Humboldt Blvd Farm and Gardens

Met with Ana, Sharon, Mary and Brett last week over coffee, Mexican bread and Roeser’s coffee cake.  Now everyone has met everyone, I am no longer the only connection.  So much better to have people connected that way.

Brett and Mary are going to work on their own design ideas.

Ana wants to really use the North part of the lot because it gets no foot traffic and is further away from the alley.  She also wants the fencing by the building to be used for trellising beans, tomatoes, and crops like that.

We’ll put rain barrels there so we can have water available.  I want to develop a watering system for those boxes to keep the soil moist more or less at all times.  I do not think it’ll be too hard, just going to take some planning.

Sharon is busy with Dill Pickle getting open soon, but I know she will enjoy walking only 2 blocks to grow so much more food than is possible in her back yard.

Mary wants to grow food communally it seems.  Using individual boxes for single crops.  I think that idea is a good one because it will allow for smarter rotation and more food produced.  This kind of garden will support community dinners, too.

Ana is hoping that her neighbors in the apartment building will follow through and use the space to garden themselves.   I hope so, too.

Brett is a great force in all this.  He’ll serve very much as the glue, as I guess I serve as a driving force right now.  But I think everyone will take a lead as we move.  We’re a good group to be working on this project together.  Really happy to start with a friendly group of people who are solidly grounded in growing food for themselves first, and reaching out to involve people to grow their own food as well.

Go Brazil!

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/the-city-that-ended-hunger/

We must learn from the international example. We must seek examples from the developing world, where much like our country, the divisions between rich and poor have grown or remained so vast that the anger has boiled over and governments have become Socialist. Brazil and Venezuela, large countries, rich countries – these are the countries of the New World that we can see examples of what is possible. No longer can Europe be our bright beacon, our aspiration.

Reestablishing food traditions is vital, but so is the development of the civic tradition to trust the citizenry to do the right thing and break the shackles of a history of corruption. Land and public money is the answer. Public money as in anywhere our tax dollars are: City gov, State gov, County gov, Chase, Goldman, BofA. Land as in City, State, County, and Bank property.

Land and food policy are as intertwined as the threads of yarn. In the City, the landlord, the elected official, and the banker remain working as they always have to control development and the use of what is public, what must be public. The commons is not in the form of a manicured, city run park, overseen by a de facto landlord. The commons is the space on your block for you and your neighbors to take over and delight yourselves with the pleasures of food, comfort, relaxation, and good company. The commons is not to be allowed to fester in the shadow of gangs, drugs and violence, either. The commons is for children, families, and folks growing old to rest.

Picking back up for Fall 2009

I haven’t posted for quite some time.

Thanfully because I have been busy – up to something here and there.  Although why couldn’t there be so much more?  Time in day?  Income?

Commemorating those that have stuck through the worst near Altgeld and Sawyer.  Hoping that green space, a community farm, is something to give back – to help participate in creating the farm, around the corner from where I was born and raised.

Sawyer Coop?

Now Sawyer 3000 Farm?

Humboldt/Logan Chicken Co-op?

Humboldt Blvd. Farm?

4611 Home Farm?

Erica’s Farm?

Curie Farms?

Drawlz’ Farm?

Your farm?

Need to order garlic seed.

Build bold frames, too.

Chicago in Spring

My friends from the farm in California told me that folks put cardboard down on lawns and cover it with manure and compost and grow potatoes in that.  Not only do you get some great potatoes, but you take out the grass, too!

I think that it is time to say this:

Lawns are wasted space.  Mind you, lawns used for parties and picnics, those that have a functional purpose are like parks or community gardens, they are sacred space in the urban context.  But so many lawns simply exist to waste water on very little habitat, hardly any native habitat, and are under-utilized in any positive way.  Even just the simple conversion of a lawn into a prairie garden, with a good variety of grasses and wild flowers would cause some sort of balance shift.

And that’ll be next spring, i guess.

Community gardening

Right now there are 20-40 people getting ready to work in community run, Neighbor-Space owned gardens in Humboldt Park. Each will have adequate space to grow enough veggies for themselves, but probably not enough room for much else. Some, the Harold Washington Victory Garden and the Our Block Community Farm at Potomac and Washtenaw, have contiguous space that could be farmed. Through intensive gardening practices, this land could be quite productive, either over the long term, such as with perennial herbs and fruit trees, or in using quicker growing crops like lettuce greens, spinach or peas, for the greens.

Humboldt Park seems a hot bed full of ambitious gardeners and community activists. We’ve declared that growing ones’ own food is a political act, and a democratic right. Lifting our voices and our shovels, it’s time soon, to get up to our knees in it.

Promise and a Challenge

Community gardens and their exploration is a great opportunity to walk around different neighborhoods, to get information out about urban agriculture, and most importantly for people to see how many of us are out there.  We know never to underestimate the power of a full room and a full belly, or a whole lot of gardening going on.

Art and craft

3/14

Today I cut down a tree. Worked over at Karen’s place. We planted seeds with Una for the first time. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, flowers and greens. It was quite sunny and warm today, pleasant for a day as an urban farmer. Welcome to Urban Infarmation. My name is Noah Stein and I’m an urban farmer, cultivating land, minds, neighborhoods, people, spaces.  Making Big plans, failing.  Making smaller plans failing.  Making medium plans success, not making any plans more success, more failure. Practicing this craft is a challenge; practicing this craft in the city is revolutionary. Farming is no doubt an art, and it is beyond question that I am in dire need of practice. I am driven to do it, and today was just another day of practice.