Wednesday, June 30, 2010

[TheUWfarm] to do this week

Hello Farmers,

Summer is upon us!    Please stop by the farm - harvest some peas, lettuce, mache etc and help out by weeding, watering or attending to one of the tasks below!

There are people on the farm most mornings from 8:30 - about 1 everyday.

Hope to see you there,

Beth

TO DO LIST:
UW Farm To Do List- Week of 6/29/10
 
  1. Extend Long A beds
  2. Label "squash coming soon" areas in section A
  3. Scrape off/hose off aphids on underside of quinoa leaves
  4. Eat raspberries and wild strawberries
  5. Stake up fava beans B9
  6. Eat sorrel
  7. Scrape leaf miner eggs off of beet leaves C2
  8. Harvest beets- C2
  9. Keep beets watered- C2
  10. Pick suckers off tomato plants
  11. Take out giant brassicas from C10
  12. Harvest Lettuce
  13. Water Lettuce(next to milpa bed)
  14. Water D13
  15. Weed around beds east end of D area then cover with woodchips
  16. Eat Mache D9
  17. Water pumpkin/sunflower row by burke
  18. Uncover gooseberries and Currants in back 40, then fold and put away ramey
  19. label miners lettuce for going to seed (by burke)
  20.  Weed area to the right of the farm sign by the burke
  21. Weed by wild strawberries behind chicken coop on burke, keep area well watered
  22.  Make sure asparagus next to the hose is well watered and fertilized

 



Sunday, June 27, 2010

Ning would like your feedback

Hi Ning Network Creator!

Over the years, your feedback has been key to our success in building the leading platform to create your own custom social network. We hope you are as excited as we are about our upcoming releases of new features including the ability to customize your members' authentication process (either by using Facebook, Twitter or your own authentication systems), API access, new tools for engaging your members and new ways to generate revenue or charge your members for access to your Ning Network.

In addition to these, we have a longer list of features you've told us are important and we expect will be highly valuable to you and your network. To help us prioritize how we roll out these features we'd love to know which are most important to you and would have the greatest impact on your Ning Network. We want to deliver the most important features first!

Please click on the link at the bottom of this email to take a brief survey. Your responses and comments will remain anonymous. This survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes of your time. Thank you for your continued feedback!

Coming soon, we'll share with you the top features and our planned roadmap to deliver them.

Thank you,
Garnor Morantes
Community Insights
Ning, Inc.



Click on the following link to take the survey: Click Here
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

[TheUWfarm] Visioning Meeting

Hello Urban Farmers!

Anyone who is interested in contributing to helping plan and find funding for the farm's potential Foege field expansion should come to a meeting tomorrow (Thurs, June 24th) at 4:00 pm. Some things we will be talking about is a Board of Directors, irrigation, a permeable ADA pathway, an auction/dinner party and general grants and funding searching. All are welcome to come!!!!

Also, there will be weekly meetings for planning a September fundraiser. We will be meeting every Wednesday at 10 am at the greenhouse. It will be super fun and a lot of work!

Yee haw,
Nina

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

[TheUWfarm] NEW Chicken listerv

Dear Farmers,

We now have a listserv for those interested in learning about how we care for our hens at UW Farm.

You might want to join if:

-you want to follow discussion about how we care for our chickens
-you want to become a chicken crew sub
-you want to be on the chicken crew in a future quarter
-you were on chicken crew in past

Anyone is welcome to subscribe. Use link here : https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/gallus

Let me know if there are questions or issues. Everyone should be able to subscribe and unsubscribe themselves like any UW listserv.


Kristin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:02:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kristin A Miller <kamiller@u.washington.edu>
To: gallus@uw.edu
Subject: [Gallus] NEW Chicken listerv

Greetings chicken carers,

Here's our new listserv. It is named gallus because the Latin name for chicken is Gallus gallus domesticus and biologists like to name things in Latin to be all scientific and such.

Please transition to using the gallus@uw.edu address for all our chicken crew communications. Thanks!

Kristin


_______________________________________________
Gallus mailing list
Gallus@u.washington.edu
https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/gallus

_______________________________________________
TheUWfarm mailing list
TheUWfarm@u.washington.edu
http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/theuwfarm

[TheUWfarm] New Farm Interns and To Do LIst

Hello Farmers! Happy Summer! We have six interns this summer and I wanted to give you the hours we will for sure be down there, for those who want to volunteer when someone is there. But as always, feel free to come down whenever your heart desires!
The interns currently are me (Julia), Katie, Mollie, Sylvia, Sam, and later on, Joseph. 
At least one of us will be at the farm:
Monday: 9-3:30
Tuesday: 8:30-1:30
Wednesday: 9-4:30
Thursday: 8:30-1:30
Friday:9:30 to 12:00
Nina, The farm Director, will also be down at the farm this summer, so look to her for advice and such.

Also, here is the To-Do list for the week. It's a great, sunny week to come down and get your hands dirty! As usual, this list will be posted on the outside of the farm cabinet as well.
  1. Eat peas!
  2. Sow summer squash in rose pots
  3. White fly maggot removal on kale- A8
  4. Cut in cover fava- B11
  5. Wheelbarrow dirt, grass clippings and other greens from yard waste pile to compost
  6. Harvest all flowering cilantro beds
  7. Harvest arugula
  8. Heap dirt (from yard waste pile) on potatoes- C7 and C12
  9. Side-dress cabbage with compost- C8
  10. Harvest Broccoli- C8 and C10
  11. Re-stake tomatoes with taller stakes- C9
  12. Pick flowers off of chives and eat!- C11
  13. Harvest Chard- C12
  14. Weed Milpa bed
  15. Keep eye on fennel (near herb spiral) for harvest
  16. Research Wapato
  17. Build Kiwi Trellis
  18. Build Compost pile
  19. Shift Compost piles
  20. Rake up horse poo and compost it, throw out the mixed-in cardboard (near compost piles)
  21. Clean, dry, and put away tarp near compost bins
  22. Weed around the mushroom log
  23. Sow buckwheat cover into D13
  24. Clear out collards in D12
  25. Side-dress Rhubarb with compost-D11
  26. Clear out New Zealand spinach, feed to chickens- D16
  27. String tomatoes higher- D
  28. Plant something in empty black buckets in section D
  29. Weed D4 and surrounding area
  30. Weed sunflower bed directly behind yard waste pile
  31. Water buckets on the other side of fence behind the chicken coop
  32. Stake Chard and label that we're letting it go to seed- right next to the SE corner of greenhouse

peace
Julia

Monday, June 21, 2010

[TheUWfarm] Summer on the Farm

Hello Farmers!

It is looking are shaping up to be quite wonderful this summer on the farm.

As always we will need lots of help with the three major farm tasks of summer they are:
Eating produce
Watering plants
Weeding - to keep weeds from flowering/spreading

It would be great to see you down at the farm this summer. I will be on the farm on Tuesday mornings (and by other appointment only!). We will have regular potluck lunches every Tuesday at the farm picnic table (by the cob oven). These will be starting tomorrow - so come by around noon with something to share. Our summer farm interns officially will be starting tomorrow so there will be regular work hours on the farm and lots of folks to help you get started if you haven't been down on the farm for a while. Stay tuned for the announcement of the interns' official hours.

Farm weeks will be punctuated by periodic friday afternoon gatherings (and perhaps movie watching). We are continuing to meet over the summer to plan for the expansion into Feoge field. If you would like to join the farm visioning team and help with expansion planning please e-mail me and we'll get you on the list.

Summer can be a lonely time at a school farm and our goal this summer is to keep the activity level up and the produce flowing! This is a great time to make that critical link between growing food and eating it. Though it may sound funny - linking the growing of produce with the eating is a critical part of our mission. We can not be about the work of producing broccoli if we are not also about the work of eating it. Shifting our diets to eat what is seasonally abundant and to use the bounty of the farm is really important to making the link between our diets and sustainability.

I could go on but my dissertation break is over.

Eat Peas.

Fondly,
Beth


_______________________________________________
TheUWfarm mailing list
TheUWfarm@u.washington.edu
http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/theuwfarm

Friday, June 18, 2010

[TheUWfarm] Work Party Today, Seeking More Chicken Carers

Hey All,
Stop by this afternoon for a potlunch, salad at noon and work party afterward. This is also a good time to get oriented to the farm if you are new. Also we still need chicken carers for Friday Evenings and Saturday Mornings this summer, if you are able to help out with either of these, even if you will be missing some weeks this summer, please let me know!
Muchas gracias,
brady

"To know and not to do is not to know"
Wang Yang Ming


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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

[TheUWfarm] To Do List and Work Party Friday Afternoon.

Hello Friends,
Here is a list of things that could be done around the Farm this week. Also, in celebration of no school, let's have a work party this friday afternoon. We could start with a potluck lunch at noon, and move into all kinds of good fun work (see below). If you want to work before then, don't be shy, go by the farm and get your paws dirty with simple stuff like weeding, or try some of these tasks.


"No order of society can last in which one man says to another, "You work and toil, and earn bread, and I will eat it""
Abraham Lincoln

To Do's June 14th (Partial List)
-Trim woody suckers from cotoneaster and other shrubs amongst the wild strawberries at the top of section A'
-Chop in the fava remains in the buckets in area B
-Make a trellis around the outside of the cucumbers in B8
-Start Bush beans for B10
-Research the powdery mildew problem on our peas-solutions?
-Clear out the bucket to the right of the hops in the herb spiral, and plant the stevia starts that are behind the picnic table in area B
-Add compost around hops plant in herb area
-Transplant or remove the stressed lavender plant nearest the hose in the herb area
-Add soil or compost around all potato plants
-Chop plant material in compost area on new compost chopping block
-General neating up in the back 40
-Sow cover crop in D13
-Start more bush beans for D14
-Water stressed tomatoes in C9, can we find a way to protect the soil at the back ends of the beds from washing away? Burlap sack? Add wood chips to the path?

These are just some thoughts, I encourage you to walk around, and find things that look like they need doing as well!


_______________________________________________
TheUWfarm mailing list
TheUWfarm@u.washington.edu
http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/theuwfarm

Sunday, June 13, 2010

[TheUWfarm] Seeking More Summer Chicken Crew Members

Hello Farmers,
Are you going to be around this summer, and want to take care of our lovely chickens and get some free eggs? We still need people for Monday Evening, Tuesday Evening, Fri Evening, Sat Morning and Possible Sunday Morning. Morning people we ask to come to let the girls out before 8:30 am and the evening people come around dusk. Even if you aren't around straight through the whole summer, we have lots of people who can be subs, so don't worry. Anyway, let me know if you can do any of these shifts.
Thanks,
Brady


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Thursday, June 10, 2010

[TheUWfarm] UW Farm Graduation Celebration Today!

Hey folks,
Just a reminder that we will be celebrating UW Farmers who are graduating today, but first going to Beth's award ceremony at 3:30 in Meany Hall. Wear your farm t-shirts! After that (4:30 or 4:45) we will head back to the farm for a graduation celebration, after which we are biking out to Golden Gardens to frollick.
Hope to see you there,
Brady


_______________________________________________
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TheUWfarm@u.washington.edu
http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/theuwfarm

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

[TheUWfarm] Visioning Team Meeting tomorrow!

Hey Farmers,
The UW Farm Visioning team is meeting tomorrow morning (Wed) at 7am, in Hitchcock 546. For those of you that don't know, the Visioning Team has worked for the last 6 months in creating a strategic plan, vision, mission etc for the farm with the focus on trying to get the campus to give us Foege Field for an expanded farm. We have done a tremendous amount of work, with a lot more to do and we want to make sure any and all who want to work on making this new farm happen-from funding to the soil to seeds are present. So if you are interested in making the dream of a big farm on campus a reality, please join us bright and early tomorrow morning at 7am in Hitchcock 546.
Cheers,
Brady


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Monday, June 7, 2010

[TheUWfarm] FARMmonth June 7 - July 5

If images are not displaying, please view newsletter here!

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.
Upcoming Farm Events

Thursday, June 10
Awards of Excellence Ceremony
Farm honoree Beth Wheat
3:30 pm @ Meany Hall

Thursday, June 10
Farm Graduation
5 pm @ the UW Farm

_______________________
Work this week
Finals Week - Come help out!

Wednesday 8-10am, 2-4pm
Thursday: 9-3pm
Friday: 9-2pm
______________________

UW Farm website

UW Farm Blog

Send all submissions for summer's monthly newsletter to uwfarm@u.washington.edu
During the summer, the newsletter will go out once a month.  The next newsletter will go out Monday, July 5
______________________

This Week's Farm Tasks


To Do List: Finals Week! Spring Quarter 2010
-Plant cukes around outside of B7 after adding compost, log it on the planting poster in the GH!
-Work on wall climbing bean trellis (See brady's work times)
-Chop down, cut in buckwheat cover crops-they are flowering
-Spray aphids of fruiting kale in B8 with high power hose nozzle
-Finish wood border for sunflower bed along burke by the campus compost pile
-Harvest artichokes
-Wood chip around new staircase down from the farm sign to the Burke
-Harvest turnips in buckets in area D, they are getting hit by aphids, leaf miners, and root maggots- they were planted too closely likely, but they are big and tasty
-Sow parsnips in long concrete D bed next to taters where there are gaps of no germination
-mound up soil around all potatoes everywhere
-Weed everywhere
-Do a bed area, what's growing assesment of the farm
-Help peas by the plant lab annex find their trellis
-Put in a beer dish as slug control in the concrete lettuce bed near the UW Farm Milpa
-Finish melon trellis in Herb area
-Use rest of manure, chopped up (with machete) plant material, paper shreddings to make new compost
-Harvest bolting items, and big leafs of stuff on the green roof.

Being Harvested Now
-Green onions, wild strawberries, lettuce, turnips, snow peas, radishes, radish fruit pods, arugula, bolting (damn!) daikons, tatsoi, chard, all kinds of delicious weeds

FARMmonth
June 7 - July 5


UW Farm Updates

End-of-Year Pizza Bake Joyous Despite Rain (or maybe because of it!): Photos

     
The Farm's end of year pizza bake brought in a great crowd of people that made pizza, listened to live music, and danced in the rain. 

UW Farm Graduation: Celebrate UW Farm Graduates on June 10


The farm wants to get the word out about the upcoming farm graduation. we will get together on Thursday, 10 June, 3:30 pm at Meany hall for the awards of excellence ceremony where Beth will receive her teaching award! this is a really important recognition of her immensely hard work and what it has meant for the growth of the farm. afterward we will move down to the UW farm to celebrate graduates of many kinds at 5:30 pm and carry the party on to golden gardens (bike parade!) after the appreciations for a BBQ potluck. 

if you are graduating and are able to attend, please let Amalia know by putting your name on this list.

Why did the Chicken Cross the Road?

The better question is, HOW did the chickens cross the road? And the answer is... In a chicken tractor!

Hi, Rachel here. For my individual project as a Farm intern this quarter, I headed up the design and construction of a chicken tractor to get our four ladies out and about. What is this tractor I speak of? It's a bottomless, wheeled enclosure that you move over garden beds  so that the chickens can peck, scratch, eat grubs and weeds, poop, and generally have a big time between crop plantings. Our tractor has a box with a trapdoor in the upper half to put the chickens in as you move it. I'm hoping that future Dirty Dozens will be able to integrate the chickens into our crop rotation, letting them fertilize a bed after harvest and before new planting. For more information about chicken tractors, check out the book Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil by Andy Lee and Pat Foreman and this website with lots of pics: http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html. And keep an eye out for the ladies as you walk along the Burke! 
  
  


Off Farm Stuff


Exciting New Job Opportunity at OED: Healthy Food Business Coordinator

Community Development Specialist - Healthy Business Food Coordinator 

 

Salary Range:  $29.45 - $34.31 per hour

 

The City of Seattle's Office of Economic Development (OED) is seeking qualified applicants to fill a full-time, two-year grant funded Community Development Specialist position. The person selected will implement a pilot business incentive program to encourage food businesses, in particular grocery stores in low income areas, to improve access to healthy food and beverages.  This program is part of the Seattle-King County Public Health Department's "Communities Putting Prevention to Work" (CPPW) grant, a two-year, $26 million project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Specific duties include outreach to corner store managers and customers in South King County, Seattle Central District, and Southeast and Southwest Seattle about the benefits of increasing healthy food options in stores; coordinating a needs assessment of participant stores and matching them with appropriate services, such as: advertising and marketing assistance, mentoring and coaching, food display assistance, voucher programs to support shopping, loans or grants to purchase equipment or make façade improvements. The federal stimulus grant awarded via Seattle King County Public Health supports the position from April 1, 2010 through March 31, 2012, therefore the position will sunset March 31 2012, unless new funding is secured or the grant period is extended. Note:  The title and salary of this position is subject to Legislative approval. 

 

Minimum Qualifications: Two years of experience in planning, research, architecture, real estate, program management, or related experience, and a baccalaureate degree in business or public administration, urban planning or architecture (or a combination of education and/or training and/or experience which provides an equivalent background required to perform the work of the class). 

Desired Qualifications:  Demonstrated experience working with small business owners and/or knowledge of Seattle's food industry.  Possess understanding of food systems economies, and social justice related to the availability of healthy food options in low-income communities, or other relevant food issues.

To apply, please visit the City of Seattle's official website 

This position closes on June 15, 2010.


Summer Internship with Lettuce Link
Hours per Week: 10-3
Work Schedule
: Generally T, Th, F, S, 10am-3pm

Compensation: Farm fresh vegetables, free organic gardening lessons & mileage reimbursement.

When: June 22nd 2010 – October 2010 (ongoing until filled)
 
Job Description
Work at Marra Farm, Seattle's only Urban Community Farm by preparing soil/beds, planting vegetable starts and seeds, maintaining crops, composting, irrigating, harvesting, washing produce, and distributing produce to the community food bank.
 
Co-teach age appropriate nutrition and gardening to elementary school children at Marra Farm.  Work collaboratively with staff and other volunteers to deliver a cohesive, fun, positive and engaging program. 
 
Assist with community outreach and fundraising events 
 
Required Qualifications

·        Interest in food security issues, learning about community nutrition and working on an urban organic farm.

·        Friendly, reliable, and self-motivated

·        Ability to pass a Washington State Patrol background check (if working with children)

 
Desired Qualifications

·        Background in organic gardening and experience working with children

·        Experience working with people from diverse backgrounds

·        Access to a personal vehicle

·        Ability to speak Spanish

Application Instructions: Apply to lettucelink@solid-ground.org with a description of your interest and a completed volunteer application.   Brief interview required if you are co-teaching.

AMERICORPS Community to Community position
Comunidad is excited to announce two new Community Health Promoter positions.

This is an AmeriCorps position made available through the Washington Service Corps in partnership with the Washington Health Foundation. It is open to bilingual (Spanish/English) candidates available for full time work between September 1, 2010 and July 15, 2011. We are recruiting nationwide. Please take a moment to look at the job descriptions and pass it on through your networks. I appreciate the assistance and look forward to hearing from interested candidates.

Community to Community is a women-led, place-based, grassroots organization. We are committed to systemic change and to creating strategic alliances that strengthen local and global movements towards social, economic and environmental justice.

Cocinas Sanas Health Promoter: Cocinas Sanas program development, outreach and education:
In 2005 Community to Community's Food Justice Program began dialogues with Latino farmworker women and youth around health, diabetes, obesity, and their connection to our current food system. Together, the idea for the Cocinas Sanas' Healthy Kitchens Program began. The position involves working with key stakeholders to develop and implement an outreach program and curriculum for Cocinas Sanas with the goal of increasing health, and combating diabetes and obesity in the Latino community. Additionally, they will assist with the development of a peer to peer educational program for Latinas to pass on their knowledge to other Latina women and youth. By engaging stakeholders in culturally appropriate hands-on education that emphasizes high quality, healthy, organic foods in traditional diets the program seeks to promote good nutrition, healthy eating habits, exercise, and engagement in understanding the local food system. The member will receive leadership development, understanding oppression, undoing racism and similar trainings to assist in working towards the organization's mission to restore justice to food, land and cultural practices.

For full job description, click here

To Apply: https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do?fromSearch=true&id=36783

Contact Erin Thompson with any questions

O2 Recreation Leader, Seattle Parks and Recreation Job Opportunity 

Title of Position: O2 Recreation Leader
Organization:
Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation
Accepting Applications: now to June 15, 2010
Address: 3801 W. Government Way, Seatte, WA  98199

Description: RECREATION LEADER Outdoor Opportunities (O2) Program

POSITION DURATION: Six Month Assignment (July 2010 - December 2010) with Possible Extension.
SALARY: $18.24 / Hour plus 5% premium pay
WORK HOURS: Up to 40 hrs/wk. Varies. Some evening and weekend work.
This position will coordinate programming for the O2 branch location at Seward Park in Southeast Seattle. The position will organize, plan, implement and lead outdoor recreation and environmental education activities such as weekly workshops, and monthly overnight events and service projects. Examples of O2 events include: camping, hiking, rafting, canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing, snowboarding and snow shoeing.

In addition to program orchestration, this position will also be responsible for the associated environmental education curriculum development.  Experience working with high school age teen populations in an outdoor recreation and / or education setting is a plus.

E-mail or send a letter of interest and a resume to Bob Warner at: robert.warner@seattle.gov

http://www.seattle.gov/parks/teens/o2/.

Article in The Seattle Times Highlights Urban Farming in Seattle

"Edible gardening and urban farms are thriving throughout Seattle, but the idea of urban farming for profit is another matter. As the once-common practice returns to cities across the country, at least two efforts in Seattle — Harvest Collective and Magic Bean Farm — aim to show that it can be done."

Read full article here.

Edible Conversations: An Evening with Ben Hewitt, author of The Town that Food Saved

Tuesday, June 8 7:00 pm at Palace Ballroom, Seattle, WA

This will be the first event in a series on food, sustainability and community we are calling "Edible Conversations", and will take place on June 8th at 7pm at Tom Douglas' Palace Ballroom. Jill Lightner, the editor of Edible Seattle will interview Ben Hewitt about his life as a farmer, and the way a group of farmers and entrepreneurs banded together to create a comprehensive food system and revive the dying economy of Hardwick, Vermont. Like many rural communities in America, Hardwick, Vermont was build on a industry that had packed up and left long ago, and the town had suffered from a depressed economy for over a century. With an unemployment rate of 40% and in the middle of a crippling recession, a small group of young farmers and community leaders embarked on a quest to create a comprehensive, functional and vibrant food system, bring jobs to their region and create new ways for them to make a living off their farmlands. As Ben tells the story of his one town's transformation, there will be lessons for all of us who believe that a healthy, local agricultural system can be the basis of community strength, economic vitality and food security. Joining Jill and Ben will be local chefs, Sequim farmer Kia Kozun of Nash's Organic Produce, Chris Curtis, the Director of Seattle's Neighborhood Farmer's Markets and Mary Embleton, Director of the Cascade Harvest Coalition.

Price: $15 - $25
This will be the first event in a series on food, sustainability and community we are calling "Edible Conversations", and will take place on June 8th at 7pm at Tom Douglas' Palace Ballroom. Jill Lightner, the editor of Edible Seattle will interview Ben Hewitt about his life as a farmer, and the way a group of farmers and entrepreneurs banded together to create a comprehensive food system and revive the dying economy of Hardwick, Vermont. Like many rural communities in America, Hardwick, Vermont was build on a industry that had packed up and left long ago, and the town had suffered from a depressed economy for over a century. With an unemployment rate of 40% and in the middle of a crippling recession, a small group of young farmers and community leaders embarked on a quest to create a comprehensive, functional and vibrant food system, bring jobs to their region and create new ways for them to make a living off their farmlands. As Ben tells the story of his one town's transformation, there will be lessons for all of us who believe that a healthy, local agricultural system can be the basis of community strength, economic vitality and food security. Joining Jill and Ben will be local chefs, Sequim farmer Kia Kozun of Nash's Organic Produce, Chris Curtis, the Director of Seattle's Neighborhood Farmer's Markets and Mary Embleton, Director of the Cascade Harvest Coalition.

The $25 per person price includes appetizers and Theo chocolate confections; a cash bar will be available as well. Copies of The Town That Food Saved will be available for purchase and signing at the event. See website here, or purchase tickets at brown paper tickets.
Send newsletter contributions to uwfarm@uw.edu

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the UW Farm listserve via the World Wide Web, visit
        http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/theuwfarm
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
        theuwfarm-request@mailman2.u.washington.edu



[TheUWfarm] Seeking Urban Farm Project Support

Hey farmers - this could be a great opportunity to support the development of another urban farm. Either reply directly to Narima, the evite here: http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=VOWGFZJRONWHKGAMSTTF&li=iq&src=email&trk=aei2, or harveym@uw.edu.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 14:06:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Narima Amin <rise_up05@yahoo.com>
To: uwfarm@u.washington.edu
Cc: rise_up05@yahoo.com
Subject: Seeking Urban Farm Project Support

To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to request UW Farm partnership to help build and maintain an Urban Farm Project in Shoreline. On June 12/13, the project will begin.  Could we engage the help of  volunteers from the UW Farm project to especially help with support and maintenance.  Below is a fwd evite for the Urban Farm work party.
Sincerely,
Narima
Narima Amin
www.riseupfrompoverty.org

Saturday, June 5, 2010

[TheUWfarm] Yurtstravaganza (A celebration): Details attached as PDF (fwd)

Hello All,
This is an event that a UW Farmer (Tye Rogerson) is putting on. I encourage all to go, as you can't think about sustainable agriculture without thinking about where you hang your boots.
Thanks,
Brady

ps. Thanks for an amazing farm party yesterday, truly joyful to see folks dancing in the rain!

Subject: Yurtstravaganza: Details attached as PDF

To everyone who I'd love to see next week,

    This is the invite to the long-awaited, the most anticipated Yurtstravaganza! I began my study
of yurts nearly a year ago. Since then I have met an extraordinary group of people with values
already changing the world in a variety of ways. The yurt has become a medium of expression and
lifestyle choice which has guided their lives, and now mine as well.

As you all have played a special role in my life, this is my chance to give back to you by
providing an evening of community, learning and good food! As you will see in the attachment, which
my lovely housemate Sienna put together, there is $5 suggested donation. This will not be a problem
for anyone wishing to join in, as we will be turning no one away.

Come learn about this incredible structure and the people who build them, live in them and write
about those who build and live in them! In fact, let's do more than just sit, listen and watch. You
will have an opportunity to help build a yurt, from bottom to top!

Yurts are circular, which works really well in including a community who can appreciate everyone at
once. Therefore, invite your circle of friends and family! Let's pack the Om Culture center full of
hungry people concerned about more than their bellies! This is surely a unique event, so call or
e-mail if you have any questions. Looking forward to it!

-Tye the Guy
206-734-2262

Home is where the yurt is

Thursday, June 3, 2010

[TheUWfarm] Come on out and help before the Bake!


Hey Farmers!

Wow, our end-of quarter pizza bake is TOMORROW. So exciting. Come dance, eat, and tap your feet starting at 4 pm and going into the night.

Before the party, we'll be setting up starting with a salad-foraging tour at 7:30 in the am (Brady's leaving for a field trip right after), and then there'll be all kinds of fun stuff to do to set up, so come on down!

A few things that'll get done:

Chop wood
Paint sign
Get out NEW CHICKEN TRACTOR (My caps lock is biased)
Clean up around mattress steamer
Spread wood chips
Harvest/prepare salad (2:30-3)
Pick up/set up tents, tables, chairs (12:30-1ish)
Ball and roll pizza dough (1ish on)
AND MUCH MORE!

See you soon,
Rachel
 


[TheUWfarm] Dancing, Pizza and Foraging tomorrow!!!

Hey All,
Just a reminder to come on down to the farm tomorrow at 4pm for our Spring celebration fundraiser. $5 for all you can eat pizza, salad, and squaredancing! Invite all friends and family. Bring musical instruments if so inclined. Also if you have time and would like to help, people will be around the farm all day starting around 11:30 am or so, and we would love a hand picking salad, starting the oven, neating and setting up, etc etc. Also we will be foraging a big salad for the party of wild greens (this is the old path!) at 7:30 am.
Happy Sun and Soon Summer,
Brady

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Re: [TheUWfarm] Growing Power Conference

There's another important event happening June 22-26 in Detroit. It's the US Social Forum and there will be programs on urban farming, food justice, farm work and other related topics.

http://www.ussf2010.org/node

Detroit has developed an amazing array of urban farm spaces created by citizens getting together and doing what needs to be done to save themselves in a city that has reached a strange level of steady-state collapse. Here is a brief excerpt from Rebecca Solnit's 2007 Harper's article, Detroit Arcadia:

This continent has not seen a transformation like Detroit's since the last days of the Maya. The city, once the fourth largest in the country, is now so depopulated that some stretches resemble the outlying farmland and others are altogether wild. Downtown still looks like a downtown, and all of those high-rise buildings still make an impressive skyline, but when you look closely at some of them, you can see trees growing out of the ledges and crevices, an invasive species from China known variously as the ghetto palm and the tree of heaven. Local wisdom has it that whenever a new building goes up, an older one will simply be abandoned, and the same rule applies to the blocks of new condos that have been dropped here and there among the ruins: why they were built in the first place in a city full of handsome old houses going to ruin has everything to do with the momentary whims of the real estate trade and nothing to do with the long-term survival of cities.

The transformation of the residential neighborhoods is more dramatic. On so many streets in so many neighborhoods, you see a house, a little shabby but well built and beautiful. Then another house. Then a few houses are missing, so thoroughly missing that no trace of foundation remains. Grass grows lushly, as though nothing had ever disturbed the pastoral verdure. Then there's a house that's charred and shattered, then a beautiful house, with gables and dormers and a porch, the kind of house a lot of Americans fantasize about owning. Then more green. This irregular pattern occurs mile after mile, through much of Detroit. You could be traveling down Wa bash Street on the west side of town or Pennsylvania or Fairview on the east side of town or around just about any part of the State Fair neighborhood on the city's northern border. Between the half-erased neighborhoods are ruined factories,
boarded-up warehouses, rows of storefronts bearing the traces of failed enterprise, and occasional solid blocks of new town houses that look as though they had been dropped in by helicopter. In the bereft zones, solitary figures wander slowly, as though in no hurry to get from one abandoned zone to the next. Some areas have been stripped entirely, and a weedy version of nature is returning. Just about a third of Detroit, some forty square miles, has evolved past decrepitude into vacancy and prairie—an urban void nearly the size of San Francisco.

This is a great place to go if you want to start making links between our political/economic system and and the work of farmers, urban or otherwise. There is no way that visionary urban farmers will achieve their goals without building solidarity with a lot of other related movements and a lot of people from those movements will be in Detroit.
Keith
______________________________
Keith Possee
Medicinal Herb Garden
Biology Department
Box 351800
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-1800
USA
phone: (206) 543-0436
FAX: (206) 616-2011


On Thu, 3 Jun 2010, Elizabeth Wheat wrote:

> Hello Farmers,
>
> Last night at the all farm meeting I brought up the idea of trying to attend a conference this summer in Milwaukee at Will Allen's Growing Power farm. The conference is centered around urban agriculture and will be bringing together leaders from around the country to speak on the subject.
>
> I think it would be great for our farm to try to send 3-4 people. It will be a little expensive, but perhaps we can begin brainstorming now some ways to raise funds to help send some folks east! The cost will be a plane ticket and then registration/sleeping accommodations it which will be roughly $380/person.
>
> The conference runs from September 10-12.
>
> If you are interested in being part of a delegation to this event from the UW Farm - please e-mail me and we could get together and start planning our trip!
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> See you at the Pizza Bake tomorrow!
>
> Beth_______________________________________________
> TheUWfarm mailing list
> TheUWfarm@u.washington.edu
> http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/theuwfarm
>

[TheUWfarm] Growing Power Conference

Hello Farmers,

Last night at the all farm meeting I brought up the idea of trying to attend a conference this summer in Milwaukee at Will Allen's Growing Power farm. The conference is centered around urban agriculture and will be bringing together leaders from around the country to speak on the subject.

I think it would be great for our farm to try to send 3-4 people. It will be a little expensive, but perhaps we can begin brainstorming now some ways to raise funds to help send some folks east! The cost will be a plane ticket and then registration/sleeping accommodations it which will be roughly $380/person.

The conference runs from September 10-12.

If you are interested in being part of a delegation to this event from the UW Farm - please e-mail me and we could get together and start planning our trip!

Thanks in advance.

See you at the Pizza Bake tomorrow!

Beth_______________________________________________
TheUWfarm mailing list
TheUWfarm@u.washington.edu
http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/theuwfarm

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

[TheUWfarm] Sign-ups for the fundraiser!

Hey everyone!  We are having our big pizza bake/fundraiser this Friday, and need some support to make this event a success~ Please see below, and let me know if you can help out with anything. (But don't reply to the listserve!  Send email here: michelle.ann.harvey@gmail.com).  I bolded the tasks that really need some help.  And thanks to everyone who already volunteered!

Tabling HUB Lawn Thursday, June 3, 11:30 am - 1pm
-Julia
-Rachel(?)
-Matt(?)
-
-
-
-

Dough-making @ the Husky Den kitchen,
Thursday, June 3, 4 pm
Julia
Veronica
Connor
Joanne
Amalia
Alisa
Rae
-
-

Picking up tables/chairs/canopies from the HUB
Friday
Rachel Stubbs
Julia
-
-

Selling t-shirt and collecting donations
4-5 pm Matt, ?
5-6 pm Paula, ?
6-7 pm Julia, Alisa
7-8 pm ??

Pizza Supervisors
4-5 pm Rachel Stubbs
5-6 pm ??
6-7 pm ??
7-8 pm ??

Clean up! Dan, Rae, Joanne, Amalia, Julia, Brady..........
 

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

[TheUWfarm] Farmweek June 1 - 6


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Upcoming Farm Events

Monthly All Farm Meeting
Wednesday, June 2
4:30 tour
5 - 6 meeting
Botany Greenhouse

Pizza Bake Tabling
Thursday, June 3
HUB Lawn
11:30 AM

End-of-quarter Pizza Bake
Friday, June 4
beginning 4 pm at the farm
_______________________
Dirty Dozen Hours
Spring Quarter
Come help out!

Mon: 7:30am-1pm
Tue: 8:30am-1pm
Wed: 9 am - 3 pm
Thur: 8:30am-9:30am,
         10:30am-1pm,
         2:30pm-5pm
Fri: 9:30 am-5:30 pm
______________________

UW Farm website

*new* UW Farm Blog

Send all submissions for the weekly newsletter to uwfarm@u.washington.edu
The newsletter will go out Monday evenings
______________________

This Week's Farm Tasks


Mound potatoes everywhere!
stake tomatoes everywhere!
--back 40/compost
build new compost pile in blue bin-- wednesday 9:30
sift compost and use it in beds
--areas a and b
figure out why daikons are bolting/if we can stop it
put beans in
tatsoi harvest for friday
give fish emulsion to stressed fennel
find out about floppy onions: is this normal?
get leaf miners out of sorrel
make arugula pesto
transplant squash
harvest chard in B
--areas c and d
harvest: cilantro, arugula, kale, mazuna, chard (including stems!)
resew clover in c10
fill empty space in c12
build something for new raspberries to climb on
WEED (esp along burke, D10,16)
slug emergency in beans!!
check with brady about planting squash in the buckets along hill w/ NZ spinach (and clearing plants on the hillside)
--come to the all-farm meeting tomorrow at 5pm in the greenhouse
--sign up at the meeting for tasks to prepare for the party on friday! (dough, fire, set-up, clean-up etc)
--give tours!! today: 1030, 1220 wednesday: 4
no experience necessary! we will gather ~20 minutes before to talk about the tour plan
FARMWEEK
Week June 1 - 6


UW Farm Updates

UW Farm Graduation: Celebrate UW Farm Graduates on June 10

The farm wants to get the word out about the upcoming farm graduation. we will get together on Thursday, 10 June, 3:30 pm at Meany hall for the awards of excellence ceremony where Beth will receive her teaching award! this is a really important recognition of her immensely hard work and what it has meant for the growth of the farm. afterward we will move down to the UW farm to celebrate graduates of many kinds at 5:30 pm and carry the party on to golden gardens (bike parade!) after the appreciations for a BBQ potluck. 

if you are graduating and are able to attend, please let Amalia know by putting your name on this list.

UW Farmer Profile: Joel Kramer
Interviewed and Compiled by Emilia Ptak


Name: Joel Kramer

 

School & Area of Study: University of WA, Senior, Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences

 

Favorite fruit or vegetable: Beans

 

Favorite place: "An avocado orchard in Southern California from my childhood."

 

How did you learn about the UW Farm?

"I first got involved in the UW Farm spring quarter of my freshman year. I heard about it from Alan Trimbol, who was teaching an ecology class and encouraged students to enact the principles learned in class."

 

What do you do at the farm?

"There isn't just one thing you do because it's a whole lifestyle and about being part of a community. Part of it is thinking about envisioning a better world and part of it is actually getting your hands dirty."

 

As for specific tasks: "We are encouraged to read out of the library and ask greenhouse members questions and practice those techniques. There is pest-management and we pick up resources from around campus and the city, such as paper and coffee grounds to bring back to the farm and enrich the soil. And then there is also the permaculture area, which requires low-maintenance, but still attention. So then, a lot of what the farm is about is about observation, like watching things grow, seeing what happens in certain conditions, and becoming attached to it just by spending time with it –not exactly doing something to it, but just being with the bees or the blossoms."

 

Favorite part about the UW Farm: "It's a place you can be free on a campus without a lot of expectations and regulations and walls. The farm is a place you can be silly.

 

Least favorite part about the UW Farm: "It feels like a minority thing. And maybe that's nice, but I feel that because it is about the food that we eat and so fundamental, I really wish that people didn't have qualms about coming to the farm and thinking it is dirty to grow food."

 

How do you define the UW Farm?

"It is a do-ocracy. We just say: whatever we want to do, we do it."

"I tell people: we grow our own food on campus; we even bake our own pizza. You should come down and join us some Friday."

 

How has farming influenced your relationship with nature?

"It gives you security in knowing that you don't own it. You are giving the plants and the animals their sovereignty. And you say this is your place to make your own and suddenly, once you realize that they are not your plants or it's not your air, then you connect to that. Then you feel like you don't have to own anything because the world owns you. It gives you a sense of belonging that's a lot greater in scope. You can eat a tomato from another continent and not really feel the connection to that place because you got it out of a plastic bag or a store, but when you grow it closer to home you suddenly realize everything near and far is important and a part of you."

 

How do you define your relationship to the National Young Farmer's movement? Do you see this as a trend or as evolving into cultural change?

"Yeah, it's totally a trend, but it's happening because of something very real and rooted. We have to take advantage of it now and plant as many seeds as we can so that when the trend washes away there is a forest there."

 

"You connect with other people on the other side of the country doing the same thing."


Dashing for the Dessert: UW Food Co-op Fundraiser Well Attended, Raises $2,500 

The UW Food Co-op held a fundraiser on Saturday night that was attended by over 120 people from around the community.  The menu was a variety of dishes along with a a giant wheelbarrow salad donated from the farm (pictured below), and guests participated in a dessert dash, silent auction, and coffee and wine tastings.  Altogether the co-op was thrilled to raise $2500, which will be put towards purchasing a food cart.   
  
About the Co-op: We are building a student food cooperative whose purpose is to achieve food sovereignty on the UW campus and address food justice issues through affordable provisions of healthy and organic prepared foods.  We hope to source from the expanding UW Farm and other local farmers & artisans.  The UW Food Cooperative is in rapid development and is actively seeking community support and input! Visit our website for more information: www.uwsfc.com

Off Farm Stuff


Reading of "Farmer Jane" by Temra Costa at Ravenna Third Place Books on Saturday

From the bookflap: As farmers, moms, businesswomen, chefs, and activists, women are changing the way we eat and farm. They are the fastest growing demographic to own and operate sustainable farms, comprise the largest percentage of sustainable agriculture nonprofit employees, own sustainable food businesses, cook the majority of household meals, and control household budgets. "Farmer Janes" are creating a more healthful, sane, and sustainable food system for present and future generations.

Join author Temra Costa for a book reading at this local stalwart of great literature, and see here website here.  The author will be speaking at Third Place Books in Revena this Saturday, June 5 at 7 pm.  There is no cost!    
Location: 6504 20th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98115
website here

FYI: Sustainability Studio Symposium looks at UW Campus Sustainability

The sustainability studio was a Spring quarter course designed to look at the roots, definitions, and concepts of sustainability, while looking at the state of sustainability on the UW campus.  Student research teams looked at fish, student knowledge, proteins consumed on campus, and composting.  Their symposium is happening this Friday, June 4 at 1:30 pm in the PoE Commons (ACC 012), and they would love UW Farmers to attend.

CAGJ Movie Night Saturday: "We Feed the World"
CAGJ is about to host its fifth AGRA Watch film night. These monthly film nights address issues that are directly relevant
to the work of scholars, activists and others on issues of development, neoliberalism, food, agriculture, and African affairs.  CAGJ will be showing We Feed the World, a film by Austrian filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer that traces the origins of the food we eat.
When: June 5th, from 5-8pm
Where: Cascade People's Center
              309 Pontius Avenue N
              Seattle, WA 98109

About the film:
WE FEED THE WORLD is a film about food and globalization, fishermen and farmers, long-distance lorry drivers and high-powered
corporate executives, the flow of goods and cash flow–a film about scarcity amid plenty. With its unforgettable images, the film
provides insight into the production of our food and answers the question what world hunger has to do with us .

Interviewed are not only fishermen, farmers, agronomists, biologists and the In's Jean Ziegler, but also the director of production
at Pioneer, the world's largest seed company, as well as Peter Brabeck, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé International, the largest food
company in the world.

If you are interested in attending this film night, please RSVP to agrawatch@seattleglobaljustice.org. Drop-ins are welcome, but
please RSVP if you get the chance. Also, this will be a potluck. Please bring some food or drinks to share.

Develop U Looking for Farm-Related Presentations, Lectures, Tours, and Ideas
 
From August 24-27, 2010, UW Libraries are holding Develop U, a variety of short classes, workshops, tours and other events. If you would like to share your talents or hobby, let us know. If you want to present a work-related topic, bring it on! Team up with other staff members to present something educational, interesting, musical. Sessions can be as short as 30 minutes or as long as 90 minutes. 
 
So the idea is: presentations that are possibly work-related, possibly not, about interesting and fun topics that teach us something.
 
There are a lot of gardeners who work at the Libraries, and sessions related to gardening always do really well. We've had tours of the Medicinal Herb Garden in previous years, which people loved.  Does anybody at the Farm do special tours/lectures? If so, does this sound like something you would be interested in? Please contact Sarah Weeks here.

"May I be Frank" Movie Screening June 3

This Thursday, June 3, the raw food documentary "May I be Frank" is being screened at Seattle Unity Church.  Put together by servers at Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco, the film documents the transformation of 54 year old Frank Ferrante who went from being overweight, depressed, had hepatitis C, and a bad family life, to loving himself, his body, and getting rid of his diseases!

Frank Ferrante and his coach Cary Mosier will be coming down to Seattle themselves for the movie screening.  Also there will be an exclusive after party at Thrive Raw Foods Cafe, and an exclusive dinner gathering in Redmond the next day, where people can get to know Frank better.

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[TheUWfarm] Farm Interns for the Fall

Hello UW Farmers,

It isn't too early to begin thinking about your fall quarter plans and farm work!

This fall we will be filling 2 intern spots. Are you looking to get more involved in the farm, develop leadership skills, and read about sustainable agriculture? If the answer is yes, then the farm internship might be just the thing!

Being a farm intern is a big commitment of time and heart! We expect interns to work 10 hours a week on the farm, meet weekly for intern meetings, and help coordinate the dirty dozen volunteers.

It turns out to be a 12-15 hour a week commitment minimally. The internship is a 3 credit experience offered through the biology department. If you are interested in becoming a farm intern, please e-mail me at elizaw@uw.edu and tell me why you want to be an intern, what your goals for the internship would be and what you can bring to the farm.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Beth

PS - if you want to learn more about what it is like to be an intern you can speak with one of our current interns:
Amalia Tonsor
Rachel Stubbs or
Joanne Pontrello

See you tomorrow at the all farm meeting!


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[TheUWfarm] Seeking Summer Quarter Chicken Carers

Hello Again Farmers,
Are you going to be around over the summer, and perhaps might be interested in caring for our 4 lovely laying birds? We need people to come in each night and morning of the week to feed, water, collect eggs, clean the coop etc. It is very fun and easy. We ask that the morning people come in before 8:30 am every morning and the evening people come around dusk. Takes only 10 minutes maximum. Please email me if you are interested, and I will send out a doodle poll to decide times/days for people.
Eat Dirt,
Brady

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[TheUWfarm] All Farm Meeting Tomorrow, New Farmer Orientation and End of Quarter Fundraiser Party!

Hey Farmers,
Tomorrow is June's All Farm Meeting at 5 pm in the Botany Greenhouse. We have a lot to talk about, including getting things organized for our big pizza fundraiser party on Friday. At 4:30 pm there will be a New Farmer Orientation, just prior to the meeting. If you are new to the farm and want a tour, and learn about how to get involved, this is the time! Also, be sure to invite all your friends and family to the friday party. Starting at 4pm we will be cooking pizza, eating farm and foraged salad, eating desserts, and square dancing to live music (Nettle Honey and Junk Bones, if you play music, feel free to bring instruments and we will keep the good sounds going). We will go until we get tired of hanging out and playing music. We are asking for $5 donation to raise money for farm costs. It will be a great time. Finally, this friday, I will be doing a massive foraged salad harvest starting bright and early at 7:30 am from the Botany Greenhouse. If you are interested in !
wild foods, come help harvest!
Thanks,
Brady

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