Crank up the RSS feed! The news is out that Americans are worried about the safety of their food supply.

This astonishing revelation comes to us via the Center for Food Integrity, an organization established just last year in Kansas City, Mo., “to increase consumer trust and confidence in the contemporary U.S. food system.” Needless to say, they have their work cut out for them. To wit: the organization’s Consumer Trust Survey, whose findings were partly released yesterday. Of those Americans surveyed:

• More were worried about the safety of their food than about the war in Iraq or global warming.
• Less than 20 percent strongly agreed with the statement that “government agencies are doing a good job ensuring the safety of the food we eat.”

The organization — whose members are an odd amalgam of industrial farm organizations (eg American Farm Bureau Federation), suppliers (Monsanto), universities (Purdue) and government agencies (Missouri Department of Agriculture) — intends to release the full survey results at its annual meeting in October.

The lack of confidence is hardly surprising when things like today’s announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture of a proposed rule to ban “downer” cattle from the food stream comes only after months of pressure. (Downer cattle are the too-sick-to-stand cattle that the USDA said didn’t exist at packers until the Humane Society caught them on tape. And that the USDA chief then shrugged and said shouldn’t be banned.)

And don’t forget the doubts sown by the Great Pepper Salmonella Poisoning incident this summer, which officials attributed to tomatoes and startled consumers by admitting they couldn’t actually track tomato shipments from import to delivery. The food recalls are too numerous to mention.

I hope that the Center for Food Integrity isn’t just window dressing for industrial ag as usual. It’s mission “to promote dialogue, model best practices, address issues that are important to consumers, and serve as a resource for accurate, balanced information about the U.S. food system” isn’t nearly as heartening as if it aimed actually to produce safe and healthful food that’s also safe for the long-term health of agriculture and the environment.

And having Wal-Mart’s grocery exec Jack Sinclair as a keynote speaker at the center’s upcoming annual meeting isn’t a strong sign that these folks understand or care in the slightest about SOLE food, except perhaps as a marketing ploy. How can you take anything Sinclair says seriously when he contends, “Sustainability goes to the heart of everything we do at Wal-Mart”? Maybe he needs to visit his own stores.

These days, everywhere you look, a new industry or service is marketed as “greening” itself — making it more environmentally conscious by reducing its carbon footprint or assuaging its corporate guilt through any number of steps. Usually that’s considered a good thing.

But an article in this week’s New York Times explains why “greening” in the Florida citrus industry is the last thing we want: this form is caused by a bacterium, Candidatus liberibacter asiaticus, transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri), and results in green, lopsided, bitter fruits. (Image at right from the University of Florida, Citrus Research and Education Center.)

It’s a relatively new problem to Florida, appearing only three-and-a-half years ago, but the disease has spread so quickly that some estimate that “virtually all the state’s citrus trees will be infected in 7 to 12 years.” Spraying has not stopped the spread of disease, resistant varieties have not been found, and scientists are having difficulty recreating the pathogen in labs in order to research other potential controls, including resistant hybrids.

Various genetic modifications of orange and grapefruit species are being tried to stave off the bacterium.  (Lemon and lime trees are apparently tolerant of the disease thus far and have not seen a decline.) Though initial tests have shown success, Dr. Jude Grosser of the University of Florida is aware that not everyone would be excited about GMO citrus, though he suggested that “it’ll probably come down to the point where people have to decide whether they want orange juice or not.”

No word on whether or not this bacterium has affected organic crops, or backyard trees surrounded by diverse plants. Planting guava trees nearby seems to protect some trees from greening.

Though the article largely deals with the scientific aspects of dealing with the disease, the economic results seem obvious: expect higher-price citrus fruits and juices as the Florida citrus industry sees a broader spread of the disease, and expect that citrus grown elsewhere will become more prevalent in the supermarket.

Orange you glad to know that? We’re not.

Been feeling a bit queasy about all the contaminated meat peppering the news lately? Put that weary stomach to rest. Yes, children, all is well with the world (or at least the world of ground beef). In yet another illustration of its almost preternatural ability to correctly identify and attack food-safety problems at the source, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued a clarion call: Small and very small meat processing plants need better testing of ground beef. And, reports Food Chemical News today (sorry, subscription only), FSIS has new guidelines to show them how to do things right.

Huh. That’s funny. I was under the impression — mistaken, I’m sure — that the recent beef recalls originated at large processing plants. Very, very large ones. Forgive me. I probably had salmonella at the time or something.

But I digress. Today, FSIS released new E. coli-testing guidelines for small meat processing plants. The guidelines were released at the same time as a lengthy report [pdf, 200 pages] on the testing practices used by meat processing facilities of various sizes. You might think, then, that the report had some light to shine on testing at small-scale plants, problems the new guidelines will help to fix. Ah, but that would be too simple for the crafty FSIS! They chose instead to take a more roundabout route. The report summarized the number of meat processing plants of each size (small and very small operations account for 93% of all U.S. processors) and the amount of meat they process (small and very small operations process roughly 10% of all U.S. beef). It then proceeded to present the results of its survey on E. coli testing procedures without breaking any of the findings out by operation size, leaving us to intuit which ones had the problems. It makes the whole process more exciting, really– a veritable adventure in food-safety mind reading. (more…)

As part of the “How We Eat” series at the Commonwealth Club this month, Slow Food Nation Policy and Communications director Naomi Starkman moderated a thoughtful panel discussion last week about the centralization of the food industry with Michael Dimock, president of Roots of Change; Paul Frankel, managing director of Ecosa Capital; and Don Shaffer, president and CEO, RSF Social Finance.

In the initial discussion about centralization, Frankel raised the important point that centralization is just a tool — it can be used for good or bad purposes. And it can have good or bad effects. The positive impacts for consumers include low prices (it’s important to note that our food system has many costs that do not appear on the price tag); the reverse include nationwide food-safety crises — the 2006 spinach-related E. coli outbreak, in which contaminated spinach from a single field caused suffering and death in 26 states (I mapped it last year).

The panelists agreed that the current focus on maximizing return on investment and seeking high profits is a major problem. When dollars are the primary goal, other things get ignored, such as health, local culture, and flavor. To help correct the elevation of profit above all else, Shaffer called for new thinking about investments; he explained how his company is trying to create alternatives to the equities market, such as setting up investment funds for individual investors that will make loans to worthy enterprises. Institutional investors, venture capitalists, non-profit foundations and so-called “angel” investors have always been involved in financing small businesses, but it is somewhat new to have an investment vehicle where ‘regular people’ can help cause change in the food system while also (ideally) receiving a return on their investment in exchange for sharing some of the risk (I haven’t seen any statistics, but would guess that the food and farming sector is a fairly risky place to invest).

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California’s ongoing drama about permitting raw (unpasteurized) milk to be sold in stores has turned sour once again this week. Just when it looked like proposed legislation palatable to the raw dairy industry — that would allow those that implemented a more holistic food-safety program to opt out of draconian bacterial counts — would flow smoothly through the legislature, some new twists threaten to shut off the tap once again.

Practice round

Here’s the back story. Since October, California raw milk advocates have been engaged in legislative battle over new sanitation requirements for raw dairies. Legislation was enacted in September of 2007 that required raw dairies to meet a much more strict sanitation requirement, based on a bacterial count that was so strict that California raw dairies question whether the new standards can be met. The raw milk community passed the hat to hire a law firm to challenge the bill and a lobbyist to try to get the legislation overturned. The legislative battle has been a surprisingly smooth one for a movement with anti-government tendencies, up until this week.

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By Debra Eschmeyer

The carrots with which we entice our children to perform well have morphed into colossal sugary carrot cupcakes, as highlighted in the Los Angeles Daily News this morning. The article portrays the debate over the appropriate incentives to get children to read as pitting one responsible party against another. Whose job is it to keep our children healthy — government, parents, or public/private institutions such as libraries?

The answer is D: All of the above. We are responsible as a society to give the best possible future to our children. I’m involved with two organizations that work toward that goal. With 30% of our school children overweight, we need programs such as Farm to School to plant lifelong eating habits in our kids, to help them appreciate real food that will nourish their minds and bodies. And as Moira Beery, the California farm-to-school coordinator at Occidental College’s Center for Food & Justice, says, “Pizza parties in and of themselves aren’t bad, but we have to be deliberate about examples we set for kids.”

While the Olympics race on in China, the USDA is holding its own tryouts of sorts right now with listening sessions to discuss the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, which affects school lunch programs, WIC, and much more. Groups ranging from children’s health advocates to sustainable agriculture nonprofits are speaking up for universal access to healthy food, higher reimbursement rates tied to meal quality, and mandatory funds to support farm-to-school programs. Sessions in Georgia, Illinois, and Colorado are coming up (see schedule). You can also submit comments on the Act electronically up until October 15. 

The greatest return on investment we can make as a nation is feeding our children nourishing, good, fair, and clean food that will fuel the best bodies and create an environment for better learning, which will in turn build a healthier community and stronger nation.

Go for the gold, America!

Debra Eschmeyer is the marketing & media manager of the National Farm to School Network and the Center for Food & Justice; she also works a fifth-generation family farm in Ohio, where she raises organic heirloom fruits, vegetables, and chickens.

“Paper Bags” by Chris Jordan, www.chrisjordan.com, used with permission

When artist Chris Jordan (right) began the first talk of the 2008 TASTE3 conference, the audience was excited, engaged, and ready to learn. But with his first few slides — paper bags, plastic cups, water bottles — they started squirming a bit, as Jordan showed how everyday individual actions like drinking a bottle of water or buying groceries create nearly inconceivable quantities of waste and environmental damage when considered on a national scale.

For his series “Running the Numbers,” Jordan created digital photo-mosaics that illustrate some unpleasant realities of the industrialized world. Through what must be painstaking digital manipulation, Jordan lays out an endless vista of plastic beverage bottles (2 million used every 5 minutes), builds a maze of plastic cups (1 million used on worldwide airline flights every 6 hours), and grows a forest of brown paper grocery bags (1.4 million used in the U.S. every hour). Although much of his work is about waste, he also looks at other topics like drug abuse, gun violence, and the shredding of the Constitution.

At a distance, he said, our consumption seems OK — we get lots of great things. But dig down a bit to the details, and it looks much worse. Take cell phones, for instance. To build one, we need minerals like coltan. The mining of coltan causes environmental destruction, human exploitation and war, primarily in Africa. Disposing of the over 400,000 phones that are retired each day in the United States is another challenge, as most phones contain toxic materials that can leach into ground water or create toxic chemicals when burned. (A 2001 New York Times Magazine article describes some of the problems around coltan; another New York Times article explains what happens to retired cell phones.)

The reality behind abstract statistics such as “2.3 million Americans currently incarcerated” can be hard to comprehend. Jordan strives to help us truly see these quantities. In other words, he takes inert numbers and invests them with feeling. If the issues have emotional weight, Jordan said, perhaps we will change our behavior.

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Did you hear the one about how our great, politically appointed bureaucrats bypassed better-qualified locations for the planned National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in favor of one with more desirable political connections? Makes me feel all cozy and protected knowing the care with which our Department of Homeland Security is screening for our safety and the safety of our food supply … except, of course, when politics is served some other way.

The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, in the likelihood you missed it, is the planned successor to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (right, USDA ARS photo) off the coast of Long Island, New York. Ever since Homeland Security announced in 2005 its plans to build a new facility, people have questioned the wisdom of putting a lab filled with the most dangerous known animal pathogens on the mainland, upwind of livestock, meaning that in the case of accident or mischief, those pathogens could cause huge economic losses — or worse. (See England’s 2007 lab-based outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.)

Eco-devo fans in prospective new locations nevertheless did their best to elbow their way to the top of the Homeland Security list by showing off their scientists, their labs, their airtight security. Never mind that as recently as May, the New York Times was concurring with congressional concerns about the wisdom of such a move at all. Silly gooses.

Last week Homeland Security laid to rest their concerns that wisdom matters. Not only did officials there apparently decline to reconsider renovating Plum Island, but they also declined to pay too much heed to their own rating system.

Lucky for me, I do feel safer for the knowledge. When Homeland Security put politically desirable Flora, Mississippi (tied for 14th, if I’m counting right) on its short list, it had to bump one of the better qualified locations. The best of these was Leavenworth, Kansas, which is just up the road a piece, less than 40 miles from where I live. (Leavenworth pols aren’t happy, though.) Unlucky for me, DHS went ahead and short-listed Manhattan, Kansas, only 85 miles away and upwind. I suppose the good news is that both these locations are downwind of much of Kansas’s substantial cropland and feed lots, but still.

As addle-brained as the Flora listing may seem, it could be that those Homeland Security folks know what they’re doing. Their announcement seems to have distracted people from discussing (as at least one person did recently in Kansas, and as Elisa Harris did, by implication, in the  Times last week) the question of putting the facility on the mainland at all.

Sadly, the political jockeying over everything in Washington has gotten so out of hand that few people trust the plutocrats (elected or otherwise) to remember that, really, they work for us. Wait…they do, don’t they?

The wave of ground-beef recalls entangling even Whole Foods has grown to tsunami proportions for Nebraska Beef Ltd.: the amount of beef recalled has reached 6.66 million pounds, as food injury lawyer Bill Marler recently pointed out. If nearly 100 people sick is not enough, the Mark of the Beast’s appearance suggests that End Times for the company are near.

Learning over dinner that Nebraska Beef sued its church customers for not properly preparing meatballs, Ethicurean artist in residence Frederick, who previously brought us the Pollan Painting series, became indignant and was inspired to capture the company’s last days on canvas. (Technically, poster paint on construction paper.) Frederick’s interest in painting and in Old Testament stories of God’s wrath come together in the artwork above. The lightning in the top left corner beat out an early idea of the Missouri River at Omaha turning to blood.

So, let’s talk about MaryJane’s Farm, shall we? I’m feeling conflicted, and I need some help sorting it out. Recently, a giant box full of MaryJane’s Farm instant organic meals arrived on my doorstep, the result of a  long-ago gift certificate I only recently cashed in.

In previous posts, Ethicureans have quipped that “friends don’t let friends eat too much processed food,” and that “crap is crap,” even when organic. But I’ll be honest: I am grateful for these meals. I am grateful that as winter arrives, as the local foods become less plentiful, as darkness arrives earlier and earlier, and as our afternoons become filled with gymnastics classes and swimming lessons and homework, my cabinets will have a safety-net of fast, simple organic meals. On the other hand, I look at these meals, and I feel a tiny bit…cheap.

Call it Ethicurean guilt if you will, but I need to talk this one through.

MaryJane Butters, the woman behind this food, is the original farm girl. Okay, maybe she’s not the original farm girl, but she sure looks the part. She’s an organic farmer who grew up canning garden-fresh food and wearing hand-sewn clothes. After stints as a single mother, carpenter, and wilderness ranger, MaryJane purchased a five-acre homestead in Idaho, sight unseen. Since then, she’s been farming this land — and then 100 more adjacent acres, after she married a neighbor farmer — in high style. We’re talking high style, friends. By which I mean oh-so-chic low-country style that looks effortless in Country Home magazine, and yet which somehow you cannot seem to create in your own home no matter how hard you try. We’re talking style that’s high enough to make her a brand— a brand that permeates her many products: her glossy magazine, her many books, her line of organic linens, her adorable calico aprons, her primitive-style inspirational wall plaques, her magazine-cover-worthy pillows, her scented candles, her dolls, her clothes-pin bags, her calendars…and so on (if there is such a thing as a Farmgirl Empire, it exists at the end of Wild Iris Lane in Moscow, Idaho). MaryJane is enough of a brand that The New Yorker said that “Butters is a farmer the way Martha Stewart is a housewife.”

But don’t dismiss her just yet. This chick is not simply some greenwashed company operating out of a Manhattan skyscraper. In so many ways, this pig-tailed, boot-wearin’, milkmaid of a grandma seems as authentic as they come. (more…)

While walking down Broadway in Oakland (between 30th and Brook), I came across the remarkable poster shown above. A Google search for “Edible Root Crew” turned up nothing. Is this the work of some nearby youth gardeners? Or are the words on the poster some kind of urban slang? Or could it be that the people that installed the “Corn Syrup” sign in North Oakland are branching out into healthier foods?

Have you seen this poster in your area?

Last Sunday’s New York Times looked at some recently released data from the USDA Economic Research Service showing that between 1970 and 2006, the amount of food available to the average American grew by 1.8 pounds of food per week. Among the increases were meat and egg consumption (+0.2 pounds per week), fruits (+0.5 pounds), fats (+0.5 pounds), and refined sweeteners (+0.3 pounds; recall the multi-decade trends in my post about HFCS). Ezra Klein converted the results into a chart that simplifies interpretation a bit. In the end, however, we probably need to look at calories instead of pounds.

The Loss-Adjusted Food Availability dataset contains average calories produced daily per capita for over 200 basic foods, as well as collections of larger food groups. The dataset was constructed by the Economic Research Service by summing the U.S. production, imports, and beginning stocks of a particular commodity and then removing exports, ending stocks, and non-food uses. Then the ERS analysts further adjust the quantity using estimates for spoilage and processing losses. The data are useful as an indicator of trends, but as the USDA’s “Limitations of the Data” section says, “…the loss-adjusted data series does not measure actual consumption or the quantities ingested because neither series is based on direct observations of individual intake. Therefore, data are not available by demographic, state, or regional breakdowns, and it is not known where readers can obtain such data.”

I have created two charts from the dataset. The first chart shows the average total calorie availability daily per capita between 1970 and 2004 (adjusted for spoilage and processing losses). The increase during that period was more than 500 calories per day, 24% higher than in 1970. if one failed to avoid this temptation and actually ingested 500 additional calories per day it would be tough to prevent it from going to the waistline — it takes 51 minutes of running (5 mph), 51 minutes of swimming, or 108 minutes of walking (3.5 mph) for a 154-pound man to burn 500 calories, according to MyPyramid.gov. (That’s the default weight/gender setting, oddly enough — one suspects very few adult American males weigh that little.) Not many people can find the time to exercise that much. And so, obesity rates are stratospheric.

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The second chart shows how the calories are distributed across broad categories. Several things jump out at me. The most vigorous leap is the sharp increase in added fat calories since the late 1990s, an increase of almost 150 calories per day — and this follows a nearly 100-calorie increase since 1970. The bulk of the fat increase is from what the USDA calls “salad and cooking oils.” While it would be nice to think that most of those oils are extra virgin olive oil eaten in healthy salads or in Mediterranean dishes, I’m guessing that deep-fried and processed foods are the source of most of those calories. Other shifts in the chart are more positive: in the last few years, fat and sugar calorie production have dropped slightly.

The full dataset can be downloaded from the USDA’s Economic Research Service as an Excel spreadsheet if you’d like to investigate the availability of wheat flour, margarine, broccoli, beef or any of the other foods in the collection.

Another day, another E. coli recall from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. This time the recall is for 1.2 million pounds of “primal cuts, subprimal cuts and boxed beef” packed by Nebraska Beef in Omaha, Nebraska, bringing Nebraska’s bad beef total to a whopping 6.5 million pounds. Primal cuts are large sections of beef like the chuck (shoulder) and round (rump), while subprimal cuts are smaller divisions, like the blade and the arm section of the chuck that supermarkets often finish processing themselves. “Boxed beef” refers to shrink-wrapped, case-ready cuts and ground beef of the kind you’re used to seeing at the supermarket.

“So what?” I can just hear you yawning. “I don’t buy no stinking feedlot beef.”

Well the beef in question this time is from Coleman Natural Beef, which supplies “natural” and organic beef to Whole Foods, among other retailers. (Although in most cases the “natural” label only means minimally processed, Coleman says that its beef is hormone- and antibiotic-free and raised in the open air in a vegetarian diet.)

Awake now? Heading to the fridge perhaps?

According to the Boston Globe, seven E. coli cases from last month have been linked to ground beef sold at Whole Foods AFTER the first, preliminary July 3 recall from Nebraska Beef, which did not identify any of the beef as being sold under the Coleman brand. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has advised consumers not to eat any fresh ground-beef products purchased from a Whole Foods store from June 2 to Aug. 6. A quick Google reveals that Whole Foods in other states (like this one in Santa Monica, CA) also carry the beef. Altogether, the FSIS website reports, 31 cases in 12 states and Canada have been identified as linked to the investigation.

Supposedly, as Elanor reported here, the USDA was going to start reporting the names of retail establishments involved in Class I recalls like this one as of August. So where is the list? In that announcement, the USDA did give itself a 3- to 10-business-day window after a recall to post the names. Because apparently, there’s no rush or anything. (I mean, business days?)

Coleman Natural Foods was in the process of selling off Coleman Natural Beef to Meyer Natural Angus as of April (PDF) to focus on its other businesses, including natural poultry (it owns the Rocky and Rosie brands of chicken also sold at Whole Foods), pork, and prepared foods. As far as I can tell the deal has not yet closed. Wonder if this will put a damper on things.

Note that we have updated the Hamburger Threat Level.

Our friends in the blogging world have been busy cooking up some great pieces. Back when we did the Digest lo so many months ago, these all would have merited a green star, or even two. So check’em out.

Sacred cows made of bullshit: Kerry Trueman tartly (and masterfully) fillets the numerous “let’s not save the planet columns” written by John Tierney, Stanley Fish, and Stephen J. Dubner in recent weeks, then disposes of Kim Severson’s recent “lazy locavores” piece for dessert. Now you know what to say to your dad when he quotes one of what Kerry calls these “rancid croutons” at you. (Eating Liberally and Huffington Post)

No more food for you: Tom Philpott reviews Paul Roberts’s “End of Food” and tells why it is not just another where-your-food-comes-from primer, but oughta be on the menu for policy makers and local-food activists alike. Hint: Because it’s all too easy to forget that ensuring a reliable food supply has been a monumental challenge throughout history. (Grist)

Unwiser chewsing?: Is the economic downturn slowing the country’s appetite for organic and sustainable local food? Yep, says “Organic, Inc.” author Sam Fromartz. “The more committed organic food shoppers will always be there, but much larger number of dabblers are scaling back, unable to see the real value above the cost.” (Chews Wise)

A little hedonicism never hurt anybody: Boing Boing TV has posted its third installment on TCHO Chocolate, a very cool venture started by former NASA software developer Timothy Childs and WIRED cofounder Louis Rosetto that’s responsibly sourced (organic and/or fair trade) and committed to the “direct, transparent connection between the farmers and the consumers, from the pod to the palate” as well as to “helping farmers by transferring knowledge of how to grow and ferment better beans so they can escape commodity production to become premium producers.” And by the way? The chocolate is fantastic. Boing Boing TV’s coverage: Part One is on chocolate origins, Part Two is on the machines TCHO uses to make it, and Part Three is a giggly, amusing “Taste Test Trip.”

Summer’s heat has finally reached us all, even our northernmost Ethicurean colleagues, and if you wonder why you haven’t heard much from many of us — well, you can imagine us with dirt on our hands and knees, working away in our Victory Gardens as our crops take off. And since the work never ends, I’ll keep this update brief:

Janet reports that her flowers, potted herbs and mint continue to thrive (”as if it’s hard to make mint grow,” she notes), but her ventures into other herbs have had only one real success: the sage, which is prospering. The oregano is doing OK, and the parsley and thyme are alive, but barely. She’s had more success in conning getting produce out of successful gardeners, a practice she hopes to build on.

Despite dodging wildfires and preparing for a wedding, Amanda has spent time in her own garden, appreciating her raised beds as the summer progresses and she finds the work more tiring. She also offers her tips on keeping birds from eating orchard fruit, and we wish her a good harvest!

Kathryn is excited about the ongoing harvest in her garden, noting that “my Sun Gold tomatoes are beginning to ripen. I planted two plants this year instead of one due to popular demand (my sweetie loves ‘em). I just ate my first Tigerella (it has stripes) which has a full-sized tomato taste in a cherry tomato size. The other tomato plants (six more in all) have small green fruit so far.” Some plants aren’t doing quite as well: a couple lettuce heads are close to bolting, and the chard hasn’t grown much. The cucumber vines have produced one cucumber so far, and other vegetables are flowering but not yet developed. She adds,

The sky has been so overcast this summer that I wonder if this is hindering my plants from thriving as well as they did two years ago. For two summers in a row my pattipan squash’s production has been lackluster. The flowers are not getting properly pollinated… and I know I should do this by hand but so far haven’t followed through on learning how. Next year I will consider planting at least another squash of each type to see if having more pollen/flowers will help the situation — and/or I’ll just have to do the pollination myself. I’m also more motivated to build raised beds next year as my plants in my wine barrels are doing the best.

Even with a short growing season in Montreal and a late start due to his wedding (congratulations!), Peter sends word that his garden (shown left and also at top) is doing well, though everything is smaller than the produce growing elsewhere in the community garden. “Right now I am only harvesting raspberries and lettuce, but it is lettuce from heaven. We’ve got arugula, sorrel, spinach, and some regular lettuce — which we now appreciate fully after being served a salad at my brother’s house made of nothing more than romaine,” he notes. Several crops are beginning to produce fruit and ripen, including tomatoes, beans, broccoli, black currants, and garlic. Peter adds:

I found that even a 4-minute ride on my bike was too far to satisfy most of my immediate needs, so I also planted some things at home (the 2nd floor of a triplex). I got some buckets from a nearby restaurant, drilled some drainage holes in the bottoms, and wired them to the outer-edge of my little balcony. The buckets and window boxes are growing yellow pear-shaped cherry tomatoes, which are just starting to take shape, and some royal burgundy beans, which are purple but turn green upon cooking. I also have herbs, which we are using on a daily basis: dill, cilantro, oregano, parsley, thyme, and chives. Not too bad for a balcony that barely fits two chairs! Now of I can only figure out how to get a chicken coop on that balcony…

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