more on Your Backyard Farmer

What they do, after the beds are readied, is plant. They consult with you on what you want to have grown/harvested, and when. If you don't want rutabagas, they won't plant them. They have expertise in what grows best, when, in our particular part of the northwest, so the varieties they select are more likely to succeed than those that may just look pretty outside the grocery store, which may or may not be timely to plant. Once the planting is done, they come weekly and do maintenance, which includes weeding, eventually harvesting, succession planting etc. They set up the trellises, the watering apparatus should that become necessary (I'm skeptical given our barrage of weather recently. I'm sure we got an inch of rain on Easter Sunday), and do the necessary composting. Once produce is ready to harvest, it shows up in a basket on your porch. The produce grown on your site is for you, unless otherwise arranged, such as a double lot on the block that may then feed more than one household. But most, including ours, will feed us and whomever we can get to join us for dinner on occasion. Yes we pay for this, but the way we see it, is this year, they will show us what our particular piece of land is capable of, it's potential, if you will. Next year, we will utilize their services in a different way. They have a consulting service, where they visit you once a month, and work with you, teaching you on what needs to be done, when, as well as give you that month's section of their book, which I think is just out now. So, the following year, we should be officially launched as sustainable level gardeners, able to feed ourselves seasonally from our land. Then they are freed up to move on to the next semi-novice sustainably minded family, and so on and so on. Also, utilizing "Your Backyard Farmer" feels good in the quest to support local businesses, and this one, even woman owned. Multiple pluses.
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background #1

So the CSA we used for quite a while, was Sauvie Island Organics http://www.sauvieislandorganics.com/, an organic farm just 15 miles from downtown Portland. We did whole shares, half shares, we shared a pickup location with cousins and state representatives, we did the drop box, the share filling, we did the salad option, the egg option, we cooked from the website newsletter, which had been on paper when we started. We worked it out that they supplied salad for my (and Kristi Paul's) small business, lovefood, some years ago. They are awesome. But this year, we got excited about the possibility of even greater convenience, that is, the produce share we subscribe to being grown on our 1/10th of an acre, right in urban NE Portland. That is what Your Backyard Farmer does. They come out, determine your site's ability to support the agricultural process, and in our case, make suggestions about what needs to happen to ready the site. For us, that meant taking down the birch tree that was too close to the house anyway (thanks Northwest Arborists), moving the pear trees that were too close together (here when we moved in 6 years ago), (thanks craig'slist), and moving a couple other growing entities, such as the fig tree from the Marin farmer's market, as well as the blueberry bushes, rosemary and cypress. After all that was removed, the raised beds (thanks Beds by Dave) were built in place. They are made of red cedar and expected to last 15 years. Then, we got to wait for the dirt to be delivered, which mostly happened the Thursday afternoon of Spring Break. Quite the source of neighborhood excitement! More about Your Backyard Farmer in the next post. I know, you can hardly wait!

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first blog post, thanks kirsten!

Well, after some preliminary "how to start a blog" research, here we are making our attempt. First it was checking online, the requisite google search, then the book reserved at the library, the growing impatience, and a trip to Powell's, returning with the appropriate ..."for dummies" title, a bit of reading in the bathtub, and finding this site. Now here we go. I say we, as it is hard to imagine people would actually want to read what I have to say. "We" seems to add power and glory, and to tell the truth, there is very little I accomplish without the hard work and support of the guy I married, as well as the inspiration from the kids we are raising, and a lot of what I think "we" will be saying, grew from discussions our group from church had as we explored the Northwest Earth Institute's group study classes on "Menu for a Small Planet" (local eating issues and options etc) and "Healthy Kids Healthy Planet" (self explanatory), perhaps "we" in this sense is the most appropriate pronoun. As a different "we" have discussed in another circle, there is too much "me" in our society and not enough "we", so I think I have talked myself into we at this point. Soooo, after all that, the impetus for starting this blog, is Kirsten, as mentioned in the title of this first post. First, a little background...(very little because there will be so much more to say as we go along). Our family has done Community Supported Agriculture (see link) subscription off and on (mostly on) since we moved to Portland 9 years ago yesterday. We have also attempted gardening in our back and side yards, with not much to show for it, though enough to make it interesting. In February of this year, we made a call to "Your Backyard Farmer". (see link). Their idea is similiar to a CSA, though the organic "farm" is in your yard. They have some requirements, like amount of sunlight, raised beds if too close to an old home that may have lead based paint flecks in the soil, and square footage to match the eaters in your home. Long story short, for this first post, we did it, we have a sideyard farm, as we call it, plus much more to be shared soon, and neighbor Kirsten suggested we do a blog about it, as many in our life situation, or similiar, might be interested in how it goes. I liked the idea, as there is a lot we are learning, and if others might find it interesting or helpful, well that sounded pretty good to me. Thanks for reading.