I get antsy to pick blackberries in Seattle every July and make jam, pie, and freezer bags full of berries. I also help run a soup kitchen in N. Seattle. This article, related to the topic, was in the Seattle P-I this morning. It's a wonderful idea for both canners and gardeners.

seattlepi.nwsource.com/.../365498_farmbank03.html

Gardeners in city's neighborhoods give meal programs a lift

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Last updated 12:37 a.m. PT

By JENNIFER LANGSTON

P-I REPORTER

Instead of fighting hunger with grocery-store handouts, some see part of the solution in gardens, apartment balconies and front yards.

Over the past five years, the amount of fruit and vegetables grown or harvested in Seattle neighborhoods for food banks and meal programs has doubled to more than 44,000 pounds.

Though just a fraction of what fuels the emergency food pipeline, it will help meet unprecedented needs this summer, given rising prices and lines of low-income people that have ballooned since the holidays.

"It's really key to our success," said Rick Jump, executive director of the White Center Food Bank, which has seen its weekly demand increase by nearly 40 percent in the past several months. "We're all out there striving to find resources."

Soon, the food bank will start getting apples and plums from West Seattle yards -- part of a neighborhood fruit tree harvest program pioneered four years ago by Solid Ground, a social service organization.

There will also be fresh vegetables from gardens worked by Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, a new volunteer group also offering canning, gardening and tree-care classes at senior centers and local grocery stores.

"We're trying to increase access to local fresh fruits and vegetables, not only by providing them, but also by teaching people how to grow and preserve their own," said founder and West Seattle resident Aviva Furman.

At City Hall, conversations are under way to figure out how to expand programs enabling low-income gardeners to sell produce directly to urban consumers.

Generally, it's illegal to sell from city P-patches, except for a small-market garden program allowing immigrant farmers in public housing developments to sell weekly bags of greens and produce.

Even foodies are struggling to shed some of the movement's preciousness -- peopled by those with the time to debate local vs. organic, or make handmade truffle pasta from scratch -- and become more egalitarian.

"Unfortunately, people can get really snotty about where their food comes from," said Willi Galloway, a Seattle Tilth board member who has worked to spread organic gardening to lower-income communities.

"It's something that's fun that everyone can do, and I hope our city becomes a place where everyone has a place to grow their food, regardless of income."

At a recent container-gardening class at the White Center Food Bank, Regina Bash scooped dirt from the bed of a pickup truck with a yogurt cup and poured it into a bucket.

She planted a sturdy tomato plant in one pot, with salad greens, carrots and radishes sharing another. There were discussions on the best way to pick sweet peas (often) and protect roots (carefully). Experts answered questions on the science of propagation and the art of watering.

At the end, Bash carefully loaded one pot in a backpack, stuffed the other in a rolling duffel bag and headed toward the bus stop.

"I've always wanted cherry tomatoes because I love them," said Bash, who lives in an apartment with no yard. "But I have a balcony ... so my little patio is waiting for me when I get home."

A few blocks away, at newly renovated White Center Heights Park, 17 virgin garden plots will be tended by local residents and food bank clients this summer.

Katie Rains, a former Rat City Rollergirl, has volunteered to grow vegetables and herbs specifically for the food bank.

"They get a lot of produce donations," said the 25-year-old Evergreen State College student. "But the things they're not getting are more of the cultural foods -- bok choy, Chinese cabbage, cilantro, peppers, eggplant."

Immigrant farmers at Seattle Housing Authority developments such as New Holly and High Point have been selling produce out of community gardens there for the last decade.

Now, the city neighborhoods department that oversees P-patches and community gardens is considering how to widen the program to include other low-income gardeners.

That could involve making more land available, or creating farm stands or other means to distribute local produce. But a major expansion would likely require partners from the private sector, said Rich MacDonald, the P-patch program manager.

One complication is a state ban on allowing people to profit from public resources. That's why some have entertained creating market gardens or urban agriculture training programs on private land owned by churches, individuals or other community organizations.

"It's a nice stable little program, but it's little," MacDonald said of the market garden program. "And it's hard to imagine without a lot of resources that it would get much bigger."

Paul Haas, development director for Solid Ground, has just that kind of ambitious goal: Acquire 100 acres over the next 10 years for food bank, low-income and immigrant farmers.

"The thing that's been lacking in this is a great tangible vision, like the Kennedy space program," he said. "It starts with 'here's two acres, we have this site, let's do it.' "

Last week, Emiko Keller stopped by West Seattle's High Point Market Garden on the first day of the season, picking up a bag of parsley, spinach, tah tsoi greens, radishes, bok choy and salad fixings.

Her family splits a half "share" -- which costs $310 for roughly four months -- with a neighbor down the street.

"I like the feeling of this kind of community," she said, after giving gardener Hien Vinh Nguyen a warm hug. "And I like the fact that I get ... things I don't normally see at the store."

The garden's proceeds will be split among five families this year, including Nguyen's. A former South Vietnamese army officer, he spent 13 years in a Hanoi prison where he grew beans, rice, potatoes and vegetables on the prison farm.

In 1994, he immigrated to Seattle and helped build two community gardens at High Point.

"It's extra money for the low-income people ... and the customers are so happy," he said. "It's good for all the residents."

We live in Minnesota and we have a Harralson apple tree.  Last year we had a bumper crop and I was able to keep them edible by wrapping each individual apple in newspaper and filling up a dozen cardboard boxes with them.  We kept them in a cool corner all winter and now it's June and we are on our last box.  We have what is left of them in the refrigerator.  We also have frozen some and canned some.  Etc.  This is the first time we have done this and it seems to work great.  I would though, welcome some ideas that do not involve using electricity to store apples and other fruit.

I know how to raise a garden, but the work is now too much for me.  We used to also milk our cow, Marie.  Of course, we pastaurized her milk and made butter too.  The garden fresh prodcuce was wonderful.  We also raised our own chickens, raised our own beef.  Killeed our own chickens and ate them along with their eggs.  We had someone else kill our beef cows and pigs.  Wrapped it ourselves and stored the meat in the freezer.

Of course, mom didn't have a 40 hour per week job, plus a 10 hour commute .  She did not have to get up an hour early to get dressed for the job either.  Eleven and a half hours out of a 24 hour day dedicated to a full-time job.  With 8 hours,, doctor recommended. sleep doesn't  allow much time for gardening, feeding the animals,

milking, cooking, washing, cleaning the house, etc.  

Now I just go the farmers market and buy the fresh vegies, etc.  It's much less expensive than planting a garden myself and a whole lot easier.  No digging, no weeding, no sweating, ha!  

I live in a third floor apartment with a very small balcony, but have still managed to create my own little garden.  Using containers of various sizes, I am currently growing three types of tomatoes, baby eggplants, three types of peppers, basil, oregano, chives and parsley.  The strawberry plants, though very leafy, never flowered and therefore, never produced this year, but I'm hopeful that next year will be better.  This just goes to prove that you can grow your own veggies no matter what your space limitations are.  I can't wait... the tomato plants are already covered with hundreds of baby green tomatoes and the peppers are the size of my fist... it's only a matter of time!  (On the upside, by doing all of my growing in containers, I don't have to weed at all.)

We used to grow lots of tomatoes and at the end of the season before the first frost came if there were tomatoes left that had not been canned my Mom would pull up the whole tomato plant and hang upside down in the basement.  The tomatoes left on the vine would ripen naturally and we would have fresh tomatoes for at least another two months.  We still can but now don't have a basement to keep all of the goodies.

My grandma would go for a walk around her suburban neighborhood in the early morning, picking up windfalls of apples, apricots, peaches, whatever was on the ground.  Later, she'd bake a pie with the fruit.  Whoever stopped by in the afternoon for a cup of coffee was offered pie, never suspecting it was their own fruit!  

My wife and I are really into growing and preserving (and later - eating): we can, dehydrate, freeze, smoke, and pickle lots of good stuff.  Noticed from a response someone else makes Kudzu Jelly too! Cool.  The TV is in the shed, and are we ever glad of it.  Braided onions into strings using the dryed tops this year, works great and they hang on the wall as decorations till we use them. Cheers, Ol Bill

Can someone tell me what to do with cucumbers besides make pickles...can I freeze them in anyway....

How do you freeze zuchinni squash, do you mash it or slice it and is it blanched first?  Anyone??

Does anyone know how to can pickled/ dill tomatoes? I cant locate the recipe anywhere. Please help. Thank you.