Ryan Is Hungry » garden

Underground Japanese Garden

jay — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:03:24 +0000

I ran across this mention of this subterranean farm in an old bank vault under the busiest part of Tokyo . This blog explains how the farm works has has lots of great pictures showing the different grow rooms.

Though walled in from sunlight, weather and geology, it’s unbelievably verdant. Tomatoes, lettuces, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables, as well as flowers and herbs, are grown in an area covering almost a square kilometer (!!!). There is even a terraced rice paddy.

This kind of farming can’t be an efficient use of energy, but interesting to see how urban farming experiments are taking shapes in other parts of the world.

Alemany Farm: San Francisco Urban Farming

ryanne — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:16:47 +0000

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Alemany Farm is a 4 acre, fully functioning urban farm nestled between a major highway intersection, a newly gentrified neighborhood on a hill and a housing project- the perfect place to grow some food! We got a tour (and some amazing fruit) from Antonio Roman-AlcalÃ¡, Volunteer Coordinator and soon to be videoblogger/documentarian extraordinaire. The work being done at Alemany Farm proves the point that urban farming and local food production is totally possible and necessary for the health and well being of a city and its inhabitants. Local farming and gardening are great motivators for people to get acquainted, eat more healthily and become more connected with where their food comes from and what it actually is (olives grow on trees? broccoli is a flower?). If you live in the SF Bay area, you can visit or volunteer at Alemany Farm on the weekends- check out AlemanyFarm.org.

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Food Not Lawns: No Lawn Left Behind

ryanne — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:40:06 +0000

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Ever since we started living in a place were every square inch is growing something useful (to people and other creatures), our eyes are opened to the possibility of transforming lawns and other unused green space to grow food. Why water a lawn full of grass when you could water and grow salad greens, root veggies, herbs, squash, tomatoes, peppers, the list goes on and on. In this video we used some scrap wood to build a raised garden bed over a 7′x7′ patch of driveway gravel. Not only do we pluck the greens for dinner, it looks a lot nicer than the dumping ground of found materials that it once was. If every neighborhood had even a few lawns turned into gardens, we could start hyper-localizing our food supplies and getting to know our neighbors- because, after all, you’re going to want to trade gardening tips!

Correction: Thanks to Nicole who commented below that this garden bed is 49 sq feet (or 4.5 sq m), not 14 sq feet (which would be 7+7 not 7×7, duh). Thanks Nicole!

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[tags]urban permaculture, gardening, food security, urban farming, san mateo eco village, ryanishungry[/tags]

Vermicompost: Our Worm Bin Rocks!

ryanne — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:04:37 +0000

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As you might remember, we made a new worm bin after our original bin failed. This new one is doing great! The drainage holes in the bottom have helped keep it moist but not too wet, the shallow shape allows the worms to get to everything faster and the blending of food scraps allows the worms to eat right away. Today we harvest all the rich vermicompost (soil) and sprinkle it into one of our garden beds. Potted plants also LOVE this stuff. I’ve brought back to life more than one of our failing ferns with a scoop of nutrient rich vermicompost. Why buy chemically fertilizer when you can use worm poop?

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Janet Brown: Allstar Organics Farm

ryanne — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:58:38 +0000

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We met Allstar Organics co-founder, Janet Brown, during the Just Us For Food Justice Bioneers day up in Marin. I really liked what she had to say about the impending crisis that is climate change and the small scale human solutions through the food we eat. I liked it so much, I thought I should share her interview as it’s own separate post. Thanks Janet!

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My Empire of Dirt: Home Farming in Brooklyn

ryanne — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:00:16 +0000

More and more, we’re hearing stories about folks who are growing food in their backyards (this includes ourselves). This fellow, Manny Howard, is doing it at his Brooklyn home and he recently wrote about it for New York Magazine [My Empire of Dirt]. Also included in the article was a video, which was a bitch to embed here (had to hack the code myself and apologies for the pre-roll ad, ugh!) but I thought it was worth it to see and hear this man show off his radical, urban backyard farm. The thing that stuck with me and what I’ve been hearing and feeling is that in order to sustainably grown your own food, you need a network of folks doing it. It would take an entire neighborhood with several varieties of food to provide for just a handful of families. I think it’s possible and I hope we hear more stories about neighborhoods coming together to feed each other.

Another thing that really sticks with me when I meet other backyard farmers is that many of us don’t know what is correct for proper farming. What is the proper way to grow this or that? You learn as you go, wikipedia something if you think it has some special method for growth. But mostly, you can stick a seed in the ground, water it, and it’ll grow and you can eat it. That’s pretty much how it works. Don’t let this stuff intimidate you, just try it and learn each time, then share it, ok?

Check out the article and then throw some seeds in your backyard, see what happens!

Stone Soup: We Know Where Our Food Comes From

ryanne — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:43:26 +0000

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A Word of Warning: This is a graphic video. If you do not eat meat and think killing animals to do so is bad, you should not watch this video.

We live at The San Mateo Eco-Village, where we know our neighbors, garden together and learn how to live more sustainably. Part of living sustainably is eating local foods. Harvesting food from the garden and raising hens for eggs is about as local as you can get. When our neighbors Amy and Malaki arrived at the Eco-Village, they noticed a lack of eggs coming from the hens. Both have an agricultural background from years of working on a farm in Kenya. What do they do in Kenya when a bird gets too old to lay? They eat it. The whole damn thing! So we, as a community, decided to do just that. Most of us had never experienced living with chickens, let alone killing them for dinner. Growing up in the United States allows us to be vastly ignorant of where our food comes from- meat and vegetables alike. We thought this would be a good education for us city kids.

The interesting part to me was the difference in methods between Brian, co-founder of The Eco-Village and Bay Area Native, and Malaki who grew up on a farm in Kenya. Also I thought it would be way more physically dramatic- you’ve heard the saying “running around like a chicken with its head cut-off”. Well, it’s true. Even after the chicken has died, the body still moves around and spasms. Though it was not the most pleasant experience to watch an animal die at human hands, I do know that these birds had a peaceful life full of good food and loving owners. That’s saying a heck of a lot more than all the meat that is factory farmed and trucked to our grocery stores.

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Kevin Bayuk: Urban Permaculture

ryanne — Sun, 27 May 2007 00:34:48 +0000

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Kevin Bayuk rents an apartment in the Haight Ashbury district of San Fransicso. He also grows a large amount of his own food, actively composts, raises ducks and captures rainwater- total urban permaculture. One might think you need to own a large plot of land in the country to create an abundant food growing system, but Kevin proves this theory wrong on a number of counts. Often the density of an urban community is a hundred times greener than suburban areas because resources are so close together. You can walk to the store or take an electric bus over to work. Kevin shows us how he practices urban permaculture in all aspects of his life- from growing food to educating his community. Check out the Urban Alliance for Sustainability and Daily Acts for more info on getting hip to urban permaculture. Thanks Kevin!

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[tags]kevin bayuk, urban permaculture, permaculture, gardening, green, susatinable, sustainability, san francisco, ryanishungry[/tags]

Ryan Is Hungry » garden

Underground Japanese Garden

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Alemany Farm: San Francisco Urban Farming

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Food Not Lawns: No Lawn Left Behind

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Vermicompost: Our Worm Bin Rocks!

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Janet Brown: Allstar Organics Farm

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My Empire of Dirt: Home Farming in Brooklyn

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Stone Soup: We Know Where Our Food Comes From

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Kevin Bayuk: Urban Permaculture

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