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Addiction and mortality related to heroin and other narcotics in the U.S. has been steadily on the rise for years. Should it be easier for addicts to inject as safely as possible?

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No one seems to ask why we need cheap food in the first place. The simple answer is that cheap food helps to keep wages down.

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Check out this new website!

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Imagine a country where ideologues bent on land reform turn agriculture into the plaything of the world’s richest investors, and poor local farmers are locked out of millions of acres prime agricultural land. Then stop imagining some African country run by a despot and his friends and start picturing the United States. Rural America is... Read More

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this mama duck made her nest in some overwintered mustard greens and we didn't find her until we started pulling them out this week.  she's got a nest with about eight eggs in it, and we have left her alone for the meantime.  

photo by jess yliruusi

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peas and dill

donna's mushroom find

strawberries

planting tomatoes

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I heart microsprinklers

A common misconception of the Pacific Northwest by those who don't live here is that it rains all the time.  This is not so.  It rains for most of the winter and large parts of the fall and spring, but in between there are months of dry weather.  Here in Vancouver in July and August and September, we wake to day after day of sunny weather.  And, thanks to global warming or God's love of California weather (depending on your beliefs), much of this winter was dry and there is no rain in our two week forecast.

I spend most of my days trying to grow leafy greens on a large parking lot. This becomes progressively more difficult as the hours of sunlight creep up past sixteen and the asphalt continues to absorb hours upon hours of warmth.  Keeping seedlings watered and cool weather-loving greens content becomes a major source of anxiety.  

Last season, I used overhead garden sprinklers in addition to drip irrigation to keep things cool and evenly watered.  Unfortunately, we wasted a lot of water this way, and I wasted a lot of time moving around sprinklers.  

In March, I drove out to Southern Drip Irrigation in Chillawack to pick the brains of the Dutch men who staff that place.  After several trips and some disappointed/borderline irate phone calls, we established a microsprinkler system that is exciting and will hopefully make things run smoother this year.

(this is where this entry gets specific and nerdy)  

This is one of the new sprinklers in action on some french breakfast radishes:

The sprinklers run off of our 1" drip line header, but require much more pressure than the regular t-tape.  So, we ran three regular t-tape lines on each bed and then on every third bed, we ran a thick 5/8" line down the center that has a sprinkler hose and sprinkler setup attached every third box within the bed.  This allows for enough overlap and to cover the whole block without using extra sprinklers.  These little sprinkler heads can broadcast a diameter of 27'!  Very exciting.  

Because of the difference in pressure requirements, I needed to install on/off fittings on all the lines so that I could shut off the drip when running the sprinklers and vice versa. (below: t-tape off, sprinkler line on)

And now I feel like a spoiled child.  Because this is one fancy irrigation system and these on/off fittings cost a pretty penny.  

But the sprinklers make a sound like crickets and they are so easy to run that it's a dream.  We will see if they can stand the test of the summer and the crows.

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geese in the garden.  mowing down last years crop of scallions (? interesting choice) and fertilizing.

alright for now.  later they could be dinner.  

photo by andrew heneghan

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On food banks and getting at the roots of hunger

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spring cleaning

March is for cleaning up the farms after the winter beating and semi-neglect.  We spent most of the day today in the greenhouses at Hawks and Hastings, digging in cover crop from the fall.  The cover crop was the same mix that so many growers in this climate use: Austrian field peas, rye, and vetch.  It was a couple feet high and hadn't yet flowered, meaning all of the good stuff (nitrogen, specifically) was still harnessed in the root nodules.  Our technique was a little bit different because it's in containers and we were digging it in by hand.  We ran a weedwacker over the beds first and then dug the cover crop under as deep as we could go. The soil appeared richer and more nitrogenous almost immediately.  An illusion for sure, but we are hopeful that this is one step in rehabilitating very worn out container soil.  

At first glance, today's activities on the farm appear very ordinary for this time of year.  There are farmers everywhere performing the same ritual in different ways.  But in downtown Vancouver, this spring cleanup  is full of reminders that this isn't entirely the same.

The crew took bets on the numbers of crack pipes and needles that we'd find buried in the cover crop and littered on the asphalt.  Before the farm was there, the parking lot provided an open space for people to use, sex workers to work, and trash to fall.  Since the farm has been there, these tendencies haven't entirely stopped.  And so, after long (and not-so-long) absences, we return to pick up the pieces.  Today these included: a bible, a shoe, hundreds of cigarette butts, a stuffed and very realistic looking chicken, needle wrappers, condoms, lube packages, plastic bags, the contents of someone's makeup bag, one needle, several crack pipes, and a notebook of Arabic text.  

We take stock of the rat activity around the different sites.  They are unavoidable in the urban context.  We find nests where they are huddled together, dead from the poison that we put out for them.  We move out the belongings of a man who chose to live in one of the greenhouses during the winter: CDs, a radio, books, clothes.  We make lists of missing tools and other items; anything left lying around is sure to have disappeared.  We cut back blackberries and replace rusted locks and begin turning beds.  And, finally, we look around at everything that is still growing.  The greens taste really good.  They've survived the winter and are sweeter from the frost.  They are ragged and going to seed but it's hard not to be excited about the seeming abundance in this harsh city climate.

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into the spring

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Check out this article in the new Yes! magazine.  It's about cooperatives and features Vancity, Vancouver's most amazing credit union, as well as SOLEFood, where we have been the generous recipients of Vancity's community grants and patient loans.

Even if you think you're not interested in banking or investment, check out this article (and the issue as a whole).  There are so many alternate economies out there and it's exciting to read about them.

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Interesting look at the social effects of prison on the outside.

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The cow share program that so many of us are a part of in Vancouver is continuing its fight to stay in business. 

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A video about Seann and SOLEFood from the 'Meet your Urban Farmer' series in Vancouver