Through each of their remarks, the groups launched a well-constructed —and constructive— critique of the common, market-based approach to food reform. “The American agrarian ideal of the small family farm is largely a myth,” began Bobrow-Strain. Throughout history, as he went on to explain, American food reformers have latched onto this model as the golden alternative to food system woes. The issue, however, is this was never really the reality. “Even Ma and Pa Engels of Little House on the Prairie,” said Bobrow-Strain, “were not early Wendell Berrys; they were serf farmers, scattered across the Midwest, beholden to Eastern landowners, and dependent on selling their wheat to England in order to eke out a living.” By idealizing a past that never happened, we’re imagining the realities of labor right out of the equation. Essentially, food reform has often pre-supposed, or required, an invisible labor force.

Apostolidis expanded on this point, explaining that when faced with worker injustice, we often retreat to a position of “moral benevolence:” though moved by the social injustices of what we see, we are still removed from the people involved. When we pity the conditions and can’t bear to support the companies that create them, then we seek out alternatives in the marketplace and hope that our boycotting will have an impact on the mainstream product. In practice, this approach to food labor reform relies on Bobrow-Strain’s “American agrarian ideal;” it presupposes a vibrant community of small-scale, financially-solvent farmers ready to serve as counterpoint to industrial production. However, even among the farmers at local markets, many must still employ low-wage migrant workers, because few farmers themselves are adequately compensated for their own labor. This approach only further divides the consumer from the producer.

The panelists overwhelmingly agreed with this assertion: marketplace solutions are not true answers. Bobrow-Strain interjected with the brief history of the anti-pesticide movement; after a series of early legal successes, the efforts of the 60s and 70s turned their focus from banning various chemicals to choosing alternative products in the marketplace. But in creating the choice between a “clean” product and a “dirty” product, the movement split the marketplace into a premium price solution for the wealthy and a low-cost problem for the poor. In other words, consumer action doesn’t necessarily change the products, it just stratifies the market and placates the concerned individual with a “good choice.” Further more, as Mendez put it, “When you demand things with the market, big companies only end up with more power, like Tyson raising and selling organic chicken. We must stand with workers in order to change conditions.”

Which brings us to Apostolidis’ proposed alternative to “moral benevolence:” instead, we must search out the mutual inter-dependencies between farmworkers and food laborers and ourselves, and view them as collaborators in reform. Whether or not we choose to buy goods produced through their labor, the struggles of America’s farm labor play out in our lives in very real ways, in terms of such issues as OSHA enforcements, environmental protection, and corporate responsibility. By viewing farmworkers as peers in reform that has ramifications for all of our society, our efforts will be less paternalistic. “We need to move away from viewing workers as the passive objects of society and policy,” Apostolidis declared.

By turning clean, fair, and wholesome foods into niche markets with premium prices and specialty labels, we’ve ended up placating the most engaged and concerned segment of the populace with an easy market answer. Furthermore, this tack focuses on price and wages, and the true issue at the heart of farmworker struggles is that one of power. As Larry Kleinman put it, “Our work is a struggle of rights, of standards, and of remedies: who has the rights, what are the standards, and who gets the remedies. If you don’t have remedies, your rights are meaningless.” Therefore, as the panelists proclaimed, our efforts need to focus on immigration reform, on workplace safety, and on power-sharing amongst employees.

The difficulty for many individuals is that these things can’t be changed through consumer purchasing, meaning that activism requires more effort than choosing between two melons at the store. This can be discouraging to even the most engaged citizens, particularly when you don’t know where best to channel your efforts for public policy change. To that end, the panelists offered some suggestions for productive avenues for public involvement. One of these, certainly, is to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, but another, less obvious path is to press for a resurgence of anti-trust regulation. The Obama administration has called this out as a legislative priority, and it’s one that certainly applies to the food industry. Kleinman explained that, “An oligopoly is defined as four companies controlling 40% of a market — in meatpacking, only four companies control nearly 85%.” To this, Bobrow-Strain added: “The long history of food safety reform has benefited large producers.”

Apart from calling your legislators and advocating on behalf of anti-trust regulations, another productive avenue is to press for comprehensive immigration reform. Without making changes to our immigration policies, our country will continue to be plagued with anti-immigrant rhetoric, while failing to acknowledge the many real jobs and services that countless immigrant workers perform for all Americans. To this end, it is important to support the efforts of groups like Enlace,  PCUN or the United Farm Workers, who recently launched their “Take Our Jobs” Campaign, challenging American citizens to fill the gaps in the workforce that would be left by deportations of illegal workers.

It was good to hear these suggestions from the panelists for practical political action, because eaters can often feel powerless when faced with the broader issues behind the food on their plates. But, that said, all of the panelists made it clear that to choose between shopping responsibly and activism is a false choice. As Kleinman said in the Q&A, “We must be omnivores of political action.”

More resources for action and learning:

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN)

Enlace Institute

Breaks in the Chain by Paul Apostolidis

Why Eaters Along Can’t Transform the Food System, by Tom Philphott on Grist.org

Agrarian Dreams, by Julie Guthman

Shopping for Change? Neoliberalizing activism and the limits to eating non-GMO, by Robin Jane Roff

Aaron Bobrow-Strain also wrote to share one more story after the event:

Historically speaking, I should be more careful with my words:  I don’t think that consumer power can’t change the food system (in the past, consumer boycotts have been amazing successful tools.  Lots of examples of this dating from the anti-saccharinists who refused to buy slave-grown sugar in the early 1800s to the recent Taco Bell boycott for the Imakolee tomato workers).  Rather, I am concerned about the current form of consumer politics–e.g. niche market buycotts.

There’s a great story I didn’t tell on Monday about the early 1940s: the depression had wracked havoc on the country’s nutritional health and war was looming–malnutrition was a national crisis (50% of the first million men screened by selective service doctors in 1940-1 were rejected as physically unfit to fight–and at the very least 30% of those cases were due to malnutrition).

So the country needed to do something about rapidly improving nutrition.  Bread was a natural medium for this because 95% of Americans ate bread at least once a day and it accounted for about 30% of daily calories in the country and because, the poorer you were, the more you relied on bread.  So, the baking industry proposed a premium price route: it would cover the cost of improving bread nutrition by marketing synthetically enriched white bread for a price premium alongside regular unenriched bread.  Elites would buy the premium price product, it would become trendy, and soon, the companies argued, everyone would want to pay extra cost for enriched bread.  Everyone would win: the companies wouldn’t lose a cent (in fact they’d make more off premium price loaves) and the country would eventually get its nutritional improvement.

The government responded:  Nope.  This is important.  We want you to immediately start enriching *all* bread and not charge a premium price for it.  The industry complied–and, whatever one’s opinion of factory white bread might be, it really helped improve the country’s nutrition.  The industry discovered that enrichment gave bread more cache with consumers and so they kept on doing it voluntarily even after the government lifted the requirement at the end of WWII.

In other words, once the government required all bakers to improve their bread, the industry discovered that it really wasn’t that much of a burden.  It really didn’t cost that much more, and it helped build long-term consumer support for their product.  I think there’s a lesson there. The only down side: when the government put its support behind synthetic enrichment it took the wind out of the sails of food reformers who wanted to return to whole wheat bread or “naturally” enrich white bread with soy protein, but still…

Our good friends at Ned Ludd (who hosted our November event with the women cattle ranchers of Eastern Oregon), have an incredible guest visiting this coming Monday.

Joel Salatin, the American ‘beyond organic’ farmer, lecturer, and author prominently featured in the new documentary, FRESH, as well as in Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, will be in Portland on Monday, April 19th. Joel will give two lectures at the Tiffany Center at 6pm & 8pm.  Ned Ludd will host an intimate lunch with Joel at noon.

Location: 3925 NE MLK Jr Blvd Portland, OR 97212 (503) 288-6900
Tickets: $115, 32 seats available

Buy tickets through www.brownpapertickets.com (type “Joel Salatin lunch” in the search window).

If you can’t get a seat at the meal, but would still like to hear Salatin speak, you can catch him in either of two (!) lectures.

Lecture 1: Monday, April 19th, 6pm

THE SHEER ECSTASY OF BEING A LUNATIC FARMER:
In this mischievous lecture, Joel Salatin compares the industrial global food paradigm with the heritage local food paradigm.  Using hilarious stories from his family’s Polyface Farm experience, Salatin examines the contrast on many different levels:  fertility, carbon cycling, energy use, relationships, marketing, and spirit.  If you ever wondered:  “What’s really the difference between pastured poultry and Tyson’s?” –now you’ll know.

Lecture 2:  Monday, April 19th, 8pm

CAN YOU FEED THE WORLD?–ANSWERING ELITISM, PRODUCTION, AND CHOICE:
By far and away the two most common questions asked of Joel Salatin are:  How can we afford local artisanal heritage-based food and is it realistic to think we can really feed the world with a non-industrial food system?  Because the local clean food movement, for all its allure, is still only 2 percent of all food sales, envisioning it as a credible, viable alternative to industrial corporatized genetically modified food seems like pie-in-the-sky dreaming.  Using his own Polyface Farm principles as a foundation, Joel builds this vision one piece at a time by blending theory and practice.  You will never think about the food system the same way again

Location: Tiffany Center: 1410 Southwest Morrison Street, Portland, OR 97205-1930  (503) 522-4467
Tickets $25
Buy tickets from the link on our homepage: www.FRESHthemovie.com, or through www.brownpapertickets.com (type “Joel Salatin Portland” in the search window).

About FRESH:

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system.  Among several main characters, FRESH features Milwaukee urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, who is challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

For more information, please visit our website www.FRESHthemovie.com

To see all the Portland FRESH events, please click upon this link:  bit.ly/apkjcZ

Over the past several months, Slow Food chapters around the country have been promoting the Time for Lunch campaign in an effort to provide children with real food at school. Locally, Slow Food Portland has had a committee of dedicated volunteers working to bring awareness to the campaign, and to encourage people to show their support for this important issue in signing petitions, writing letters, and calling Oregon State representatives.

The Time for Lunch program emphasizes an important point:

“Right now, Congress leaves school lunch programs with only $1 per meal to pay for food. Schools do their best to stretch that dollar, but it’s simply not enough to provide kids with the food they need to stay healthy and to perform well in the classroom.”

In our work to generate awareness about Time for Lunch, we posed the question to ourselves:

Can we make a meal for a dollar?

As a team, we were blown away to learn that people responsible for school lunches across the country have an average budget of just one dollar per child per day. We agreed: one dollar just doesn’t seem like enough to nourish kids for an energetic day at school. What on earth could you make with one solitary dollar?

For most, the best way to learn is by doing. So we challenged ourselves and some friends to cook a healthy meal for one person, with one dollar. We called it the Dollar Meal Challenge.

We gave ourselves a week to come up with a healthy, tasty meal.  Staple pantry items and anything we could pull from our home gardens were considered freebies (they didn’t count towards the $1 budget).  Fresh ingredients were encouraged, and extra points were scored for anything organic and/or local.  We made a Flickr site where we could inspire each other with photos of our concoctions and share stories about our experiences. It was challenging, but at the end of the week, we had a diverse collection of delicious meals all made for about a dollar per serving, with taster reports to prove it.

Cannellini Bean Stew with butternut squash and kale over crispy polenta

Beet Risotto with Beet Greens

Sauteed Chickpeas with cinnamon & coriander, roasted carrots with balsamic glaze, and butterred brown rice

Curry Ginger Millet with peas, raisins, and fennel

“Sauteed Chickpeas with Cinnamon and Coriander: Salt, a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of cilantro make it fresh and tasty. A great source of protein on a budget. My kids eat ‘em like candy.”

“It was fun … it was challenging and ended up being delish.”

Beyond being a fun twist on the otherwise hum-drum “What’s for dinner?” conundrum, the experience also gave us a humbling taste of the obstacles school lunch staff face every day. Some people commented that the budgetary constraints forced them to rethink where they shopped so they could get the best deal.And favorite ingredients, including fresh produce and some proteins, were suddenly prohibitively expensive. Others remarked how much more time it took to come up with a menu that fit the challenge’s criteria.

“95¢! I shopped at Winco, The same meal from New Season’s totaled $2.16”
“Had to forgo organic products (too bad).”
“It’s disconcerting how little fresh food you can buy on this budget.”

While we were optimistic after putting together a few successful dishes, we realized that our meal and ingredient options are extremely limited when we only have $1 to spend. Expensive items like meats for example are cost prohibitive. And while we were able to create single meals for $1 per serving, we need to remember that those responsible for school lunch decisions are working with a very limited budget everyday; the current amount doesn’t allow for the kind of variety children need for a well balanced meal from one day to the next, and one week to the next.

$1 is simply not enough to provide a healthy variety of foods for school lunch. This is why we are asking for your support with this important issue.

In this week’s Slow Food USA news, we learned that ” the Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously approved its bill to update child nutrition programs (the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act). The bill will now go to the Senate floor at a date to be determined, no earlier than mid-April.  And, On the same day that the committee approved the bill, Slow Food USA’s Time for Lunch Campaign surpassed its goal of sending 100,000 letters and petition signatures to Congress. The momentum’s still growing—click here to learn how you can help out. Please visit the Slow Food Time for Lunch website to learn more about the campaign, follow news and progress, and to get involved.

We’d also encourage you to participate in the Dollar Meal Challenge. Can you make a meal for a dollar or less per serving? Try it out. Feel free to share your stories, ideas, and questions through the comments on this post.While you may find making a healthy meal for a dollar to be a difficult task, remember that this is a challenge faced by those responsible for preparing, cooking, and serving school lunches to our children on a daily basis - and it’s time to change that.

While here in the states we often think of Mr. Oliver as simply a happy-go-lucky television personality, in Britain, he has a long history of using his celebrity to expose the failures of our modern, industrial food system. Now, he’s hopped the pond to take on the struggles of American eating, and has started his own “revolution.” To learn more about his work in the US, check out jamieoliver.com.

This Thursday, the Metro Council will make its final decision on Rural and Urban Reserves for the Metro region, and it looks like it will be business as usual. Instead of embracing the opportunity to protect farm and forest land and natural resources for the next generation, it looks like a majority of the Metro Council may vote to make land available for sprawling urbanization for the next land development.

We need you there.

The Reserves process is supposed to protect the heart of the region’s farm land and significant natural resources for the next 40-50 years, while also providing some areas for urbanization over that same period.  Clackamas and Multnomah counties, and the cities in those counties, conducted a thorough analysis of their future urban needs and balanced them with the needs of food and fiber production and natural resources.  Both urban and rural reserves in those areas reflect that balance.

Washington County did not.  Urban reserves are slated for thousands of acres of the region’s – and indeed the nation’s – most valuable farm land, in the heart of the Tualatin Valley.  The proposed urban reserves in Washington County represent a noose of urbanization slowly tightening around the Tualatin Valley - north of Cornelius; north, west, and south of Hillsboro; and around North Plains. Washington County has taken a very short-sighted view of economic development – as though more land is all it takes.

A majority of the Metro Council stands poised to approve this.

Please email Metro Council and your County Commisioners (emails below) or attend the final Metro hearing and testify or to show support for local agricultural and natural resources.  We will have stickers for you to wear showing you care about local farms.  If you plan to attend the hearing, please contact 1000 Friends Field Organizer, Tara Sulzen, to let her know so she can keep an eye out for you or answer questions regarding testimony.

Those wishing to testify will have 1 minute to do so.  Let the Metro Council know that this is their “Senate Bill 100 moment.”  That’s the bill that established Oregon’s land use planning system – it’s why this is a place we all want to call home today. Will our children?

Date: Thursday, February 25
Time: 2:00 pm
Place: Metro Council, 600 NE Grand Ave, Portland, OR

Photo: Adelante Mujeres

This week, The Oregonian ran a short article about an exciting pilot program taking off in Forest Grove. The new program - which is run by the Hispanic women’s development group Adelante Mujeres -  provides and farm land and training to Latinos who’d like to practice organic agriculture. While Latinos make up an overwhelming majority of farm laborers statewide, very few own and operate their own farms. According to Alejandro Tecum, director of the agriculture project, “Many Latinos grew up in the fields and know a lot about farming. When they move here, they miss this contact with the earth. We see the people’s happiness when they come to farm, to be able to cultivate the land once again.” The group, which also runs the Forest Grove Farmer’s Market, hopes that the recent $300,000 federal grant they received will help new Latino farmers to learn alternatives to the conventional, chemical-intensive agriculture practiced on many farms.

This is a very inspiring project taking place right in our local counties, and a good reminder of the breadth of issues surrounding farm labor. While working conditions for Latino farmworkers have garnered more attention over the past year, very few people make the leap to consider what it takes to assist Latinos in starting their own economic enterprises and farms. But that’s not to say that the issue has been entirely overlooked in Oregon, either. The fledgling Adelante Mujeres project will find good company in a similar program run by Zenger Farm, The Immigrant/Refugee Farmer Training Program. With the support of the surrounding community, there’s hope that these programs will be just the first step towards sustainable, farm-based economic development for many new populations.

Make sure to read the full article on the farmer training program, and also check out this Oregonian article on Adelante Mujere’s farmer’s market cooking.

Classes take you from seed to table (or egg and hive to table!) and cover subjects including fruit orcharding, urban beekeeping, gardening, cheesemaking, preserving the harvest, and how to make delicious meals from the foods you’ve raised. The series offers some incredible opportunities to learn from some knowledgeable Portland food figures, including cookbook author Ivy Manning, community-supported kitchen owner Tressa Yellig, backyard apiarist Glen Andresen (featured on last summer’s bike tour), and farmer (and Slow Food Portland committee member) Josh Volk.

To learn more and enroll in workshops, check out the class lineup here. Just don’t be surprised if your list of resolutions grows when you see all of the great subjects you could cover!

Kathy teaches transplants. Photo: Oregon Tilth.

You might be thinking that it’s too early to planning for next year’s harvest, but Oregon Tilth is already booking out their gardening classes for 2010! Each year, Oregon Tilth hosts a broad lineup of courses for beginning and advanced gardeners alike. Their workshops cover subjects including year-round gardening, intensive urban agriculture, container gardening, garden planning, and fruit tending. A (lengthy) list of their just-announced classes follows the jump. Take a look and get a head start on sowing your crops!

Toolshed Series: Plan, Sow, Plant!

Bulk up your gardening toolkit with this practical 3-class series that will show you how to successfully plan, sow, and plant your garden. Discover simple techniques for getting your garden started and increase your urban bounty this season! For beginning and intermediate gardeners.

Plan Your Garden
Tilth Toolshed Series: Class 1
Wednesday February 3
6:30 - 8:30 pm

Spring is right around the corner and it’s time to start planning your vegetable garden.  What will you grow?  How much should you plant?  Which varieties will perform best?  Attend this class to learn practical planning techniques for selecting seeds, optimizing space, increasing harvests, and rotating crops.  Maximize your bounty by applying new space-saving strategies in your home garden.  Participants receive free seeds and a “Tilth Garden Planning Packet” full of useful planning tools and worksheets that can be used at home!

Faubion Middle School, 3039 NE Portland Boulevard
$35 each or as a three-class series for $90
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Plan Your Garden
Tilth Toolshed Series: Class 1, Plan!
Wednesday February 24, 2010
6:00 – 8:00 pm

Spring is right around the corner and it’s time to start planning your vegetable garden.  What will you grow?  How much should you plant?  What varieties will perform best?  Attend this class to learn practical planning techniques for selecting seeds, optimizing space, increasing harvests, and rotating crops.  Maximize your bounty by applying new space-saving strategies in your home garden.  Participants receive free seeds and a “Tilth Garden Planning Packet” full of useful planning tools and worksheets that can be used at home!

Luscher Farm in Lake Oswego, OR
$35/ $31 residents/Tilth members
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Sow Your Seeds
Tilth Toolshed Series: Class 2
Wednesday March 3, 2010
6:30 – 8:30 pm

Growing vegetable crops from seed is incredibly fun and rewarding, and allows you to grow the healthiest plants from seed to harvest.  Save money on transplants this spring by learning how to tend your own seedlings.  Increase seed germination with row covers and other simple techniques, and gather useful tips for soil mixes, heat and light requirements, transplanting, fertilizing, and watering.  Join us for this fun hands-on class and let’s get those seeds started!  Participants will take home newly sown seeds just in time for the spring garden.

Faubion Middle School, 3039 NE Portland Boulevard
$35 each or as a three-class series for $90
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Sow Your Seeds
Tilth Toolshed Series: Class 2, Sow!
Wednesday March 24, 2010
6:00 – 8:00 pm

Growing vegetable crops from seed is incredibly fun and rewarding, and allows you to grow the healthiest plants from seed all the way up ‘til harvest.  Save money on transplants this spring by learning how to tend your own seedlings.  Extend the growing season with row covers and other simple techniques, and gather useful tips for soil mixes, heat and light requirements, transplanting, fertilizing, and watering.  Join us for this fun hands-on class and let’s get those seeds started!  Participants will take home newly sown seeds just in time for the spring garden.

Luscher Farm in Lake Oswego, OR
$35/ $31 residents/Tilth members
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Plant Your Garden
Tilth Toolshed Series: Class 3
Wednesday April 7
6:30 - 8:30pm

Spring is here and it’s time to prepare the soil and plant all your favorite vegetables!  Attend this hands-on class and learn how to build your soil organically for optimal production.  Learn which amendments and fertilizers will help you grow vibrant and nutritious crops.  The class covers seed sowing, thinning, transplanting, and season extension techniques with an emphasis on space saving strategies for urban gardeners.  Join us for this fun class and take home plant starts to grow in your own garden!

Faubion Middle School, 3039 NE Portland Boulevard
$35 each or as a three-class series for $90
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Plant Your Garden
Tilth Toolshed Series: Class 3, Plant!
Wednesday April 28, 2010
6:00 – 8:00 pm

Spring is here and it’s time to prepare the soil and plant all your favorite vegetables!  Attend this hands-on class and learn how to build your soil organically for optimal production.  Learn what amendments and fertilizers will help you grow vibrant and nutritious crops.  Seed sowing, thinning, transplanting, and season extension techniques will be covered, highlighting space saving strategies for urban gardeners.  Join us for this fun class and take home plant starts to grow in your own garden!

Luscher Farm in Lake Oswego, OR
$35/ $31 residents/Tilth members
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Comprehensive Organic Gardener Program

This program runs from March 4 – March 25 and takes place Thursday evenings 6:30-8:30pm and Saturdays 10-3pm.

In partnership with Seattle Tilth, Oregon Tilth offers a multi-session program in organic vegetable gardening. The curriculum merges scientific and functional approaches, while emphasizing hands-on practice. This unique and popular course is designed to give the beginning gardener an introduction into the dynamic world of organic gardening and an opportunity to get their hands dirty in the process! Students can expect to learn all of the basic concepts involved in organic food gardening including building healthy soil, garden planning and crop rotation, planting techniques, season extension and other methods for gardening year round, organic pest and disease control, water conservation and seed saving.  By the end of class participants should be ready to install and plant a veggie garden!

Luscher Farm in Lake Oswego, OR
$260 or $234 for residents and Tilth members
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Four-Season Vegetable Gardening Series

If you’re a Portland gardener looking for new tips and techniques to help you to grow more food year round, this 3-class series on four-season vegetable gardening is for you!  The series will prepare you for a year round harvest of all your favorite vegetables including, fresh greens, summer fruits, and storage crops.  Elevate your gardening knowledge and become an expert four-season grower!
A class series for intermediate and advanced gardeners

Garden Fresh Greens Year Round
Four-Season Vegetable Gardening Series: Class 1
Wednesday, Feb 10
6:30-8:30pm

With a little planning and some added frost protection, it’s very easy to grow a wide variety of fresh greens year round.  Join us for this fun class and learn how to grow your own salad and stir fry mixes, and discover new varieties of tasty hardy greens.  Crop timing, season extension, organic pest and disease management, and soil fertility will also be covered.  Attend this class and take home a salad mix to get greens growing in your garden!

Faubion Middle School, 3039 NE Portland Boulevard
$35 each or as a three-class series for $90
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Bountiful Summer Fruits from Seed
Four-Season Vegetable Gardening Series: Class 2
Wednesday, Feb 17
6:30-8:30pm

If you enjoy eating homegrown tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant you’ll want to attend this class.  Learn practical techniques for indoor seed propagation so you can grow all your favorite summer fruits from seed to harvest.  Pruning and vertical gardening for vining crops will also be covered to help you grow more in limited space.  Discover methods for extending your growing season and encouraging an earlier and more productive harvest for heat-loving crops.  Participants will take home newly sown tomatoes and peppers!

Faubion Middle School, 3039 NE Portland Boulevard
$35 each or as a three-class series for $90
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Growing Roots and Other Storage Crops
Four-Season Vegetable Gardening Series: Class 3
Wednesday, March 10
6:30-8:30pm

Storage crops are the key to eating fresh all winter long.  These robust vegetables include potatoes, carrots, beets, winter squash, onions, and more!  Attend this class and hone your garden skills in timing, plant care, and watering for maximized yield and storability of these nutritious vegetables.  Get the information you need to know about crop rotation, soil fertility management, and season extension tools to enjoy the benefits of your garden year-round.  Join us and take home seeds of your favorite storage crop varieties!

Faubion Middle School, 3039 NE Portland Boulevard
$35 each or as a three-class series for $90
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Urban Gardener Series

If you’re an urban dweller looking for new ways to increase your garden yields and grow more food in a limited space, this 3-class series is for you! Learn space saving strategies for urban gardens, including intensive techniques, container gardening, and year round growing methods. For beginning and intermediate gardeners.

Intensive Vegetable Gardening
Urban Gardener Series: Class 1
Wednesday May 5
6:30-8:30 pm

The goal of intensive gardening is to harvest the most produce possible from a given space. Learn how to grow more in a small space in this practical class for the urban agriculturalist.  Discover simple ways to maximize your garden through soil prep, succession sowing, companion planting, and vertical gardening methods. Attend this hands-on class and take home some newly sown seeds for your garden.

Faubion Middle School, 3039 NE Portland Boulevard
$35 each or as a three-class series for $90
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Container Vegetable Gardening
Urban Gardener Series: Class 2
Wednesday May 19
6:30-8:30 pm

Learn how to grow bountiful vegetables in containers. Whether you want to grow salad greens, culinary herbs, or summer fruits, this class will show you how to start and maintain your own edible container garden. Topics include soil mixes, fertilizers, watering, and selecting varieties that perform best in containers. Attend this hands-on class and take home vegetable seedlings to begin your own container garden.

Faubion Middle School, 3039 NE Portland Boulevard
$35 each or as a three-class series for $90
For more information visit www.tilth.org

Year Round Vegetable Gardening
Urban Gardener Series: Class 3
Wednesday June 2
6:30-8:30 pm

Do you like the idea of plucking fresh salad greens, tender broccoli shoots and delicious root vegetables from your garden all winter long? If so, this is the best time to prepare your soil and begin planting. Explore season extension techniques, from cloches to cold frames, enabling you to extend the garden season beyond the fall and into next spring. Attend this class to learn how easy “off-season” gardening can be and take home some newly sown fall and winter crops for your garden.

Faubion Middle School, 3039 NE Portland Boulevard
$35 each or as a three-class series for $90
For more information visit www.tilth.org