WILL CHICAGO GROW MORE FOOD IN 2008?

Thanks (to you and all) for working hard to get the group that made it
to the Garfield Park Conservatory 4/2 together.  Michael Thompson
commented that people thought giddiness was in the air.  I agree that
there’s a great deal of excitement and UNtapped energy flowing through
the food community.  I think that this excitement and giddiness needs
to, and can  be harnessed/directed into more than workshops and
trainings.  My sense was that we had a room full of ready
practitioners.

Michael Thompson mentioned that you wondered about the cards I left
for people to take at the AUA potluck.  Unfortunately I was unable to
get there earlier, or at the beginning, and was unable to pass them
out then, and get people thinking about them before the panel.  The
topics listed are the top 9 topics of thought and conversation that
came up at the CFP Summit New Farmer and Farms breakout session and
that have come up in conversations over the past few months.

Attached is a Word document of the topics for any and all to use,
distribute, etc.  They remain the topics and action steps that I think
are most important for increasing food production and improving food
access in Chicago in 2008.  There is no question that in 2009 we can
do this, but realistically, there is still plenty of time this year to
get more people growing now!  (In the grand scheme of things, they’re
definitely NOT JUST CHICAGO IDEAS.)

In anticipation for the 4/9 CFPAC meeting, I will expand on those that
could prove most important or effective to increasing food production
in Chicago THIS year.

Is it possible to get a space and gather people on short notice
(within next 2ish weeks) with the expressed purpose and a mandate to
GROW MORE FOOD IN CHICAGO IN 2008?

I know a few surveys have been used to assess specific communities.
Is it conceivable, based on commitments, to organize the various
Chicago groups (especially those mentioned represented at the potluck
and by AUA) to rally volunteers for the task of finding more LEGAL
space to grow food?  Especially if volunteers worked to develop the
survey?

People from Angelic Organics Learning Center, Openlands, the Resource
Center, Growing Home, Neighbor Space, Growing Power, Growing Pride,
Heifer International, the collectives of CFPAC and AUA, and any other
organization I have failed to mention, have worked diligently to bring
Chicago to the point where we are bursting like an August tomato.  We
can wait, as all seeds have to, but the soil feels pretty good this
year.

Chicago in Spring

I returned to Chicago for the snowiest winter in years.  It’s been such a snowy winter that it’s blowing into Spring!  I can’t remember it ever snowing on my birthday.  No doubt it has rained on 3/21 which is usually overcast with a 60% chance of rain, but snow?

But I won’t say this has been the worst winter.  It’s no North Woods cold, but I remember a Chicago winter with a string of below 0^ weather with crazy wind chill factor.  They closed schools if memory serves.  Late 80s or early 90s.

It’s been funny watching the salt trucks dwindle to nothing for this past storm.  But with what amounted to a significant storm, the salt trucks came only in spurts and only salted major roads, having spent all the overtime money through the first couple of storms.

It is marvelous to be here, 30, eager and energized.  My home, our nest is getting settled, with furniture added every week, more towels, supplies, and staples getting remembered.  I put up curtains.  They’re too long, and already up over 7 feet.  They’re long curtains.  From Ikea.  Tyler would be mad.

I’ve done a little seeding so far, not too much.  Unfortunately I have been focused on other things, like land procurement.  It’s been harder than I thought to organize around a set, but oddly arranged schedule.  I find it’s usually best to remain too busy, but I have to keep better records, get back into using my calendar.

I was talking to my friend Mark about growing sweet potatoes in broken down horse manure.  I’m totally on board!   I mean yeah, you figure out how to cure the potatoes in the sun to kill the bad stuff, but if they really are that big, then hell yeah!

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

Some important questions that I think need to be asked and discussed are:

How can we dramatically increase the number of back yards that are being gardened and farmed?

How can we turn the 30% of the vacant lots in Chicago that are not contaminated into community farms or community gardens?

How many of the contaminated sites are suitable for a raised bed system?

How many more sites like Growing Homes Wood St. Hoop House Farm can be built in the next 1 year, 2 yrs, 5 yrs?

A first step is a survey conducted in 20-30 communities around the city.  The upcoming AUA Potluck is a time where folks from all over the city will meet and hopefully share with each other their optimism and excitement.  The feeling I have most sensed while meeting with many of you over the last few months is that there is a wave that has been swelling and we need to ride it and keep up with the challenge and promise we’ve made to feed ourselves locally, using sustainable and humane methods.

Such a large scale survey would give people the opportunity to volunteer and meet people in their own community or in the communities of other folks. It’s 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.

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. Practicing this craft is a challenge; practicing this craft in the city 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.