Here we are exploring Refrigerator Soup!

Gardener, Maureen Brennan Skinner, shared her “practically instant” straw bale gardening method of going from no garden at all to a fully planted garden. All that’s needed from that point forward is water and perhaps some fertilizer. Maureen touts this method as excellent for anyone who would like to garden without the “fuss.” No tilling, no stooping and bending…just watching plants grow!

Straw bale gardening is also excellent for those who feel they don’t have a place to garden. Anyone can straw bale garden on a deck, a sidewalk, a parking lot and/or on rocky terrain. Skinner says the long-term effect of straw bale gardening on the ground in the same spot year after year helps create a natural garden spot in places that might never otherwise be capable of that.

Since this workshop was attended by a 70-person/standing room only crowd, we can see the demand for learning this method of growing practically anything you want to grow. Therefore, we’ll be repeating the workshop in a few weeks.

Watch for announcements of our second Straw Bale Garden demonstration!

Here we are…”taking it all in!”

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With plant varieties dwindling due to a host of social and ecological factors, modern agriculture reduces the diversity of traditionally planted seeds.  Instead of planting a large variety of open-pollinated crops, farmers often plant single “improved” crops. As a result, older varieties are no longer saved. Hybrids replace them. When heirloom seeds are no longer planted, they will disappear forever.

Dr. Brian Campbell, agricultural anthropologist at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA), says a movement to track and catalog heirloom seeds that had not reached Arkansas or the Ozarks prompted him to start a seed bank at UCA five years ago along with a seed saving and seed swapping organization called Conserving Arkansas’ Agricultural Heritage (CAAH).

“At risk,” says Dr. Campbell, “is people’s knowledge of how to gain food security through the production of their own food and the preservation of seed. Today, farming is factory. Seed genetics are copyrighted. The greatest treasures on earth, true-to-type ‘heirloom’ or open pollinated seeds, seeds that thrive in specific regional conditions, are at risk of extinction right in our own back yards.  We need open pollinated varieties to allow people to grow their own food, because they grow true, and we can save the seeds that grow best and use them for the next season using seeds best adapted to the local conditions.

The pictures of Dr. Campbell here on our website were taken when he and a group of his students attended the Ozark Folk Center/LINKPROJECT cold frame workshop. Here are two short videos of Dr. Campbell as he investigates the heritage of the White Family Green Beans and the Simmons Family Red Ripper Peas.

The People Tree is a Central Arkansas non-profit focused on turning community ideas into community action. Founded in 2010, The People Tree works with various members of the community to promote societal systems that are economically, environmentally, and socially just.

Argenta CDC is a 19 year-old private nonprofit in North Little Rock with a mission to improve the economic vitality, quality of life, and sense of community in targeted neighborhoods through the development of quality housing; the promotion of homeownership and community revitalization; and, the stimulation of economic growth.

The two 50’ cold frames are part of the People Tree/ACDC Vestal Urban Farming Project, which is the first of its kind in North Little Rock. Located across the street from Boone Park Elementary School, the cold frames will be part of an outdoor classroom for students in third, fourth and fifth grades and who take part in activities such as planting, weeding, fertilizing and harvesting as Life Lab curriculum is integrated into classroom studies.

We were thrilled to be joined by a team of enthusiastic, bright and capable young people from AmeriCorps and highly recommend that all non-profits and/or community organizations needing assistance with projects give them a call. The AmeriCorps team we worked with can be reached by contacting David Gill, Executive Director at Ferncliff Presbyterian Camp & Conference Center, at ferncliff@juno.com.

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Using their wide range of experience, facilitators and Meadowcreek residents, Debbie Hermansen, Suzanne Day and Missy Brown, provided workshop participants with practical and efficient ways to get the best tasting and most nutritional benefits from one of our most basic and available foods.

Here are we are at our Taters & Tires event!

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is hopeful grants will increase access to locally grown fruits and vegetables across the country and help counter obesity and diabetes, which are prevalent among lower income populations.

An estimated 40 percent of the state’s population is classified as low income, according to data from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

Meadowcreek Inc. in Fox, in Stone County, and Main Street Helena in Helena-West Helena are using USDA funding to help ensure a supply of fresh produce to farmers markets, extend the growing season for farmers supplying markets, and help promote the markets themselves through initiatives specifically directed at the obese.

Academic research suggests that the poorest and least-educated people have the highest rates of obesity.

Beverly Dunaway, director of the Meadowcreek Link-Project, said receiving the $95,000 USDA grant wouldn’t lead to any quick fixes to the food choices among low-income residents in north-central Arkansas.

Through Meadowcreek’s LinkProject, low-income residents will be courted through the Link, Lunch and Learn program. The program will feature topics such as “Taters in Tires,” where used tires serve as above-ground planters to grow healthy foods at home. Advertising is being done through a local “food room” that’s part of a community-run food donation program in nearby Mountain View.

The educational series will distribute vouchers for fruits and vegetables redeemable at the Stone County Farmers Market in Mountain View.

The grant money also is being used to teach farmers techniques to extend their growing seasons.

A series of workshops is being held to build “cold frames,” or unheated greenhouses built low to the ground. The covering keeps the soil warmer during the winter months, allowing produce to be planted earlier in the spring, and help vegetation survive longer into the colder months.

So far farmers have the cold frames set up on eight farms in Stone and Searcy counties, she said. Cold-frame workshops are scheduled through the winter season.

The Downtown Helena Farmers Market is expected to benefit in part from a $39,000 grant seeking a connection with low-income shoppers through a doctor’s prescription.

Julia Nordsieck, a spokesman with Southern Bancorp Community Partners, which oversees the distribution of grant funds, said details were still being worked out on a program in which physicians could write prescriptions, in the form of a voucher, for patients to receive fruits and vegetables from farmers markets.

The prescription program is expected to provide healthy food for the patient and introduce a new demographic to the local farmers market.

Though not funded by the grant, a machine to electronically process food-stamp benefits at the Downtown Helena Farmers Market will be new this year, said Tyson Pease, outgoing Helena-West Helena farmers market manager.

Heather Friedrich, manager of a University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture project to promote farmers markets and healthy food choices, said the USDA has earmarked grant money to place food stamp machines in markets across the country.

In Arkansas, at least $68,500 has been disbursed for the purchase of machines since 2008.

Participation in the Farmers Market Promotion Program over the years has resulted in food-stamp card reading machines being available in about 15 of the estimated 80 farmers markets in Arkansas.

The Farmers Market Promotion Program has about $10 million to allocate through its grant-making process for fiscal year 2012, the USDA reported. Programs such as the Women, Infants, and Children and the Senior Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have their own farmers market voucher programs to influence food choices made by those with fixed or low incomes.

Low income is defined as an annual income that is twice the federal poverty guideline or less- or $21,660 for individuals and $44,100 for a family of four, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

The USDA says people without ready access to “fresh, healthy and affordable food,” and those who rely on fast food and convenience store foods, have a higher incidence of obesity and other diet-related diseases such as diabetes.

In Arkansas, more than 60 percent of adults are overweight or obese, according to data from the state surgeon general. According to an example from the Centers for Disease Control’s body mass index, an adult who is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs between 169 and 202 pounds is considered overweight, and being above that weight is considered obese.

Accepting food stamps and vouchers from programs such as the Women, Infants and Children food nutrition program are ways to connect low-income people with fresh fruit and vegetables at farmers markets, said Joy Rockenbach, co-chairman of the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention.

“But it all goes back to spending $20 at the farmers market or a superstore,” she said, “and I can get a lot more produce at a grocery store.”

When discussing farmers markets as a shopping destination for low-income people, Rockenbach said she doesn’t want to throw out the proverbial baby with the bath water.

“The bottom line is you want good healthy food on the table” and it doesn’t matter where it comes from, she said.

Time and time again, we’re nourished by feedback from participants who report how grateful they are to have observed and become much more acquainted with the process of constructing a cold frame…not to mention actually engaging in it. There’s also no denying the community-building aspect of spending a day learning, creating and communing with friends and neighbors. So, if you have an interest in cold frame construction, this workshop is just what you need!

We were so pleased to place a cold frame at Stargap Farm. Locally-grown producers like Trish and Dan Stewart contribute significantly to making a region self-sustaining. We’re indebted to the Stewarts and to the many other growers and gardeners in Stone County and surrounding areas for their hard work and commitment.

Take a look at the pictures below to see the Stargap Farm cold frame in its stages of construction.

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LC’s sisters were on hand to serve us some delicious buffalo chili and, those that wanted were treated to a tour of Ratchford Farm buffalo corrals; a view of Ratchford’s expansive value-added food inventory; and interaction with several people-friendly emu’s and their corral mate, a llama.

Here’s a look at our day at Ratchford Farms!

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When “planning your planting” for Spring 2012, you may want to keep the following in mind!