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As
I mentioned on the previous page, these photos may not load instantly
and may load in an irregular order.
This page discusses 7. Growing Your Own a. Gardening
in Containers
8. Local Food Productsb. Community and Workplace Gardens c. Edible Landscape d. Home Gardens (including bees and poultry) e. Apartments, etc. f. School Gardens 9. Restaurants 10. Free Food  Oregon State University
Extension Service's Lane County
Master Gardener Association has many community partners, including Lane
Community College. Their hotline can give answers to gardening
questions.
 OSU Extension Service also has a wonderful website called Growing Your Own. It has topics like: Composting,
Container Gardens and Fall/Winter Gardens. A section of it has searchable garden hints. |
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 Noy is an OSU Extension- Lane County Master Food Preserver. The Oregon State University Extension Service Master Food Preserver Program offers periodic classes and Web-based resources on food preservation and food safety.  Quilt by area quilter Diane Jeffcott
(used with permission)   A place to get seeds and grafts is the Spring Propagation Fair at Lane Community College, which usually happens in mid March. |
  As part World War II, the government encouraged citizens to plant "Victory Gardens" so they could provide their own fruits and vegetables. Here's some information about the local project: http://victorygardensforall.org/ The Seed Ambassadors Project, based out of Oregon, is an independent, not-for-profit seed stewardship initiative. |
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Following are photos representing several ways of growing your own food:
a. Gardening in Containers  |
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 Pam grew all of these greens
in pots on her deck in early spring.
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 The pot on the left has
nasturtiums, whose leaf adds a nice zing to salads, then the next pot
has cucumbers and the third pot has tomatoes.
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 Cally, a student spring term 2010 built this raised bed and sent me the following photos.    |
Window Farming: A Do-It-Yourself Veggie Venture, by Jon Kalish, National Public Radio's Weekend Edition: Sunday, April 4, 2010. |
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b. Community Gardens
including
 This photo as well as the
next few
were taken at the Amazon Community Garden near our house.
If you'd like more information about area community gardens, call Debbie at 541-682-4812. |
 Click on this image or the
next
one if you'd like to see a larger version.
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 This is the community garden plot of Lindsey (in mid April, 2008), a student at Lane who wrote: "My family and I have a nice
garden plot right down by the river [in Eugene] off of North Polk. We
acquired it this year through entering a lottery at the parks and open
spaces department. Of course there were many more applicants than
spaces available so we ended up on the lucky side of things. This is
the first time I myself have had a garden but my mother and grandmother
always had gardens growing up. So I intend on passing along my
knowledge to my girls and also acquiring more as I go along. Currently
I have peas, carrots, romaine lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, onions,
garlic, and radishes planted."
   Skinner City Farm is
a unique Community Garden near the base of Skinner Butte in Skinner
Butte Park in Eugene. They offer agriculturally-based programs for
plot-holders and also the general community. They have free food
preservation demonstrations and will travel with their Mobile Cannery
to other area gardens for demonstrations. I love the photo of their
Mobile Cannery on their website.
Common Ground Unfortunately there is more demand for community garden spots than there are spaces. Our neighborhood (Friendly Area Neighbors) has found a creative solution to that by creating garden space from which anyone can harvest.  It's in west Eugene on Van
Buren Street and what would be 21st Avenue.
  The donation of Territorial
seeds from Down To Earth helped
volunteers get starts going early this spring. A City of Eugene
Neighborhood Matching Grant that was awarded has helped pay for the
tool shed (an Acosa hut), irrigation, and tools.
 Chris is explaining that this
right-of-way hasn't been used since about 1920.
    The City of Eugene is working to increase neighborhood-level food production with this program: Urban Agriculture in Eugene and these websites
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Another addition to our community is the Courthouse Garden. Located by the Federal Courthouse in Eugene, the Courthouse Garden is a collaboration between the City of Eugene, Lane County, the State of Oregon, the Federal Government and the University of Oregon.  Federal Judge Ann Aiken and University of Oregon Professors Ann Bettman and Lorri Nelson assisted in the planning, production, and creation of the garden. Judge Aiken can be found volunteering on may Saturday mornings, as she was the day I visited in July. Above she's explaining to me that the garden's 3 principle purposes are to serve as:
 The Courthouse Garden (which has a Facebook page) relies almost solely on volunteers and donations from the local Eugene community.   Although ground was first broken only in April 2010, by that summer it was going strong. Many
Cooks, Delicious Soup: Community effort turns wasteland into garden,
by Rosemary Camozzi, Oregon Quarterly,
Summer 2010.
Here's a story about it you can listen to: Garden Brings Community Together, By Rachael McDonald, KLCC, August 9, 2010. (about 3 minutes) |
 FOOD for Lane County (our food bank, whose mission is to eliminate hunger in our community by creating access to food) has a community garden called GrassRoots Garden on Coburg Road in north Eugene, behind St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The other 2 gardens in their Gardens Program are the Youth Farm (mentioned on page 1) and the Churchill Community Garden. Their website says that the Gardens Program "addresses the root causes of hunger and malnutrition by promoting community and individual self-sufficiency. " |
 Here the garden coordinator, Mary Bradley, is explaining that their deep, very rich soil gives them a successful celery crop that FOOD for Lane County finds many uses for. |
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 A local Eagle Scout, Brian Reyneke built the shelter above the cob oven for his Eagle Scout badge. |
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Community Sharing helps residents of South Lane County remain fed, housed, and safe while they work towards self-sufficiency. One of their activties is a garden located   |
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This garden is a project of Healing Harvest, whose mission is to "bring horticultural therapy into the community by providing gardening and nature-based activities as a rehabilitative and restorative method to improve the lives of various challenged populations".    Maggie Matoba coordinates this garden. That's LaDonna on the left.   |
| Workplace Gardens A worksite that has created a community garden to increase their focus on health and wellness is Pacific Source Health Plans.    |
 Sue Archbald told me these
are
salmonberries and described their taste as "bland, yet with a
hint of refreshing flavor".
These are native to our area and both the berries and the young shoots were widely eaten by coastal tribes. Click here for more information about salmonberries. The art is appropriate, isn't it! There is a lot of very creative yard art at this house, which is in Eugene on 21st between Madison and Jefferson streets. |
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 Rosemary makes a fragrant
shrub,
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 as does thyme.
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One Green World is a
business in Molalla (southeast of Portland) with unique fruit and nut
trees and shrubs as well as berries that can be part of your "edible
landscape". Their catalog has all kinds of interesting trees that
I was surprised to learn grow well here, including pomegranates.
I was intigued by this columnar apple tree: http://www.onegreenworld.com/ |
 Here's my neighbor, Linda,
working
in her garden in March.
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 Linda harvests kale from her
garden (and also chard) all winter.
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 She uses an inexpensive oven
thermometer to tell when her soil is warm enough to plant seeds.
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 My friend, Babs, plants pea
pod
seeds on about Valentine's day and harvests them for most of the spring.
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 Babs' rhubarb in the spring
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 Here she is in August with
her
granddaughter, Delaney, harvesting green beans. That's spaghetti
squash climbing along with the beans.
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Urban farmers are raising their own bees and getting honey. Our neighbor just installed a hive where a former owner kept their garbage can.   |
The bees are loving our lavender, which blooms for
weeks, and I'm anxious to find out if their honey will be
lavender-scented.   |
Lane County Beekeepers Association Urban farmers are also raising chickens. |
 A student named Diane brought
me
these eggs from her chickens that she raises at her house on the
outskirts of Eugene.
In her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's description of the eggs from her daughter, Lily's, chickens. "The products from her
different
breeds of hens crossed a palette from soft green to pink, tan and
chocolate brown. Lily arranged them so every carton contained a
rainbow...."
There's a great website that accompanies the book: http://animalvegetablemiracle.com/ |
 Diane's chickens
Inside the city of Eugene, city code (682-5010) allows 2
chickens (no
roosters) on a home lot and Springfield (726-3700) allows 1-4. If
interested, call one of those numbers first to confirm the regulations. |
  Here's Guy Plaa at his home
in Goshen in 1982. He was a chef instructor in LCC's culinary
program for many years.
 Evan, another student, raises
ducks at his home.
  Here's what two of their eggs look like. The smaller egg is the size of a chicken egg but it is actually from their smaller breed, the bantam silver Appleyard. For more information, you can visit what Evan posted with the website Local Harvest: Boondockers Farm. e. Apartments, etc. Some living situations like
apartments have space for gardening. Ya-Po-Ah Terrace
Retirement Apartments are in downtown Eugene at the foot of
Skinner's Butte and they have 35 gardeners.
 Off to the right you can see
an 83-year-old who has been gardening there for over 10 years.
   Ya-Po-Ah Terrace Retirement
Apartments were completed in 1964 with funds provided by the U. S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
 Novella Carpenter turned a
vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving farm, raising vegetables
bees and a variety on animals, including chickens, rabbits and
pigs. Powells' Books calls Farm
City "an unforgettably charming memoir, full of hilarious
moments, fascinating farmers' tips, and a great deal of heart. It is
also a moving meditation on urban life versus the natural world and
what we have given up to live the way we do."
Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer,
June 2009.
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| This article has lots of
information about raising chickens in Eugene and Springfield. Chicken
revival: City-dwelling poultry lovers have created a growing market,
By Diane Dietz, The Register-Guard,
April 18, 2010. |
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LCC
Learning Garden
an education-based
experience
for
students.
 The LCC Learning Garden is
located in the southwestern part of the 30th Ave. campus behind
Building 26. (Click here for a
map of LCC.)
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 Brendon Lynch coordinated it
the day I visited.
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 Mike Sims explains about how
food
scraps from the cafeteria are composted and then added to fertilize the
soil.
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 Salad greens from the garden
are
used in the LCC cafeteria.
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 Click here for more information about LCC's Learning Garden Club. In 2004, Lane formed a
Sustainability Department. Their website has a calendar that
includes a listing of LCC events that support home gardeners.
http://www.lanecc.edu/sustainability/calendar.html |
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University of Oregon's Urban Farm  |
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 This is arugula, a wonderful
and
spicy salad green.
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 The School Garden Project of Lane County is a grassroots, non-profit organization dedicated to fostering hands-on, schoolyard-based learning experiences for children by creating vibrant and sustainable school gardens and habitats. Elementary Students Grow Their Own Food: Friday, students at Camas Ridge Elementary in Eugene ate veggies they harvested from their school garden; KLCC, By Rachael McDonald; 5/7/2010  Project.  This is the garden at our neighborhood school.    Willamette Farm and Food Coalition’s Farm to School Program has received a Victory Against Hunger award from the Congressional Hunger Center, Victory Wholesale Group and National Farm to School Network for its efforts to fight hunger through promoting and creating farm-to-school programs. Students in Springfield Public School's Community Transition Program have a garden plot at the Food for Lane County Youth Farm, located on Flamingo Way, near Game Farm Road. The plan is to be able to sell vegetable starts and fresh produce at Springfield’s Farmers’ Market. Kevin Hillman, Transition
Specialist with the Youth Transition Program emailed this to me:
"My goals are to provide realistic work experience to our special needs students as well as support services in transitioning from school to the adult world. I also have a personal goal of providing nutritious food to our school lunch programs."  This is Anthony and Danny, two of the high schoolers in the Community Transition Program, selling pea starts at the Propagation Fair held in the spring of 2008 at Lane Community College. |
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The Willamette Valley Sustainable Foods Alliance is a regional association of businesses, located in Lane County, that promotes natural food businesses through relationships, education and sustainable business practices. |
 Lochmead is one of the largest privately owned dairy farms in the Pacific Northwest. It is still owned and operated by the Gibson family, who founded it in 1941. |
 "Genesis
Juice to be revived again", by Joe Mosley, The Register-Guard, June 21, 2007.
The Dairy Farmers of Oregon
maintains a list of other Oregon Dairy Processing
Plants. I've seen in some grocery
stores soft cheeses made by Fern's Edge Goat Dairy located
above Dexter Lake.
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 Golden Temple Bakery, founded
in 1972 and now part of Hearthside Foods,
makes granola using
only organically-grown
oats as well as other organically-grown ingredients. It is
available in many grocery stores.
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 Organically Grown Co-operative, founded in 1978, opened it's first dock in 1983 and its first warehouse in Portland in 1993. The photo of the truck above is in 2007. Organically Grown Company |
 In
the center back are Jack Gray
and Mary Jo Wade (holding their first child, Sam) in the summer of 1983
at OGC grand opening. Jack and Mary Jo are two of the four
co-owners
of Winter
Green Farm,
an early
organic farm in Lane County that is still thriving.
I was in a Birth to
Three group
with Mary Jo and Sam and we had several meetings at their farm.
They introduced me to Oregon Tilth,
an organization of organic farmers, gardeners and consumers founded
in1974. Tilth offers
educational events throughout the state of Oregon, and provides organic
certification services to organic growers, processors, and handlers
internationally.
You can click on the above
image,
or the next two, for larger images.
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 Joe Gabriel (left), manager
of
Organically Grown Cooperative in 1984, along with Stephen Chase.
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 This was taken during the
Eugene
Celebration parade in about 1989.
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 Toby first began making tofu
paté in the late seventies at The Oregon Country Fair.
Toby's Family Foods |
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 Glorybee Foods started in a Eugene family's garage in 1975. Their honey is delicious. |
 Sweet Creek Foods is a
relatively new company that makes preserved organic products (including
different pickled items, fruit
spreads, salsas and albacore tuna) that are packed in glass jars.
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 We have a selection of local
bakeries. This one mills their own flour, although it could be
their grains are not local. The Southern
Willamette Valley Bean & Grain Project is working
to stimulate the cultivation and marketing of flour made from local
organically-grown
grains.
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 Under the above photo on the bus, it said: "To last 100 years, you
knead a
lot of dough."
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Other Eugene bread bakeries:
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 This fabulous and award-winning cheese is made just a little south of here. |
9. Restaurants Sometimes restaurants list
their
locally grown options, like this menu listing beef from Knee
Deep Cattle
Company.
The booklet mentioned earlier published by the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition also has a section listing restaurants that feature locally grown selections. |
10. "Free"
Food and Edible Nature Neighbors often have more
fruit than they can use.
This sign says "FREE FRUIT. Take as many as you can carry. There are plenty more." |
 The owners of this fig tree
in
Eugene didn't appreciate it when people came by and took ALL of the
low-lying fruit off this tree.
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 "Alley Cruisin'" in August for breakfast. |
 What most of us know as blackberries are not native here, but were introduced in about 1850. While blackberries are at the top of Oregon's invasive weed list, they are also a very healthful berry full of nutrients, antioxidants and other phytochemicals. Some maintain that they are among the state's most promising farm crops. |
 I think these are plums.
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 And these are persimmons in
November.
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 In the fall, the LCC Science Division offers this class: BI103H General
Biology-Mushrooms
"Through field, classroom,
and
laboratory work this course will help students identify and develop an
understanding of mushroom evolution, structure, function and place in
the ecology of the areas we study. Required Saturday or Sunday trips to
the Cascades and Central Oregon Coast are included in the field work."
The Cascade Mycological Society is a group of local people who share a common interest in and appreciation of our mushrooms.  In late fall, the Cascade Mycological Society co-sponsors a Mushroom Festival at Mount Pisgah Arboretum.       The article about professionals called "The Mushroom Hunters" (by Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, August 20, 2007) begins: "Two hours east of Eugene,
Oregon, in the shadow of the southern Cascades, the forests begin to
thin. It’s the kind of land that only a mushroom could love."
New Yorker slide show about hunting mushrooms in Oregon, August 20, 2007 issue. |
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