next year I will integrate broken terracotta pottery as well).

During the height of summer I intend to ax some dead trees and start working on a pergola. I figure I can get 6-7 comfortable furrows along the main strip and then convert an old aviary into a "bean house". Then there is an unused courtyard in front I want to turn a multilevel gardening greenhouse ( just need PVC pipe anchors and a thick, semi-clear plastic sheet) that opens into my dining room. So picture coffee in the fall surrounded by dozens of peppers, squash, heirloom carrots and piles of potatoes growing in straw bundles in the warm wet air of a greenhouse, just lovely.

I am also thinking about placing 2 avocado trees in the front and one in a back corner of the lot.....but that back corner is where my evil cat likes to sun herself. So I am not sure how much she would like a tree to appear in her spot-which is, of course, the entire yard.

And then....of course, I am thinking about straw bale gardening, building intensive use raised beds with scrap wood, making my own claypots for buried irrigation.

The next few years are gonna be a ton of fun.

Oh that's sounds great! I used charcoal mix in my bed too. We also have a firepit and hubby saves the ash and puts it on top of the bed in the winter. In spring we will til and dig and mix it all together I love avocados and I wish I could grow them here in my zone. We have harsh winters here so I am limited to summer growing only outside and herbs and smaller containers inside on our side "sunroom".

[Jarocal]

Before you have can have a discussion about eating local you have to figure out what it is.

* Is it food produced within 150 miles, 300, 500?

* Is it food produced by small scale producers only or does a local agribusiness count too?

* Is it only food produced in season or do more energy intensive out of season production models count?

The answers to these will vary with every individual and what the simple answer boils down to (in my opinion) is how much personal responsibility each of us are willing to take about what we ingest.

Eating local, slow food, or the food movement (whatever name you want to give it) seems to have been given the facade of being an elitist thing, available for suburban or more affluent urban dwellers but out of reach for most people. Battling this facade is not easy because it is easy for detractors to point at a locally grown organic tomato and say "It's twice the price" of an agribusiness tomato sitting on the grocery store shelf. Nutrient densities, freshness, paying farm workers a living wage compared to what pickers in agribusiness models receive, not to mention the chemicals they are exposed to rarely are acknowledged by detractors. They also never seem to acknowledge that a $1 packet of tomato seeds, a little soil, and recycled containers could put two tomato plants outside the back door of every house for two city blocks. Where's the extravagant expense in that? A simply constructed cold frame cover on dormant ornamental flower beds allows production of lettuce, kale, and cabbage almost year round in most regions of the U.S.

The point to me in why local food is not more widespread is we as a society have divorced ourselves from taking responsibility in what we eat subcontracting that out to profit driven companies as a matter of convenience. I eat mostly local produced food but I have no problem occasionally swinging into Bojangles for fast food. The difference is in ocassionally. I may have fast food or processed food three time a month where most people I know are just the opposite.

[She-ra]

Great idea, She-ra.

As the proprietors of a fairly substantial smallholding, we grow about 80% of our vegetable needs right here, and Mrs.E's in charge of the herb garden etc. Hens and geese supply our eggs and any surplus (of anything) usually goes to the farm shop in the village. Milk comes direct from the accredited herd of Poll Herefords down the lane and a lot of our meat and fish is 'taken from the wild' so to speak. We don't produce bread here, but the village bakery is excellent.

Elderberry and gooseberry wines feature quite prominently in our outhouse, as does sloe gin in season, although I rely on the local hostelry for my Old Ale, (as I'm very fussy!)

Supermarkets are mostly for hygiene and medicinal products, and we enter them only when absolutely necessary!

Anyway, I've been doing this for a number of years now, so if there's anything you have a problem with, just let me know. (I shall be keeping and eye on this thread for tips etc.)

Thank you Ealdwita!!! Wow your set up sounds divine! How wonderful not to have to visit the store for anything other than hygiene and medical products!!!

Speaking of hygiene products I found I can make a great deodorant by mixing Coconut oil (I use virgin and organic) mixed with cornstarch, baking soda and a lavender essential oil. It works very well in the fall, winter and spring. I use the purchased heavy-duty stuff for use in the summer because, well, you know...I won't be known as "stinky She-ra"

[Jarocal]

Oh that's sounds great! I used charcoal mix in my bed too. We also have a firepit and hubby saves the ash and puts it on top of the bed in the winter. In spring we will til and dig and mix it all together I love avocados and I wish I could grow them here in my zone. We have harsh winters here so I am limited to summer growing only outside and herbs and smaller containers inside on our side "sunroom".

I just use woodchips. I prune about 200 fruit trees every year and have access to brush I run through my chipper. The raised beds decompose about two inches a year so I just top them off with wood chips every fall. I haven't bought mulch or fertilizer in over a decade. I do purchase commercial propagation mediums and potting soils for other things solely because of the convenience.

[She-ra]

The point to me in why local food is not more widespread is we as a society have divorced ourselves from taking responsibility in what we eat subcontracting that out to profit driven companies as a matter of convenience. I eat mostly local produced food but I have no problem occasionally swinging into Bojangles for fast food. The difference is in ocassionally. I may have fast food or processed food three time a month where most people I know are just the opposite.

I agree and I had to make some lifestyle changes a couple years back due to health reasons. I had to pull back on my fast food. junk food type habits and this is how I became interested in growing my own food. I also agree that there has been a facade relating to all of this. I didn't know about the cabbage, lettuce and kale. I'm in Maryland just outside of DC so I've usually just grown in the summer months. Can you tell me more about that? Also, I am a novice to all of this, don't forget, so I might be slow to process what you say

[She-ra]

This is our first growing season here. We have always lived in cooler climates, and it's great to be able to plant so soon.

We now have several different kinds of tomatoes,sugar snap peas, cucumbers, pumpkins, and we are planning more.

Around these parts, strawberries have been hitting the shelves for some time already, and they are very sweet.

I've had great luck with tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, squash, jalepenos, peppers...and the herbs I grown are flat leafed parsley, rosemary, lavender and cilantro.

[Jarocal]

I agree and I had to make some lifestyle changes a couple years back due to health reasons. I had to pull back on my fast food. junk food type habits and this is how I became interested in growing my own food. I also agree that there has been a facade relating to all of this. I didn't know about the cabbage, lettuce and kale. I'm in Maryland just outside of DC so I've usually just grown in the summer months. Can you tell me more about that? Also, I am a novice to all of this, don't forget, so I might be slow to process what you say

I'm not far above you in Pennsylvania and do a lot of masonry work down your way. Lettuces, cabbages, and Kale actually prefer cooler temperatures, tend to get stalky, and want to bolt in higher heat. Cold frames are simple boxes with glass, or plastic covering to extend growing seasons. think of it as a glass topped wooden box. Google coldframe then click images to get an idea of the variety of designs out there.

[Grandpa Greenman]

I grow several different kind of herbs and lettuces in pots on the front porch, I have several pineapple plants and some sweet potatoes the backyard. I planted two banana trees and have an orange tree in my side yard. Every year I try to add more garden, but I am kind of slow at it. In Florida the winter is our growing season, summer the heat kills just about everything. Last summer I had good luck with white eggplant, so I'll plant some of that next month.

[Q-C]

I didn't know about the cabbage, lettuce and kale. I'm in Maryland just outside of DC so I've usually just grown in the summer months.

I saw a photo on a garden magazine of still edible/still to be harvested brussel sprouts standing up through a mound of snow. They also prefer colder temps.

[rashore]

Great thread!

I get a lot of produce locally- I'm lucky enough to live right in the middle of a high agriculture area, one that does a lot of small scale agriculture, fruit farming, and some larger scale/shipping types of agriculture. And a goodly handful of wonderful nurseries too. So when the season is nigh, I have about a half dozen places that I like to hit up for all sorts of different things that I don't normally grow myself. Like several kinds of squash from one place, or asparagus picked hours before in the morning in another place. There are at least a dozen places close by to buy eggs, and tons of farmers markets all over the place. Some are fairly large, some are pretty small, but almost all of them are worth hitting up to see what everyone has. We also have 3-4 incredible local butchers that slaughter and process locally raised animals.

On top of all that, I grow a lot of my own too. I have a small orchard of tart cherries, sweet cherries, pears, plums, apricots, and a few kinds of apples. I need to replace the apricot tree though, it's getting too old to produce well anymore. I also have a pair of chinese chestnut trees in the backyard, and a large mulberry tree in the side yard. I have several sugar maples, but can't start tapping most of them yet. And once we can start growing on the back 40 I plan on putting in more nut trees and a couple more fruit trees. On the back 40 we have a 40+ year old wild blackberry area that has never seen a chemical, as well as a lot of wild raspberries. Right now for this year I'm working on getting in gooseberries, thimbleberries, and wolfberries. And my first bed of "naturalizing" asparagus of Mary Washington that I started from seed this year.

I have three raised beds of garlic- went from 72 heads last year to about 250 for this season- I'm hoping that will actually be enough to feed the family for a year, but it might not be, lol. I have several vegetable beds and a nice herb garden too. I'm only building in two more veggie beds for this year, because I like to keep it slow and just build a couple new ones a year and not overjump myself. I also have a right fine patch of wild garlic that I pick a few pounds from every spring, and a bit less in the fall.

I also have quite a bit of bulbs planted in borders, other flowers in borders, a cilantro/parsley hedgerow that I'm adding a dill section onto this year.

Right now I have something like 172 wintersown pots and jugs outside, and somewhere around 300 pots inside with seedlings going. Next week I get to start all my 6 weeks before last frost pots, and then after that comes the 4 week and 2 week plantings. Most of the wintersown pots are to plug into the area of my yard I call the sanctuary, which is a large swath down by the pond that I'm slowly filling with various flowers. Most of the indoor stuff is edibles and medicinal.

We are supposed to start getting chickens this year.... but since I'm the only one that really works the yard and would have to rehab the old chicken coop area and now I'm working a "real job" instead of just being a homesteader, not sure it's gonna happen. This year I get to get together my beehives to start working them next year too.

I do a lot of food preservation with a lot of this stuff. Some freezing, but we don't have a lot of freezer space and lose power several times a year so I don't do a ton of it except for when I make stocks of various kinds. I do a ton of canning, pickling, dehydrating, and fermenting though.

[She-ra]

I would love to see some pictures of everyone's set up!! If that's not too much of me to ask of course

I have some pictures of my garden towards the end of last August. I will find them and post them soon.

I'm so glad some of you are very excited about this thread. Also, do any of you plant (what you've grown from seed or what you've purchased to plant) based on the moon cycle? I've read different things on that in the good old Farmers Almanac. Just wondering if there is anything to all of that and if that helps yield a more successful harvest?

[Ealdwita]

I saw a photo on a garden magazine of still edible/still to be harvested brussel sprouts standing up through a mound of snow. They also prefer colder temps.

Actually, sprouts are ten times easier to harvest manually during snow or frost. Just cut away the tops, run your hands down the stalk, and the florets and leaves snap off with hardly any effort. During warmer weather they're a bit 'rubbery'.

[She-ra]

I love brussel sprouts!! Good to know. Thanks

[Harte]

I've had great luck with tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, squash, jalepenos, peppers...and the herbs I grown are flat leafed parsley, rosemary, lavender and cilantro.

I have a compost bed made out of an old doghouse with the roof pulled off.

i compost mostly grass clippings, but I collect kitchen waste in big coffee cans and let it rot in the can them mix it in the compost.

It's a lot of work and it doesn't work very well, but it beats bagging the goddamn clippings.

I hate cutting grass anyway, much less having to bag it.

As far as local foods, I haven't really gotten there yet. I buy what's cheap and looks good. Then I raise it to the very heights of rapturous deliciosity with my culinary prowess.

Harte

[Jarocal]

I have a compost bed made out of an old doghouse with the roof pulled off.

i compost mostly grass clippings, but I collect kitchen waste in big coffee cans and let it rot in the can them mix it in the compost.

It's a lot of work and it doesn't work very well, but it beats bagging the goddamn clippings.

I hate cutting grass anyway, much less having to bag it.

Do like some Amish and tether a sheep in the yard...

As far as local foods, I haven't really gotten there yet. I buy what's cheap and looks good. Then I raise it to the very heights of rapturous deliciosity with my culinary prowess.

Harte

Living where i do with the diversity of agricultural products it is not as difficult for me. There are literally over two dozen farms with produce stands on them within a seven mile radius of my place. Spring, summer, and fall the nearest town has a weekly farmers market.

[karmakazi]

Battling this facade is not easy because it is easy for detractors to point at a locally grown organic tomato and say "It's twice the price" of an agribusiness tomato sitting on the grocery store shelf.

Those detractors must never have tasted a homegrown tomato. If they had, they'd hate the grocery store ones as passionately as I do. Give me a tomato that actually tastes like a tomato, I'll pay whatever I have to... but since I can grow them myself, I can pay in effort rather than money.

[karmakazi]

Living where i do with the diversity of agricultural products it is not as difficult for me. There are literally over two dozen farms with produce stands on them within a seven mile radius of my place. Spring, summer, and fall the nearest town has a weekly farmers market.

I do miss that about PA....

[She-ra]

So I was reading and found this article I thought I would share. It discusses Vertical Gardening as well as many other things. I thought this was cool for people who might have space issues Growing UP is a very cool thing and many have had great success with it. Here's the article:

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/7-secrets-high-yield-vegetable-garden?page=0,0

Enjoy

[DefenceMinisterMishkin]

Where is the best place to buy bacon?

[Jarocal]

So I was reading and found this article I thought I would share. It discusses Vertical Gardening as well as many other things. I thought this was cool for people who might have space issues Growing UP is a very cool thing and many have had great success with it. Here's the article:

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/7-secrets-high-yield-vegetable-garden?page=0,0

Enjoy

Vertical integration can greatly increase yields but thought should be given to the model. Heat tolerant full sun plants up high to shade other plants is a good idea but other factors should be considered. How much tending will the plant require? Am I going to be able to easily harvest the crop or will it become a daily chore to drag a ladder out to pick cucumbers off of my garage roof after I let the vines climb onto it instead of pruning them...

There are a plethora of different methods you can use to increase efficiency but no one best solution. I build soil using wood chips because they are a byproduct of something else I am doing. Someone else may know a person who keeps horses and for the simple act of mucking out the stall get a high quality manure which could have a bit more carbon( such as lawn clippings) added to produce a premium compost. Other people may live in an apartment using a vermicomposter on food scraps which is then added to soil for container gardening.

[rashore]

Where is the best place to buy bacon?

From a local butcher. This could be a stand alone butcher, or a deli, or a good meat counter at a smaller grocery store chain that is supplied locally. Sometimes ethnic stores have great meat counters too, like your local Mexican or Polish kinds of stores. A lot of these places either make their own bacon, or purchase small scale bacon instead of larger stores that use large commercially made bacon.

Otherwise, your best bet is to look for slab bacon in the store and either cut it yourself, or ask the meat counter to slice it for you- slab bacon tends to be more expensive that pre-cut, but also tends to be a better product.

In general, you can find out who the best butchers or meat dressers are in your area by either asking at a local feed store- they sell chickens and ducks and can tell you who to take them to for butchering and dressing.. or the local sports/hunting store- they can usually tell you where the hunters take their deer or other wild game to be dressed and butchered... or even your local town hardware store, because a lot of those small places see a lot of the locals that hunt, fish, garden, and so on and often have good advice on who does what. Sometimes you can have luck getting advice from your local gun and rod club- but sometimes those places are just target ranges and don't really know any better, so it can be hit or miss.