Fall/ramping up for winter pics

Thanks for all your help Miles!

Capital Hill people's fair

Meg and Miles' backyard

Not pretty per se, but very functional. Vermicomposting in the fridge!

Cold frames for winter growing.

Chicken run installation. Mobile home as coop!

?
We'll get it one of these days.

Carrots slow dancing in the compost

The other day, I pulled two carrots out of the ground which have slowly grown in a spiral around each other. At another point in my life, I had a very specific ideal about how a carrot should look and might have been put off by the sight, whereas I now tend to treat their many shapes and sizes with excitement and awe at the diversity of what the garden can produce. I brought it out like some sort of prize and for a brief moment I realized how my aesthetic reactions to the world around me have changed over the years.

Like many bored Peace Corps volunteers, I became obsessed with composting. There were probably in the range of twenty to thirty piles surrounding my house. Some of these were made for demonstration purposes, but most were the result of discovering that I could play an active role in life by encouraging the decay from which it sprung. One day I decided to go get some cow pies for composting from a nearby cattle-stall. The kids were following me as usual, waiting to see what the crazy azungu was doing; and of course I forgot the shovel, so I was left to awkwardly trying to pick up the pies with two sticks. Then a very absurd thing happened; once the children understood my intentions, they began bringing me cow pies from all corners of the field, and using only their hands to do so! I started laughing with the joyous confusion that life can present as our pile of poo quickly overwhelmed the burlap sack. I thought about how funny this was. I couldn’t bring myself to pick up a pie but the children did so with no hesitation. I thought it was gross and wrong; they laughed and ran about. Actually, I observed many instances where Malawians would move poo about using their hands. And yes, I’m sure they washed their hands afterwards, but just the fact that they were able to touch the shit is enough for me to question the significance of my own aesthetic understanding of the act, but not enough to cause me to leave my shovel at home again.

I remember making it back to the States equipped with all sorts of new understandings about how I wanted my relationship with food and land to be; I wanted to be a farmer! And every good farmer needs a truck! Right? Just watch a TV or glance through a magazine and you’ll know what I mean. So, I bought a Dodge Dakota and drove out to California. And along the way, I had glimmers of how ridiculous my actions were. I felt so great in my truck; it was the key to my simple life on the land. What’s a couple gallons of gas in support of my calling? I thought. Everyone else is driving their cars about and they’re obviously not as noble as I. No, I was on my way to the real world and my badass truck was going to be the means by which I did so.

Sarcasm aside, these two memories are meant to be contrasting examples of the absurdity, and also the importance of aesthetics in the world; one that stopped me from being able to touch excrement, and one that justified a purchase. Both ran contradictory to a great deal of my “rational” understanding. I understand my hesitation in picking up the cow pies as the result of being raised in a culture that flushes our own smellys down the toilet; follows our dogs around with doggy bags; doesn’t compost - out of sight out of mind. I understand that I don’t need a truck to get where I’m going, but the powerful vision that I saw of myself behind one’s wheel overrode most of my unease. This behavior comes from all kinds of historical and ecological arrangements; a reaction to the cholera epidemic over two hundred years ago; the rise of the automobile as a socio-economic mainstay of twentieth century America. Now, it is difficult to see a supermarket that isn’t growing SUVs in the parking lot, a house without conventional toilets wasting our waste, or anything but “perfect” carrots lining the produce aisle. But let's remember where we have come from, and appreciate all shapes and sizes of veggies and the cycle they are a part of!

James

Volunteer recognition

Produce Denver would like to thank Andy Dyrsten for all of his hard work volunteering with us!

eggplant is a pretty, fragile plant

Thought it was about time for a bit of an update:

First, we have been harvesting a lot of food and only plan on more as tomatoes, peppers, gourds, and onions start to come around. Actually, we were able to donate 10 pounds of food to Same Cafe last week and plan on donating more to DUG for their youth farmers market programs. Yay! Starting the weekend of the 25th we are going to have 3 more weekly food shares available. We are charging according to household income as follows:

less than $20,000 (per year): $60
$20,000-40,000: $70
$40,000-75,000: $80
$75,000-125,000: $90
$125,000 and above: $100

We harvest on Saturdays, expect the monthly fee upfront, will most likely be able to drop it off, and includes all sorts of goodies. Please let us know if you or anyone you know are interested.

We have also been in touch with a farm in Kersey Colorado about distributing all natural holstein beef to those that are interested. It is a bit leaner than regular beef but really great for you and a sustainable use of resources being that the meat is usually used for dog food. It is not fatty enough for us Americans! Ha! Trust me, it is good. What a paradoxical food system we live in. Let us know if you are interested and we'll send you details.

Thanks to Adam Sikorski, we are going to have Produce Denver t-shirts available in the next couple of weeks including a couple child sizes, S, M, L, XL. They are a simple sand color with a green imprint of our logo on the front. 10 buck a pop to pay help pay for those we give away to volunteers. Thanks to John for the logo.

Check out Satchel's Market in Park Hill and Beet Box at south pearl street or highlands farmers market for some great food that may just have some of our produce wrapped up in the sweet goodness.

We have updated some pictures and our blog a bit on our website if you have the time to check it out.

Lastly, we are looking for more edible landscape projects to keep things moving along for us. The fall is a great time to move on getting ready for a bountiful spring. Our labor is also based on household income. Please spread the word for us!

Thanks so much for everyone's support!

Produce Denver Team
james.hale@producedenver.com

More Pics

Update

Things have been very busy with Produce Denver! The harvest has been great so far and has included lettuce, kale, chard, collards, chives, oregano, basil, sage, roses, carrots, peas, beets, radishes, turnips, potatoes, broccoli, and zucchini. We have actually had a lot of excess which has been sold to Beet Box (serves great vegan food at Highlands and South Pearl Farmers Markets) and Satchels Market in Park Hill. Additionally, we donated 10 pounds of chard, kale, and radishes to SAME Cafe last week.

We set up a new beehive last week with a swarm from one of our friend's hives. They seem to be doing well so far. Looking forward to some honey!

Nick and Meg went to the DBG Rooftop Garden Symposium in June. They learned a lot and have already begun to use some of the methods at the rooftop garden at 1515 restaurant. Thanks to DBG for hosting the event.

We are currently planning for our fall planting, preparing for weddings and harvest events, doing tax/business nonsense, looking for BIG pieces of land, collaborating with some folks as the Denver Urban Farmers Collaborative, and taking on and looking for more edible landscaping projects. Please hit us up if you can help!

As usual, thanks so much to the volunteers and those that have been letting us give their plants new homes.

First Harvest

We had our first harvest yesterday including: radishes, lettuce, spinach, collards, broccoli, oregano, sage, and chives. It was a good time and felt great to see the fruits of our labor. Thanks to the volunteers who helped and our shareholders for making this possible!

Swarm of pictures

So many pictures to share. Here are a few more for now:

"Stonemason Jon" getting it done at Leah's edible landscaping project

Swarm of bees staging for a new home

Check out that pollen!

Work of art

BEES!

Jesse greets bees

Jesse dances with bees

Queen bee: "Jesse, get me out of here!"

Jesse queens the bees

Worker bee: "we heart you Jesse"

Snow gardens

Little by little, we are preparing our sites, starting seeds, and designing and installing edible landscapes. We also had a very nice season kickoff potluck complete with a variety of local foods. Everybody went all out and we can't wait to do it again. Great to see everyone who came!

Thanks to all of our volunteers for making this more possible with every wheelbarrow and shovel! Additionally, thanks to our truck "Regulator" for withstanding our abuse!

Busy Busy

Nick and I have been moving forward on many aspects of Produce Denver. We have been planting seeds, building cold frames, working on site designs, and putting together this year's farm plan. We also have a new addition to our team! Megan Caley will be helping us in a variety of ways and is currently working on landscape designs for some clients. She has a wealth of skills and we are very excited to have her working with us!

We are also seeking out someone interested in being our lawyer so please contact us if you know someone who may be interested.

James

Building capacity

The "eat here now" food panel was an overwhelming success last week with nearly 200 people cramming into a little room at the Mercury Cafe. It was great to see so many people interested in strengthening our local food system! Thanks to everyone on the panel and Transition Denver for organizing this event. We made some great connections and will be setting up a number of home visits once Nick returns from a much needed vacation.

We have also had a number of individuals and organizations come forward who are interested in working with us including beekeepers, a city council member, a fundraiser, a number of non-profits, and two interns. These connections will undoubtedly help us realize our vision and we are very thankful to those willing to collaborate on projects with us. We are in the process of assembling an advisory board to further anchor us in work being done around Denver.

Our website (www.producedenver.com) is finely up and it would be wonderful to get feedback from anyone who feels so inclined. A large number of people are already finding us so it seems to be serving its purpose thus far. Hopefully we can get some better pictures as things move along this year!

James


"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do. " -Wendell Berry

"Eat here now" panel discussion

Thanks to Transition Denver and SPROUT, James will be sitting on the "eat here now" panel discussion at 7pm on January 13th at Mercury Cafe. For more information you can go to http://transitioncolorado.ning.com/events/eat-here-now-a-panel-on. Hope to see you there!

Exciting times!

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." ...Albert Einstein

Since starting down this new path in November, we have been overwhelmed by the possibilities of what Produce Denver's future may hold and are now at a point to get things started. It is very exciting. Over the past month, we have been busy meeting with individuals working to strengthening food systems and Denver, researching other organizations doing similar work across the country, building our website, meeting with potential funders, contacting initial clients, and writing on our business and farm plans. We will be ordering seeds in a couple of weeks and plan on building a hoophouse to start our seeds in early February. There are a number of ways to get involved listed on our website (www.producedenver.com). Please contact us if you or someone you know may be interested.

I want to thank those who have taken the time to share insights and experiences with Nick and I over the last few weeks. Starting a project such as this necessitates feedback and it has been wonderful to connect with you all. Also, we would like to thank John Pechacek for our logo and design advice. He has been outstanding to work with, and if you are interested in contacting him about your own design needs, you can check out his website at www.johnpechacek.com.

Best,

James