Sunday, May 20, 2012
Another Lehigh Community Garden
Link to an article about another community garden on Fillmore Street.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
In Gardening, There is No Winner
My competitive
drive is untamable. My friends all sabotage our taboo and scrabble games
because they love to see how completely disconcerted I become when I realize
that they are breaking the rules or that I am losing. I would not say that I am
a particularly sore loser, but I will admit that I love to win. I am an
extremely hard worker, and I like to always keep my goals in sight. Yet, as a
gardener, my competitiveness made me a failure.
Ed kept telling
me that gardening is not a race. Regardless, I kept trying to make each aspect
of the experience into one. I had each of my peers pick a plant, and we wanted
ours to grow the fastest and the highest. I wanted to put the seeds in the
ground as soon as possible, thinking that the faster they grew, the quicker we
would reach the finish line.
I quickly
learned that there is no finish line in gardening, and that if it could be
considered a sport at all, it would be a team one. Gardening is all about
quality – the quality of the vegetables as well as the quality of the
experience. Moreover, to attain this quality, one needs time, patience, and
acceptance. I have learned that trying to “win” at gardening is setting one’s
self up for failure because nature is not perfect. Plants will die, bugs will
infest, and weather will do whatever the hell it feels like doing. There is
more to gardening than having the perfect garden.
I realized that
with our garden, and with life in general, I attempt to make everything a race
that should really just be a journey. I went to the garden at sunset today to
reflect on the garden experience thus far. The conclusion I came to was that I
got as much out of just visiting the garden as I could out of eating its
vegetables. I feel centered when I am there, and I love how grounded I feel so
close to nature and her most magical of processes. I do not need the most
luscious vegetables in order to get something out of gardening.
At the garden
tonight, I could not help but reflect again on how lucky I am to have this
application of learning in the real world. I cannot wait to continue working
with my classmates and caring for the garden this summer. I know that the
eating and nurturing of the garden will vary greatly from the prepping process,
and I cannot wait to learn even more then.
Staring at the
sunset at the garden tonight, my mind instantly went to Leslie Marmon Silko and
the conclusion of her novel Ceremony.
This book is very special to me, and it informs how I live my life and connect
with those around me. The final words of Silko’s novel perfectly reflect how I
feel about this entire experience: “Sunrise, / accept this offering, / Sunrise”
(244). Although I was taking in the garden beside a sunset rather than a
sunrise, I felt like I was on the brink of a new beginning.
I am about to
graduate and start my adult life. Who I am from here on out is completely on
me. The garden represents the future that I foresee for myself because I want
to live a life where I am a conscious consumer and really connected to the
world around me. I want to grow my own food, spend time outside, and really
connect with those around me. I think that as a society, we have lost a lot of
our connection to the physical world and intimate connection with each other.
The garden is the antithesis of this, and that is the life I want for myself.
Just as Silko
points out, a new beginning also means that I have to give something up, an “offering.”
I love this Silko quote because I have learned to completely give myself up to
the garden over the past few weeks. I have learned to enjoy the journey, be in
the moment, and to be patient. I leave my phone on the side when I enter the
garden, and I try to become a part of my surroundings as much as possible. In
giving up some pieces of myself, I have learned to become a part of something
larger. I am a part of a larger cycle of life and death, as well as community,
when I am at or tending to the garden. Sometimes, letting go of ourselves is a
good thing. And if I have to learn to let go, I am so happy that it is at this
garden and with all of you!
Monday, May 7, 2012
out with the old, IN with the NEW
For some reason the hobby of gardening only appeals to the
older generation. And as life becomes more complicated by the innovations in
the technology and software industries, our generation has never caught on to
our grandparents or parents time in the yard. Simply put, why would we spend a
sunny afternoon digging through dirt and tending soil if we could go to the
nearest mall or entertain friends? And to add to that, gardening just isn’t in
the category of what makes people ‘cool’? As nature changes and adapts through
evolution, our generation needs to bring back the importance of urban
agriculture at a local level.
My uncle has established a store called Terrain (at Styer's), which is
located in Concordville, Pennsylvania. The store is the latest brand of the
Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People family. With the young, trendy
college student being the target market for Urban, my uncle hopes that with the
introduction of Terrain, Urban’s shopper will help keep the garden community
alive. When entering the store, one feels as though they are in a state of a
natural high. Shop for eco-friendly growing supplies or even locally sourced and prepared artisan food at their cafe. There are around 50 more stores planned to go up across the
United States over the next few years, so don’t hesitate to check it out.
Continue the movement and represent the sustainable eco-lifestyle! Showing off
what your garden produces to your friends is cool. Providing people with locally
grown fresh produce will add to their day and enhance a contagious sense of
community within their souls.
I am looking forward to the upcoming summer months and
harvesting our many crops. I am also extremely excited about my research and
experiencing the taste of gardening in three local domains: Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania; Avalon, New Jersey; and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
Thank you so much for making this course the most enjoyable
I have had in my undergraduate career. I look forward to my relationships with
all of you growing in the future. No pun intended.
On a side note:
Since I will be at Lehigh over the course of the summer,
feel free to visit our garden and take anything with you! Also, I will be
spending various hours of the week at Horns. John offered me a job, so if your
hungry maybe you can even bring some of our produce and they can add it to your
order.
If you are interested in a television series, I highly
recommend Aftermath: Population Zero on
the National Geographic channel. The
series features how scientists speculate the Earth, animal life, and plant life
would recover if humans abruptly vanished and left everything behind,
untouched. This series goes hand-in-hand with the book I chose to read at the
reminder of the course, The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.
The Garden
Kim Campbell
Post #1
April 26, 2012
Lunch at Horns –
‘It’s not about the journey, its the destination’
The last day of
class was my second time going to Horns, but my first time paying attention to
what the restaurant actually does.
It is really impressive how much the owners do and how dedicated they
are to eating locally. In a past
interview, co restaurant owner John Silvestern said, “We’re using all local farms
and trying to keep the money in this area.” Thus, there are health, community, as well as economical
benefits to eating locally (Huth).
The owners of Horns strive to make every part of their restaurant local,
eco friendly and organic in some way.
They only use fresh foods from nearby farmer markets and orchards, and
their take-out containers are sustainable and compostable (Huth). The ingredients are listed on the
chalkboard menus up overhead, so you know exactly what is in your food. All of the meat that is served is
“grass-fed, nitrate free, injection-free and comes from local farms”
(Huth). Everything is made each
morning and all of the restaurant food scraps are saved for compost.
The whole
atmosphere of Horns is earthy: there are dark wooden picnic benches as seating,
chalkboards on the walls that list dining options, minimizing the need for
paper menus, and there are no bottles of water, but rather “Super-Duper
Filtered Water” in a glass Mason jar that is sold for 50 cents. Another thing I noticed about Horns is
that they have pour-over coffee.
Every few minutes or so while we were eating, I kept seeing one of the
employees pour hot water into a series of metal funnels on the counter. At the time, I didn’t realize what she
was doing, however, when I read a few articles about Horns afterwards, I
realized that this was a different way of making coffee. Coffee grounds and a filter are put in
this funnel and the hot water is then poured through to produce the coffee that
drips into a cup below. Though I
have not done a lot of research on this way of making coffee, it seems more eco
friendly as the process uses less electricity and is more natural than using a
coffee maker.
It
does seem that people recently have become more aware of eating locally and
organically. Perhaps this is somewhat
in my head since, as a class, we have just finished reading very economically
conscious and pro locally grown food novels such as Ecotopia and Animal,
Vegetable, Miracle, I do feel like people want to be more healthy. It seems that people are more willing
to be eco friendly now than they have been in the past because there has been a
lot of change and problems associated with our climate that is due to global
warming. Though I think people can
learn to be more eco friendly, recognizing that we are, as a community, making
strides to be environmentally conscious and eat more locally is important and
something to be proud of.
After reading
these books, I, at least, have talked to my parents about buying more from our
local famer rather than buying what we can get from him at the grocery store. Also, during this year, my sorority
house got a composter, and we have saved a huge amount of food that would have otherwise
been added to the garbage disposal.
Recognizing special places, such as Horns, and helping them with their
business is a great place to start helping the community become more local. Though it is a bit more expensive than
McDonalds, you definitely get a lot more for your dollar in taste, freshness
and experience.
Going
to Horns before starting the garden got us in a more environmentally conscious
mindset and boosted our confidence in starting the project. Similar to a restaurant like Horns, but
on a much smaller scale, a garden requires hard work, dedication, and
desire. Though this is not the
most cost efficient way to run a restaurant, the owners, perhaps, are not solely
focused on the monetary issue. The
effects you can have on people, as well as the local community, are, in the
long run, more substantial than the effects you could have on yourself by
making a lot of money. I have no
idea how many vegetables will be produced in our small earth beds, but I think
it would a nice thing if we could help out places like Horns by giving back some
of our locally grown produce. It
was their mindset and other people’s mindsets like theirs that made us want to
start a garden in the first place.
Huth, Kelly. "Restaurant Profile:
Horns." The Express-Times. 16 Sept. 2011.
Web. 07
May 2012.
<http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/food/index.ssf/2011/09/restaurant_profile_horns.html>.
Post #2
April 26, 2012
First Impressions Are
Often Times Deceiving
After lunch at Horns
Today was the
first day I went to the garden.
I’ve never gardened before, so on our walk from Horns to our plot, I
didn’t know what to expect. As we
walked down the street of South Side Bethlehem, past Wendy’s, scattered beer
cans, and broken glass strewn about, I could not imagine where this small garden
could be. It seemed as if there were
only worn out homes, battered by years of college students living in them,
squished next to each. I love
Lehigh, but the South Side that surrounds Bethlehem is not a pretty sight and I
don’t feel safe walking in certain areas by myself. Everything feels dirty, polluted, and, like any other small
city, there is very little plant life.
As we turned up Carlton Avenue after passing Montclair, my jaw dropped. For the first time in the South Side, I
saw a plot of grass with shady trees looming overhead. Amidst a city overcrowded with hopping
fast food chains, honking cars, and ever blinking traffic lights, I spotted the
city’s secrete green treasure tucked behind a row of homes. I couldn’t believe that there was small
community garden nested between all the streets and rows of buildings. Though it is not very big, compared to
the open land of a park, the plot of green grass was more than enough to be
satisfied with in the South Side.
For the past three years I have been giving the South Side a lot less
credit than it deserved as I have always assumed that there was nothing worth
going out and exploring in this part of town.
Walking up to the
garden, I felt like a kid again: there was a swing set, exquisitely shaped
concrete benches that begged to be climbed on, and a fenced in mosaic garden
which contained nine garden beds, two of which we would be working on. For some reason, I always associate mosaics
with magic and charms. Seeing this
as I entered the garden just made the experience, for lack of a less cheesy
phrase, more magical.
It was as if the
city stopped moving around us.
Everything felt so fresh and clean. It felt good to breathe in a full gulp of air that was not
contaminated with car exhaust and dirt particles. It was a very freeing experience to be in the garden, and I
felt really safe for the first time on the South side, not on Lehigh’s campus.
Walking up to one
of the garden beds, I bent down to feel the soil. It’s moist dampness clung to my hand like a glove while the
dirt bits and mud clumps gathered under my fingernails. I thought about Will’s first paper that
I read in class. One of my
favorite passages in it was about the time he felt the soil and how it’s
consistency changed over time as he cleaned out the bad parts of the bed. It was a cool experience reading what
the soil felt like to him, and now, I was given the chance to have this
experience as well.
I was excited to
be apart of growing a garden since the idea was first proposed and more so
excited to begin the project on our walk over to the garden for the first time.
However, I was the most ecstatic to begin gardening when I first felt the soil
in the garden bed. I wanted to
grow a vegetable for the first time in my life and truly get my hands
dirty. I could not wait to start
planting….Let the growing begin!
Post #3
April 26, 2012
Weeds or Not Weeds?
On my first day in
the garden, I spend a lot of time just walking around and observing the other
beds because it was too cold to plant our seeds. I noticed that some of the plots besides our own seemed to
be worked on with weeds in them, while other plots seemed to be growing tall
grasses. Little did I know! The plots that looked more dug up with
what I thought were weeds, were not actually weeds at all. Sarah squatted over a bowl sized green
plant with white fuzziness on the underside of its leaves. To me, this was a weed. However, she corrected me and told me
it was sage. Pulling off a leaf,
she told me to crinkle it up in my hand and then smell it. Suddenly, what I had taken to be a weed,
was a plant with a powerful smell.
This leaf was an edible ingredient that people use as a seasoning in
tomato sauce and put on their pizza.
When I looked up from smelling the crushed leaf in my hand, I started to
look at all of the “weeds” a little differently. In a different bed, on the right side corner of the garden,
the long thick green stems that I wouldn’t have look twice at earlier, I now
paid attention to: they were onions.
In the same bed but on the opposite side, Sarah again pointed out another
vegetable that was growing beneath green canopy leafs. As I knelt down to get a better look, I
saw a dark red radish starting to pop out of the soil. I was excited to see all these
vegetables growing, yet did not understand how someone could know if something
was a weed or not a weed? It was
in this moment that I gained a lot of respect for gardeners. They not only had to tend to what they
were planting, but also had to recognize all of the different stages of life
that plants go though. Gardening,
it seemed, the more time I spent learning about the process, was a big time
commitment.
There is something
so exciting about growing your own food, but I am not sure exactly what that
emotion is yet since I have only started in this arduous process. All I know is that I am hooked.
Post #4
April 26, 2012
The Planting
As I crouched down
by the middle bed, I played with the soft dirt in my hands. Although Sarah had her hesitations, we
were planting a few of our plants today.
As it happened to work out with the number of plants and the number of
people that were ready to garden, each of us was fortunate to have a plant to own. Everyone squatted down next to the bed
of earth, plant in hand, and ready to begin. First we loosened up the soil with the gardening tools. As I proceeded to dig my hole in the dirt,
I felt the soil become more damp and claylike with each scoop. Digging, I found
small pieces of glass and hidden stones that I thought were clumps or mud. Soon I had a hole deep and wide enough
for me to place my basil plant inside.
Everyone was chattering and asking questions: “Is this whole big
enough? Do I stick the plant in
with the plastic bottom still on?” Listening to the answers of these questions,
I excitedly wiggled the plastic cup off the bottom of the basil. As instructed, I loosened up the soil of
the base that had molded to the shape of the plastic container, hoping this
would allow the roots more space to breathe. More mangled looking now with the soil not squished into a
perfect cylindrical shape, I placed the basil plant into the small hold I dug
and covered the uneven ground with the extra soil I had put on the side. I stepped back and examined my work:
the little basil pant was standing strong in the soil. It’s leaves were a vivid green, and its
sent was crisp when smelled up close.
Multiple people
kept referring to the plants that we just planted as ‘our babies.’ In a
sense, they were our babies. We were excited for their arrival
before we even saw them, ‘oohhed and ahhhed’ over them at Horns, made a home
for them in the soil, planted them in the holes we had dug, patted the soil
down around them so that they would be safe, and then backed up and felt like
proud parents who had just sent their kids off to school for the first
time. We didn’t know what would
happen to ‘our little babies’ but we would check on them everyday and nurture
them to grow into something great.
I felt like we walked away saying what every parent believes: ‘our kids
are going to do great things.’
Post #5
April 28, 2012
An Inexperienced
Gardner
After
my first day in the garden, I called my mom to tell her about the project and my
experience so far. I told her
about the secrete spot of the garden, the childlike mosaics that decorated the
wooden polls, and the two garden beds that we would be planting in. She surprised me when she started
telling me about how we used to have a garden at our old house. I have no recollection of this since it
all happened before I was three, but my mom told me that in our little garden
we grew strawberries, broccoli, string beans, and carrots. Unfortunately, as inexperienced
gardeners, we pulled the carrots too soon, let the broccoli flower
accidentally, and moved before the strawberries were ready after three
years. My mom liked gardening and
said we had a fun time doing it, but it got to be too much of a hassle. The birds and the rabbits were constantly
eating everything we planted. Rather
than feeding our family, she said, we were feeding all the animals in the
neighborhood.
I started to
complain that we didn’t have a garden after we moved into our new house and
where my two siblings and I grew up. Her response to this was: “You tell me how it goes
maintaining a garden and raising three kids.”
My
mom’s comment reminded me a lot of what Kingsolver has mentioned in her
novel. Though people may want to
garden, realistically it becomes close to impossible to garden, maintain a
household, drive kids to their million activities, and then have some ‘me’ time
so you don’t go crazy. Perhaps it
is not realistic to have a full garden of all the food you eat on a daily
basis, but being more aware of buying local and less commercialized food can go
a long way. Buying locally would
not only help keep money within the community, but would help with our health
as individuals and prevent us from being contaminated by the harmful chemicals
that mass food growers spray on their crops to keep off pests.
One of my favorite
points that Kingsolver brings up in her novel is that we don’t care what we are
eating; the only thing that matter is that we still get credit for eating it:
Storage and transportation take
predictable tolls on the volatile plant
compounds that subtly add up to
taste and food value. Breeding to
increase shelf life also has tended
to decrease palatability. Bizarre
as
it seems, we’ve accepted a tradeoff
that amounts to: ‘Give me every vegetable
in every season, even if it tastes
like a cardboard picture of its former self.’
You’d think we cared more about the
idea of what we’re eating than about
what we’re eating. (Kingsolver
54-55)
This quote, in particular, stuck
out to me when my mom made the comment about gardening and raising three kids
at the same time. I feel as though
a lot of busy housewives feel the same way. Although my mom liked gardening and would enjoy growing
vegetables and fruit for us to eat, she doesn’t have time to do this and to get
my bother to baseball practice, my sister to swim team, and me to my soccer
game. The green peppers and
carrots at the grocery store may not have the same nutrients as it did before they
traveled hundreds of miles to reach their destination, but my mom would rather
have her kids eat some form of a vegetable than not eat any vegetables at all.
After
telling my mom about everything that Kingsolver has done, she was
impressed. She told me to bring
home some of the vegetables from the garden so we can taste test them with the
pesticide ridden vegetables I’ve been raised eating. She also promised me that she would try and buy vegetables
more locally. During our
conversation, I shared with her a passage from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that I knew hit home with her as it did
with me: “Over the last decade our country has lost an average of 300 farms a
week. Large or small, each of
those was the life’s work of a real person or family, people who built their
lives around a promise and watched it break” (Kingsolver 113). Growing up in Hunterdon County,
specifically in Delaware Township, I’ve seen the rolling fields of farmland
gobbled up and turned into houses.
At the corner of our neighborhood, there is a big grass pasture where
our local farmer’s cows used to graze.
Everyday when I was little my Mom used to say to us, “You guys are so
lucky to see those cows!
Appreciate them, they won’t be here for much longer.” Her saying this never actually hit me
until the day that I noticed they were not there. I used to play in that cow field with my friend, and even
got to watch a baby cow be born there.
Now, they were gone.
“Where did the
cows go Mom?”
“Shop Rite”
That is an
amazingly scary figure: that an average of 300 farms a week over the past
decade have been lost. Especially
seeing how quickly so many of the farms I have grown up living next to have
shut down, I do not doubt this number for a second. It is terrifying to think that one day, like my mom used to
tell me about the cows, there may not be any farms left. Perhaps when I have my own kids, I’ll
have to say, “You guys are so luck to see these farm fields! Appreciate them, they won’t be here
much longer!”
Post #6
April 30, 2012
Am I doing this
right?
In
the hours before the day of planting, I had not slept for a night, handed in a
paper, went to a review session, and had not changed my clothes since the previous
day. It was an understatement that
I looked like a crazed college student running off coffee and my desire to make
it to the garden. At the garden, I
knew I would find myself very as ease.
Outside, I feel like I can breathe and calm down from the hectic
atmosphere that happens during exam time at Lehigh.
Walking
over to Carlton, I felt like I was getting farther and farther away from the
stress and structured thinking.
Out here, thinking is involved, but it is much different than the
thinking we are expected to do as students in school.
It was an overcast
day. The sun was out earlier, but
when I finally reached the garden, it looked like it was about to rain. By the time I arrived after my review
session, mostly everyone was there.
Sara had brought the seeds that we were about to plant. I was surprised by how many things we
were planting: marigolds, tomatoes, string beans, carrots, and sunflowers, just
to name a few. Adriana and I took
on the duty of planting the marigold seeds, which would, when grown, help fend
off pests that normally would eat the vegetables. In the space between where we had planted the pepper plants
and basil in the center bed, we now planted the seeds for our new flowers. At first we loosened up the soil with
Countey’s pronged hand tool, and then we started digging a small trench for our
seeds. Marigold seeds are black on
one end with a straw color and texture on the other end, which is where the
flower will start to sprout. We carefully
planted the seeds six inches apart, and added the topsoil back on. Once we finished meticulously placing
each seed in their exact spot, six inches apart, we looked up and observed Will
who seemed a lot more relaxed than we were. He was putting multiple seeds in one spot rather than just
one single seed every six inches.
Feeling a little dumb, we dug our trench back up, and proceeded to add
in a few more seeds to ensure that at least something would grow.
After we finished
planting the marigold seeds, I walked over to observe the basil plant that I
had planted a few days prior. Its
leaves, now a pale brown, had wilted and shriveled. The soil seemed fairly crusty and dry, so, perhaps this was
the reason for the plant’s sickly look.
Next to the basil, however, was the Yolo pepper plant, which was still
striving and green as ever. Just
in case, I added some water to the plants’ soil, and was consoled in the fact
that rain would be coming soon and these little plants would have more than
enough to drink.
While
we were planting, someone made a comment that they wanted the soil to light up
to show them if they were doing it right or not. I felt the same way.
After Adrianna and I finish planting the seeds and patted the soil down,
we stood up and back up a bit, both staring down at the bed, expecting
something to happen: And…GO!
Nothing happened. How do
you know if you did it right? The
answer was, we wouldn’t know right away.
In fact, Sarah said it would take five to seven days for the seeds to
germinate. If something eventually
popped up, we would know that we did it right.
It
was a good thing that we had Sara to show us how to plant the seeds and direct
us to where we should put each different kind of plant. It seemed a little funny though that
all of us were sophomores, juniors, or seniors, and none of us, besides Will I
think, knew how to garden. We are
halfway done with our college careers, some of us almost completely done, and yet
we do not know how to garden. It
seems like something we should all know how to do.
As
Adrianna and I make the walk back to campus together, I thought about how, now,
after spending a good amount of time in the garden, I understood why people
loved it some much. It was
relaxing. There is a certain
element of life out here that doesn’t exist on campus. At Lehigh, landscapers force plants and
flowers to look and grow a certain way in order to create a specific aesthetic
appearance. In the community garden,
however, plants grow whichever way they want. To me, the more wild and free they are, the more beautiful
they become. It is fitting to find them in a charmed mosaic garden, full of
hopeful students who are excited to learn more about the magic of a garden.
Post #7
April 30, May 1-May,
(At the Garden & Reading Eating
Animals)
The Glories of Fast
Food
Every day that I
walk to the garden, my mouth waters when I pass Wendy’s and I have an urge to
buy french-fries. I can’t help it;
something about the smell of salty fried food is irresistible. However, as I fight my urge day in and
day out and finally reach the garden, I realize I am a lot happier knowing that
I didn’t just down greasy fries that are probably 2000 calories fully of
saturated fat. Reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was eye
opening for me in realizing how much our country is affected by the fast food
industry:
As a country we’re officially over
the top: the majority of our food dollars
buy those cheap calories, and most
of out citizens are medically compromised
by weight and inactivity. The incidence of obesity-associated
diabetes has more than doubled since 1990, with children the fastest-growing
class of victims. (The name had to
be changed from “adult-onset” to “Type II” diabetes.) One out of every three dollars we spend on health care, by
some recent estimates, is paying for the damage of bad eating habits. One out of every seven specifically
pays to assuage (but not cure) the multiple heartbreaks of diabetes-kidney
failure, strokes, blindness, amputated limbs. (Kingsolver 116)
Though people may not necessarily
want to know these things, I feel like it is something they need to know. It is an understatement to say that we
truly are the source of our own problems.
Even though we know fast-food is bad for us, we still eat it. Why? Because it is fast, easy, and purposely engineered to make
our mouths water and crave the bad food.
Though
people may not want to know what is happening in the food industry or realize
the tolls that fast food is taking on our local communities or on us as individuals,
it is something that is necessary to know. By refusing to learn about these issues is the same as
putting a blanket over them and saying “They are not there because I cannot see
them.” We do, in fact, put a
blanket over a lot of issues that we do not want to face. In another book I am reading called Eating Animals, the author spends a lot
of time describing how we think certain words mean one things, when they actually
mean something different. Free-range,
cage-free, and natural are all words we are used to seeing printed as labels on
various food products. However,
they do not actually mean what we presume them to mean.
“Free Range”
A common phrase
that is often seen on certain egg cartons is “Free Range.” Consumers feels good about buying these
cartons with the “Free Range” label because these eggs are from chickens who lived
a good life in a natural environment and were able to roam about outside. This however, is largely not true:
Very often, the eggs of
factory-farmed chickens-chickens packed
against one another in vast barren
barns-are labeled free-range.
(‘Cage-free’ is regulated but means
no more or less than what it
says-they are literally not in
cages.) One can reliably assume
that
most “free-range” (or “cage-free”)
laying hens are debeaked, drugged,
and cruelly slaughtered once
“spent. (Foer 61)
This goes along with what
Kingsolver was saying about Free-Range chickens and how, realistically, most of
these chickens never see daylight.
Though they are locked in a shed, farmers have gotten away with calling
this “Free Range” because the shed has a small door for the chickens that may
or may not be occasionally unlocked.
Even if this door is opened at times, the chickens are so packed in the
shed and are not used to going outside, and thus would have no way of knowing
if this door was open.
Not
only are the chickens never allowed to go outside, but they are also purposely
kept indoors so these factory farmers have total control over every
element. Chickens are purposely
kept in the dark and fed sparingly for weeks at a time so that they will think
it is winter. Then the famers turn
the lights on all day and night long so that they chickens will think it is
spring and produce eggs. Essentially,
these farmers speed up the chickens’ internal clocks in order to create faster
results: more eggs (Foer 60).
However,
the things we do to chickens whose eggs we don’t want are even worse. To give an example, there are two types
of chickens: boilers and layers.
Boilers are for meat. They
have been “Engineered to grow more than twice as large in less than half the
time. Chickens once had a life
expectancy of fifteen to twenty years, but the modern boiler is typically
killed at around six weeks. Their
daily growth rate has increased roughly 400 percent” (Foer 48). Layers are the chickens that lay
eggs. However, since females can
only lay eggs, what happens with the male layers? To a factory farmer, the male layers serve no function, and
thus are destroyed: “Most male layers are destroyed by being sucked through a
series of pipes onto an electrified plate…Some are tossed into large plastic
containers. The weak are trampled
to the bottom, where they suffocate slowly. The strong suffocate slowly at the top. Others are sent fully conscious through
macerators (picture a wood chipper filled with chicks” (Foer 48).
I
took Eating Animals with me to the
garden and read it while sitting on one of the concrete benches. I was happy to sit close to the little
seeds we had planted, far away from Wendy’s and the poor massacred chickens
that were formed into chicken nuggets.
Even though I may have become a somewhat of a vegetarian after each time
I read the book, I am glad I learned and am continuing to learn about the meat
industry. People need to know what
is happening to the food that they put in their bodies. Maybe if they were aware, they would be
more conscious and start asking for locally grown food, something that
Kingsolver suggests doing in Animal,
Vegetable, Miracle. By having
everyone know what is occurring in the food industry and stopping the general
population’s ignorance, a huge change could be made that would benefit our
society for the better.
Post #8
May 6, 2012
Inspiration
Everyday since
April 30th I’ve gone and spent time alone in the garden. Though there have not been significant
changes and we do not have fully grown tomatoes yet, it’s been nice to simply
walk around in the garden and look at everything that is growing. I’ve gotten into the routine of going
to the garden at random times in the day with a sandwich and my book, Eating Animals (Usually I bring tomato
and mozzarella on a sandwich, since it is too disturbing to eat any kind of
meat while reading this book). Typically
I would rather be around people than not, but during the week of finals
especially, it is nice to find some peace and quiet by myself.
The other day
while I was eating, I thought about how I couldn’t remember the last time my
whole family sat down and had a meal together. I remembered in Camille’s section “Growing up in the Kitchen,”
her saying that what she missed about home when she was at school was family
dinners (Kingsolver). Dinnertime
is the only time during the day families have to sit down with each other and
discuss the events that are happening.
During recent years, I feel, American families have developed the habit
of not sitting down with each other and eating alone because everyone is off
doing different activities. Now
that I am reflecting on it, I too miss the times when both my brother and I
were home, and when my dad didn’t have to work so late. Though we didn’t see each other during
the day, we were all able to come home for dinner and regroup. Rather than asking my little sister how
her day was over spaghetti and meatballs, I now have to ask her over the phone or
via text message.
I have learned a
lot by spending time in the garden.
I’ve not only learned about gardening and the commitment that comes with
this process, but I’ve also learned how to better appreciate locally grown food
and all the individuals who farm without injecting their cattle with hormones
or squeezing 20,000 chickens into a tiny shed to produce the most eggs. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending hours
just reading, thinking, and journaling the South Side’s community garden. Spending time in nature is probably the
best remedy to cure a stressed college student during final exams.
Gardening
with my classmates has given me the confidence to garden on my own. Though I will not be here for parts of
the summer, I plan on coming back to our garden and maintaining it throughout
the year to come. I cannot wait to
see how our garden progresses over the summer and eat tomato and mozzarella
with one of our own locally grown tomatoes!
It's all a cycle - the importance of preparing a bed and sustaining compost
Returning home, I am welcomed by my parent’s two garden
beds. I decided not to cover crop the beds, since there were various herbs that
remained of good health with such a mild winter (especially thyme). I just
pulled some thyme off to enjoy with my dinner tonight! However, when I first
introduced myself back to the two beds’, the soil was covered with dead pine
needles that fell from neighboring pine tree’s and evergreens. Although pine
needles are organic materials and decompose, they tend to break down slowly
because of the waxy layer that resists bacteria and fungi. Similar to other
fallen leaves, pine needles have an excess of carbon in relation to nitrogen.
The acidity of the needles would cause a decrease in the pH level, which over
time would rise so that the acidity of the composted material becomes neutral,
but I simply found more value in dumping the pine needles in my compost pile
and introducing it to the beds at a later date.
I thought of the easiest, most efficient way to get ride of
the pine needles. A leaf blower? No chance! Even the hint of gasoline on my
garden and I felt that I would be exposing all future growth of produce to
cancer. In other terms, I would not let my garden smoke a cigarette. I skimmed
the top of both beds, picking up as many pine needles as my hands could hold. I
added the pine needles to the compost pile that I am developing with organic
material and food scraps. Since I was unable to pick out all of the pine
needles, I decided to cut up the remaining needles so that there is more
surface area for bacteria and fungi to chew.As I loosened the soil, my fingers ran into numerous worms and even a frog!
Preparing a garden bed is the most difficult part of
gardening. A well-prepared bed will help to increase garden yields and make
tending the garden easier in the future. If one spends a portion of their day preparing
the bed for their garden, they will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor
in the months to come. Knowing this, my combination of ADD and OCD kicked in.
After I took care of the pine needles, I then loosened the clods of dirt and
the entire area of the beds by digging through the soil with a garden fork. I
plan to form rows with small ditches between each row for deep root watering to
reach each vegetable and herb that I will plant in the garden. I have yet to
decide what I will harvest, but am in the process of figuring that out over the
coming week.
The best part about my parent’s garden bed is the value of
the soil. When buying compost last year, I researched for the most valuable and
true organic compost. I found was that most high-quality compost could be bought by at Stenger Landscaper's and contains
leaf mold, yard waste, and animal manure. Since it is a landscaping company, and numerous pesticides and herbicides are applied to lawn scraps, I decided to test the soil potent herbicides, such as Clopyralid. Essentially, these inorganic materials applied to green our lawns don't break down during the composting process. The harm is that can destroy everything in your garden. So, a planted a few lettuce seeds in the compost. Germination was great, but if it was poor then it could be a symptom for herbicides being located in your compost. When buying compost in a store or from a composting site, one should look for the
lightest, darkest, and most earth-est smelling soil.
I hope that I will be able to add my own compost to the beds in the future. Using compost simply produces food. Channeling organic matter into productive use is much more then just giving waste a home outside of landfills. Think of how many organic apple cores, banana peels, or coffee beans you have put in the trash. When you find value in the continual movement that removes waste and creates new fertility, we move away from the linear thinking that has lead to depleted soils and oceanic gyres of trash.
I hope that I will be able to add my own compost to the beds in the future. Using compost simply produces food. Channeling organic matter into productive use is much more then just giving waste a home outside of landfills. Think of how many organic apple cores, banana peels, or coffee beans you have put in the trash. When you find value in the continual movement that removes waste and creates new fertility, we move away from the linear thinking that has lead to depleted soils and oceanic gyres of trash.
For whoever else pulled up the cereal rye and helped to
prepare the beds, thank you. I am sure that you can now appreciate the hard
work that you put in to ensuring a sustainable environment for our produce. I hope
to create a shared common knowledge concerning the importance of composting over the following
year at MLK garden. I have contacted Roledale regarding their compost, but have
yet to hear back. Knowing their reputation and the earthy texture and smell of
the compost pile, I would be surprised if the soil was not of high nutritional value.
Since my parent’s garden beds are situated near pine trees
and evergreens, it seems to be a frequent landing area for climbing squirrels. I
am in the process of designing and constructing a transparent roof for the beds
that does not retract sunlight. I have thought of wire as a material, but am
still at the drawing board for the best possible solution.
What have we done? The answer lies in the zoning ordinance
The biggest catastrophe we humans have put on ourselves is
how we have developed. From traditional neighborhood developments where one
could walk to work, the grocery store, and a local pub, we now live in a massive metro apocalypse (LA is a great example of where we went wrong). Soldiers that came back from
World War II were in search for housing and attaining the ‘American dream’. The main
component of this clouded vision was a single-family home on an acre lot. This home is
surrounded by a white picket fence, in a neighborhood that is solely
residential.
Ill
equipped to deal with sewage and pollution of the industrial age, the American upper
middle class fled to the countryside to seclude themselves in a private family life, but ended up adding more stress to the nuclear family.
Soon enough, our workplaces, are just that: office parks. Our industries are located
in an industrial park with no signs of commercial or residential exchange. Taking
single-use zoning to an extreme, we have become dependent on transportation.
With no viable regional mode of mass-transit, the automobile is a highly sought after amenity.
We
have based success off of land ownership. What we have done to this land is not natural. From bringing in outside architecture to planting exotic species, what we have developed is not sustainable without human maintenance. With owning private land in
suburbia, one is succumbed to more services and expenses, such as gas. Highways have essentially cut
through our rich farmland and real estate developers have found value in undeveloped land, putting up strip malls and continuing enhancing sprawl.
It has been the attempt to blend country and the city through the suburban movement.
There is no point to dwell on past farmland because once developed it is near
impossible to provide the nutrients back into the same soil. We now must
develop other ways to grow our own agriculture at a local level. We must
re-zone our neighborhoods and create a comprehensive plan to re-design the
cookie-cutter suburban nation into neighborhoods of mix-use. The towns must have a defined
edge, making the distinction between the countryside and town. Portland, Oregon
is a perfect example of how a city instituted a boundary that construction is not allowed to exceed, in effort to conserve the natural environment.
The
city of Boston, Massachusetts is the perfect example of a community that
re-zoned for urban agriculture. The current zoning code details for land uses is
usually divided into three categories:
-Allowed by right use: a land use permitted as a matter of
right.
-Conditional use: a land use permitted by the Zoning code
provided that it is not harmful
to present conditions.
-Forbidden use: A use that is not permitted because of
harmful impacts, such as pollution.
Zoning applies to agricultural uses because if a particular
use is not mentioned in the zoning code, it is forbidden. In order for urban
agriculture to thrive the code must be revised. Bethlehem is moving
in the right direction with the Ullman garden, MLK garden, Maze garden and most
recently the Greenway.
As urban environments seek to become more sustainable, food
and agriculture will play a critical role. If one is able to walk to the
local farmers market to trade locally grown food (hopefully organic too!), then we are on our way to
re-designing and re-zoning suburbia into traditional neighborhood developments. The desire and commitment to engage in one's local surroundings through any means, but especially food develops a
place worth caring about and a healthy community.
My posts-- I am going to miss this!
I had trouble posting my blogs, so I finally figured it out and will post them all together to make sure they all make the blog. I had a great time in the garden and spending time with all of you, good luck with everything and keep in touch!
Day 1-- Today I joined Courtney, Sara, Emily Dickman and Katie
for some quality weeding of one of the lots. I have weeded before, but was not
expecting for the lot to be so overgrown with what looked like grass. I needed
to brush up on my technique, so Courtney and helped me grab hold of a handful
of weeds, and I pulled them out of the soil. This was going to be fun.
The group sat around the lot and we all began weeding. One
of the best parts of weeding the lot was the conversation that existed. I think
this is probably the benefit of gardening in a group. When I think of gardening
I usually think of sitting alone and being one with your thoughts. This is very
beneficial to those who know how to garden, but for the first time being at the
lot, I am glad we worked as a group. We all chatted about things going on in
each other’s lives, and it was nice to see how a community developed from an
English class. This is surprising to me, because in most of my English classes,
a bond rarely exists, besides befriending the students that sit next to you. Even
though this was the first day of our voyage with the garden, I was already
getting sentimental about the classroom and the friendships that have formed.
Day 2-- I have never been a serious gardener, but used to enjoy
helping my mother with our garden, planting tomatoes, lettuce, or simply
tending to the flowers. This is why I was so excited for Courtney’s idea for
the final project. Though the weather has not permitted much time in the
garden, and my schedule has left me missing two days of gardening with the
group, I am really looking forward to what this afternoon holds. After spending
an hour weeding last week, I am excited to finally be able to begin planting.
One sad thing about this project is that I won’t be able to see the end result
because I won’t be here this summer. However, if I do end up living in New York
City, I plan on visiting Bethlehem many times this summer and next year and
then will be able to see the progress of our garden.
I think I have a skewed perception of what the garden would
look like when, or if I visit. What I am imagining is a flourishing garden of
vegetables and flowers, and my peers who maintain the garden over the summer,
benefiting from all that grows. After we start planting, I am sure I will get a
better understanding of what the end result would actually look like.
Day 3-- Today we planted an assortment of vegetables and flowers.
In one lot, from what I can remember, we plated beets, sunflowers, spring pees,
carrots, and I believe kale. I think the second lot contained herbs and
tomatoes, but I was not there when my peers planted in this lot, so I could be
mistaken. This second lot with the herbs was already showing the tops of the
plants. This past sentence proves that I am not the experienced gardener. From
what I observed today, the leaves look green and the plants appear to be pretty
healthy. The lots experienced a lot of rainfall from the night before, and this
is clearly helped the plants.
Planting the seeds was a great experience. We divvied up the
different seeds, and Emily Dickman and were ready to plant the beets.
Surprisingly, our seeds looked the smallest, even though they were going to
produce the biggest vegetable in the lot. We both kept laughing about this because
you could barely even see the seeds when they were in our hands. Something that
was also very educational about this process was that there are actual
directions printed on the back of the seed packets. I loved this because it
gave me a boost of confidence that I could pretend like I knew what I was
doing. Emily and I followed the packet’s directions, while asking Will to
double-check our work. We all marked our rows with sticks to remember where we
planted our vegetables or flowers. The sad part of this whole experience was
realizing it would take a long time for us to see the progress our specific
plants made.
Day 4--Yesterday I planted beet seeds with Emily and today I
kept thinking about the actually process of digging and planting the seeds, and
how impressed I was with my peers.
When we first arrived to the garden, Will had already been
at the garden for awhile. He was using a tool and scraping at the soil. When I
asked him what he was doing, he said it was to help with the nitrates in the
soil. Will’s knowledge on gardening is amazing. He was like our garden guru,
and we always looked at him for help and suggestions.
Sitting aside Courtney, I watched her plant her sunflower
seeds. It was evident that she knew what she was doing, so I just sat there for
a second and watched her do her thing. After taking in her skills, Emily and I
took charge and started making our row for our beet seeds. Once the row was dug
to the right depth, we dropped our seeds in, following the directions on the
back of the packet. We then covered our seeds with the remaining dirt.
Though this process was mechanical and required following
directions, it was also very spiritual. Being a part of creating or at least
helping something became a part of earth is an amazing feeling. Although we
only put the seeds into the dirt, we were still giving the plant the
opportunity to grow and therefore to continue to create.
Day 5--Visiting the garden alone was a different experience. Today,
there were children playing on the play structure next to the garden, so it was
not very quiet, but I was still alone and able to think about my day. The
garden offered me serenity in a way that I haven’t really had before. With the
normal noise coming from the playful children, I was put in a place where I was
able to think inward, while also being aware of my surroundings. This was the
first time I visited the garden without my classmates, and I cannot decide if I
preferred today, or being there with the class. Comparing the two is difficult,
because I was not planting or doing anything with any immediate interaction
with the soil and our plants. Instead, I was simply at the garden to look and
admire the lots. What was interesting about today’s visit however was how two
completely different environments can be so close to another and coexist so
perfectly. What I mean is, this busy plastic and metal playground sits a few
feet away from the marked of garden. As a class we decided to garden to show
our appreciation for organic and local foods, but it amazing to me that toxic
materials used for the playground that give people such enjoyment, is right
next to a garden which has the same effect.
Day 6--Today there were no children at the playground and
everything around me was quiet. As a sat down next to the lot where I planted
beets, I began to realize how serene and personal gardening really is. This was
the first time I had visited the garden when there was nothing distracting
happening around me, and this forced me to just sit and think. I am not saying that
the quiet forced me to be there, but rather it required me to understand that
this quiet was good and in some way humbled me. Day to day we are obsessed with
technology, checking our cell phones, going online on our laptops, doing
anything that helps us connect to the outside world. Being in the garden,
though, helped me realize that stepping away from this technology and simply
admiring your surroundings and the quiet that is present is probably the best
way to feel connected to the world.
When everything was quiet around me, I was not worried about who was
texting me, but was actually content on sitting on the wet ground and feeling
comfortable looking at the plants. This brief period where I was disconnected
with technology and was simply able to think my own thoughts, reflect on my
day, and admire what was around me was amazingly relaxing. I am assuming this
is the benefit people find of gardening and why they find it so relaxing and
beneficial.
My friend Chloe lived on Birkel last year, which is about
two blocks over from where the garden is. Chloe had no idea that this garden
existed, and she really wishes she had known. South Bethlehem is not the most
attractive place to live. There is trash and broken bottles everywhere and it
can feel very unsafe. Having a simple garden a few feet from your house somehow
changed the scary atmosphere. A garden, to me, represents safety; a garden is a
sanctuary. Although this garden is not flourishing with plants or flowers,
there is still some kind of an aura around it. Gardens give off a sense of
comfort, and this garden makes me feel especially safe because I have
contributed to it.
Visiting the garden with a friend was a new way to
experience it because Chloe was not in the class, and though had heard many
stories, it was great to be able to show her everything I had told her about.
This gardening project was something very different for me, and I was excited
to show off my hard work to my close friend.
Plastic's presence
Have you found a piece of plastic in either of the gardens?
I would assume the answer is unanimously, yes. What we do to this plastic is
selfish. We pick up the plastic and place it a foot away, outside of our garden
bed. Or, we hide it so nobody else will see that we didn’t throw it out. We
view it as unusable and dirty. We want nothing with it because it’s not new. I
feel that our generation has taken the ‘out of sight out of mind’ phenomena to
an extreme. When in fact, the plastics that are were produced after World War
II, 50 years ago, are still in natural form somewhere on Earth. It is unknown
how long it takes for plastic to photodegrade, the breaking of the long polymer
molecules into smaller segments. The
presence of this plastic is terrorizing Earth’s natural system. Now, obviously
our planet is coping with the material, but imagine 10 million square miles in
the Pacific Ocean entirely surfaced of plastic, nearly the same size of Africa.
If you don’t think a continent of plastic is harmful, causing air pollution
problems, aiding to global warming, and just a negative impact to the
environment, I suggest you may want to find interest. Now lets say your
thinking, which we all admittedly have, “well the plastic that I just placed
outside my garden bed, in say Bethlehem, PA, will take years to reach the
Pacific and its so small”. There are approximately 6 other major tropical oceanic
plastic garbage dump gyres being made in the world’s oceans. With no filtration
system to catch little granules in your Colgate toothpaste or exfoliate body
wash (only two of the million plastic products), these small materials end up
remaining in the environment, to later intrude a marine animals digestive
tract.
Think of it like this: We, humans have built our cities near
a water source for the obvious basic need it provides. This water source is the
vital organ that connects us to the rest of the world. Whether it be through it
rains and enters sewer or goes down a faucet, this plastic reaches our oceans.
We as a society need to pay much more attention to our own waste and what we do
with it. In the case of agriculture, one is able to generate their compost over
the years. In the case of finding plastic in your garden, make sure there is a
liable source to recycling for your whole community to use.
If you have ever found a bottle cap: (I would be surprised
if you never have!)
Now if you realistically want to plant in plastic, or any
container, you should read this : http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2011/02/clever-containers/
(specifically: What’s
Wrong with Standard Containers, Air
Pruning and Root Trapping)
The End
Today
was last official day of our gardening project.
By official, I mean just the project so far as the grading goes. I went to Carlton Street, just to see how
things are looking. The plants are all still alive, so I count that as a good
thing. Our little seeds have not sprouted into full growth yet but I have come
to terms with the fact that my initial vision of picking tomatoes off the vine
by this point was not exactly plausible.
There
are many things I have learned through this process, about myself and about
life in general. I understand the
meaning of patient, something I have always struggled with before. I also discovered that there are times were
it is ok to be alone. In today’s
society, especially in college, I think that there is a misconception of being
alone and being lonely. People are so
afraid to be lonely that they have to surround themselves with others. I use to
be self-conscious about going places alone, not wanting to give off the
impression that there was something wrong with me, with who I was. However, I have found that I enjoy going to
the garden alone. I feel at peace and
feel no need to have company.
On the
other hand, I feel this project has bonded our class in a way that I have not
witnessed elsewhere in my Lehigh experience.
We are jocks, greek, musicians, artists, seniors, juniors, sophomores
and graduate students. We come from all different aspects of life and yet we
have a common connection over this garden.
I feel like I have actually gotten to know the people in this class, not
something I can say about my other classes. Professor Lotto, thank you so much
for allowing us to go off the charts and do something different. I will always
remember this project. I look forward to continuing to garden this summer. For
all those who are not graduating, I hope to see you around next year. For those
who are, I hope you come visit the garden as alums and remember the mark we
left on the Bethlehem Community.
The Seed
Seeds are a funny thing. They are so tiny, so unassuming and
unimpressive. They do not look like much. However, they have so much potential.
The oak started once as an acorn. Within
that miniature pod, there is life. From this tiny seed, roughly the size of a
pea, a large plant is going to grow. I
am fascinated by this. This plant is going to supply food and substance. I am
not sure why this is so amazing to me, but it is.
I
wonder if this is how any new parent feels when they hold their newborn child.
At first, the baby is so small and so helpless.
There is no telling what type of life lies ahead for this baby. The
parents’ job is to care for and nurture this tiny human being, and hope that
one day they are able to give back to the world.
As I
sit alone in our garden, these thoughts run through my head. I wonder about the
seeds that we put into the ground. I imagine their outer shells cracking open
in the soil, they stretch their roots like tiny limbs, twisting and moving so
to grow. Eventually, with enough water,
nutrients and time, they break through the soil, ready to join the world.
Cover crops and turning them under
On the afternoon of May 30th, around 4:00 pm the
whole team showed up to plant the seeds! By 4:00, I had already turned under
the cereal rye and fresh compost in the 5th bed. The cereal rye,
which was planted in all of the MLK garden beds acted as a cover crop. Cover
crops provide many benefits in gardens and agriculture. Some of these benefits
are:
- Protect the soil from runoff and erosion
- Recycle and supply nutrients
- Replace soil organic matter
- Suppress weeds.
Different types of cover crops are suitable for different
situations. In general, cereal grains grow vigorously and can provide quick
ground cover even when the weather is cool. Cereal rye is known as the most
commonly grown cover crop in the Northeast since it is strong, very cold hardy,
and can germinate in cool weather. They yield large amounts of biomass when
planted and harvested at proper times. If planting cereal rye, it should be done between the time span
of late august until late October. Two to three (lbs.) pounds of seed should
be applied per 1,000 square feet. When planted in say, September, rye will
capture some of the available nitrogen in the soil and recycle it for the next
crop. However, if too much of the rye stalk is turned under without having time
to decompose before spring planting, it may suppress the growth of spring
crops. Also, know that rye grows rapidly in the spring and become difficult to
turn under. So, stay with the season, remaining attached with the land over the
course of all seasons.
How to turn it under: If the top of the cereal rye is too
heavy and long to turn under easily, cut and remove most of the top growth.
Then use a shovel or garden fork to turn the cover crop under to a depth of 3-6
inches.
Back to planting the seed's with the team! I was able to plant three rows (6, 4, 4) of cucumber seeds. Trying to fit in as many rows of seeds as I could, I felt like nature's jazz artist. Since we all were planting seeds and figuring out the best place regarding sunlight and neighbors, we all were artists in action. But, the collaborative music was on mute, which Courtney described as unknowingly scary, yet magical.
If you would like to create your own garden this summer, but
feel that you don’t have the land, check out this website. Don’t let
agriculture be confined to massive farmland! Make your own land. Make your own produce. You’ll save
a couple bucks too. http://www.technologyforthepoor.com/UrbanAgriculture/Garden.htm
Methodology, but there's not just one!
After Ed agreed to Courtney’s proposal, how did we now get
started?
1.
Starting a committee
-Members
of the class were invited if interested to join. The excitement came along
with the interest in bring a community garden into their lives.
2.
Choosing your spot
-We
were granted two garden beds at the MLK garden on South Side Mountain
in the Lehigh Valley.
3.
Tending the contract (setting up rules and
guidelines)
-Everyone
decided that 10 hours and a combination of 8 blog posts (200 words
each) was a feasible and comparable requirement to an original 10-page
proposed paper.
4.
Divvying the responsibilities
-Paperwork
aside, what needed to happen to the garden?
What kind of position
was it in?
-Having already
pulled the cereal rye out on bed #5, on Monday, April 30th,
I cut the rye and broke apart the bigger root-clods, putting them on top of the
garden bed. I then added 4 more paint buckets of compost to the
top of the bed, turning it all under. I say this because I was there on my
own and was unable to share with you!
5.
Making it legit
-
Digging our hands through the soil. Commitment to the garden will become contagious.
6.
Expanding your initiative
-Engage
in practicing local agriculture in all areas that you spend allocated time.
Just because one doesn’t have access to land, doesn’t mean you don’t have
access to other ways of urban agriculture techniques. However you get to this stage, congratulations! There is no sole correct way to establish your own local agriculture initiative, but some of these points were essential to our success as individuals with a shared passion in taking part in a community garden.
If
you would like a summer read this summer, a book called “Urban Farms” by
Sarah Rich is scheduled to release in June. The book is focused around in depth
looks at 16 innovative farms located in metropolitan areas across the United
States. Individuals within communities committed to growing their own
fruit, vegetables, and even animals operate each farm. People are showing
that they are catching on to this local movement and this book shows
the rise of environmental awareness, food culture, distrust of mass production,
and mainly the do it yourself outlook in life. I have already heard great
things about the read!
Simply getting acquainted
April 26th, the day of our last registered class
together, I visited the garden at night. A few us were talking about how it
would be cold this evening, but wanted to transplant Sara’s various tomatoes,
peppers, and sweet basil. The night was full of darkness, but evenly spread so
that my eyes adjusted and I could still see in front of me. It was 11:00 pm. I
sat down inside the garden on a planted stone and admired what was in front of
me. As the vegetables and sole herb that was planted a mere 12 hours earlier
were becoming newly acquainted to the soil, I too was becoming more comfortable
with my work place. But, work place…is that fair to call a community garden a
work place? Even since we humans have planted seed’s, we have worked the soil
to reap the benefit of food, medicine, and various other necessities of life.
But why does work now refer to a business suit, cubicle, and long hours? I hope
to redefine work, call it rework, and allow people the opportunity to create a means
of living that are sustainable. Not just for the human species, but all aspects
of biodiversity and the natural environment.
As
the night was frigid and I began to show goose bumps, I took my jacket off and
laid it over the peppers for 10 minutes, then the tomatoes and sweet basil for
10 minutes. My thoughts became confined by the cold and I couldn’t bare it much
longer. When humans first reached a state of cold, we produced or hunted for
clothing. When plants become cold, they retain and conserve heat. What a genius
idea. Whoever thought of conserving the sun’s heat through solar panels, wasn’t
thinking on a rocket science level. It’s the simple ideas that will outlive us.
Just the beginning
When
Courtney brought up this final idea, I already felt a part of the project and
tried to help persuade Professor Lotto (Ed) to agree to the alternative. Being
able to create and take ownership of a class urban garden, we would be able to
engage in growing our own local produce. And I would be able to continue the
growth of urban agriculture over the summer with others and during the
following academic year. I decided to keep a journal of the past two weeks and
I will reiterate much of what I wrote in the blog posts. I decided to keep a
journal prior to this project in hope to establish a how-to grow local and
organic produce for jersey shore owners. However, I decided to start the
writing earlier now! I have been working on building my own 50 by 50 foot
roto-tilled garden at my parent’s beach house in Avalon, New Jersey. Since a
variety of shore go-ers from around my parents home, Conshohocken (or the
Mainline), PA are moving towards practicing urban agriculture, I will be
comparing my experience in the journal to growing various fruits, vegetables
and herbs at the Jersey shore to my experience in Conshohocken. Having realized
that local is dependent on where you are, I will be able to eat from the land
no matter where I am now: home, school, and escape (vacation). My experience in
these next two weeks will help further my understanding of community gardening,
with an A team and while in one’s undergraduate years. Maybe it will lead to a
how to organic garden at Lehigh University.
Having
owned a garden plot in the Maze Garden in the fall and spring of 2011, I have
had appreciation for the nutritional value and pure taste of the surrounding
soil. Originally, I was confused on where the MLK garden was located, thinking
it was just another name of the Maze Garden on East 3rd Street. But
once Sara told me it was on Carleton Street, I thought this would be an even
better habitat to spend our time. There would be no surround diesel particulate
matter around from passing automobiles and we would be able to engage ourselves
in a residential community. The MLK garden is in a tight nit community park
with a jungle gym, benches, and green space. The park is about a block long and
surrounded by a collector road on one side and an alley on the other.
On
a regional scale, the setting of South Mountain that our two garden bed’s have
been convene is ideal for harvesting crops as many have before the ocean of
pavement was laid on top of the soil, thus leading to only further development
and impervious surfaces.
On
Monday, April 23rd Sara and I spent time at the garden in the late
afternoon, around 3:30 to 4:30. It was a brisk 45 degrees, which made it much
to cold to plant, as the weather would further drop over the course of the
night. If it were to reach 32 degrees, nothing in the garden would wake the
next morning! I would consider our work this day manual labor. We pulled out
the remaining cereal rye in the 5th bed and began to pull some out
of the 7th bed. I laid multiple paint buckets of Roledale compost in
the 5th bed. Breena Holland supplied the compost for all plot owners
to use. I asked Breena what she thought about the Bethlehem compost. This is
what she said (I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I shared):
“The
city's compost is free but I don't use it because they allow people to drop off
almost all forms of yard waste except lawn and I worry that there may be
pesticides, fertilizers, and other toxic substances in the organic waste people
deliver. Additionally, the city's compost is more like mulch than compost. I
brought over a truck of high quality compost from Rodale last week and we
dumped it under the tree near the MLK garden, which is really the only place we
could put it. You can use some of that for your beds, just bear in mind that it
needs to be spread among all the beds there, so be considerate about how much
of it you take. Some beds are low and others have a decent amount of soil in
them, so you first just need to see what your beds will need. I put an
additional pile up at the Ullman garden and I think that we won't end up using
all of that, so you can always get some from the pile up there as well.”
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