Farm to Table in Schools

In October I attended a workshop entitled "Grow Your Own Farm to Table Program," which was hosted by the Headwaters Foundation and held at Rappahannock County High School (about 20 miles from the LFP garden). The day was packed with speakers discussing the challenges and successes of implementing local food programs in Virginia public schools and communities.

Matt Benson contextualized the issue of food in schools in terms of economics and public health. Benson shared that in Virginia, 92% of farmers gross less than $100,000 annually and Virginia schools spend more than $6 million annually on produce--the majority of which is not grown in Virginia. Food in schools matters because many children in America are either hungry, overweight or obese, and malnutrition is widely recognized as a public heath concern. Benson extends the importance of malnutrition and proposes that it is also a national security issue (how does a misfed country defend itself?).

Benson also highlighted the legal framework for food in schools and political initiatives aimed at improving child nutrition. This includes, "Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act" and, "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010." Although these proposals invite optimism at first mention, they are limited in scope--for example, one act would increase the reimbursement rate for school meals by 6 cents per meal, which is a step in the right direction ideologically but would not make a discernible difference practically.

Andrea Early, the dietician for Harrisonburg schools, shared her experiences working to bring local foods into her cafeterias. One of her early lessons in reaching out to local farmers and following up with administrators was realizing that "not everyone speaks the same food language." Learning to translate between the dialects of regulations and farms and kitchens and classrooms was crucial. Pinching pennies is also inevitable--Early works with a budget of $2.50 per meal. Only half of this budget is allocated for actual food costs, because half of it is accounted for by labor costs. Early has done an impressive job of creatively introducing local foods into her schools, including stocking the kitchen with locally sourced ground beef and Virginia apples.

After a delicious local lunch, we toured the Farm to Table garden on-site at Rappahannock High School (where some of the veggies we just ate grew). The garden is thriving! It includes several raised beds growing herbs, tomatoes, greens and assorted veggies, two hoop houses, and apple trees.

This workshop instilled in me an appreciation for the relevance of public schools in the local food movement, and I am refreshed by the stellar work of the people I met that day.

D.C. Green Festival 2010

Happy November!

Over the weekend of October 23-24, the Local Food Project successfully exhibited at the D.C. Green Festival held at the Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Thousands of green-minded people attended the event and were able to check out hundreds of businesses and organizations that, at least on some level, care about the environment. As a bastion of sustainable agriculture and the local food movement, the Local Food Project held down TWO different exhibits at the festival!

At our exhibitors booth, some combination of Anna, Pablo, and I talked to passersby about our educational and demonstration programs as well as the power of local food in general. I talked to hundreds of people during the weekend and I was blown away by the level of excitement created by local, fresh, sustainably grown produce. Of course it was largely an eco-savvy crowd, but people loved hearing about the LFP's mission to promote locally grown food. They also loved the roasted butternut squash salad that the Airlie chefs were dishing out at our booth--free samples are simply transcendent.

In addition, Pablo set up a lush demo parking space garden smack in the middle of the convention center. This was a huge hit as it was filled with real, live plants from the LFP garden. People were drawn to the peppers, eggplant, basil, and zinnias, to name a few. The parking space garden demonstrated the great amount of food that can be produced in a small space, a perfect lesson for a crowd comprised mostly of urban residents. It was the perfect setting to...talk about agriculture.

The weekend was a huge success. I was encouraged by the number of people, from all different backgrounds and lifestyles, who understand that a sustainable food system is an important factor in a healthy future for themselves and the environment.

Fall Fun on the Roof

Autumn winds have blown into DC and we’ve been getting the Georgetown Rooftop Food Project ready for cool weather. Aside from gorgeous views like this one:

there are the regular fall garden tasks to check off the list. First things first—getting a new round of cold-hardy crops planted. On October 1 we sowed seeds for Encore lettuce mix, Ovation greens mix, Minutina, Mei Qing pac choi, Mokum carrots, Merlin beets, Hakurei turnips, and three kinds of radishes (Miyashige, Red Meat, and Easter Egg). Now, a few weeks later, we have cute ruffly rows of baby greens and root crops.

Another fall job is saving seeds to squirrel away for next year’s plantings. Sunflower seeds are easy—you just pry seeds out of the dried up flower head and pick off the husks.

Tomato seeds take a few more steps. After scooping the seeds into a bowl, you have to let them ferment for a few days until moldy, then rinse several times in clean water, which washes away the poorer quality seeds and leaves the viable ones. Good step by step instructions for saving tomato seeds can be found here.

With tomato production winding down and first frost on the way, it’s time to clear spent vines and sow cover crops! It’s fun to cast handfuls of winter rye, hairy vetch, and spurs oats seeds across the cleaned up beds. These cold-hardy cover crops will protect the soil from wind and rain and help build nutrient levels for next season. This site gives some good pointers on maintaining soil fertility in raised beds.

And to help with autumn clean up, we assembled two new compost bins so we can turn our garden “waste” into a nutrient goldmine right on the roof!

An Ode to the Chefs

September came and went in a caffeine heartbeat, and with October comes a slower pace in the garden. It also marks the beginning of my eighth month as the coordinator of the Local Food Project and gives me a healthy chunk of weeks to reflect upon. Growing food in the Virginia summer has its ups and downs. Well, I can really only think of one down: the unbreakable heat of July, August, and early September.

The ups come in bushels, however, and one up that immediately comes to mind is working with the amazing culinary staff at Airlie. The LFP is an unusual garden in that all of our produce is grown for and sold exclusively to the Airlie Center kitchen. It's certainly an advantageous position to be in as a food grower: we can get away with a spot or two on our peppers or a worm bite or three on our tomatoes. The chefs pickle, mash, slice, and carve away the blemishes that come with growing produce organically.

More impressive than their magician's touch with spots and blights, though, is their sheer excitement to be using fresh ingredients from our garden. When we harvest 80 pounds of summer squash, they'll find a way to incorporate it into the menu. When we bring in 50 pounds of garlic, they'll take it all and use it in breads, sauces, or pastas. They're always willing to work within the ebb and flow of the growing season because, for them, the freshest ingredients make the best meals. Airlie guests would agree, I think.

A few weeks ago, I ran into one of our chefs while delivering zucchini to the kitchen. "I loved that basil you brought us last week," he said excitedly. "It was so fragrant, I just wanted to take a nap in it!" Guests will be happy to learn that he didn't actually make bedding out of the basil, but that's the level of excitement I witness every week when I deal with the culinary staff. And their enthusiasm is contagious. When we're on our hands and knees in the garden, weeding a lettuce bed perhaps, it's exciting to think of the care and appreciation our produce receives all the way from the soil to the tables in the guest dining room. It has definitely made my first seven months here at the LFP more worthwhile. So to Jeff, Jeremy, Barry, and the rest of the kitchen staff: a giant THANK YOU from the LFP.

Fall Arrives to the LFP Garden

Torrential downpours last week brought the end to a serious dryspell in the region, and a swift end to one of the hottest seasons in memory. Last night I was convinced we would have a frost, considering my sensation of 'shivering chilliness' as winds blew across the Piedmont foothills.

Much to my surprise it was still in the upper 40's this morning, not even close to a light frost! I then realized that my perception of 'frost in the air' was relative to the oppressive heat of the summer, and in fact what we had last night was just the typical cool of fall.

In other words, the heat of the season had turned me into a cool-weather softy, not unlike someone who moves to Florida and after a while considers any temperature below 80....cold!

Now is the time when cool weather crops like lettuce thrive, still getting plenty of sun, but growing rapidly with the moist soils and damp, crispy evenings of fall. The cool weather concentrates sugars in crops like beets, radishes and asian greens, and sensations of bitterness that prevail in these crops during the stress of summer heat give way to the sweetness of fall.

We have been enjoying meeting in the middle of the organic corn maze at Airlie, the perfect place to brainstorm on LFP programs and production for the next year...

"We're All Rookies"

Today marks the 7 week anniversary of my internship with Local Food Project. 7 weeks before starting here I had the very first farming experience of my life--for less than two hours, I picked garlic with friends at a nearby farm. As I paused to stretch my stiffening back and wipe beads of sweat from my brow, I reflected on my newfound appreciation for the demands of farming and made a firm decision that farming is not for me. 

The following week I visited the Local Food Project at Airlie and helped pull weeds, which was surprisingly enjoyable. Wandering around the garden and briefly exploring the grounds of Airlie, I wondered-- what is this place? I knew I wanted to come back.

When the opportunity arose to intern here, I found a place to crash for a while and thought I'd give LFP a try for a couple weeks. On my first day, Pablo mentioned something about giving me my own space to garden independently. I gently reminded him, "You know I'm a rookie, right?" Pablo's response: "We're all rookies." Nearly two months have passed, and I'm still happily interning here.

Some highlights so far:

My first week was filled with weeding overgrown sweet potato beds. It was a daunting task, but it was a good way to start because after that everything felt more fun.

Finding and killing my first hornworm was a monumental occasion. Ben had warned me about them and pointed them out several times, but it took me a while to independently spot one. Ever since I developed an eye for them it feels like I see hornworms everywhere--they've even visited me in my dreams at night.

One week we individually added compost to each squash and melon plant. It was well worth it--their boost in growth was visible after the weekend.

LFP hosted a Harvest Dinner on September 7th. It was refreshing to swap out my Chacos and dirt-stained t-shirt for a dress and lounge in the garden, sipping wine as the sun set. Airlie chefs set up a makeshift kitchen in the garden and prepared our meal outside. Almost all of the food before us was cultivated by someone sitting at this dinner table, sharing this meal. We enjoyed delicious dishes and compelling conversation by candlelight, with the Big Dipper illuminating the night sky overhead.

Visiting Jo-Ann Fabrics and selecting fine materials to make flags for the corn maze. We picked red, yellow, blue and green fabrics for the flags--and a cash money print as a little lagniappe. Using bamboo, t posts and twine, we set up four flag poles throughout the corn maze and began brainstorming game ideas for Airlie guests.

Being a city girl, the thrill of riding in the back of a pickup truck never dulls. In anticipation of the end of the season, we cleared the garden of row covers, folded them, and loaded them in the bed of Pablo's truck. We piled ourselves on top of the fluffy row covers for a cozy ride through Airlie. A slightly less comfortable but nonetheless fun ride was transporting the revered sixteen foot ladder to the garden--Ben and I holding it in place by sitting on it.

We used broadforks to clear the family garden. We redefined the rows, mixed in compost, and planted lettuce seeds. Pablo's instructions for appropriately distributing the seeds: "A little thick, A little not too thick." It made sense.

And finally, welcome rain has arrived!

Fresh Vegetables Five Stories Up

These lucky vegetables have quite a view. Only a block away from the hustle and bustle of M Street, the crops planted on the rooftop of this five-story building in Georgetown overlook all of Washington. They also have produced pounds of delicious eggplant, cherry tomatoes, basil, and parsley in a typically undervalued and underutilized urban space.

Most people who stroll by on the sidewalk below or eat lunch on the restaurant patios at ground level would never guess that the roof of this building provides fresh food to the people who live and work inside it. For the past several seasons, the Local Food Project has demonstrated the potential to grow food in small spaces with our 9 by 14-foot Parking Space Garden. Now we are exploring other ways to garden in space-constrained environments. LFP’s new initiative this season—the Georgetown Rooftop Food Project—answers the call to make local food even more local by growing it right in the city.

Standing among the raised beds of  the Georgetown Rooftop Food Project (or GRFP for short), its urban location is impossible to forget. Airplanes roar overhead as they take off and land at Reagan National Airport. The Washington Monument and Air Force Memorial jut up from the city’s signature low skyline. Children laugh and yell in the yard of a neighboring preschool and rooftop exhaust fans rattle constantly. But there’s also a special peace that comes with the high-altitude breeze and gives this garden an air of possibility. If vegetables and herbs can be grown on this roof, why not others? And if people enjoy the flavor and freshness of this produce, what does that signify for their relationships to other kinds of food? And how can projects like this one encourage more urban residents to eat locally produced food and even grow some of their own?

As summer draws to a close and fall winds blow in, we’ll continue to harvest the bounty at GRFP. We’ll also be thinking about what might come next for this elevated garden in the city. If you have ideas or want to check it out, let us know!