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Let's Grow Food!

Posted at 1:28 PM on April 5, 2008 by Scott Swendsen (5 Comments)

That was the phrase of the day as I volunteered to help plant organic tomatoes at Canyon Bounty Farm this morning. Actually the more proper terminology is "Potting On Party". A diverse & spirited bunch of individuals came together to form a small community of helpers as we planted thousands of tomato starts.

It is amazing what problems of the world you can solve when you get your hands dirty with your neighbors!

It probably helped that there was large quantities of good old-fashion home grown natural foods to keep our energy levels high as Beth Rasgorshek provided leadership on such issues as tossing aside the "weaklings" and how many trays should be potted with the "4th of July" heirloom seedlings.

High expectations of how much work we had to get done!

Dirty hands were the norm....

Is that all we did?

Ah, that seems more like it!

Boy, I can't wait till harvest time! Thanks Beth for the great morning and the great food but most of all for the great community.

Scott

Comments (5)

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Looks like a lot of fun, many hands apparently do make light work (I am still trying to convince my children of this). Cool post, nice pictures.

Thanks, Vera

Posted by vera schabicki | April 6, 2008 8:55 PM

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Thanks Vera for your kind words. It was a pretty cool experience! Kind of like a "barn-raising", I bet. Its amazing what the power of the community can do when we roll up our sleeves and attack these "dirty" projects together.

Scott

Posted by Scott | April 7, 2008 8:11 PM

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Looks fun! Just think of all those awesome tomatoes.

Gina

Posted by Gina Keenan | April 7, 2008 8:49 PM

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Scott..best of luck to you. I live in Colorado at around 8500 feet and I assume of all the people involved with the study; your climate is the most similar to mine. It is very difficult to garden in this neighborhood so I rely on the valley, (Denver area) for locally grown stuff...what are you going to do for grains? Just curious..April

Posted by April Coveney | April 9, 2008 2:27 PM

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Thanks Gina & April for your posts! It was a lot of fun!

April, we actually are a bit fortunate here in Boise / Idaho. I am still finding local food sources, but Canyon Bounty Farms is growing a small amount of wheat which can be ground for flour. In addition, there are many bean farms around so choices in dried lentils & beans are plentiful. I have also heard rumors of Idaho rice - apparently wild rice in northern Idaho but possibly white rice as well - I still haven't been able to track that one down.

When I go to buy my tomato plants in a couple of weeks, I am planning on having Beth grind some of that organic wheat and I will test out making my own bread!

Posted by Scott | April 9, 2008 7:30 PM