Dear Kitchen Gardener,

Something is in the air these days and it's not just the musky, muddy smell of a Maine spring. 

I don't know what your senses are picking up, but I'm smelling the fragrant aroma of possibility.  Possibility not just for our own gardens, but for gardening in general.  A variety of forces - economic, social, culinary, environmental - are gathering and encouraging a new generation of eaters to get closer to and more involved with their food. 

I don't want to overstate it; we're not talking about a full-blown home gardening revolution, at least not yet.  Industrially-grown foods from afar are still the norm for most people in wealthy countries.  We are, however, seeing the first signs of a home-grown rebellion and - with oil hitting $110/barrell last week- it's not a moment too soon. 

I've been working hard this past month to spur the kitchen gardening movement along and want to encourage you to get more involved, both in KGI's community and in your own.  In the months and weeks ahead, I'm going to ask you to do different things. For now, though, I'm going to ask you to do just one. 

We're trying to build some energy around the idea of planting a kitchen garden in a highly visible and symbolic location: the White House Lawn!  As the Americans on our mailing list know all too well, it's election season and has been for the past two years.  While it's not always fun watching the slugfest that is American politics, the election season is also a season ripe with possibility. 

In addition to pitching an article on this topic which ultimately found its way on to the pages of the Washington Post, I've posted the idea on the website OnDayOne.org which brings together different ideas that we'd like the next President of the United States to undertake upon taking office.  Here's how I've phrased the recommendation:

"The next President should announce plans for a food garden on the White House lawn, making one of the White House's eight gardeners responsible for it, with part of produce going to the White House kitchen and the rest to a local food pantry. The White House is "America's House" and should set an example. The new President would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had vegetable gardens before) and showing how we can meet global challenges such as climate change and food security."

By way of background information, this is not so much a new idea as a good old one worth recycling.  One of the first things President John Adams did upon moving into the White House in 1800 as its first resident was to plant a vegetable garden.  During WWI, President Wilson "hired" a herd of sheep to reduce the costs of maintaining the 18 acres of grounds surrounding the White House.  Thousands of dollars were raised for the Red Cross through the auctioning of wool. Years later, Eleanor Roosevelt grew a Victory Garden on the White House lawn, inspiring millions of others to do the same.

I don't know about you, but I think the idea of returning part of the White House lawn to its original, edible splendor is a reasonable request to make of the next "Landscaper-in-Chief".  If you agree, I'd like to ask for your vote.  All you need to do is go here: http://www.ondayone.org/node/661 and click on "rate this idea".  Unlike the important vote scheduled for November, anyone of any nationality can vote in this "election".  All we need are 270 more votes to put this idea in the top spot! 

While you're there, check out and vote for some of the other bright ideas being proposed for the next President and consider adding one of your own.   

Thanks for your ongoing interest in and support for our work,

Posted by at 8:27 AM | Permalink

We've made yet another media splash by getting our "grow your own" message into the national press. The coverage came as a result of a pitch we made and which turned into the article below. Variations of the article have now appeared in the following newspapers:

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Canada
Pasadena Star, CA
Belleville Intelligencer, Canada
San Bernardino Sun, CA
The Standard-Times, MA
Capital Press, OR
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
Whittier Daily News, CA
Houston Chronicle, TX
Asbury Park Press, NJ
San Mateo Daily Journal, CA
The Courier News, IL
Naples News, FL
The Colorodoan, CO
The State, SC
Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, SD
Dodge Daily Globe, KS
New Haven Register, CT
Detroit Free Press, MI
Dallas Morning News, TX
Times & Transcript, Moncton, Canada
Eagle Tribune, MA
Maine Sunday Telegram, ME
Jamestown Sun, ND
Lewiston Tribune, ID
The Chronicle Herald, Canada
Cherokee Tribune, GA
The Reading Eagle, PA
Sudbury Star, Canada
Lawrence Journal, KS
Baxter Bulletin, AK
Asheville Citizen Times, NC
Grand Island Independent, NE
Montgomery Advertiser, AL
Laconia Citizen, NH
Foster's Daily Democrat, NH
The Vindicator, PA
The Wenatchee World, WA
Arizona Republic, AZ

By encouraging the media to report on home gardening trends, we're helping to amplify those trends and get more people involved. Some quick math based on newspaper circulation shows that we reached upwards of 3 million readers with this timely and important message.

Did you see this article in a paper that's not listed above? Please let us know as we're trying to track the effectiveness of our media outreach efforts.

More families will stretch food budgets with vegetable gardens

By Dean Fosdick for the Associated Press

Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach are fighting back by growing their own food.

Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies. Although the 2008 planting season is still largely in the planning stages, it appears vegetable seed sales will be up significantly from year-ago figures, said Barb Melera, president of D. Landreth Seed Co., in New Freedom, Pa.

"I just came back from the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta and we sold three to four times the amount of seed packets we did the previous year," Melera said.

"This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in the supermarket.' That's a 180-degree turn from the norm."

Roger Doiron, a gardener and fresh food advocate from Scarborough, Maine, said he turned $85 worth of seeds into more than six months of vegetables for his family of five.

"We're closing in on mid-February and we still have several quarts of tomato sauce, bags of mixed vegetables and ice-cube trays of pesto in the freezer; 20 heads of garlic, a 5-gallon crock of sauerkraut, more homegrown hot pepper sauce than one family could comfortably eat in a year and three sorts of squash, which we make into soups, stews and bread," he said.

As founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit promoting home gardening and healthier food, Doiron pays close attention to pocketbook issues. Food, gasoline and oil prices are all up sharply compared with a year ago, making it more challenging to put a meal on the table.

"I see home gardens as a way of broadening and democratizing the local foods revolution, which until now has been more of an upper-class phenomenon," he said by e-mail. "Home gardening allows people to have their fresh, organic salad greens and pay for them, too."

At $3.80 a gallon, whole milk cost more through November of last year than the $2.99 average for unleaded gas, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and AAA.

Egg prices were 19.5% higher in June 2007 than they were the previous June, the U.S. Department of Labor said. Over that same period, the cost of fresh chicken was up 10%, apples 11.7%, dried beans 11.5% and white bread 9.6%.

Those conditions are ripe for an increase in gardening, said Rose Hayden-Smith, a garden educator and historian with the University of California-Davis.

"You always see an uptick in gardening activity in keeping with economic conditions -- consumer-driven waves that emulate recession and inflation-driven economies," Hayden-Smith said.

She compares the current period of market uncertainty with that of the early- to mid-20th Century when the concept of victory gardens became popular.

During World War II, gardens were pitched as an important part of the war effort -- by war's end, the victory gardens were turning out 40% of the nation's produce.

"Home gardens made the difference between people being well fed and going to bed hungry," Doiron said.

Article copyright of the Associated Press
Photo credit: 96DPI

Posted by at 10:28 AM | Permalink

For the past two decades, Barbara Damrosch’s book The Garden Primer has been one of the most popular gardening resources for both novice and avid gardeners. If you’re among the latter, there’s a good chance you already have copy in your gardening library (hint: it’s the dirty one with the dog-eared cover). This winter, the long-awaited “100% organic” second edition has been released. We recently had a chance to catch up with Barbara to talk with her about her new book and life on Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine.

KGI: Thanks very much for agreeing to this interview. It’s been twenty years since the first edition of The Garden Primer came out. How would you say you’ve changed as a gardener during this time?
BD: The main way I have changed as a gardener in 20 years is about the way most gardeners do: just by doing it more and becoming more experienced. Certainly I've read a lot and learned from other gardeners, including my husband who is by far the best gardener I know, but I think the most important thing is that the more you grow things the more you understand how nature operates. The relationship between you and the natural world becomes more one of collaboration. I am participating in a process that is going on around me, not just tackling projects. I have always been conscious, for example, that building good soil is a process in which entire underground civilizations participate, not a concoction whipped up by gardeners as if following a recipe.

This awareness has deepened, though, and I am even more gentle about the way I handle the soil, tilling less, avoiding all chemical fertilizers -- which I rarely used anyway --and paying even more attention to the wildlife that are participants in the process both above and below the soil surface. I don't cut back most of my perennials in fall, for example, leaving any that stand upright as cover and food sources for overwintering birds. I also consider myself a "recovering double-digger" and would never reverse the soil layers in an effort to loosen it to a great depth. I'd use a broadfork or digging fork instead, just using these tools to loosen the soil deep below and then applying organic matter regularly to the soil surface. This is more the way nature does it, as leaves fall from the trees and burrowing creatures help to incorporate organic matter into the soil below.

KGI: How are these changes reflected in the second edition?
BD: The food growing sections have been much enriched by my having become a vegetable farmer for the last 16 years or so. There is better information on helpful insects, season extension, seed saving, invasive plants, styles of compost bins, new tools, native lawn grasses just to name a few additions. All the chapters have had new plants added to them, the majority of which are native to North America. I've also tried to include more that will do well in the arid parts of the country. The book is quite a bit longer. All the garden plans have been re-done and many plant varieties have been updated to reflect the current market. The list of nurseries, plant organizations and books in the back have all been completely updated.

KGI: What about the larger trends in our food and garden culture during this time? What changes give you hope or pause?
BD: During the years since the Primer first came out the popularity of food gardening has waned, but recently I’ve seen it start to reemerge. The growing national focus on real food -- it's really a whole alternative universe of people shopping at organic food coops, subscribing to CSA's, seeking out local farmers--can't help but lead to an increase in people who want to try growing their own. It's the inescapable conclusion if you really value food and want the freshest, the safest, the best. Organic food is a huge trend, but the organic label doesn't mean quite as much to people as it once did, now that organics have become so large scale.

Am I hopeful? Well, I tend to be an optimist, and while I see industrial food production getting worse and worse, I see people's awareness of that growing, both here and in other countries. The biggest challenge is to convince people that cheap industrial food is not a bargain. The hidden environmental and nutritional costs are ones that we all bear, as taxpayers and as people who drink the water and breathe the air. I refuse to think of good, wholesome food as a luxury item, an elitist concept. The world used to feed itself in more traditional ways and it still can. Most of the worlds hunger issues are political and social ones. I believe that home gardeners can do a huge amount to set us back on the right path, one backyard at a time. Another trend is that people are busier, and hence want smaller gardens that they can take care of. Ornamental gardening is still very popular, bit nobody wants to recreate Sissinghurst in their yard.

KGI: One way of describing your own journey as a gardener is to say “Interstate 95 North”. You moved from Connecticut to Maine, from a four-season garden to Four Season Farm which you run with your husband Eliot Coleman. What’s it like having two strong-minded garden experts under the same roof?
BD: Gardening with Eliot has been fantastic. When we first got together there was a bit of sorting out of turf. I think the first argument we ever had was about where to plant bulbs. After he saw what kinds of ornamental gardens I could create he pretty much left them to me. And he is so much more experienced as a market gardener, having done it for most of his life, that I defer to his wisdom on that, though we bounce ideas about the farm off each other all the time. In addition to the home gardens I also manage the cut flower operation at the farm -- cut flowers are the second most profitable item there, after tomatoes!

Since I also like to grow food, and have specific things I like to grow for the kitchen, I do have my own vegetable and herb gardens near the house, over which I rule. But we really love working together both in the yard and in the farm fields and greenhouses, and miss it at times when our activities take us in different directions.

KGI: So what’s next? It’s still a bit early to begin thinking about the 40th anniversary edition of the Primer. Do you have any other book projects on the boil?
BD: Right now I'm really not thinking about starting a new book. Writing for The Washington Post and my work at the farm keeps me very busy. But given how much I like to cook, there is probably a cookbook somewhere in my future.

KGI: Tell us something about food on the farm. Have you served any memorable meals lately?
BD: Having a big noon meal that the whole farm crew eats at a long table, made from food we have all worked to grow, is a great tradition. It holds the farm together. I could tell you what some of the crew’s favorites are. Each of the farm workers, when they are moving on to their next job, get to choose a "last meal" and some of the recent choices have been black-eyed peas cooked with kielbasa, and fried rice made with pork, vegetables and Chinese fermented black beans. Eliot's favorite is shepherd's pie.

Posted by at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Gardeners know a thing or two about companion planting, but what we know about "companion eating". Not as much as we could, apparently. Thanks to a new Belgian website, what we don't know, we can learn.

According to the site, foods combine with each other when they have major flavor components in common. Some of the pairings might strike you as tempting and others revolting. One famous Belgian chocolatier was so inspired by the site's content, he invented a new praline in its honor: "chocolate-radish-chives-fresh cheese".

But the site's creator includes an important caveat:

"This is just a tool to inspire you. You still need as a chef the craftsmanship, the experience,…to translate this inspiration into a good recipe. It is not only mixing two components together. The balance between the two is important".

Posted by at 2:38 PM | Permalink

The short video above is a teaser from Richard Heinberg's presentation last year to the UK's Soil Association. If you're interested in reading or hearing all of his talk , you can do that here: http://www.soilassociation.org/ladyevelecture

Posted by at 1:50 PM | Permalink

You don't have to be a Peak Oil junkie to know that something's up with the global oil supply. Yesterday, prices went above $104 for the first time on the announcement from OPEC nations that they were quite satisfied with the amount of available supply (and the price that supply is fetching), rebuffing President Bush’s request to open the spigot a little wider.

Reasonable people can disagree on the causes and the implications, but there's seems to be gathering consensus that the era of easy and cheap oil is over. If you don't want to take our word on that, then take it from an oil executive.

What few people grasp is the connection between oil and the food supply. Put simply, the food and farm economies of industrialized countries run on the stuff. Oil and its derivatives are used to power farm equipment, to create synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, to run food processing equipment, and to transport food from field to fork, a journey of 1500 miles for the average forkful.

It has been estimated that our highly-industrialized food system in the US requires 10 calories of fossil fuel energy to create 1 calorie of food energy. Needless to say, that equation just doesn't compute in the long run.

Meanwhile, as we’re depleting one natural resource, we're busy creating an abundance of another: people. The UN estimates that the global population will approach 9 billion (up from the current 6.6 billion) by the year 2050. Last year, an article in the British paper The Guardian pointed out the enormity of the challenge we face in feeding 9 billion people. In order to do this, we will need to produce more food over the course of the next 50 years than we have produced in the past 10,000 years combined.

So, what's the message? If you are a gardener already, keep it up and try to scale up a bit this season. More importantly, try to bring some nongardeners into the fold this year, perhaps by organizing a backyard or community gathering on Kitchen Garden Day. If you're not a gardener, this is the year to start.

So, what's the solution? The answer to peak oil is peak soil. The more people who have their hands in it and have a little of it under their fingernails, the better placed we will be to feed our communities and, indeed, the world.

There are different things you can do to be part of the solution. If you are a gardener already, keep up the good work this spring and try to scale up your growing, if your time and space allow. More importantly, try to bring some non-gardeners into the fold this year, perhaps by organizing a backyard or community gathering on Kitchen Garden Day. If you're not a gardener, this is the year to start.

If you can’t garden because of where you live, make as direct a connection as you can with someone in your area who’s growing and selling food whether it’s through regular purchases at a farmer’s market or membership in a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm. Your support helps protect that farmland from development and helps keep that farmer farming.

We can’t change what President Bush or OPEC will do today, but we can change our own actions and that’s a good place to start.

Posted by at 2:31 PM | Permalink

By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, February 28, 2007 in The Washington Post

I've been following the presidential campaign news, and I can't believe no one has asked the big question: Which candidate will pledge to be the Gardening President? Who will be the one to take the lead in teaching food self-sufficiency and good nutrition to the American public? What a fine example it would set if the food miles traveled by presidential produce added up to zero.

Chef and food activist Alice Waters made headlines in 2000 by urging President Bill Clinton to plant a vegetable garden at the White House. "Send me the seeds, Alice" was his answer, as quoted in the St. Petersburg Times. But the plan was deemed out of keeping with the grounds' formal style, and nothing came of it. Perhaps Hillary Clinton, if elected, would be willing to see it through.

The idea certainly has historical precedent. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were dedicated farmers. According to William Seale, author of "The White House Garden," the first kitchen garden at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was installed by President John Adams in 1800 -- to cut household expenses.

I contacted Rose Hayden-Smith, an expert on the history of wartime gardening and agriculture programs during both world wars, and she highlighted some of the first families' efforts in the last century. Woodrow Wilson's second wife, Edith, "raised sheep on the former White House lawn during World War I as part of the White House's war mobilization effort," Hayden-Smith noted. "Eleanor Roosevelt was a Victory Gardener, and grew beans and carrots on what had been the White House Lawn. This was going on by 1943. She inspired millions of other home gardeners in their efforts." Jimmy Carter, another farmer at heart, paid particular attention to the herb garden.

Perhaps the time has come to bring back the Victory Garden in a new guise: as a war on childhood obesity, inactivity, addiction to highly processed food with empty calories, and the use of fossil fuels to grow and ship us our meals.

Roger Doiron, the director of Kitchen Gardeners International ( http://www.kitchengardeners.org), had a great suggestion: "We give tax breaks to people to encourage them to put hybrid cars in their garages and solar panels on their roofs, so why not a tax break to encourage environmentally friendly and healthy food production?" He likened his plan to deducting the square footage of a home office: the bigger your garden, the better the tax break. Those with no yard could deduct the rental fee for a community garden plot.

That would be one small step toward a healthier nation. But it would get my vote.

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For an additional comment from KGI's Roger Doiron on this topic, please click here.

To cast your vote in favor of a new garden on the White House lawn, please go here and click on "rate this idea".

Article copyright of Barbara Damrosch. Reprinted with permission.

Posted by at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Comment by Roger Doiron, Founding Director of Kitchen Gardeners International, on the role of the President and federal government in promoting healthy, home-grown foods.

I think there’s a lot of symbolic power in the White House as “America’s House”. We choose who lives there and how long. We pay the bills associated with the house, including the salaries of the eight gardeners who maintain the 18 acres of grounds. It is only logical that we should have a say in what our house looks like and what messages it sends.