While this year’s garden is fresh in mind, create or update your garden journal with a sketch of what was planted where. Note any pest or disease problems. Record what varieties did well and what did not.
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The Trouble With Natural
Natural foods have been popular with consumers for a long time now, and both consumers and food businesses have been interested in their appeal. Seems natural enough – why not eat naturally and avoid unnatural (or added chemical) ingredients?
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SMART Composting: A Rind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste
More and more, people recognize that putting organic matter in a landfill is a waste of both money and natural resources. Organic material in a landfill decomposes anaerobically (without oxygen), releasing harmful methane. You can do your garden and the planet a good turn by turning your organic spoils into food for the earth. Composting returns elements to the soil where plants can use them and the nutrients can continue to nourish the cycle of life. It also reduces climate-changing gas emissions and is an easy, inexpensive way to enrich gardens. Compost helps a garden to thrive – improving clay soil, allowing air and moisture to penetrate the soil, and…
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Spanning the Seasons of the Gorge with Saur Farming
Winter at Saur Farm It’s January, and I have a terrible hankering for some fresh winter greens. The only problem is that I didn’t grow any winter crops in my puny garden this year, and the farmers’ market closed in November. In the back of my mind I remember Ben Saur, one of the owners of 10-Speed Coffee in the Hood River Heights and a local farmer, mentioning he still had carrots back in December. Maybe he still has greens? I stop by the shop to buy a cup of coffee, and ask him what he still has in the field. “Carrots, rutabaga, leeks, collards, and turnips,” Ben says while…
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Casa Verde CSA Guest Blog by Michelle McGrath, MS Outreach Manager for Gorge Grown Food Network
Abundant sunshine, flowing rivers, and snowy mountains feed into the diverse landscapes of the Columbia River Gorge. With natural resources like these it is no wonder farmers with less acreage and innovative business models are choosing the Gorge as the place to sow their seeds. The agricultural heritage of the Gorge has been preserved in the picturesque orchards that erupt into blossom each April, but a growing number of smaller, diversified farms are springing up in between. I have the immense honor of working closely with these farmers as the Outreach Manager for Gorge Grown Food Network—a food and farm based non-profit organization. Over the winter I checked in with…
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Biodiversity and the Google Menu
This article was originally printed in “Who’s Your Farmer” a guide to eating locally in the Gorge, published by the Gorge Grown Grown Food Network. Google is committed to giving back and broadening our community outreach. We encourage green stewardship practices that support long-term well-being environmentally, economically and socially. With our office located in the agriculturally dense region as the Columbia Gorge, we hope to encourage additional promotion and use of sustainable local farming and business practices that foster biodiversity as well as promote the health of our community’s members. As part of our efforts in this area, the Dalles data center has partnered with Bon Appetit and their Farm to…
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A Truck Farm Grows in Brooklyn
Leave it to the folks in the Big Apple to give a brand new and very literal meaning to the term “truck farm”. Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis, Carla Fleisher, and Stephanie Bleyer have joined forces to create and promote their “Truck Farm” concept which has a definite “rockin’ and rollin” flavor to it. The idea is simple: take an old Dodge pickup, fill the bed with garden soil, plant the bed with seeds, add water, wait a few weeks, and then drive the growing produce to the customer. You just can’t get any fresher than that. Their idea has taken root right here in Portland (OR) thanks to the efforts…
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Azure Standard
Celebrating 20 Years The Green Living Journal has been publishing practical information for friends of the environment in Vermont for 20 years and our Portland-Vancouver edition has been up and running for over 2 years now. As part of our celebration of these milestones we felt we needed to publish the stories of some of the other local businesses that are also 20 years old or more. We look forward to the next 20 years and all the exciting changes that are coming. In this issue we asked David Stelzer of Azure Standard to tell us their story. Azure Standard Five generations of our family have been farming in the…
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SoupCycle Delivers Organic Soup-Based Meals Made from Locally Sourced Foods
A several years ago, a couple of college students made a business plan to make and sell locavore soup and deliver it by bicycle. The students came to Portland and set up their business, SoupCycle. Jed Lazar and Shauna Lambert are the creative cooks and bicycle peddlers behind the food service business. They source local produce whenever possible and actively pursue environmentally sustainable, socially responsible business practices. They do have help with deliveries from fellow SoupCyclers Jen and Matt and they’re avid bicycle advocates twittering support for bike events and get-togethers. Soups and soup meals are available by subscription. Ordering online is easy and both the soup…
