Community Gardens!

     Last Sunday a group from the Tennessee Valley Community Garden Association toured several member gardens...here's a quick peek.
    First up was the UAH Garden, spearheaded by Claire Heardy.  This is a "claim it and work it" garden, open to students, faculty and employees of the University.  Several folks grabbed a plot and have already started growing this year and it's going to be quite pretty once everything grows up.

There's a very attractive layout and there's even  a picnic table to rest for a bit.

  Then it was on to the CASA Community Garden where Karen Voelker explained that the food from this garden, grown by volunteers, gets delivered to the elderly, homebound clients of CASA.  They are always looking for more volunteers and it is a great way to learn more about gardening from the pros!



       We swung across to the 305 8th Street site.  This is a group home for developmentally disabled adults and they've started growing food for the table, mostly salads. 

    Next on the tour was the Lowe Mill garden, Flying Monkey Community Garden which is growing by leaps and bounds even moving into the interior courtyard.  There's some fun ideas here, which is no surprise given the artistic community there.  They are hoping to start a farmer's market in time. They, too, are always looking for more dirty hands!

    I dropped off the tour here and  Lee took the rest of the tour, since he'd been pruning a new orchard in the morning.  They first went to Howe Street, where a new community garden is taking shape, we spied this one on our last alley tour.  The early succession planting has begun way in the back.  Can't wait to see this one growing this summer!

     A quick trip up the mountain to the Monte Sano Community Garden.  This garden is a rented space garden, with each gardener taking care of their own plot and helping with the common areas.  This is one of the most well organized gardens, with a very effective use of space.  Notice the deer fencing. 

     The final stop before dark was a neighborhood effort in north Huntsville that is growing great!  Eric has a plot behind his house where he's growing for himself and others.  It's looking really good.

    His neighbor, Bill, is also going large.  The fall/winter garden you can see way at the back will be overtaken by a larger summer planting that's being prepped now.   You'd be lucky to live close to these folks.

    That's it for this tour... If you are involved in a community garden project of any kind, contact Tennessee Valley Community Garden Association or if you would like a consultation on your garden project large or small call us.



Meet A Local Farmer - Enas Ragland

I recently received a call from a friend of mine, Tami Jordan, who is with Second Mile. Tami works with the Terry Heights Hillandale Neighborhood Association. In the course of her travels she met Mr. Enas Ragland.
Mr. Ragland is one of the the first true neighborhood farmers in Huntsville in sometime. Possibly in decades.

Enas was in construction until the credit crisis of 2008. As work slowed he needed to keep working so he quietly turned to farming. As he improved his skills, he began to grow more than he could eat and has been selling produce at the Madison County Farmers market for some time now.

      Enas was a SPIN farmer and didn't know it. He had never heard of the concept of Small Plot Intensive Farming before. Specializing in Collards, he is farming his yard in a fairly intensive manner and is showing others in his neighborhood how to grow fresh food as well.

Enas Ragland is one of our hero's and we hope to have more posts concerning him and his efforts to help Terry Heights - Hillandale soon.

Do you know a local farmer ? Do you know where your fresh produce comes from ?

Lee

Garden Tour

So we are driving aound a bit looking for a potential new customer's yard and what did we find tucked into downtown spaces?

Boxes for square foot gardening and neatly stacked urbanite for future use?

Nice neat beds with lovely mulch just waiting for planting!

Then around the corner... those are young fruit trees, a lot of edible plants could be grown between them for several years.

Up through town to the area where the customer lives, and up the alleys around Oakwood Avenue.



Neighbors - Growing Together


I know we often have WAY too many green peppers for our own use, even after we've pickled/salsaed/frozen what we'll use through the winter, not everyone in the neighborhood needs to grow them.  While the planning is gearing up this spring, talk to your growing neighbors and plan a little so that more varieties of vegetables can be grown.

Huntsville/Madison Community Food

Wow!  Where did January go ?
    It is the 15th of February and this our second post of the year. Time is flying. We have been working hard on several things.
      We are now Alabama's only certified SPINfarming teacher. Spin stands for Small Plot Intensive farming. The creators of the concept and authors Wally Satzewich and Roxanne Christenson created a system that minimizes two of the largest barriers to new farmers: The cost of land to farm and the cost of equipment to farm. SPIN farming is sub-acre farming, in fact many backyards are suitable for small farming operations that can be very productive.
         There are several aspects of this concept we will explore in depth here soon. The short version is simply this. Using various systems of sub acre farming from basic in-ground techniques to SPIN farming to hoop houses, hydroponics and aquaponics, it is possible for a small space farmer to achieve gross incomes from $1- $5 per Square Foot of production area.
            We are blessed to live in North Alabama particularly to work in the cities of Huntsville and Madison. With the very high average education and income levels of the average household, the Metro Huntsville / Madison is a dynamic emerging market for fresh food. This is a huge key for a farmer or a community of farmers to succeed.
             FOOD SECURITY begins at home! Not everyone enjoys the ability to grow food on their personal property for a variety of reasons, we all understand that. That does not change the fact that each individual household bears responsibility to secure a consistent food supply if that is possible. In order to achieve a level of Food Security for Metro Huntsville / Madison we have also been working through the concepts of Neighborhood and Community Agriculture.
          NEIGHBORHOOD AGRICULTURE as we envision it is made up of these four basic elements. There are many many other elements to be sure but let's keep the concept simple or I will get lost.

THE FAMILY GARDEN, whether in the front yard or backyard or at a neighbors or a family member's house, the family garden is the single best deterrent to food insecurity.

THE COMMUNITY GARDEN. There are numerous types of Community gardens, from a volunteer led effort with the food produced being given to those who cannot feed themselves to a site where growing food for personal consumption and gardening skills can be transferred to others. Often these gardens serve other purposes, often unintended but very real. The opportunity to meet your neighbors is foremost, the opportunity to be exposed to gardening and even the basics of farming could help develop the next great neighborhood farmer.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD FARMER, using a single backyard or utilizing a multi location setup. The economics are there for those who are willing to work. A hard working full time farmer with a year or two under their belt using a SPIN approach to farming and harvesting can approach $50,000.00 in gross income. A part time farmer can gross $8-10,000 each season.  These aren't just jobs, these are sole proprietorships, small businesses. A neighborhood farmer is uniquely positioned to change a neighborhood and a community.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD FARMERS MARKET. It a violation of city ordinances to sell from your home without a variance and permit. Starting with a 10' x 10' popup tent or even a tailgate type market it is possible for a farmer to develop a following within his or her respective neighborhood and community. When joined by 2 -3 other farmers the site begins to take on legitimacy as a valid place of commerce. What better way to keep transport costs down than to walk to your local food purveyor who you come to know and trust. The smart local farmer will be at market at the same time on the same days every week. There are people delivering fresh food everyday by bicycle! Of course properly placed, indoor, year round farmers markets will be needed in time.

     Think about it...The community farmer can concentrate on growing the high end highly perishable food items such as lettuce and spinach and delicate vegetables like heirloom eggplant varieties. Why burn fossil fuels for the transport of the freshest, most perishable food items we all need? Short growing period food products are a key for the community farmer. Low calorie, long growing season, low value crops can be grown by the suburban and rural farmers to best effect. They have more land space. That is not to say that those farmers should not utilize diverse cropping strategies. 
 
      As I said, we'll be fleshing out these ideas here and elsewhere this year, which is also The Year of Alabama Food, so stay tuned, and look for fresh local food coming soon to your family!

Happy New Year!

          May you and yours be more food secure this year, enjoy more local foods and restaurants, and grow closer to Christ.  We look forward to sharing our journey and the stories of local food and increased resilience from around the North Alabama area this year.  Please share with us your ideas and the activities of  your neighbors and groups who are working toward growing food and increasing opportunities to buy locally grown food.
New Year's Food From the Yard?

We feasted on Arkansas razorback purple hull peas dried on the vine in the back yard summer before last, simmered with hunk o’ hog left over from a hunting trip to south Alabama, some onion and garlic from the yard with a bit of bay leaf from a friend in Lacey’s Spring.  We are going to grow bay leaf as soon as we find a good spot in the yard for it, it’s a very useful spice and seems to tolerate our climate.  Since the pork wasn’t salted, we added some to taste. 

Greens are traditional too? Well, from the garden today, we have a choice of hot cabbage, collards, spinach, and/or turnip greens, or we can go cold and crispy with red lettuce or Buttercrunch and/or spinach.  Since Lee’s mother brought her famous French salad dressing a few days ago, we’ll go salad today!

Bread?  Cornbread with cornmeal grown and ground on Sand Mountain, or wheat grown here in the yard and made into crackers or rolls?  Or I’m really lazy and we’ll just do some hot water cornbread .

                Time enough later in the year for fancy feasts, right now, tis the season for simple and relaxed.

Lee and Shannon McBride

The Last Tomatoes

We enjoyed the very last of this year's tomatoes tonight.  Time to start some serious planning for next year's garden!

Here's the simple dish we feasted on tonight...
Tomatoes fresh from the shelf where we've been keeping them as they matured.  We had one volunteer tomato plant that lasted until last week, so this is from that one.

Spinach, which we'll have til spring unless we eat it all :)

Green bunching onions

Tossed with olive oil, oregano and basil (dried) and some pasta.

I'm generous with the parmesan and Lee loves plain feta or plain or flavored goat cheeses from Humble Heart farms.  So toss in whatever you like and enjoy the last taste of summer as the year draws to a close!

Harvest Schedule for Fruit Trees!

             Many of us live in areas where a vegetable garden is simply “not done”, perhaps a vegetable garden is against the HOA's rules where we live. Fruit trees may provide a way for you to grow some food for yourself and connect with nature in a fun, rewarding way.

Ornamental plantings provide value to our properties aesthetically. This is one justification for the huge horticultural maintenance and installation industry. Consider value beyond aesthetics for a few moments, consider the truly profitable landscape plant, the Fruit tree or bush.

The plants listed below do not require a lot of pest control spraying. A dormant oil spray is usually the only spray needed and is considered a least toxic approach. Frankly your fruit may not be store quality in appearance. For example the hard pears may have blotches on the skin of the fruit, however once peeled and sautéed in apple cider you will be wondering why you didn't plant fruit trees years ago. A 7 year old hard pear can produce 150 lbs of fruit in a season to share with your family and community. I recommend avoiding peaches, plums, and cherries in the non orchard environment because they need so many sprays to help them through a growing season.

Some annual pruning is required, but these are small trees 15' -25 ' as a rule. The Blueberries and Blackberries are easily maintained.

May - thru July
Blackberries  (Kiowa Thorned) Self fruiting Space 6' apart, needs trellis system

June

Blackberries Thornless (Quachita and Natchez)

June to mid July

Blueberry, highbush Cross pollinate  Space 6' apart + row

June to mid August

Early June - Blueberry, rabbiteye Cross pollinate  Space 6' apart + row
June - Climax Premier, Tifblue  (Southern standard)
Late June, July - Brightwell

June And September

Raspberry    Self Fruiting   Space 5'-6' apart + row
(Latham, Dorman red, Cumberland Black, Fall Gold)

July to mid August

Asian Pear (Housi) Cross pollinate   Space 15-20' apart + row

July - August and Sept

Fig     Self Fruiting   Space 15-20' apart + row
(Brown Turkey, Celeste, Green Ischia, LSU Purple)

August - Sept
Asian Pear  (Shinko or Korean Giant)

Late August -September

Hard Pears   Cross Pollinate.  Space 15- 20' apart + row
(Kieffer)

 August to mid October

Apple       Space 15' apart + row
Yates   Red Sept – Oct
Gala   Red  Sept - Oct,
Fuji   Red  Sept,
Golden Delicious Yellow Sept –Oct

All Apples / cedar apple rust issues, yellow varieties tend to do better here.

September

Paw Paw  Cross pollination required  8'- 10' spacing + row

(Prolific, Rebecca Gold)

Indigenous / native from seed

Taste varies based on site conditions

October to November

Oriental Persimmon  Space 15-20' apart + row
(FUYU- nonastringent, Hahiya - astringent until ripe)

This list is not exhaustive or complete, for more information you can check the Alabama Extension Service  website.

Compiled from various sources by

Lee McBride

Foodscapes

ISA Certified Arborist SO 254