Compiled by Gary Munkhoff Hoop houses are a great do-it-yourself project that can make it possible for you to garden all year long. They can also be used for storage, as a temporary garage, or even as a workshop. They are inexpensive, easy to construct and when completed they also: Add to two months to either end of your growing season. Provide room to set out your plant starts until they can be planted in your garden. Let you grow winter greens, like spinach, all through the winter season. Give tomatoes those over 60 degree warm nights that they need for setting fruit. Protect your plants from wind and frost.…
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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…
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Palm Oil Plantations Wrecking Asian Rainforests
Palm oil, listed as, "vegetable oil," in many supermarket food products is responsible for cultures, ecosystems, and animals, like the orangutan, tiger, and sun bears being pushed to extinction, and the problem is getting worse.
