1. I have researched a lot about Urban Harvest through your web site, but what inspired you to start Urban Harvest? Why is sustainability so important to you?

This is my 2nd year for  UH (Urban Harvest). It really came from embracing my farming back ground. I grew up on a farm in Norther Indiana, and have missed what Wendell Berry calls, “The magic of being in the dirt.” I find it  personally fulfilling to work the soil, plant seeds, and then watch them grow into food.

Food is the 2nd reason I started UH. After growing up in Indiana producing our own food on the farm, and spending 10 years in Michigan where there is an abundance of local produce, my family and I moved to Cincinnati 5 years ago. In most cases, Cinci isn’t much different than the other places I have lived, but there is one glaring difference. Food. Most of the people I spoke with seemed to be very apathetic about their food. They didn’t know where it came from, nor did they seem to really care; so long as they could run to the local store and buy whatever it they wanted.

The average item in a store is shipped 350 miles. A whole meal has been shipped over 1500 miles. As the cost in oil has gone up, so has the cost of shipping products. Therefore, people’s food bills have gone up as well, because we fully know that those increases are passed directly along to the consumers.

All of these factors contributed to me starting UH. I love setting gardens up for families; seeing children who didn’t like to eat their vegetables (I used to be one of those kids); now love eating salads and peas and carrots. They are eating them not only because they taste better, but also because they have been involved in the process of food creation, not merely food consumption.

I think that creation is going to be the biggest part of sustainability in the future. We are made in God’s image, who is a creator, yet if we only consume, we are not being true to our original purpose. Creating is much more difficult, but it is also much more fulfilling. Sustainability is going to have to be something that an weather the storm of apathy, and laziness. Creating takes so much effort, and I honestly don’t know how many people are willing to give more of an effort, especially for food when it is so readily available at a local store.

Hopefully, when someone eats a truly ripe tomato or a fresh from the garden salad and can taste the difference in the product compared to something bought at the local supermarket, the light bulb will go on, and they will realize what they are missing, and that it’s time for them to make a change.

2. How have the NEXUS garden and Urban Harvest worked together on this project?

I was brought on board early in the process. I am a Norwood resident. My experience and work was pivotal in establishing other community gardens in the area, and when NEXUS was in it’s infancy, Molly Robertshaw reached out to me to help.
My specific role for the NEXUS gardens was co-chair. I oversaw the logistics of the installation. I worked with Joe and Dick from the Xavier Physical Plant to get things procured and in place so that in March we were able to build all 30 beds and fill them with soil. It was a good working relationship, and I couldn’t have asked to work with 2 better guys.
Nor better students. I couldn’t believe 35 students showed up at 830 AM on a Saturday to help build a garden. Xavier University has some amazing people on campus, faculty, staff and students. It has been a pleasure to work with all of them in some way or another in making the NEXUS Community Garden.

3. What is your opinion of the NEXUS garden? Do you think it is going to be something that is truly impactful on Xavier’s campus or only a small stepping stone towards bigger and better things (or both)?

I love the garden. It is beautiful. I can’t wait to see it in full bloom and producing food for the participants.
How does this garden impact Xavier? I don’t know for sure, but what I do know is that it is impacting the lives of the people that are participating. I am grateful for an administration that is willing to explore these types of programs and opportunities not only for their own people (staff/students) but for the surrounding communities as well. It speaks highly of them as administrators.
With the NCG (NEXUS Community Garden) on campus, I think that it is going to open the door for more conversations about sustainability, environmental concerns, and food quality. It will be a launch point for moving people from consumer to creator. With goals like that, I can’t see how the NCG can fail to make an impact on Xavier’s campus, or in the communities at large.

Other than the 35 students that showed up at 830 AM on a Saturday? I would probably say that my biggest surprise has to be the commitment and dedication that the core team has been to the project. People came from all aspects of life and from 3 communities to make this garden happen. To get so many like minded folks together in one space for 1 hour a week for 3 months, that is a small miracle. Many thanks should go out to the entire team for working so diligently on their tasks.
A person shouldn’t be so surprised when all of their hard work pays off, but on a project like this; where there are so many working pieces involved, expecting it to come off with the success that it did would have been very arrogant. It’s always a bit of a surprise when the pieces come together, and fit as neatly and perfectly as they do to make a great, functional space. Again, this success all goes back to the devotion of the team.

5. How do you envision this garden impacting the surrounding community?

This is the 3rd community garden that I have helped with. I love community gardens. Unlike yards or wide expanses of grass that needs to be mowed, gardening creates conversations. 30 raised beds in such close proximity will hopefully produce conversations not only about how to raise a beautiful strawberry, but also on how to raise a beautiful family. You honestly never know where a conversation is going to go, but community gardens are a great place to foster a safe environment to start having some of those talks.
My hope and prayer is that not only will the NEXUS Community Garden be bountiful in fruit, but also in productive conversation and community development.

One final note, there are still plots available for this growing season. If you live in Norwood or Evanston, please fill out an application by visiting:

http://www.xavier.edu/peace-justice/Community-Garden.cfm

Also to see pictures of the project, you can go to UH’s fan page on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Urban-Harvest/204580226655?v=photos#!/pages/Urban-Harvest/204580226655?v=wall

If all goes well, photos will be a new feature on this website in the coming weeks.

My favorite game is called Fish Wrangler, but I play a few others as well. I have noticed that over the last few months the popularity of farming games has skyrocketed. I can understand why too. It’s very appealing and almost magical to watch something go from a seed to a plant that produces food. There are a wide variety of seeds that you can plant ranging from cotton, to sun flowers and potatoes to watermelons and everything in between.

The games are very deceptive though. The designers have tapped into something that is in all of us; our desire to create. We have a natural desire to create and for generations that desire was used to produce food. Now we have games that tap into that desire but don’t give us any of the benefit.

After hours spent using your mouse to navigate your way around the farm by plowing, planting and harvesting your fields, all you have left to show for it is some fake coins. Nothing real. No food. No money. Most of all, you are left with a void. A void that you have always had because you aren’t growing your own food or using your creativity. This void is something that can be fed but it always consumes what you have to offer and doesn’t ever get filled. That’s what these games do.  They feed the desire, but leave you empty in the end.

I know all of this because I have that same void and have tried to fill it playing these games or by doing something else. I grew up on a farm and was in the midst of growing my own food, as well as producing for others. This was my life until I left for college. From then on out, food had a very consumeristic place in my life. Food no longer came from my farm, but was purchased at the local super market, or picked up from the counter at the dining commons. I had lost my place in the chain of life. I was no longer a producer, I was just a consumer.

After spending several years of my life in this mode, I had quite honestly gotten to a point of lethargy. It was easier to just go buy it from the store. In the mean while, food is being shipped farther and farther across the country to get to the consumer. It’s being grown and harvested by people that don’t receive a fair wage for their days work. To top it off, the farmers are spraying the plants with all different types of chemicals and fertilizers because they have to maximize their production to meet the demand of the consumer.

I went to my parents for a week this past summer to help on the farm. While I was there, my father took me to a field day. This is an event where a seed corn company brings in a few guest speakers to talk about the upcoming new technology in bio-engineering seeds, and usually involves a free meal. So, I was definitely going. While I was waiting in the buffet line, I overheard a gentleman behind me speaking to another fella. He was talking about his farm producing tomatoes that were being sold to Heinz. I asked him what he does to prevent blight on the tomatoes. (Blight is a airborne disease that infects tomato plants can cause them to die.) He said that he sprays his tomatoes 2 times a week with 3 different chemicals. I nearly fell over. I couldn’t believe that it would take so much to produce a tomato. I also couldn’t believe that for years, I didn’t care about the process of food production.

Some people will argue that we have to use these techniques (large industrial machinery and chemicals) to produce for the entire world.  For over half a century now we have been using these practices and the last I checked, world hunger hadn’t been solved. The only thing that has gotten better is the type of machines or chemicals farmers use, and subsequently the amount of destruction to the environment that those improvements do.

It’s a lack knowledge  and of not caring about how our food is produced  that has gotten us into the state that we currently find ourselves. We don’t really have any other options to buy food than at the local super market. Farmer’s markets are few and far between and honestly out of the way, or inconvenient at best. Large farms are thriving on government subsidies and loans, while the small farmer is being driven out of business. The cost to buy biologically engineered seeds is going up, and farmers are unable to keep back any seed from this year’s crop to plant next year. Saving seeds has been a right of the farmer since farming began. Now, they are not allowed to use this practice because Monsanto and other seed companies have copyrights on the bio-engineered seeds and can and will sue the farmer for theft.

There are only 2 ways that I can see to break this cycle. One is to create a separate economy. An economy that isn’t dependent upon shipping food all the way across the country or by purchasing seed from a large agri-business company like Monsanto, but on developing a relationship with local farmers. A farmer that a person can trust to produce food in ways that don’t hurt the environment or rely upon the use of chemicals to make production sustainable.

A good way to develop this relationship with a local farmer is by joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The organizations are typically family farms that grow vegetables, produce eggs, raise animals for meat, or cows for milk. A person can pay between $500-1000 depending on how much food you want to receive and get a fresh delivery every week from May - November. Google CSA and your town/city and I am sure you will find something close to where you live.

The second way that I can see us breaking out of this cycle is for us to grow it ourselves. Start our own garden. Produce our own food. Relieve some of the burden placed on the American farmer, or the underpaid Mexican farmer/migrant worker. Growing your own vegetables isn’t as difficult as you think.  It requires work and effort, but in the end, you have fresh, healthy food and that makes it worth it.

Fill that void for creativity that you have, by planning and starting your own garden. Find a sunny place in your yard and start today. If it’s winter where you live, start by composting. Do something. Do anything. Nothing is a choice that is not acceptable.

]]> http://urban-harvest.org/?feed=rss2&p=58 http://urban-harvest.org/?p=55 http://urban-harvest.org/?p=55#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:21:37 +0000 brad http://urban-harvest.org/?p=55 When I look out at a field and see it covered in prairie grass, or tilled but not planted, my mind automatically goes to the possibilities for that field or land. It doesn’t just have to be farmland either, but here in the city, I see spaces that used to have homes standing on them, that have now been demolished and removed, leaving a empty lot.

My city, like most I would assume, has recently razed several homes and buildings that have sat vacant for a long time. The buildings have had their copper wiring stolen and anything of value has long since disappeared from these buildings. The hollow shells were in such disrepair that the city was left with little to no choice but to demolish them. I am almost positive that if you were to count these lots as you drove too and from work, that you would see no less than 2 or 3 and the numbers are going up!

When it comes to this land, cities don’t have too many options. They can try to sell it to one of the neighbors, but in this economy, are people looking at buying land? Cities are apprehensive of putting in play grounds or equipment because of liability issues. What I am suggesting is that the board talk with the neighbors that surround this vacant land to gauge their interest in having a gardening plot for their personal use.

If a community garden were to go into these spaces, cities would no longer have to worry about mowing this property, because that aspect could be worked into the contract for participating in the program. Landscaping wouldn’t be an issue, because the raised beds would beautify the space. Most of all, the vacant lot would not become a trash heap, which has been the case in most places. Vacant lots are no one’s responsibility, so people throw out their trash, and if they aren’t the ones throwing out the trash, they aren’t the ones picking it up either. Most people just walk or drive by without picking anything up, because it isn’t their responsibility. Putting a community garden in these places would put the responsibility for care and upkeep on the neighbors.

So, this week as you drive to work, or the store to go shopping, look at these places. These lost places. What would it look like to have 6-8 raised bed community garden in that space? How great would it be to walk or drive by and see food growing in your community and to know that this land that had no purpose and was destined to be nothing forevermore is now a place for people to gather, talk, and most importantly provide a place for families to raise some fresh produce.

In the past I have been told that any good organization needs to have a motto or vision statement. I honestly had not  given much thought to what my vision statement for Urban Harvest would be until this week.

On a Wednesday night every month, a group of entrepreneurs gather to talk about business and the vision we have for our neighborhood and community. We talk about how we can help one another, and what we want to accomplish for our living area too. It’s a great group that has a good collection of big thinkers and dreamers, as well as a good and vocal minority of concrete thinkers. At this past Wednesday’s meeting, we talked about developing a mission statement for our group. Everyone agreed that it was a great idea, but had no real clue of where to start with the time that we had; so, it was shelved until our next meeting.

All of that got me to thinking about my own company and what I would use as my vision statement. I had read Microsoft’s vision statement several years  ago and it has stuck with me. As far as I know, even years after its inception I think that the company still uses this phrase and it is just as viable today as it was when it was created. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the phrase it is, “A computer in every home.” Clear. Concise. Easy to evaluate and to talk about.

With that in mind, here is my vision statement. **Drum roll please**  “A garden in every yard.” Clear. Concise. Easy to evaluate and talk about.

How great would it be to have your own garden? Gardening is an opportunity to gain some responsibility and control over two of the most important aspects of your life; food and money. In my family’s garden, we have 2 raised beds with 4’x8’ dimensions; we have already had close to 25 salads since we planted this spring. Indulge me as I throw out some monetary figures.

A bag of mixed salad greens from a grocery store will cost you on the average, $5. (Our tomatoes aren’t ready to harvest yet so I can’t include them in this scenario, but when they are I will definitely update these figures.) For 25 salads at $5 per bag, that puts the value up to $125. We spent $10 on the seeds/starter plants for our garden. That’s a difference of $115 that we have “saved” since March on our food budget!

There are other benefits to gardening besides monetary ones too, but given our current economy, I thought that I would speak on this one today. Think about what this could look like for you. How much do you spend on “fresh” produce from the grocery store per week or month? Do you eat 10 salads a month? If so, what could a garden provide for you? Healthy food and a substantial reduction in your overall food cost.

No matter how you look at it, gardening makes sense and that is why there should be a garden in every yard!

We don’t have to worry about food production, but we are reliant upon other to do it for us. We rely upon farmers, and corporations and lots of people we do not know; just for us to have food. Is that being responsible?

It’s not just our personal yards that can be labeled as lost places. Next time you drive somewhere; take a look around and see how much green space is just sitting there, under-used. Office buildings, college campuses, and churches seem to be some pretty big offenders. How great would it be to walk out of the door of your work and pick 2 or 3 fresh tomatoes from a raised gardening bed, rather than driving to the store to buy them? Or the fixings for a salad? Green beans? There are lots of vegetables that can be grown with a minimal amount of space or effort. Not only that, but they look great too. Who says that gardens can’t be pretty? Anything is better than the same old grass and shrubs you see house after house, office complex and office complex, block after block, city after city.

For the past couple of months, I have been part of building a large community garden. The location is prime real estate. However, it isn’t developed, nor will it be for 5-7 years. A person with some connections and a big dream got the ball rolling, and contacted the land developer. They agreed that the space should be used for a community garden, and 2 months and lots of effort later; we are looking at 48 raised beds on that corner.

This is a great example of a lost place that was reclaimed. Families that don’t have any yard space to grow a garden, because of size, or shade issues, now have a place that they can grow organic vegetables. Not only is it helping them, but 10% of what that space produces goes to an organization that helps people within that same community that can’t afford to feed their families. Everyone wins.

It’s about responsibility. The spaces are lost places of empire. They need to be reclaimed and in doing so; we help countless people be more responsible for their own lives and the food that they eat.

Think about your own spaces that can be labeled as lost places of empire. Dream about it. Envision a garden with red peppers, green beans, big, lush heads of lettuce, and cucumbers and tomato plants climbing up a white trellis. It’s pretty; it’s functional, and it’s reclaiming a lost place.

Begin the process of reclaiming a lost place today. Dream.