Recently I was lucky enough to visit my friends at Heartsease Farm, an Icelandic sheep farm outside of Rochester, NY. For a woman raised in the suburbs who is now living in the city, waking up to the sound of an actual rooster crowing and watching a one-day old lamb run around the sheep yard was an amazing experience.

At Heartsease they also raise chickens and typically have a couple of pigs in the mix as well. I left the farm with a head full of romantic thoughts of setting up my own little farm, somewhere in the rolling hills upstate. Thank goodness, on my return, I got a chance to read The Joy of Keeping Farm Animals, a new book by Laura Childs, from Sky Horse publishing.

While there is nothing like real experience, Childs provides a very thorough description of what you can expect when setting up a farm for the purpose of raising your own animals for meat, eggs and dairy. It may seem romantic at first but, like all people and pets, farm animals have daily needs that must be attended to or they could get sick or die. While reading Child’s book, I felt reality set in as I learned just how much work farm animals can be.

The book is organized in chapters by animals, and includes chickens, goats, pigs, sheep and cows. Childs takes you through space and time requirements, how to choose and find animals for purchase and what to look for in both sellers and animals, caring for animals once you’ve got them home and preparing them for slaughter once it’s time. Consideration is given to raising animals as economically as possible, as well as breeding your own. She even suggests ways to not get outsmarted by clever goats and pigs.

What I like best about Child’s book is that, while it isn’t a tome on anti-industrial meat production, through her discussion of the needs of happy animals and the impacts of stressful living conditions, she illustrates very clearly what is wrong with our industrial meat production system. Even in ideal living conditions animals can face any number of health threats. It’s easy to see why industrial producers rely so heavily on antibiotics, growth hormones and tightly-controlled conditions to produce their over-stressed, over-medicated animals for slaughter, reducing meat strictly to a commodity, with minimal recognition of the life involved in reaping the profits.

Childs concludes each chapter with instructions for butchering animals yourself. Her motto is the farmer’s creed, “If you raise it to eat it, you had better be man enough to kill it.” She says that this is hardest with the pigs, which can become pet-like very quickly. My friends who own Heartsease Farm say, “Every time we have a meat dinner some animal has died. We know ahead of time each one of these lambs and we try to give them the best, most sun-filled life they can have.” Childs book certainly reinforces this philosophy and should be required reading for anyone considering raising their own farm animals.

It’s rare for an undecided college student to find his or her way into the field of farming, but in the case of Asher Burkhart-Spiegel, experimentation proved agrarian: “In college, you try a bunch of different things. I tried [farming] and felt like it suited me.” Asher is in his seventh season at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, which he manages alongside his wife, Wendy.

The Poughkeepsie Farm Project was founded in 1999 by a group of bucolic-minded volunteers who saved the land, leased by Vassar College, from the threat of a bulldozer. Ten years later, the project boasts a thriving community supported agriculture (CSA) program, farmers’ market, and other programs that promote a local and sustainable food system in the surrounding community.

The farm’s products are Certified Naturally Grown, a non-profit alternative certification to the USDA’s organic seal. Asher said that the USDA certification is not necessary considering the relationship with the community. “We have a one-on-one relationship through our CSA – most members come to the farm to work. We’re ‘customer certified,’ if you will.”

Despite the lack of government recognition, sustainability is the reigning orthodoxy for dealing with weeds, insects and fertility. Asher and his team of interns use cover crops, crop rotation, supplemental organic fertilizer, and compost from Vassar College’s many falling leaves, which he refers to as “opportunistic material gathering.” Beneficial habitat strips are planted to work with and encourage insects at various stages of their life cycle that promote the success of the crops. Crop rotation, mechanical cultivation, and good old hand hoeing neutralize weeds.

Concerning the future of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Asher said that the staff is looking forward to a revamped infrastructure, which includes improving CSA distribution and educational opportunities at the farm.

Perhaps one of the educational features will be cooking classes. Asher explained his favorite kale and collard recipe, “Chop them really fine, like shredding – the fine shredding is really key – and sauté with some garlic.” He added that the leftovers are especially great in omelets the next morning.

Late August and early September is Asher’s favorite time on the farm, “Watermelons are really one of my favorite things,” he said. “Especially when summer is cusping into fall, you have the tastiness of fruits and the solidity of squash and melons.” When asked about the hardest aspect of his work, he paused, after a thoughtful moment concluding with some advice that is not exclusive to farming, but also applicable to everyday life, “[The hardest part] used to be the things beyond one’s control, but as time goes by, you see that it’s not the end of the world.”

Asher then realized that he had forgotten to replace the seats in a van for the following day’s farm field trip. As he moved the seats back into the van with the help of an intern, he stepped into an inconveniently placed mud puddle and jokingly exclaimed, “OK, mud puddles, that’s what I hate most!”

The Poughkeepsie Farm Project is a non-profit organization that works toward a just and sustainable food system in New York State’s Mid-Hudson Valley by operating a member-supported farm, providing education about food and farming to local teens through its City Seeds program, and improving access to healthy locally-grown food as a sponsor of the City of Poughkeepsie’s Main Street Farmers’ Market.

Okay, so the logic behind raising or eating beef as a means to reduce greenhouse gasses sounds flawed. Meat-eaters can get a lot of flack and finger-wagging for contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Grain-to-fork, the carbon footprint of a meat diet is quite staggering. The good news: eating pastured meat can make a big difference. 

Grass-fed livestock graze and perform natural behaviors while fertilizing the soil naturally. Farmers who raise them employ agricultural practices that maintain the health and integrity of the ecosystem. They make a livelihood feeding people by raising meat sustainably while fostering native habitat for birds, pollinators and natural grasslands. Check out the health benefits of grass-fed livestock at Eat Wild and meet some farmers leading the grass-fed movement at Manitoba Grass-Fed Association.

One Canadian rancher, Bryan Gilvesy, is busy keeping up with the demand for healthy, humanely raised, ecologically responsible beef. For over a decade, Gilvesy and his family have raised grass-fed Texas Longhorn cattle, pastured year round on 350 acres at their farm Y U Ranch in Norfolk County, Southwestern Ontario. Gilvesy saw the viability of his venture into farming from the business world when he noticed the shift in consumer interest towards leaner, sustainably-raised beef.

As a participant in an Alternative Land Use Serivce pilot project, Gilvesy receives recognition and financial credits for carbon sequestration and for using ecologically sustainable farming methods. Solar pumps provide fresh water for his herds and prevent the cattle from contaminating the watershed. One hundred acres of Carolinian woodlands and the watershed within are protected by fences. Atop posts are bird houses providing habitat for blue birds.

Grass-fed livestock are fundamental to supporting and protecting grassland ecosystems, and of great value to farmers wishing to offset carbon emissions. Fertilized and stimulated by grazers, native warm-season grasses (big blue-stem, Indian and switchgrass), with roots 12-16 feet in depth, are absorbing carbon and storing it in the soil. Gilvesy observes many species of birds and pollinators attracted to the hedgerows and grasses. They pick apart manure for grains and bugs.

Saskatchewan naturalist and author Trevor Herriot makes the argument for grass-fed beef farming as a means to protect and restore the ever vanishing prairie grasslands of Western Canada and the U.S. Midwest and the threatened and endangered song birds. In his highly acclaimed book Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the Land of Grassland Birds, Herriot discusses how the western prairies are the most human-altered landscape in Canada. These grasslands also have the ability to sequester carbon in the soil to a degree greater than forests.

“If we could convert even a small percentage of the animal protein we consume in North America from grain-fed to grass-fed, there would be a correspondent increase in grassed land. That in turn can provide better habitat for birds that use grass to nest and forage and it helps reduce the amount of carbon that agriculture releases into the atmosphere.”

The modern-day land-grab culprit here is mechanized, industrial mono-cropping for agribusiness. The irony is that all this would-be grassland now cultivates grain – the primary ingredient in livestock diets.

The wicked step-sister of North American grassland is the feedlot.  Factory farms (which, in Canada, are dubbed intensive livestock operations, or ILOs) rely on synthetic, fertilizer-intensive mono-cropping for grain, using methods that are heavily reliant on fossil fuels. These feedlots are a danger to the animals they confine, the ecosystems they toxify, and the people their chemicals, hormones and pathogens poison. Communities and small-scale, sustainable farming also suffer where ILOs are present. Visit Beyond Factory Farming’s website for information on how you can build alternatives.

Reducing or eliminating meat intake can make a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and mitigating climate change, but the choices we make when we do eat meat are even more significant. Supporting sustainably-raised, local grass-fed meats, dairy, and eggs make pastures greener for our health, livestock, ecosystem and communities they support.

As Kerry Trueman pointed out earlier this week in her post about young farmers (and would-be farmers), there are a lot of them out there, but most lack the funding to realize the dream of contributing to a cleaner, greener, more sustainable food system. While some may be inclined to give up, others get creative, investigating a variety of programs designed to help young agrarians gain experience and even find land to steward. These sites include but are not limited to World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service and the Greenhorns’ Serve Your Country Food site. (Find more on page 20 of Cultivating the Web, available for download here).

It really works. Witness Kristen and Nate Johanson of Wolf Lake Farm outside of Pittsburgh, who I met at this year’s Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) conference, where they presented a panel called “Start Farming with Virtually Nothing: unique arrangements between existing and entering farmers.” Almost exactly one year prior, the Johansons had just returned to the US from a stint in England with a small nest egg, but not nearly enough to buy a place of their own. Shortly after attending their first PASA conference, they placed ads on a few sites, looking for someone who might be willing to share their land with a pair of enthusiastic newbies. It was the note they posted to the PASA listserv that finally connected them with Kim and Dianne Miller, a couple of established poultry farmers who were looking to buy a second farm but needed more hands to keep up the farm they already had.

The Millers didn’t want to take on interns, with the belief that everyone who works on a farm deserves to be called a farmer. After deciding to make a deal with the Johansons, they didn’t want to see them fail and in addition to passing on their customer base, they helped guide Nate and Kristen through their first year of farming.

A year later, speaking at the conference about the experience, all of them agreed they would happily repeat it. Nate and Kristen shared some of what worked well (recycling durable but landfill-bound billboard ads as covers for mobile pens, white side up to keep the birds cool). Diane Miller related some of the organizational tips she’d shared with them over the course of the year, and it was clear that she was proud of how far they’d come.

About halfway through the discussion, the man seated behind me raised his hand and said that he, too, had land to share with a young farmer. At the time, the Johansons were planning on moving to a different farm, so the Millers chimed in, saying that they were looking too, and then about a half dozen other established farmers stood up so that the prospective farmers in the room, many of whom looked quite excited at this point, could identify them and talk to them afterwards.

As an aspiring farmer myself, it was an incredibly hopeful moment, to witness the potential beginning of so many “unique arrangements.” I decided then and there that the Johanson/Miller story needed to be told to more people. What follows is the interview I conducted with Nate and Kristen Johanson, who’ve since decided to stay on another year at Wolf Lake Farm. At next year’s conference, I hope to hear the success stories of the people who stood up during their panel, inspired by their story and in hopes of making a similar connection.

LH: What kind of farming experience did you have before you started your poultry operation at Wolf Lake Farm?

K & N: We had no farming experience whatsoever. Once we decided that we wanted to farm, we read several of Joel Salatin’s books about farming and raising animals naturally on pasture. We also attended our first PASA conference in February, 2008 where we attended several workshops on pastured poultry as well as a hands-on track where we learned how to process chickens.

LH: What sold you on farming in general and poultry in specific?

K & N: Our desire to farm was fueled by our suspicion that this economic failure was on the horizon and by our disgust with the commercial food system. We were in search of a more self-sustainable lifestyle and give credence to the proverb, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Poultry farming wasn’t something we had ever considered but in reading Salatin’s books we learned that poultry was good for beginners who want to make a living farming. This was important to us since we didn’t have a lot of the necessary farming skills and we wanted to start out with something that had the potential for success during our first season. Learning about the horrors of confinement poultry operations contributed greatly to our becoming vegetarians. Due to health reasons we decided to start adding meat back into our diets but were dissatisfied with the quality of natural meat available. To us it was a motivating dissatisfaction which led us down this path. We became excited and inspired to learn about alternative, natural and humane methods of raising poultry and felt drawn towards it because it was so different from any type of farming we had heard of. Farming is hard work but being able to provide ourselves and others with high quality, natural and humanely raised food is well worth it.

LH: What were the sites you looked at/posted to?

K & N: Upon returning from our first PASA conference we posted an ad on Craigslist, on the Western region PASA listserve and in the Horse Trader. The ad stated that we were a young couple looking for small acreage to start our own natural, pastured poultry operation. We mentioned that we were looking for a situation in which we could use the land in exchange for work on the farm. We knew we couldn’t buy a farm nor did we want to having no farming experience. Kim Miller, the past president of the board of PASA replied to our PASA ad immediately.

LH: Were you surprised at how easily you managed to find established farmers who were willing not only to lend you their land, but also help you get started?

K & N: In addition to the Millers, we got several other responses and yes, we were very surprised. Our hope was that there were older farmers who were having trouble keeping up with things on their own. We had heard the story of the folks at Blackberry Meadows who purchased the farm from the owners who were ready to retire. They spent a season working alongside the owners and transitioned to owning and running the farm themselves. That particular situation was very inspiring to us.

Our particular situation was a little different. The owners of the farm, Kim and Dianne Miller, very generously offered us use of their land, tools, equipment and poultry experience in an effort to help new entering farmers. We feel extremely lucky to have found a situation like this and spent our first season learning a lot.

LH: Now that you’ve got a year of farming under your belt, what’s next?

K & N: We’re going to spend another year here while expanding our operation slightly with more broilers, layers and hopefully some pasture-raised lamb. It would be great to start growing some vegetables as well. Our dream is to have our own farm so we will spend this season searching for our next destination. We would love to eventually have a farm co-op with several people involved. That way we can really diversify while having shared responsibility.

LH: What advice would you give to someone who was looking to start farming?

K & N: I think our advice would be to just see what’s out there. Put the word out and see if you can find a farmer in need of some help or who wants to share their land. We feel it’s a great way to get your feet wet and to see how you like farming without making a huge investment. Talk to friends and family about your dreams and see if you can gain their moral and/or financial support. Otherwise, learn how to write a business plan for use in applying for a loan. We really feel that there is a bright future in sustainable farming. Unlike a lot of professions where bigger is better, small local farms that focus on niche markets will undoubtedly have an upper hand in this new economy.

Photos courtesy of Nate and Kristen Johanson.

Foodies and nutritionists alike have been griping about high fructose corn syrup for years, and the industry has responded with an “astroturf” campaign and a level of secrecy generally reserved for the military officials or secret societies (see Corn Refiners’ Association president Audrae Erickson’s stonewalling performance in King Corn).

Of course, I wouldn’t want to show my hand either, if the making of my product could be described as undertaking a small “Manhattan Project” (see eye-glazing production info here). But as it turns out, the HFCS industry has been hiding some major skeletons in its closet — according to the IATP study (pdf), over 30% of products containing the substance tested positive for mercury.

What makes this news truly shocking is not just that the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup would put consumers’ health at risk, but that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew about the mercury in the syrup and has been sitting on this information since 2005.

Here’s the connection, according to the IATP press release (pdf) announcing the study: The IATP study comes on the heels of another study, conducted in 2005 but only recently published by the scientific journal, Environmental Health, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of commercial HFCS samples tested positive for the heavy metal. Renee Dufault, who was working for the FDA at the time, was among the 2005 study’s authors.

Here’s how the mercury gets in there, according to Janet at the Ethicurean:

How did the heavy metal get in there? In making HFCS — that “natural” sweetener, as the Corn Refiners Association likes to call it — caustic soda is one ingredient used to separate corn starch from the corn kernel. Apparently most caustic soda for years has been produced in industrial chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants, where it can be contaminated with mercury that it passes on to the HFCS, and then to consumers.

And here’s more from the press release:

“While the FDA had evidence that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury four years ago, the agency did not inform consumers, help change industry practice or conduct additional testing.”

And on why it matters:

“Mercury is toxic in all its forms,” said IATP’s David Wallinga, M.D., and a co-author in both studies. “Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply.”

In China, heads might roll over a scandal like this one, at least if the country received global attention for its allowing corrupt health officials’ greasy palms come before, um, public health.

Of course, in this country, the FDA’s neck is safe. But what about the health of American consumers? Let’s see the Corn Refiner’s Association try to spin this one.

high fructose corn syrup, corn refiners’ association, audrae erickson, institute for agriculture and trade policy, iatp, david wallinga, food and drug administration, mercury, fda, jeremy piven, environmental health, renee dufault

(2007 floods in Centralia/Chehalis, photo courtesy of Nate Ritter)

There was widespread flooding throughout the Pacific Northwest last week, as dramatic rainstorms followed on the heels of the record snowfalls that closed out 2008. This is the third consecutive winter to bring major floods to the valleys holding much of the region’s agricultural land.

Fortunately, many farmers who suffered losses the past few years were able to escape unscathed this time around. The managers of the Ballard Farmers’ Market, Seattle’s largest winter market, reported that not a single farmers was absent this past Sunday because of the flooding. Willie Greens Farm, the CSA that I use, missed the last few weeks of 2008 because of ice and snow but they were able to deliver this week–several hours late–after waiting for flooded roadways to clear. They’d lost five of their greenhouses under the weight of recent snows, so this delivery felt like a small miracle.

The folks at Boistfort Valley Farm, near the Chehalis River, lost their house and much of their equipment during the 2007 floods. This time the river crested just twelve inches from their yard. At Full Circle Farm, near Carnation, the manager and several workers spent the night as the river rose, moving vulnerable stock and equipment to higher ground. They lost very little of their winter crop, which they mostly plant at a higher altitude. It helped that the weather reports were fairly accurate, and the conditions (heavy snow followed by heavy rain) were similar to the ones that unleashed the floods last winter, which were still fresh in everyone’s minds.

There’s nothing terribly surprising about flooding in an area that’s a designated flood plain. But the damage has been particularly dramatic during recent years due to increased residential development, and also because the weather events seem to be growing more severe, or at least more frequent. As of late 2007, King County implemented a policy allowing nature to take its course, as far as flooding is concerned. This means, among other things, restricting further development in flood plains and giving the rivers extra room to flood. It also means, on some level, accepting the fact that flooding is inevitable.

Historically, flooding has been an important factor in the development of agriculture. The ancient lands of Egypt and Mesopotamia gave rise to some of the earliest sophisticated civilizations in part because of their proximity to rivers that periodically flooded, leaving enough silt to create unusually fertile soil. But when modern rivers flood they leave unwanted residues, such as runoff from manure on neighboring fields, and toxins from heavy metals. Organic farmers run the risk of losing their certification if their land and crops are contaminated by substances in the water.

Food safety regulations forbid farmers from selling any crops that were in the ground when a field was flooded. We can at least be grateful that our peak flood season falls during the slower part of our agricultural year.

Devra Gartenstein is the owner of Seattle’s Patty Pan Grill and the author of two cookbooks, Local Bounty: Vegan Seasonal Produce and The Accidental Vegan. She also blogs at The Quirky Gourmet.

flooding, pacific northwest, farming

Tell us about the history of Caw Caw Creek and your pigs?
After years growing produce, I realized that my personal strengths and farming resources were more suited to livestock, and I chose the pig because of unique qualities that I brought to the table that allow me to produce an exceptional product.

Why did you decide to raise your pigs on pasture?
Running with the tail wind of nature makes economic sense, grows a better animal, is environmentally sound, and provides a higher quality life for me and my children.

Tell us about your run for SC Agriculture Commissioner.
After realizing that our incumbent commissioner was doing less than he could and should do for South Carolina agriculture, I decided to take personal responsibility for improving his policies, so I ran for office. I had no illusions about winning the race, but I was able to get my message out while campaigning.

What was it like working with the Obama campaign’s Agriculture Policy Committee? Do you see yourself becoming more involved in agricultural politics?
Working on Senator Obama’s Agriculture Policy Committee during his presidential campaign was one of the most educational experiences I’ve ever had, and gave me a much broader appreciation for national and international agriculture policy. I am a businessman and dad mostly, and I’m not interested in a political career for the sake of being a politician — but I will stand up and fight for what and who I believe in whenever necessary, as I did before.

What advice do you have for a young person interested in farming?
Get cracking. Start small. Operate lean and mean. Offer a great product that markets itself. Derive that product from your ‘constellation of opportunity’ and do not project your farm fantasy onto reality. Do not assume that other farmers are eager to teach you — read, go on farm tours, and mostly do the work yourself.

What is the best way to purchase your pork?
On the internet at www.cawcawcreek.com, or at the All Local Farmers’ Market in Columbia SC, www.stateplate.org.

Ahoy! If you are in NYC this weekend, head down to Croton Point Park and check out the Clearwater Festival. It’s going on from 10am until dusk both Saturday and Sunday on the shores of the Hudson River, and highlights will include live music and singalongs, camping, boat rides, and the Clearwater Environmental Short Film Competition (check out the ten finalists and vote for the winners). WBAI/Pacifica Radio will be broadcasting live from the event.

Our friend Chris Hunt, a Clearwater board member and factory farm fighter, has this to say about the festival:

In addition to boasting an outstanding lineup of musicians in a beautiful park with striking river views, Revival affords attendees the opportunity to celebrate and support Clearwater, a pioneering grassroots environmental organization that has worked tirelessly to protect the Hudson River through advocacy and environmental education for more than 30 years. Having sailed on the Clearwater as a fourth-grade student, I can personally attest to the importance of the organization’s efforts; I’m proud to continue to support Clearwater as a volunteer and as a member of its board of directors.

But that’s not all! Eat Well Captain Director Destin Lane (forgive me, it’s all I can do to stem back the tide of nautical/pirate puns) and a few of our fabulous interns will be manning a table in the activist area, where over 50 groups will represent a broad range of vital grassroots issues. To see who else will be there, click here, and don’t be a stranger–stop by and say hello!

If you are new to hiking and don’t know where to go, this website claims to be the largest trail database in the world. US urbanites can look into LocalHikes.com for trails that are easily accessed from metropolitan areas. Many farms offer on-site tours, which can often be a bit of a hike too. Find one on our Guide — you get outdoors, learn about a local farm, and get some good groceries, while you’re at it. Don’t forget to bring water, food, and sunscreen, and take care not to disturb wildlife or flora (hint: stay on the trail!). For more tips, check out this Kaboose article and if you are in a state, city or national park, be sure to review whatever literature the park provides. And watch out for ticks! I found one on my thigh after hiking around some farms last week in upstate New York (apparently, Duchess County has one of the highest concentrations of ticks in the world!). Wearing light-colored clothing, including long sleeve shirts, and tucking your pant legs into your socks (which might not look very cool, but is your best defense against ticks) should keep you pretty safe, but be sure to check your entire body for ticks when you get home. Getting bombed by mosquitoes can spoil your hike, too, so you might consider some insect repellent–a quick Google search will pull up a number of organic products, or try this recipe for organic bug spray. Mosquitoes come out in force around nightfall, so planning your hike earlier in the day helps, too.

(clockwise from left: NOFFN team members Pam Broome, Lisa Mohr, Phillip Soulet and Kris Pottharst)

As I mentioned last week, I really fell in love with New Orleans during the short time I was there last month. I left there convinced that for all its problems, the town (and surrounding region) is full of farmers, activists and organizers who are working to revitalize local food systems as the city moves forward and rebuild that greener New Orleans I mentioned in last week’s post about the Crescent City Farmers Market.

One group of such activists is the New Orleans Food & Farming Network (NOFFN), a grassroots organization working on several different levels on the fight for good food. Headed up by Kris Pottharst (who knows a ton about not only what’s happening in food in New Orleans now, but is strongly rooted in the heritage of the area and told us that while the French brought the recipes to old New Orleans, it was her German ancestors who floated barges of vegetables down the river — I guess it runs in her blood), NOFFN works to improve access to good food and preserve regional agricultural traditions through city gardens, training sessions, and projects like this cool NOLA Food Map.

I was graciously welcomed to one of NOFFN’s gardens by Kris Pottharst (director), Pam Broome (Farm Yard Program Manager), Lisa Mohr (board officer and food journalist) and Phillip Soulet (city gardener turned urban farmer). Phillip heads up this particular garden, and took the time to show us around while he gathered beans, strawberries and flowers for a dinner he was cooking for some friends that evening. Phillip is farming somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 square feet there and hopes to start selling his produce to the public soon. He and Kris spent some time reminiscing about their grandmother’s Creole gardens and the heirloom vegetables he grows, like mirliton squash (aka chayote) and red pole beans.

Nearly every local I met was eager to share a Katrina story with me, and while many told tales of water levels, Kris told me of the depression that hit after the flood, when so many awaited financial assistance that never came. Eventually, she said, they decided that there was nothing to do but get it done themselves, and since then, the scrappy organizers at NOFFN have been aggressively tracking down new spaces for gardens and initiating new projects like churchyard and backyard gardens.

Phillip told me that Katrina acted as a sort of catalyst for his foray into gardening. He’d been thinking about how nice it would be to grow vegetables for a couple of years before the storm devastated the city, and says that the hurricane taught him to make his passion for gardening a priority. “Before then, I’d wanted to, but could never quite come up with the reasons to make the time. Katrina taught me that if you can’t make the time, it’s not even worth thinking about. Find something else. Make it worth your time.”