Sunroot Gardens

A Ten Session Course in Urban Farming and Small-scale Grain Production

When: Every other Saturday, June 5 to October 23, 8am-3pm

Where: Various farm plots around Southeast Portland, plus suburban & rural country acreages.

Topics to be covered:
* Year-round vegetable growing and harvesting in the Cascadian bioregion
* Staple crops: Planting, cultivation, harvesting and processing. Crops to include oats, triticale, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, dry beans, flour corn, flax and more
* Medicinal herbs: cultivation and processing
* Farming-by-bicyle: challenges and rewards
* Starts and transplanting
* Design strategies and choices for plots of varying sizes, from small front yards to acreages
* Seed saving and basic plant-breeding principles
* Insect identification and management, including basics of beekeeping
* Greenhouses, cloches, cold frames, and shade-houses: design and use
* Weed identification and management
* Composting & soil amending
* Dry-farming and water-wise irrigation
* Cover-cropping
* Plant communication
* Farm budgeting & financial sustainability in changing economic times

Methodology: Lecture + Lab. Instruction will feature hands-on agricultural work, lecture, and Q&A led by Farmer K and other local growers. Students will recieve hand-outs each session, for assembling a 3-ring binder they can reference and share.

Students will be offered fresh produce and staple crops, seed for their own projects, and more.

Children of students are very welcome to attend.

The farm will provide all tools and implements. Students provide their own workgloves and lunch and are encouraged to eat a big breakfast.

Recommended pre-reading: “Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades” by Steve Solomon, “The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide” from Seattle Tilth, “One Straw Revolution” by Masanobu Fukuoka

PRICING: $650, with at least half paid up front; Work-trade offered for discounted tuition or full scholarship. Enrollment is limited to no more than 10 students.

About Sunroot Gardens:
Sunroot Gardens is a bicycle-based urban farming operation utilizing a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model. The project includes 20+ city plots for growing vegetables and medicinal herbs, as well as a handful of suburban and rural acreages for staple crops such as grains, pulses and oilseeds. Made locally known by the Willamette Week, Mercury, Oregonian, KBOO, Sellwood Bee, Oregon Tilth, Portland Monthly, Portland Indymedia, and more, Sunroot Gardens is riding the leading edge of an urban farming trend that is national in scope. Sunroot Gardens was founded by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume, aka “Farmer K”, a lifelong grower, who has been raising vegetables in the City of Roses since 2004. See also: http://www.trashfactory.net/sunrootgardens

To inquire or enroll, contact Farmer K: 503.686.5557 or kollibri@riseup.net

PDF of flyer: course-flyer

Here is the mini tractor we just picked up, for taking care of the larger plots. Sunroot farmie Sara Monial can be seen, her face filled with glee as she falls in-love-at-first-sight with this potentially useful machine.

Twenty feet into the bed, the tractor stopped tilling. What was the issue? The drive-train broke!

Close-up of where it broke off.

Close-up of what it broke off of.

This appeared when it broke. Is that some kind of seal, or gasket? We don’t know yet. We also don’t know if the person who sold this to us knew about this issue, or if it just happened. In other words, was it an accident, or were we … shafted?

Sunroot Gardens is offering a full share of produce and staple crops in exchange for small engine work like this. We also have two Troybilt “Horse” tillers, and a 1958 Massey Ferguson tractor, plus gas powered weed wackers and the like.

A full share of produce would be twice-weekly pick-ups starting in late June and going through Samhain (Halloween). This repair person would also get in on the staple crops we are growing this year, which will include millet, buckwheat, flour corn, soup beans, flax, and more. Our goal is to be able to provide a complete diet, if one so chose, by the Autumn harvests.

If you are interested in this type of work, contact Farmer K at 503.686.5557 or email sunrootCSA(AT)riseup(DOT)net.

On a lovely Cascadian spring day (that happened to be Earth Day and I didn’t even know until later), three of us hopped on our bicycles and did a quick turn through the Hawthorne District to hit up gardens for chicken food. We were hunting for and uprooting a particular variety of mustard greens that was bolting that we don’t want to save seed from. A few plants were left because they were displaying “off-type” characteristics and we’d like to see what happens if we save seed just from those.

First stop was Ninja Garden (formerly known as “Subcommandante Ramona”, a previous feline resident, and before that as “Magic Wormhole”). Here is the plot before picking.

Here is Ninja !! She is rolling around on the ground in appreciation of some catnip we shared with her. We try to always have catnip with us to share with the cats we meet. We call it “bribing the guards”.

Here is the plot after picking. Look closely and you will see that a great number of tall plants have been removed, and are now loaded on bikes. Ninja is still stoned.

Next stop: Tic Tac Toe Garden (formerly known as “Ninja”, who left The Wheel last year after being hit by a car). Tic Tac Toe also enjoys catnip but did not make an appearance that day. This is the before picture of this plot.

Chickens at Tic Tac Toe enjoying the greens.

Here is the marker for Ninja’s grave.

After photo of this plot. Clover still remains and will be chopped down to get worked into the soil, which is clayey. Note the bike packed full of greens.

Next stop was Crabapple Cottage, a CSA subscriber household. Here is the custom bike known as “The Glider” that Farmer K often rides. It was made by the brother with the orange shirt in these photos, who welds.

The chickens at Crabapple Cottage enjoying the bounty.

Last stop was the “OG Garden”, which stands for “Original Gangster”. Paris and Puffy are the cats who live at this garden. These are the chickens enjoying the greens. Note that they are eating right out of the bike buckets into which the greens were picked in the first place.

This mission was typical of the spirit of Sunroot adventures: bike-riding, cat-worshipping, seed-saving, chicken-feeding, free-flowing fun!

This 23 page report has 14 pages of text, 1 of notes and 8 of photos.

In 2008 and 2009, Sunroot attempted to grow various grains, pulses and oilseeds under the auspices of “the Staple Foods Project”. While the goal in both seasons was to grow enough food to feed some number of people for some portion of the year, it ended up functioning merely as a research project. Yields were consistently lower than hoped for, and the logistics of harvesting and processing proved more difficult than suspected. Over $15,000 was spent, much of it out-of-pocket for the farmers.

The Project has been extended into a third year, 2010. We have included our projections and plans for 2010, which has entirely different logistics and circumstances, in the “Conclusions” section of this report.

This report from the Staple Foods Project is intended to give an unvarnished, unsentimental, just-the-facts-ma’am view of our experiences over the last two seasons. The Staple Foods Project is not intended as a “model”. There are no “models” — there is just life, in front of us, and there is nothing to do but live it, whether we’d like to admit this or not. We are not interested in entertaining the intellectual and emotional illusions that permeate the whole of the “Sustainability” movement, so herein we offer these facts, figures, and observations only as a record of what we saw in front of us.

Pictured here on the luscious thigh of CSA subscriber Elaine Close is the first Dick-n-Ball produce of the 2010 Sunroot Gardens season: Radishes. The “dick” is a French Breakfast, and the “balls” are an unknown variety, round with the French Breakfast red/white combination.

Dick-n-Balls Produce is a trademark of Sunroot Gardens. That’s not “trademark” as in “TM/patented/registered”, but “trademark” as in “what we’d like to be known for”.

Over the season we plan to offer dick-n-ball combinations of carrots, turnips, summer squash, tomatoes, winter squash, and more.

A small number of produce shares are still available for the 2010 season, but only with a reference from a current farmie. Inquiries not attended with “I know so-and-so” will not be answered.

We give a respectful (and slightly envious?) nod to Voodoo Donuts, also of Stumptown and local pioneers of genital-inspired food, who offer the “Cock & Balls” donut, with creme-filled balls: http://voodoodoughnut.com/menu.php

On April 1st, we set out from the firepit garden on a Passover bike ride to several farming locations. It was a lovely sunny day, and the group harvested edibles for their seder plates, including maror (bitter herbs), such as horseradish root and parsley.  One of us filled a bucket with miscellaneous greens and flowers, with the intention of creating an inspired salad for the Passover feast she was to attend that evening. She explained the joy in watching friends experience all the various sensations involved in such a diverse bowl of wild greens, lovingly gathered and prepared. Her friends were in for a treat that evening – bursts of the peppery richness of arugula blending with the bitterness of chicory, all interspliced with the mild taste of the bright yellow flowers from the Brassica family.

Passover is a time to celebrate freedom from bondage, and harvesting urban edibles by bicycle while basking in the lovely sunshine was such a wonderful way to celebrate!  Maror is eaten traditionally as a reminder of the bitterness of bondage. Traveling by human-powered vehicle from one garden space to another represented freedom from enslavement to the modern petroleum-based Big Ag system. And, it was joyous!

Rebekah took amazing pictures of the whole experience:

Blue Scotch Kale, having survived a second winter, now bolting to flower. Seed originally found on roadside in 2007, with a “packed for 2001″ label on it. Planted out at Firepit that year, seed saved in 2008, yielding this delightfully frilly and sweet specimen.

Some kind of broccoli raab that volunteered last fall. Now bolting.

A “Purple Osaka” type mustard. Volunteered from a *hybrid* variety that went to seed. We shall see what happens when we now plant *these* seeds.

Fava beans, having overwintered, growing with great vigor. This is a “baby bell” variety, better for cover crop than fresh eating.

Crosses between “Herman’s” Collards and “Lacinato” Kale, having volunteeredlast spring and overwintered. Now bolting. These plants were not thinned or weeded right away. Instead, they were left to compete with each other and all the other plants. They fought their way to abundance, proving some vigor.

Celery, having overwintered under glass. Specimens out-in-the-open did not survive. Now ’tis lush and delicious.

Sprouting radishes; six different varieties of rounds and longs that will make several different “dick-n-ball” combinations once harvested.

Pictured here: Two of the sisters who live at Crabapple Cottage (a household that subscribes to both the produce CSA and the Staple Foods Project of Sunroot Gardens), posing with tools used to harvest horseradish for Passover, which is this Thursday. The three of us used a manure fork to remove the lemon balm growing on top of the horseradish, the trenching fork to reveal the roots, and a post-hole digger to remove the soil around it. We went down over two feet and still the root broke off while still nearly an inch thick. We also dug up many smaller roots with shoots, which will be replanted elsewhere to start more patches.

Since they also want other produce for the Passover dinner, and since other folks might also be interested in picking for that occasion, Sunroot Gardens will be holding a:

PASSOVER PICK BIKE RIDE
When: Thursday, April 1, 9am departure
Where: Starting at the Firepit Garden (email for address: sunrootCSA AT riseup DOT net) and going to Mall56 and some of the Woodstock gardens.

Participants will get horseradish from the Firepit Garden, parsley from Mall56, and other edibles from around town. We will also be introducing people to other seasonal herbs that could become regional additions to this traditional meal.

Here’s the produce share that was offered on Friday, 26 March 2010, for the CSA $-subscribers, land-lenders, Friends-of-the-Farm, etc. Pretty good spread for being so close to “the Hunger Gap” of mid-Spring. Flavors include sweet (pea shoots), spicy (various mustards), bitter (chicory), and nutritive (nettles).

The spread, as offered at The Firepit Garden, to $-subscribers, land-lenders, and Friends-of-the-Farm. Note that the square buckets are mounted on the back half of a “long-tail” custom bicycle that was created especially for Farmer K of Sunroot Gardens by a local welder.

Japanese mustard greens at Cabbit Garden. Seeds from Chabo of the (now closed) Natural Harvest CSA.

Green Wave type mustard from Ninja Garden (formerly Subcommandante Ramona, formerly Magic Wormhole). Seed from a farmers’ field in Carver, where we harvested wheat for the Staple Foods Project.

Chicory greens from Tolman Garden. Varieties from Wild Garden Seed in Philomath.

Japanese mustard greens from Cabbit Garden. Check out the fat stems, perfect for stir-frying.

Mustard greens, cross of Green Wave x Purple Osaka, from Tolman Garden. These seeds have been saved seasonally at different locations since 2005, where they were originally crossed at old Lemon Balm Garden. The original starts were gifts from Sunbow Farm in Corvallis.

Nettles from some country property we field-tripped to on Thursday, where we are talking about growing staple crops in 2010.

Austrian field pea shoots, from Henry Garden.

The cat who’s been hanging out at Tolman lately. Pictured here she is high on catnip and enjoying the sun.

Steve Swanson is the author of “Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades”, one of only three must-read books for Cascadian farming. (The other two are the “Maritime NW Gardening Guide” from Seattle Tilth and “One Straw Revolution” by Fukuoko.

I have been using variations on Steve Solomon’s Complete Organic Fertilizer (COF) since
2005, in many different locations.

In 2008 and 2009, we reconfigured Steve’s formula with Naomi, who was then at
Concentrates, and now has her own business, Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply, down on
McLaughlin & Tacoma. We found her knowledge very useful, and recommend her custom
“Mineral Mix”.

Here is the COF formula we used in 2009. We made over a literal ton of it, altogether:

• 3 parts alfalfa meal
• 1 part fish meal
• 1/2 part lime (Dolomite and/or Agri-lime)
• 1 1/2 part phosphorus
• 1/2 part trace minerals (1/3 green sand, 1/3 AZOMITE, 1/3 kelp meal)

“part” is by VOLUME and is whatever you decide to use that day. We used 5 gallon buckets
as our “1 part”.

Until 2009, our COF was always vegan, due to 1) ethical (& etc.) concerns of our CSA
customers, and, 2) the sketchy sourcing of animal products such as bone meal, feather
meal, etc. That is to say, who knows what you’re getting, considering everything that’s
used in conventional agriculture these days. Haven’t heard of “free range” feather meal! (As if that would resolve the issues.)

In 2009, we added fishmeal to make up for the relative paucity of Nitrogen in alfalfa
meal, compared to cottonseed or soybean meal. We used alfalfa meal because soybean meal
could be GMO and cottonseed meal is sketchy-as-fuck (cotton, not being regulated as a
food crop, is barraged with toxic chemicals, and yes, that’s the same cottonseed oil that
you see in “Ingredients” on packaged food). Cottonseed was right out, obviously, and we
decided that keeping GMOs out was more important than keeping *all* animal products out,
since the dangers of GMOs are unknown but potentially mutagenic. We went with fishmeal
because it delivers a major bang-for-the-buck (a good thing since it ain’t cheap!) and
fish are: a) often wild, so we are not dealing with animals caged=their-whole-life; b)
are not, to our knowledge, subjected to the same hormones, antibiotics, etc., though we
know farmed fish are also sketchy; and, c) something that were historically introduced to
the soil in this bioregion on a regular basis through their consumption by bears who shit
them throughout the woods.

Does COF work?

In the empirical sense, I do not know. I don’t have enough of a dataset. I have not,
for example, conducted trials with pairs of beds where one is treated and one is for
control. By playing steward to dozens of plots around town over the last few years, I
have observed that using COF at some gardens but not others (which is how it has happened
to go down) has not provided a good comparison. Too many other mitigating factors
prevented that, such as differing soil types, different crops, different
levels-of-attention, different irrigation, different light, etc.

I have used COF when prepping beds, when seeding and transplanting, and as a
side-dressing to growing plants (though not always, for all the times I have down those
things). I feel as though it makes a positive difference, but I cannot provide a record
of physical evidence.

I keep using the COF as an article of faith, frankly.

One amendment I *have* seen work, vividly and undeniably, is AZOMITE. The name stands
for “A to Z Of Minerals, Including Trace Elements”. During the 2009 Staple Crop Project
season, Tom of Mall56 spread a 44 lb. bag of it it in a regularly-shaped rectangular are
in the middle of the field. This was in the Spring, when it was still short. When the
wheat grew taller, months later, there was a *distinct* height difference in that patch;
it was higher. Perhaps in more than one sense of that word; it had a “glow” to it,
somehow, too (which was nothing measurable so if you don’t believe me, I’ve got no
argument with you).

We use AZOMITE when we can’t use the COF, which is often the larger plots for staple
foods, which are measured by the fraction of an acre, rather than square feet. At
Sunroot Gardens, we call it “Magic Fairy Dust” and taste it as we spread it. This year,
I have a small triticale patch that we treated on one side only with AZOMITE, with a
stick marking the halves. We will be watching carefully and can report our findings.