Food Day All Year Long

The founders of Food Day view it a little like a mushroom. The events on and immediately surrounding October 24th are supposed to be the fruiting parts of a year-long effort to improve the local, regional, and national food system.

And so, with Food Day 2013 just two weeks in the past, it's time to start looking forward to next year's celebrations and the work we need to do to get there.

On Tuesday, I got to attend a day-long workshop on culinary and agritourism. As I mentioned the next day, going to an Oregon Wild Rivers Coast tourism event made me ponder our place where the Wild Rivers Coast meets the Redwood Coast. It's a beautiful place to be, as we all know, but how can we forge bonds with both regions in a meaningful way?

One possibility is to create itineraries that highlight some of the best that all four counties -- Humboldt, Del Norte, Curry, and the southern end of Coos, from south to north -- have to offer. Food Day starts on a Friday next year, which lends itself well to expanding the offerings into a Food Weekend. 

Travel Oregon is a sponsor of an amazing array of activities that all fall under the name, FEAST Portland. The lineup in Portland is incredible, but I'm taking more inspiration from the "Trails to FEAST" created by the folks at Travel Oregon. These are themed driving itineraries covering beer, cheese, wine, and other specialty foods. They include tips for where to stay, where to eat, what not to miss. Now, I wish (because of the name) they actually LED to Portland and FEAST Portland, but they don't. They're more regionally-based.

But imagine, if you will, cheese trails leading from Humboldt, Rogue Valley, and Oregon's Wild Rivers Coast creameries converging on Crescent City for a cheese making workshop. Or a weekend itinerary starting in southern Humboldt and hitting every creamery and cheese destination from there to Bandon, with tastings, workshops, and tours along the whole route.

This is one of the things we're dreaming of for next year's Food Day celebrations. If you would like to be involved in planning events like this, join us! There are always new places at the table.

May Food Drive

The May Food Drive at Starbucks starts today! All month long, Starbucks in Crescent City will be collecting for the food bank at Community Assistance Network. Bring your non-perishable food items by and place them in the barrel. Right now, the food bank needs nutritious foods that are  high in protein most, like peanut butter, tuna, beans and powdered milk. All food that is donated will supplement CAN's food boxes. It's sure to go home with someone who needs it.

Community Gardening Excitement

If you haven't seen today's Triplicate yet, make a point to pick it up. A beautiful above-the-fold photograph of one of our community gardeners opens a great article about the Elk Valley Community Garden. The predominantly Hmong gardeners at Elk Valley have turned a bare lot into an extremely productive piece of agricultural land over the past four and a half months. Looking at the garden, it's hard to believe that they only started planting seeds in mid-May! (Check out our past post about this garden to see the before pictures!) This garden supplies fresh, healthy food to 24 families, representing over 100 people. It's a small part of our population, but what a beautiful first step they've taken.

This excellent coverage by Kelley and Bry is the topper on a month of great community gardening in Del Norte. With five community members returning from NYC's American Community Gardening Association conference at the end of August, we have been inundated with information and excitement from their experiences. You can read about it here and here. At this month's Community Food Council meeting, we had two of our school Nutrition in the Garden educators tell members about the status, joys, and challenges in our school gardens. From there, eight people have formed a new subcommittee (open to all community members!) to find news ways to build support for all of our school and community gardens.

Last week, we shared a wonderful day of learning and collaboration with community gardeners from all over California and southern Oregon, right here in Crescent City. Ten sessions about gardening and community gardens took place at the beautiful Oceanfront Lodge. Forty-five participants learned about raised bed techniques, aquaponics, gardening with kids, incorporating fruit trees into community gardens, and much more. Above, Joe Gillespie talks about lessons learned during his 18 years of gardening at Crescent Elk Middle School. Below, participants show off their color-matched finds during a gardening with kids hands-on activity.

After a delicious lunch courtesy of the Bar-O Boys Ranch culinary arts program and exciting afternoon sessions, attendees toured our local community gardens and met with our gardeners. They toured six gardens and learned something new at each one.

 At the Seventh Day Adventist Community Garden

The new garden at the Wellness Center

When the tour was complete, a large contingent of our out-of-town guests had a laughter-filled dinner overlooking the Harbor at Good Harvest. They had more chances to ask questions and share information about their own community garden projects. People left Del Norte with new tools for their own communities. They loved our coast and our redwoods. They raved about the meals and our community's hospitality. It was Del Norte at its best: sharing one of the things we do well in one of the most beautiful places on our planet. Our gardens are an inspiration for people just starting out. They show what our community can accomplish when we work together and we were very proud to show off our gardeners' successes! Community gardens are about food, community, relationships, and hope for the future. All of that was on full display for 45 very happy conference-goers last Friday.

Don't Let Good Fruit Go Bad

Do you have fruit trees in your backyard? Do you only use some of the fruit and would love the rest to be used by someone else? Or does time get away from you sometimes and suddenly the fruit is rotting on the ground? We have a solution!

CAN is working with Del Norte 4-H to develop a Community Gleaning Project. Modeled after many successful programs like the Illinois Valley Gleaning Project, Food for People's Gleaning work, and many others around the country.

Gleaning is traditionally associated with farm fields, with gleaners harvesting grain and produce left behind after the farm's harvest is over. Especially in machine-harvested fields, there is often a great deal of food left behind that will just be plowed under if it is not gleaned. But gleaners can also harvest food grown in home gardens or backyard orchards. This is where CAN and 4-H are targeting.

If you have a few fruit trees in your backyard and don't pick or use all the fruit, please consider donating it to CAN's food bank and other critical venues for distribution. It's easy! Just call Connor at CAN at 464-9190 ext. 119 or 4-H at 464-4711 to "register" your fruit trees. You can also email gleaning@canbless.org. We will map your trees onto a registry. When your fruit is almost ripe, let us know and we will schedule a harvest team to come pick and distribute the fruit. (Veggies are also welcome, so consider Planting a Row for the Hungry! We'll still come pick.) In return, you will receive a thank you letter including information about your donation for your tax records. You'll also have the satisfaction of knowing that local families are eating healthier because of you.

Join the fun! Become part of the Community Gleaning Project either by registering your trees or signing up to be part of a harvesting team later in the summer or fall. If you are part of a youth group or organization that would like to field a harvesting team, please let us know at any of the contact information listed above. The more the merrier!

Introducing the Elk Valley Community Garden!

Springtime in Crescent City.  It seems we've made it through the rain and we're starting to see our flowers and vegetables really grow as we prepare for summer.  Along with all the happy plants, the number of community gardens is also growing.  Last month we all saw the community come together to create an amazing raised bed garden at the Wellness Center, but at the same time, a new garden is taking shape on Elk Valley Rd.

Our newest garden is the Elk Valley Community Garden, located in south Crescent City, across the street from Hambro Forest Products.  With a generous donation of land from Hambro, we were able to transform the previously vacant field into a roto-tilled and ready-to-work garden patch. 

Unlike our other community gardens in Crescent City, this space has no raised beds; instead, gardeners are working and planting directly into the soil.  Eco Nutrients kindly donated 25 yards of their dirt fines, along with gallons of their fish and kelp fertilizers.  Staking out their own family-sized plots in the dirt, the gardeners have utilized the dirt and fertilizers to amend the soil and prepare it for the variety of food crops that have already begun to grow. 

Initial inspiration for this garden came from members of the Hmong community who were looking for space to grow food for their families. Their gardening traditions don't include raised beds, so we wanted to provide a more culturally-appropriate space. A core group of families helped from the early stages with organizing, planning, and implementing efforts to make the garden a reality. Although most of the gardeners so far are Hmong families, the garden is open to all residents and there are still plots available.  We look forward to this garden being a shining example of the collaborative efforts our diverse community is capable of in the name of providing healthy, local food!

Community Garden Build

 

The dust has settled after Saturday's hugely successful garden build and we are still overwhelmed by the amount of community support for this project. Thank you to everyone who gave part of their weekend to make this garden a reality. Gardeners will be getting calls in the next few days with bed assignments -- soon we'll start seeing green, growing life in all these beds!

Volunteers worked hard to assemble beds, cover them with gopher wire, put them in place, and fill them with soil. Complex logistics were key to the success of the day and Connor Caldwell, a VISTA member with the First 5 Service Corps, did a great job keeping everyone busy and on-task.

And what soil it was! Eco Nutrients delivered 60 yards of high-quality enhanced dirty fines and volunteers brought enough wheel barrows to deal with that mountain, one shovel-full at a time. The Wellness Center Garden will provide space to grow, play, and exercise for years to come. Thank you to everyone who provided time, labor, materials, food, and expertise to making this a reality.

Rescheduled Events: A Busy Saturday

As you all know, many local events were canceled or postponed due to the tsunami and rain over the past few weeks. Two of them have now been officially rescheduled.

The Future Farmers of America are going to hold their garage sale on April 2nd. Details can be found in the original post. They are still looking for donations to help them travel to the state-wide meetings of FFA. If you've been working on some early spring cleaning and have saleable items, this is an easy way to get them out of your house.

The Crab, Wine, and Cheese Fest has also been rescheduled for April 2nd. The festival will celebrate our local foods and provide music and fun for all ages. More details can be found here.

You may have noticed an addition to our side panel this week. We are starting the process of adding links to other (mostly local) online resources for local food and farming. If you think there's a link we should add, please let us know!

Working Together To Overcome Challenges!

One thing our community does very well is work together. In some places, organizations, public agencies, and private businesses jealously guard their corner of whatever market they are in. But not in Del Norte! Since moving here, I have been continually impressed by how well people come together when there's work to be done. Today's post highlights another of these stories.

Future Farmers of America (FFA) provides agricultural education, often through classes and after-school clubs, as they do at Del Norte High. FFA provides leadership and research training, and helps young people learn how to plan and execute individual projects. You can read more about the organization here.

In Del Norte, our local FFA chapter is actively engaged with the larger community. Students have been working with Porters Pots and Plants to grow fresh veggies for Our Daily Bread Ministries, which serves hot meals to our low-income and homeless neighbors. Like most supplemental food programs, Our Daily Bread is seeing an increased need for their services at a time when many former donors have been hit hard in the pocketbook themselves. This is a great example of a public (schools)-private (Porters P&P)-charitable (Our Daily Bread) partnership. (And even goes beyond our community thanks to a massive seed donation by Territorial Seed Company of Oregon!)

Nineteen of our FFA students have been selected to go to the California State FFA Conference in April and they are in need of travel funds. They are working on a variety of fundraisers and will be holding a big rummage sale on March 19th. The garage sale will be at the Chetco Federal Credit Union parking lot. There are three ways you can help:

1. If you have unwanted, saleable items sitting in your house or garage, you can donate them for FFA to sell. These funds will help send our students to the state conference.
2. Come to the FFA Garage Sale on March 19th and turn someone else's trash into your treasure, knowing that the money will send a student to Fresno.
3. Bring a donation of fresh fruits and vegetables to the FFA Garage Sale. The produce will be donated to Our Daily Bread and you will receive a free gift of vegetable starts grown by the FFA chapter. It's a win-win situation!

Our strength is much greater when we all work together. We can all support our FFA students, not just by helping them go to the conference, but by showing that we appreciate their community service and the work they do. These are potential future farmers right here in Del Norte -- we will need them in years to come.