Fairweather Farm

There's a documentary out called "The Future of Food", which someone loaned to us recently. While I'd known about the creeping dangers of GMO and agribusiness, this documentary really makes it clear how systematic and organized the system is: the government, the courts, and Monsanto and the rest of agribusiness are setting up a system that will make it virtually impossible for farmers to not live indebted or owned by big chemical companies, and give us no choice about what's available for the consumer to eat. I have a renewed mistrust of any bit of food that I didn't grow myself; organic food is better, but it's still probably not a good idea to trust anything. And what about eating when I'm away from home? I don't eat fast food, but even at nicer restaurants: what's really in the corn chips or the tofu?

It seems to be much worse in the US than other countries; other countries have wisely rejected or required labelling on GMO foods. I think we are so out of touch with where food comes from, and have had our taste buds dulled if not killed outright by fast food (I read recently that one quarter of all meals in the US are fast food), that we are more vulnerable to the transformation of our food supply into something that does not fill the needs of healthy support for our bodies, nor healthy support for the land, and utterly ignores the future in favor of making a little cash today.

I strongly recommend everyone try to see this documentary, although it's pretty depressing. We all need to be aware of what we eat and vote with our food dollars against this evil.

Posted by Lisa at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Gardeners tend to buy seeds (even if you save, it's so much fun to try new types!). But who do you buy from - is buying seeds from a corporate behemoth that bombards you with shiny catalogs really in keeping with the spirit of local, sustainable food production?

One of the big seed suppliers has recently been bought by Monsanto:
"...Celebrity, Big Beef and Sweet Baby Girl tomatoes, North Star, Red Knight and Fat 'n Sassy peppers, Mars and Candy onions, Yellow Doll and Jade Star watermelons, the Seneca squashes—all are Seminis varieties. ... In January 2005 Monsanto announced that they were buying Seminis for 1.4 billion in cash and assumed debt. Noted for its aggressive advocacy of genetically modified crops and its dominance in biotechnology, Monsanto will now have a major presence in thevegetable seed business for the first time..."

And Mars corporation owns Seeds of Change.

I love to try out new seed suppliers and varieties and give my business to small seed companies. And of course it's better to grow seeds and plants that come from nearby places, so they will be more adapted to your local climate and soils. To help people in Ashland or on the west coast, I'm giving my lists and reports of the small local
seed and fruit tree companies I've found; people in other places, I encourage you to find, buy from, and publicize these types of companies too.

The ecoregions listed are from the maps here: http://www.epa.gov/wed/pages/ecoregions/level_iv.htm
Ashland is ecoregion 78a. CA ecoregions are not broken down past the 78. Distances are from Ashland, OR.

=== Vegetable Seeds ===

34 miles - Sow Organic, Williams, OR (in ecoregion 78b/e)
http://www.organicseed.com/
Organic, OP

62 miles - Peter's seed and research, Riddle, OR (ecoregion 78c)
http://www.pioneer-net.com/psr/
Unique breedings, OP. Perennial grains, some perennial/self sowing vegetables.
I've ordered once: recommended

72 miles - Synergy Seeds, Orleans, CA (in ecoregion 78)
http://www.synergyseeds.com
Unique/rare seeds
Not ordered, will this year. Lots of grains, unusual beans

112 miles - Territorial, Cottage Grove, OR (in ecoregion 3)
http://www.territorial-seed.com
OP and hybrid, some organic, wide selection of basics.
I've ordered multiple times: highly recommended, but getting a bit big and slick

166 miles - Peace Seeds, Corvallis, OR (in ecoregion 3)
All OP, unique breedings.
no website (!)
Have grown their seeds: highly recommended

171 miles - Nichols, Albany, OR (in ecoregion 3)
http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/
OP and hybrid, some organic, wide selection, some very unique varieties of greens
I've ordered multiple times: recommended

195 miles - Bountiful Gardens, Willits, CA (in ecoregion 78)
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/
All OP, some organic, wide selection, small scale grains.
I've ordered multiple times: highly recommended

=== Fruit Trees ===

34 miles Forest Farm
Williams, OR
http://www.forestfarm.com/
Some fruit, but not as many varieties of mainstream fruits as the others. I haven't ordered (yet). Outstanding rating on Garden Watchdog.

76 miles - Sandy Bar Nursery
Orleans, CA
http://www.sandybarnursery.com/
I've placed one order, very happy with them, very nice stock.

205 - One Green World
Mollala, OR
http://www.onegreenworld.com/
I've ordered twice, quite happy with stock. They have a bad reputation in some fruit circles.

261 miles - Trees of Antiquity
Sebastopol, CA
http://www.treesofantiquity.com/
I've ordered just one tree; very happy with stock. Outstanding service.

302 miles - Raintree Nursery
Morton, WA
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/
Ordered 3-4 times, very happy with stock, prices high, service excellent. A little slick.

304 miles - Burnt Ridge Nursery
Onalaska, WA
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/
Ordered many times, some stock is great, some is so-so (it's all healthy, but maybe small or less attractive); service is okay. Prices are so great that I order again and again.

Posted by Lisa at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Our climate is mild enough that we can grow a lot of vegetables outside over the winter without much in the way of protection. But mere lack of single-digit temps doesn't mean that we get enough sunshine in winter to actually allow plants to grow and for example put out new leaves; what's there in mid-October is as much as you get. If your aim is to grow all your own vegetables, you have to make sure to plant what seems like an unreasonable quantity. For the average person (well, at least for me), 6 kale plants seems like an awful lot of kale - and it is, in April. But in December, you can eat them to the ground in a week or two, and then it's store bought veggies for the rest of the winter. In the abundance of midsummer, it's very hard to think ahead to the cold dark days where that kale plant will be precious, and make sure there's a nice, rich spot for them all that won't get too soggy in the rains.

This problem of scale goes for things like onions and potatoes - many (most) people have no idea how many onions or potatoes or garlic they actually eat in a year, and how much that is; yet if you want to grow your own, you need to think on that scale. And that means some awareness of how much you planted last year, so you can tell if you should plant the same next year, or if you need to plant more. And of course, even then, things change from year to year - our potato crop was low this year, my guess is that after replanting tubers for some years we have built up viruses. So new seed potatoes this spring (from Ronningers - organic heirlooms from a family business).
And we are already getting low in potatoes to eat - we're having to eat All-Blue potatoes (which did very well) in the chicken noodle soup, and the potato pancakes, making some dishes look a little surreal (they really are blue - very funky with carrots). We're also low on onions (I saw this coming in June, but the later planted onions did poorly - and interplanting with tomatoes didn't work, the tomatoes ate the onions for breakfast). Fortunately, we do have what appears to be a vast amount of acorn and sweet dumpling squash (from just two hills!). We also have plenty of garlic. Oh, and the jerusalem artichokes, there's no end of those . All we need, really, is the right recipes.

I'm not sure if assuring an even stream of vegetables, without the feast-or-famine, is even possible when gardening, or if someday I'll have that kind of skill. Partly it may be accepting eating the less appealing foods when the good stuff is gone (like those tasteless tomatoes ripening in the pantry, "Longkeeper", and the jerusalem artichokes). But thinking ahead, learning how much you eat, and planting it in spite of how much it looks, is a set of hurdles to overcome or skills to acquire in the process of taking control of your food supply.

Posted by Lisa at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)