Cells of a Pumpkin Stem

Came across this and found it beautiful... the universes that lay inside of everything living... how we take the simple things for granted! 

Family Farm

I want to share some music with you. The musician is Chris Dorman, and he recorded an album called 'To Begin Again' last year. I have been incredibly moved by one the songs on this album. It's called 'Family Farm' and as I am currently connecting with his idea that the 'land is the only thing we have that can support the weight of our lives' I thought I would link you to a page that will play it. Click the title to be taken to a page that will play the song once it opens. 

Enjoy. 

On gardening and unemployment.

So in connection with my earlier blog post about the nationwide expansion of interest in gardening in response to the recession, I'd like to share a timely quote that came across my desk this afternoon. 

"Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden."

-Orson Scott Card

Now put that in your pipe and smoke it. 

Grow a Farmer

As many of you know, in two weeks time I will stop my international documentary film making, move into a tent, and begin to farm. Earlier in the year I was admitted to the UCSC Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture- a rigorous residential program in organic farming where I'll be gardening alongside 40 other aspiring organic farmers from across the country. I'm looking forward to the shift. From planes to plants. From computers to calendula. 

The program was started by Alan Chadwick in the 1960s and has trained much of the corps of todays' blossoming organic movement. Here is where my tone darkens: Although this program has been a mainstay in training the very foundation of the national trend towards organic that we are experiencing, it's survival is in question. The University of California has told the apprenticeship staff that the students can no longer live in tents on the property as they have for the last 40+ years. UC is insisting that the apprenticeship build houses for the program participants to the tune of around $800,000. ( A pretty penny for 40 permanent tent cabins. )

The staff had successfully raised the funds last year, when the construction project was re-appraised by the contractor and it was ascertained that they would need an additional $250,000 by June of 2009. That's when the Grow A Farmer Campaign started. A band of alumni from the program are working with the apprenticeship staff to come up with the additional funding to build the tent cabins and save the program from demise. 

I'll be blogging over the next few months with updates about the program and the campaign. Please check back in for more details and/or check out the campaign website to see how you can get involved! 

Click the title to be taken to www.growafarmer.org/ 

Grow your Own!

I was at dinner with a good friend of mine a few days back when the subject of gardening came up in conversation. For the past few years, she and I have planted a kitchen garden outside her house to feed weekly dinners that I cook with her and her family. For us, the garden has been both a bonding exercise and a practical way to feed our constant craving for vegetables. Regardless, she's a nurse, and she works in a normal office, with normal people who are not the radical-organic-food activists that so dominate the rest of my social sphere. In her story, she told me that much of her office lunch conversation of late has been around the topic of gardening. These normal everyday Americans, who probably don't stalk the isles of the farmers market, or obsess over the best dark leafy green at the local natural food store are talking about growing vegetables! Folks, this is huge. The downturn of the economy is shifting people's world view enough to refocus their attention onto what really matters- stability, shelter and food. The enclosed link will take you to a recent article that highlights statistics from a new survey from the National Gardening Association that says the recession has already spurred millions of new gardeners; people who are growing their own food in order to cut grocery costs and ease their stress about basic survival. If nothing else positive comes out of this recession, leastways there is a glimmering possibility that a new generation of gardeners will emerge, people who understand the simple power and beauty of learning how to grow your own! 

Click the title to be taken to the referenced article.

Mother Jones on Food

Mother Jones magazine has done a whole section this month on the current food system and how to fix it. Though I find some of the articles short and lacking, it's a good smattering of information about what's hot in the sustainable agriculture realm and what people are doing about it. They also feature some of my favorite young food activists (read in: Tim Galarneau). 

Click the title to be taken to the article. 

White House Organic Garden!

This news just in. The New York Times is reporting today that Michelle Obama will 'begin digging up a patch of the White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden in World War II." A lot of us in the organic food world have hoped against hope that this would happen. It's about time for the white house to show some leadership in food self sufficiency! Hurrah for Michelle Obama! 

Click the title to be taken to the NYT article.

Egypt

Egypt is magical. There is something incomprehensibly beautiful about a country that is essentially a complete desert, save a tiny strip of green that borders it's pulmonary artery- the Nile. I have spent time on water ways around the world, the Colorado River, the Temps, the Ganges... but no river stole my heart like the Nile. I understand why this is one of the places where civilization thrived early and agriculture flourished. Flowing north from the monsoon season of Ethiopia, through drought stricken Sudan, and past the high dam at Aswan, the Nile brings life to the Egyptian Desert. The banks of the river rise high above the water, the rich brown soil profiles a testament to the famed silt deposits that have underpinned Egyptian success. I've never experienced water that smelled so alive, so full of potential energy as the water that flowed below the Aswan dam. Huge fish danced above the water top, camels and donkeys grazed the banks, and great egrets flew out of the pathway of our boat. It makes great sense that so many artists have attempted to immortalize the power and lure of the Nile. Juxtaposed with the desert, augmented by the tombs, and complemented by the pyramids, the Nile explains the unexplainable about Egypt. Ancient. Modern. Alive. Vital. Present. and Beautiful.