Will Allen: ‘It’s time for action’

Will Allen is a giant man with a soft voice, and about 600 slides that will make your head spin. But his message is a clear clarion call.

“Our food system is really broken,” he told a packed house of diverse farmers and real-food activists at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh Monday night.  “We’ve talked about it for a long time. We’ve done the feasibility studies. We know what the problem is. It’s time to go into action.”

The “good-food movement” that was seeded in the 1960s and ’70s has sprouted into a  revolution, he said, as consumer demand for healthy cuisine catches up with concerns about climate change.

But there are challenges.  “We all need to eat, ” he said. “But we don’t have enough farmers, enough land, and enough infrastructure” to bring fresh local food to everyone.

A former basketball player, Allen began tackling these challenges in 1993 when  he bought the last working farm in Milwaukee. He thought he was just going to grow food for his family, and maybe the farmer’s markets. But then he began trying to figure out how to address the food deserts of the inner city.

That’s when he founded Growing Power, a nonprofit in Milwaukee and Chicago, and began addressing the local food system from the soil up.

First, he launched a massive vermi-compost system that relies on a mix of garbage, leaves and thousands of red worms. His rich compost can turn even the worst city soil into a productive garden.  The worm castings are sold as fertilizer to local farmers and gardeners, bringing revenue to the project.

 ”It’s all about the soil,” Allen said. “Worms are our livestock.”

Soon he enlisted local kids to help him plant flower and food gardens all over the city, at recreational centers, housing projects, rooftops,  cemeteries, along sidewalks and  in abandoned lots where drug dealers were hanging out. Kids love worms, and it’s hard to sell drugs where folks are planting gardens, he said.

Allen realized that urban farming had to be intense because land was scarce and there were many people to feed.  He constructed a two-acre hyper-intensive, year-round farm  that is bringing real food to low-income neighborhoods and real hope to small scale farmers, 365 days a year. 

His greenhouses utilize a vertical connected loop with microgreens, herbs, lettuce and vegetables growing on one level, filtering water and nutrients to tanks below feeding Great Lake Perch and Tilapia.  The structures are primarily warmed by the heat generated by a thick layer of compost at the base. It’s a perfect closed system that feeds itself, grows greens and protein, and uses very little energy.

Growing Power also raises bees, goats, chickens, ducks and heirloom turkeys right in the city.  Of course the animal wastes go into the compost enterprise.

Allen has established a co-op, a CSA,  and an urban food center that sells produce from 300 area farms.

“We can drop healthy food in every community, using food stamps, WIC or cash,” he said. “It allows everyone access to the same food.”

Finally, he developed an anerobic digester, a massive cylinder that grinds waste into slurry, creating methane gas to generate enough electricity to power the farms and sell excess back to the utility company.

He is engaging and educating a new generation about the importance of fresh, healthy food — showing them how to grow and market it. He encourages them to get their hands dirty, work hard, and stay in school for the long haul, so they can become innovators too.

His projects bring people of all ages and cultures together, and Monday’s diverse lecture crowd was a great example.  It included sustainable farmers, community gardeners, entrepreneurs and activists of all backgrounds, and more  teens than I have seen at other such gatherings.  Allen spoke at a high school in Goldsboro earlier in the day. And he was planning to drive three hours to Virginia Monday night so that he could talk to another large group on Tuesday.

Allen’s goal is to engage many more people in growing healthy food for themselves and their communities.  “We need 50 million people growing food,”  in gardens, on farms and in pots on their patios, he said.

Last year he won a MacArthur “Genius” Award.  With a larger public platorm, he is also calling attention to the need for policy changes, including a new Farm Bill, one that would ensure public support for sustainable agriculture, so that farming is more viable for more people.

“We just need an assist,” he said.  “Like in basketball.”

– Allen’s lecture was co-sponsored by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems and Burt’s Bees with support from N.C. A & T University and many local farm and food enterprises.

HOPE: An urban garden where homeless and neighbors grow together

David Baron — a UNC-Chapel Hill undergrad studying biology, ecology and social entrepreneurship – understands the importance of fresh whole food for human and environmental health.  But it bothers him that not everyone has access to locally raised fruits and vegetables.

So last year he founded  HOPE Garden, combining community garden plots with a small-scale urban farm and job training program for homeless people. 

The project, part of UNC’s Campus Y Homeless Outreach Poverty Eradication (HOPE) project, will rent about 25 individual, 4×8-foot raised-bed plots to local residents for $100 annually.  At the same time, the garden will provide  transitional employment, skill-building, income and food for homeless people tending common space in nine adjacent 60-foot beds.

“We combined an urban farm with a community garden to bring the community in to help socialize the homeless and give them a support network,” Baron said.  He explained that he and project volunteers would work with homeless individuals they know are ready for employment training.

The 5,000-plus square-foot garden is enclosed by deer fencing. Farmers have access to free public transportation via Chapel Hill Transit.  The homeless gardeners will be able to sell produce at the local farmer’s markets and donate the rest of their harvest to a local homeless shelter and kitchen.

Baron received a $10,000 grant for the garden from philanthropist Kathryn Davis (Projects for Peace).  He’s taking time off from his undergraduate studies to develop the gardens with volunteers including students from UNC and local public schools as well as homeless people. This fall they have been working together to grow collards, kale, lettuce and turnip greens.

Saturday a group of volunteers showed up to plant mulberry trees and blueberry bushes, with guidance from expert garden installers and educators associated with Bountiful Backyards.

Last summer, Baron had an internship with Growing Power, run by urban farming guru and McArthur “Genius” Fellow  Will Allen. Baron trained at Allen’s famous Milwaukee farm, helped run the project’s other farm in downtown Chicago and sold produce at local farmer’s markets there. Before that he apprenticed on a farm in Tanzania.

UNC’s APPLES Service Learning program is giving students academic credit for participating in HOPE Garden.  Other partners are the Town of Chapel Hill, N.C. State University, Active Living by Design program , the  NC Botanical Gardens, and several local nurseries and garden businesses.

Anyone interested in particpating in HOPE Garden can reach Baron at baronsdavid@gmail.com

Will Allen comes to NC Nov. 9

North Carolina, get ready to be inspired. Will Allen, the MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellow and founder of the nonprofit dynamo Growing Power in Milwaukee, comes to the Old North State for a major public lecture on sustainable urban farming Monday Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh.  

It’s free and open to the public but plan to get there early for a decent seat. There also is a related public event earlier in the day in Goldsboro, a reception before the Raleigh lecture, and special reserved seating at the lecture for Friends of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems. Click here for details.

Allen is the giant (physically and metaphorically) who converted two acres in downtown Milwaukee into a hyper-intensive, biodynamic, aquaponic, vermiculture, permaculture year-round urban farm. He and a crew of farmers, activists and volunteers of all ages and kinds raise fruits, vegetables, goats, ducks, beef, turkeys, tilapia and Great Lakes perch (!) to feed and educate city residents who otherwise would not have access to healthy local food.

He’s a master of vermi-compost, aquaponics, and community organizing, and he has an amazing success story to tell about how to broaden access to sustainable food and farming. I’ve seen a video presentation but I can’t wait to see him in person.

Crop Mob takes on big jobs at small farms

(Updated Oct. 24):  How many small-scale farmers have wished they could have a crew of strong hands and backs to help with the heavy lifting?  Crop Mob has invented a way to fulfill that wish, which explains why last night they won the Abundance Foundation’s Not Stupid Award. The honor was presented to the Mobsters at the US premiere of the Britsh film, The Age of Stupid, at the Piedmont Biofuels plant in Pittsboro.

 Last fall, this group of eager young farmers and farm hands showed up at Piedmont Biofarm in Pittsboro and harvested 1600 pounds of sweet potatoes.  In the past year, they’ve gone to a dozen farms and done more than 2000 hours of work, just because they love building strong farms and community.  This summer they converged on  an Orange County farm incubator plot and spent all day clearing, tilling and planting the fall crops.  Here’s how it worked:

From The Independent: ‘On a sweltering Sunday last August, a peaceful mob of 35 local farmers, armed with shovels, hoes and wheelbarrows, raided Serendip Farm in Orange County. But instead of a traditional raid, which is about taking, this raid was about giving: The Crop Mob, as the group is known, spent five hours cutting down starter crop, tilling beds, weeding and mulching—for free. For the past year, the local Crop Mob, mostly landless, self-proclaimed farmers, has spent one Sunday each month “raiding” a small farm that is not theirs, working the land and planting and harvesting crops.’

This Sunday, Oct. 25, they will celebrate their first anniversary where it all began, at Piedmont Biofarm, located at the Piedmont Biofuels plant in Pittsboro. If you’d like to work hard, then party, you’re invited.

Joe and Angelina’s Hearth

Despite cold temperatures, it was warm and cozy at the Central Carolina Community College (CCCC) Green Trade Show in Pittsboro this fall Friday evening.  About 20 local green vendors showed off their approaches to green building, renewable energy, biofuels, landscaping, and farming, accompanied by live music, tasty snacks and intense conversation.

I wandered over to the campus farm, the hands-on project of CCCC’s innovative Sustainable Agriculture Program,  to check out the outdoor brick oven constructed by master stone mason Joe Kenlan and students during a class workshop.  I was pleased to find Joe stoking the wood fire and Angelina Koulizakis-Battiste, whipping up mini-pizzas for a gathering crowd. Angelina, who hails from Crete, runs an authentic Greek carry-out less than a mile away (Angelina’s Kitchen).  My stomach told me to stick around.

Angelina insists on using and promoting locally raised greens, vegetables, cheeses and meats in her inspired cuisine. She publicizes local farmers’ names at every opportunity – on her menu board and her website — and she sells local arts and crafts at her carry-out. She’s a one woman economic development machine.

Now she was casually reciting where each ingredient of her impromptu pizzas originated. The fresh dough came from Donna Bianco’s Our Neighborhood School and Pizzeria (where lessons include helping to run the restaurant).  The  first batch featured zucchinis freshly picked from the CCCC farm a few feet away and peppery chevre from Celebrity Dairy goat farm down the road in Silk Hope.

The next batch had feta cheese from Celebrity and a special pesto made from pineapple sage, garlic and cashews, from friends of Angelina who have an Alpaca ranch. Scrumptious.  

Angelina began explaining what made Greek food Greek. For example, her salad dressing has to be a perfect combination of olive oil and lemon juice (forget about balsamic).

As the sun went down, aromas beckoned and a crowd gathered around the hearth, we all began fantasizing about having regular communal bake-offs with this amazing brick oven.   We could have pizza nights, bread-baking sessions, and apple crumble fests. Angelina could teach us all how to cook authentic Greek fare. We’d pluck all of the food direct from the campus garden. Even in this down economy, we would be warm, well-fed and happy.

All we needed was a little Greek music, some wine, and, Angelina added with a deep laugh, “belly dancers.”  When do we start?

Heirloom apples tell local stories

April McGregor (The Farmer’s Daughter/Grist) discovers her core values and the importance of a sense of place, while visiting Leigh Calhoun’s carefully tended heirloom apple orchard. Calhoun, who grows 450 varieties of Southern apples at his farm in Chatham County, is the author of the classic Old Southern Apples.  Read April’s essay in Grist here.

Carrboro Market distributes 10,000 pounds of produce to food banks

Thanks to the ingenuity of a newcomer and the generosity of local farmers and their customers, the Carrboro Farmers’ Market has collected more than 10,000 pounds of fresh produce for the hungry. It all began when Margaret Gifford overheard a local farmer at the market say that he would have to compost the tomatoes that didn’t get sold that day. Gifford, who had recently moved to the area from San Francisco with her family, wondered why the unsold food couldn’t be gleaned for local food banks. Soon she began taking boxes to the twice weekly market asking farmers to donate their unsold produce for the soup kitchens and food pantries.

The farmers thought that was a great idea, and it grew. UNC students began helping to collect and distribute the surplus food. Then the Farmers’ Market asked customers to get involved.  On a recent Saturday, market shoppers were encouraged  to buy an extra bag of produce to be donated to the food banks. In one day, customers purchased more than 1,700 pounds of fresh food for the program. When added to the 19-week collection of surplus food begun by Gifford, the Market has now distributed more than 10,000 pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables for several local programs.

Learn more in Valarie Schwartz’ feature, “The market with a soul” in the Carrboro Citizen.

Subterranean sustenance

Last June I sang the praises of Stanley Hughes, who grows the finest organic sweet potatoes for miles around at his Pine Knot Farm in Hurdle Mills, N.C.  I got inspired and grew my own starter “slips” by sticking one of his giant Beauregards in a glass of water until it sprouted the familiar bright green vines. I snipped off four vines and stuck them in a 4 x 4 foot, 10-inch raised bed of loose, fertile soil and compost in my backyard.

Soon, the bed was overflowing with gorgeous leafy vines, so I sprouted a few more vines and stuck them in several nearby containers, and then planted some more slips in smaller pots on the patio (the latter just for ornamentation).  Just two sweet potatoes had yielded an abundant bed of potential food and about four ornamental pots with sprawling vines. I would have had even more, but I ran out of pots. This was just too easy, especially for this brown-thumb gardener.

I tucked my sweet, sweet-potato bed in deer netting and, except for watering, left it alone for the next three months.  As my bed and pots grew thicker and thicker with vines, I could hardly wait til mid September to peek at the subterranean crop.

My heart sank one morning last week when I discovered most of the leaves had been mowed down by the deer that cross our property each evening.  Somehow, they had nuzzled under the edge of the protective netting and had a feast. I feared my fall crop was lost. 

Then I remembered that most of the growing was taking place underground, out of sight. So maybe at this point in the growth cycle, my potatoes wouldn’t need their leaves anymore. I stuck my hand under the loose soil and, stunned, pulled out a perfectly shaped, amber-colored tater. And another, and another. I felt like a new parent; this often befuddled gardener is still awed by the miracle of  recycled growth.

My first sweet potato crop not only survived, it thrived, with little care from me and despite deer interference.  The gift of a perfect Stanley Hughes sweet potato purchased at my food co-op last summer, has just kept on giving.

Who says fall is the end of the growing season? My September-October sweet potato crop will see me through the winter and provide the source of next year’s sustenance.

In our backyard

The Carrboro and Chapel Hill Urban Farm Tour was fun and educational for all ages, thanks to the diverse back- and front- yard vegetable beds, orchards, apiaries, and chicken coops open for public exploration at 20 locations. The best way to experience it on this sunny Saturday afternoon was by bicycle on one of the group tours that left hourly from central Carrboro.

Perhaps the most heartening discovery was that seven of the 20 farms on the tour turned out to be public community gardens designed for beginners and veterans, kids and retirees, singles and families, the landless and homeless, and anyone else hankering for a piece of earth where they could grow and harvest fresh food. Two of the community gardens involved UNC students.

Who says fresh, organic , healthy, local food can’t be accessible and affordable? These public gardening enterprises are making sure that anyone who is willing to get their hands dirty can taste the fruits and veggies of their labor.

We started our tour at 1120 Hillsborough Rd, two community plots a short bike ride north of town. One, was designed for families with children under 6 and the other provided individual plots for anyone willing to work the soil. They used water from two huge rain-barrel cisterns.

Next we ventured further north to Arcadia, the famous co-housing neighborhood where clustered “green” homes of varying sizes faced well-tended kitchen gardens, a meadow and a pond.  (There were two co-housing communities and several co-op homes on the tour.)

 Abraham explained how his Arcadia based Box Turtle Bakery makes whole-grain breads using mostly local ingredients. The wheat is grown about 1/4 mile down the road, thrashed and hulled by combine, then hand-screened and milled in a hand-cranked grinder, and baked in the wood-fired oven he constructed in his own kitchen.  When our mob arrived he was taking a pan of croutons out of the oven. We sampled some breads and I went home with a loaf of whole wheat.

Next stop was 621 Hillsborough St. , a co-op where we found an intensive vegetable garden, a portable chicken “tractor,” a water cachment system, and an orchard. One of the residents climbed atop his bike-repair shed roof and handed us fresh figs. When I admired the sunflower stalk in the center of the vegetable garden, he gave me a handful of seeds to take home for my spring 2010 garden.

We took another short cycle ride south to 105 Dillard Street, where we found beehives,  grafted fruit trees, vermi-compost and chickens providing both eggs and meat.  

There was plenty to learn on the tour, with discussions on animal slaughter, deer fence construction, fruit tree planting, bamboo fencing, building a “lasagna bed,” and harvesting honey. The evening culminated in a potluck supper for those who brought a dish made with local ingredients.

My final stop was at Johnny’s the popular laid-back coffee shop on W. Main Street. That’s when I discovered that in Carrboro, the Paris of the Piedmont, even the java joint has a chicken coop and raised veggie beds in the back, which you can enjoy on the patio with beer, music and friends. Just another unique asset of this increasingly sustainable community.

Planting it forward: they grew and gave away 2,000 seedlings

“Kay and Frank Whatley have a simple vision in these tough economic times: Help people get access to food. And so, the Zebulon, N.C., couple started Grow and Share, a nonprofit that this past spring distributed more than 2,000 free seedlings to gardeners who had to sign pledges to give away some of the produce to those in need.

“This weekend, the Whatleys are holding a fundraiser and music festival in Rolesville for next year’s efforts.” They hope to give away 10,000 plants next year.

Click here to read Andrea Weigl’s feature in the Raleigh News and Observer.