*Godsil.* I was told that you were a local farmer with a contract with Beans and Barley to sell your produce in 2008. There have been a lot of items in the news encouraging people to "buy local." How is it that you are a farmer able to enable people at Beans and Barley to buy locally grown produce? Might you share some of this great story with us?
*Huth.* It's intriguing to me to be asked this question at this time, this exact day and moment. Farming, like anything that requires true spiritual grit, sheer endurance and pristine attention, is not unlike a whale-watching expedition: sometimes the water's are calm, the views magnificent, and the company both terrestrial and otherwise, perfectly enchanting. At other times, your lunch flees you, as do your wits, and that sense of calm that you wagered on the shore only seems further and further away. Over the last 24 hours I've arrived back on shore from a 2 day stint of slight mania, denial, and far fewer meals for myself and those I feed than is healthy. Three nights ago as I sat under a tent in the Beans and Barley parking lot, feeding some of the finest folks imaginable, the tides of LotFotL Community Farm were being blasted by hail, ferocious rain, and whatever else Father Sky decided to chuck at us. I returned to the farm that evening to find 6000 lettuce heads looking like unworthy targets at a buckshot range, onion plants bowed low to the east like the most devout followers of vast religions, so into prayer they had forgotten to get up, and beet greens impersonating the grasses of Lambeau Field's frozen tundra. The seedlings of months ago, once numbers on a spreadsheet, and contents in a seed packet, were as my dramatic portions decided, dead, decimated, and vanquished by the very forces that give them life. The injustice of the situation left me feeling quite incredulous and thirsty for flight and respite, so I took the weekend to heal, to center, and to find merriment. The lettuce and onions were planted to specifications for Beans and Barley exclusively, and were to also supplement the diets of 80 households through our CSA(community supported agriculture) program. In the lettuce's case, 2000 of these were paid for by Beans in advance of their planting. Todd(General manager of lots of things at Beans, organics in particular) and I sat down several times this winter and spring and wanted to come up with a different way for us to collaborate on our shared needs. Out of that was birthed a $2000 operational loan to me, paid back to Beans in lettuce. In addition, I laid out for Beans what the soil liked to grow, and planted based on how many votes for these crops the dollars of Beans and Barley eaters usually demand in a given week. The year before, my first in business for myself, Beans went from being a place I would occasionally frequent for brunch, to my most valuable customer and one of the strongest factors I will consider in deciding where I should ultimately settle myself and my operation. continued at... http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/TimHuth Also at the Renaissance... *http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates On this page…* 1. Kitchen Gardeners International Newsletter June 2008<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc1> 2. E.F. Schumacher Society and Rodale Institute's "New Farm" Offer Insight Into How to Develop Local Food Movement<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc2> 3. Small Farms Most Productive Throughout the World<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc3> 4. City Repair: Social Permaculture in Portland<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc4> 1. 4.1 Transforming Streets into Active Commons for Creating Community<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc5> 5. Vertical Farms Discussed on Colbert Report<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc6> 1. 5.1 Stephen asks Dickson Despommier if growing food in vertical towers is an elitist way to farm.<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc7> 6. London Urban Farmer's Projects and Book "Edible Estates"<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc8> 1. 6.1 proposes the replacement of the domestic front lawn in cities with "an edible landscape".<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc9> 2. 6.2 Edible Skyscrapers Become "Sky Farms"<http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/GreenWeeklyUpdates#toc10> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20080619/735a551a/attachment.html _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
