Prep for our first Farmer's Market

Through our friends Jessica + Michael (gracious hosts when we landed in Portland and our first visitors out here on Easter..) and their friend Jesse, we got to meet with the woman who runs a private Farmer's Market at Nike. We thought it was a simple, off the cuff market, but it is a full-on, really neat sounding event with 30 vendors. We met with the woman who runs it and she gave us a detailed introduction, tour and has invited us to be a part of their last two market days in August and September and one that is just starting at Columbia Sportswear, too.

Today after harvesting in the morning for Bon Appetit, we worked on our market signs and display. The ladies loved that we were home, since we let them roam when we are. They are constantly exploring, taking dust baths, finding new perches and hiding spots, herding each other around to new foraging areas. The Australorps (vultures...) are officially iridescent green sheen over their black feathers today and yesterday was the official pullet puberty voice change to early cluck speak versus bird singing. And their feathers are all so soft. Big personalities and only about 3 months old.

Much sign painting, fabric and wood activity occurring. Also we sold our first peppers of the season! And finally unleashed our Papalo herb out into the world. It was our best harvest yet. The only slow veggie is the eggplant, high demand, plants look great, but the fruits just maintained status quo this week. It's been cool and cloudy with some rain and they are not putting out until there is some more HEAT, but they are so pretty and the eggplant we've eaten so far is sooooo good, we've put it in everything from burritos to eggs. Dusky and Oriental Express. Excellent. Our earliest pepper is the Islander in it's meaty deep purple state. Jalapenos are hot and the Hungarian Hot Wax are pretty, yet mild.

Here's a new drawing Neil just finished for a show he's in with Geoffrey Young Gallery in Great Barrington, MA.

We're also sending off a piece we made together - the horse and fish over there on the right of this blog - to a show at UWM, where we met back in the day... titling it 'Hollywood Hills' after the place we made it while doing a bizarre art residency, which we'll have to write about someday.

WALL + the economics of small-scale farming

On Sunday we officially hit a wall. It was a slow, soft thud. As impenetrable seeming as coming up on a pale grey concrete wall with no edges.

Mid to late July has been a hazy month for us. It felt like something foggy and difficult was ahead of us. We've been talking more and trying to look to the winter. Have we ever worked this hard and made this little money? Is that what's going on? We rationalized that it was just a time between our crops where the field looks great and filled with potential, but our eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, melons, beans and other veggies are still steadily growing but not ready. And maybe this is a big part - the time between seeding in early spring, potting up more than once for some things, transplanting out and then there's a point where you keep them weeded, but they are on their own and don't need you anymore for a while.

We thought well - if we just plan better next year, maybe we can work this out and we'll continue growing. Granted we're only on a quarter acre and as we joke "flying by the seat of our overalls." The restaurant we sell to also has 60 day terms, so we haven't seen any income from our harvests yet. We've been working really hard, only hoping to break even on very frugal expenses, but realized recently we may not. It took a lot out of our intensely earned savings to move all the way out here and and we finally invested in a truck, realizing we finally needed to decide on a newer, safer vehicle for the two of us. We know all these factors add up. A lot has happened in a short span of time.

During the past few weeks we've gone through some unforeseen experiences, we don't want to get into detail about. These bring us to a speedier need for change and major re-thinking, though. We were looking happily ahead to the winter when crops slow down as that time. Knowing we'll need to line up other jobs, but also hoping for some quiet indoor time to read, research and plot our next season's course. Right now we have savings left that we hope to use for a future down payment, some farm work and the CSA delivery work to cover our rent, food and bills. And the precious little checks should also start trickling through from the restaurant soon, but we have come to an evaluating point much quicker than we'd thought. Mainly, can we continue to balance financially, focus on the farming and for the beautiful crops we have coming on, selling them through the restaurant and the farmer's market we just got into Thursdays from Aug 16th through mid September and preserving them as best we can. Or do we need to adjust now and get outside non-farm work sooner than planned?

The WALL is 'can it be done' (by us) in the future. Can we farm?

We are trying not to be too hard on ourselves. At the same time we are trying to be very realistic about what we've already learned and the actual funds, labor, equipment and land needed. There are so many costs associated with farming, even on a micro-scale. We knew it would be a LOT of work. Physical, manual, labor, repeat, repeat, repeat. We knew it would psychologically be pretty daunting, but somehow I think we thought we could make the numbers work. Learn this year, aim to break even financially by being extremely frugal and strictly maintain savings earned through other work this winter. Then plan in the winter and take what we've learned into the next season and hopefully do it with a bit more financial cushion so that it wasn't quite as terrifying and at least seriously explore trying to purchase miniature land of our own... And this is all still possible. We know we need to talk to more farmers and other small businesses and round ourselves back out a bit. I think we just want to make sure we are sane in our coming choices.

We've come to realize we initially thought we were more realistic about this endeavor since my mom was going to move out here and we were going to try to find a place together and possibly she would be involved in whichever farming direction the place we could buy would be suitable for. This changed a while back and we realize now, we should have looked harder at the sanity of our plan to continue on without her as our teammate. We've found that the neat farmers in our age range often have some crucial degree of teaming up with their parents, through living on the farm together, funding or volunteer farm help and that may be a very essential part both in camaraderie and financial viability to start and sustainability for the long haul that we don't have. Granted, maybe we should have looked into the midwest more, to be near Neil's parents in Iowa or in Wisconsin where my mom has stayed. For traditional farmers who need hundreds of acres, land prices are soaring due to the ethanol push. It's likely that small acreage for what we are trying to do is still less, but the demand and community support is also less among other considerations. A main issue that I hope will be explored further in the media is the nuts and bolts - how does it work for any young farmer today who does not have family land, from the micro-scale organic farm/market garden to the hundreds of acres in corn or soybeans farmers? The way we value real estate today, how can this work?

Speaking of inspiring farmers our age, we met two great farmers earlier this year when we were venturing to meet farmers while they still had a bit of time to talk in February and March. Katie and Casey Kulla run Oakhill Organics, are very inspiring and keep an honest, candid blog about their life. During our own farm work this summer, they have been a great source of community for us, through their writing. Although they are far ahead of us in the journey to farm, every week they discuss things we are usually experiencing and wondering about in some way, too. From - cultivation a.k.a weeding to identifying all those weeds, the feeling of rushing, what their experience is after leasing and now being on their own land, making time to take care of physical and mental well-being, fatigue, unforeseen events both good and bad, visiting other farms in season, suburban development pressure, ideas of isolation vs community, maintenance - all the way to the importance of financial sustainability. A key issue!

We would like to be able to work together like they do, long term, live in a small hand-built home and farm in some way or have some small business together. We're just at a point of trying to re-evaluate if and how we can actually make that happen (and someday afford minimal health coverage).

We're in this amazing, beautiful area of mountains, farmland, proximity to a very hip city and metro area of wonderful people who care about supporting local farmers and businesses and who are very environmentally interested, smart and pro-active. You could not ask for a better place to do any of the things we're interested in.

Yet all this adds up to real estate being very expensive. There is an Urban Growth Boundary and there are protective land use laws, but that sometimes seems to just mean that if you've got the money you can buy up the large acreage agricultural land and just have a lot more space between you and the next McMansion estate. It doesn't mean okay those with money can build a big house on a small patch of land over here and this excellent agriculture land we'll preserve and sell or long-term lease at economically affordable prices, in tiny all the way to large acreages, per what small-scale farmers can actually make - to a variety of farmers.

So yes we could afford land in the boonies somewhere, but will you have the buyers and supportive community to make it financially viable? How do the economics work out for young people who want to farm, to enter the fray where land = 'Real Estate' = stock investment? And where as a society, we still often make food choices based on what is least expensive - out of need or habit, regardless of whether the food is healthy for you and grown in away that is healthy and sustainable for local communities and the greater, long-term picture.

We could rent a home and lease farm land indefinitely, but we know it's not realistic for us. For one we can't determine how long we can live or farm, even at our current locations. Where we live, we really adore our little house and have to rein ourselves in on all our ideas to continue sprucing it up (and it's almost too neat to look out the kitchen window and watch our chickens adventuring around). Then where we're farming, the couple who owns the land five miles away are amazingly kind and positive, it's very peaceful there. At any time, though, one of the owning couples can decide or need suddenly, to sell or change what they're doing. It's not up to us and we understand that. Also long term, we see there are so many advantages to living on the land where you are farming, but talking about life as a 'Roving Farmer' is another post. We do want to move towards owning something of our own and having a solid home base. It logically takes reliable income to get the loan to own even a very modest patch of ground or tiny fixer house. Right now we can't quite see the path between what we're doing farming this way and the ability to own any bit of land to grow and in return sell to and be supported by this amazing community around Portland or further outlying towns. All of the land is prohibitively expensive.

We want to be able to be invested in our home, surroundings and community for a long time.

Sometimes I realize I am homesick, but I don't know where for. It is partly the fact that our friends and family are in all different parts of the country, I miss them and there is no one magical place where all my favorite people can be. But this lack of place feeling is something we want to solve and to have a sweet place where friends and family can at least visit and stay and a place where we can grow long term friendships new and old. Maybe that sounds odd to say 'solve' like it is a mystery and we are detectives in our own life, but it feels like that.

I was reading this aloud to Neil and he said it's just this strange place to be in. There is so much support for what we're trying to do right now in terms of general awareness and the popularity of books like Omnivore's Dilemma; Animal Vegetable, Miracle; Plenty and others, but we don't actually make enough to purchase them and even if we could it would be hard to take time to read them right now...

How does one get to actually be a local, officially or un-officially organic, grower or producer?
How do the behind the scenes equations actually add up?

With art, we realized it is a high-end luxury product (is that a duh?) where there are an extremely small number of possible buyers. To make art long term, you need to be financially supported by your spouse/partner/parents or independently wealthy. Period.

With other hand crafted products, you may have a wider base of regular people who can want what you make and support you. We thought a lot about what we would enjoy making as our life's work. We wanted to work together, both like to be outside, enjoy plants, dirt, birds, critters, being physical... things that lead to farming. We thought with eyes and imaginations flung wide open - herbs to make tea! veggies! flowers! some day goats! cheese! wine! - just depending on what property you can find and somehow buy, who knows what we could do!!

Then we learned, oops... With animals we are told the money flows away from you very easily and back in.. not so much. With wine, you need money for a particular type of land, infrastructure and plants even if you are just growing grapes to wholesale and not bottling your own, which we do not have. With herbs or fruit, you want some permanence so that your perennials can thrive and you can continue to learn about and adapt to your micro-climate, among other things involved with making a living from them.

With veggies, we thought - ah ha! annuals! we can do this on leased land!

And I will pause with my funniness to say that it is really neat and amazing we've been able to move out here and so quickly be growing so many things. And really there are so many buyers from CSA subscribers, to restaurants, markets. Every person eats at least three times a day and will always need to. Growing food is a very important craft.

But a number of people since we moved here said "There's no money in farming." (As in - you guys know that right? Or "Ohhh..." when realizing we're trying to do it together full time - as in oh.... dear, you know at least one of you needs a full time job, and to farm in the off time and the other needs to do the work of at least two or three people, right? and you still really need some un-paid friend, family or apprentice help, you do know that right???)

Oh fine, for you we thought, but hey! maybe our equation will add up differently! we have no kids, we live simply, we've got desire, brute physical force, the ability to work unlimited hours on end, two brains, we can do this!!

Now we're just not so sure and feeling sad about our boundless enthusiasm, (naivety)... Maybe this is covered in a book we haven't read yet... Is it?? We're just getting spooked that the things people have said to us are the things we'd like to shout at all well intentioned art students at so many colleges around the country. Hey! You're going to be an art teacher, right? Oh hey - you! You're not? You're just going to be an "artist"? What are you getting your masters in? You know you'll need a career to make money in, right? Okay, just writing that here I feel like ah yes... I sound like a parent... or a kooky older person. And every one's experience is different. We're only talking about ourselves and what we kick ourselves for. We know that, umm.. we fear that we'll be letting people down by trying to talk about our own fears and the struggle with figuring things out.

We can at least say as we've been trying to perk each other up - that we wanted to have an interesting life and we do! Both good and bad with lots of odd times, we have succeeded in this goal so far, it's definitely interesting. And we know it's a luxury to be in what is technically still a time of war and be pondering what we'd like to do with ourselves, while fearing no imminent danger. And that is also something to think and write more about.

So, to wrap these ponderings up... There are all these variables in life: place, money, relationships to other people, labor. Lately we feel there is this puzzle to crack with our variables. It could be put together in who knows how many ways, but we need to put it together. We're trying to sort out the most essential pieces we'd like to be in the puzzle and see how we can realistically put it together with what we have and who we are. Making the money to survive in a meaningful way where we can work together and enjoy what we do, even while living very frugally, seems very challenging.
We are coming to realize our life might look very different from versions we'd like.

For now we are trying to strike a balance, acknowledge some serious realities and try to plan ahead (while staying calm..), but focus on caring for our crops and embracing this unique experience. We already get shivers of sad nostalgia, knowing as hard as certain parts are, there is so much we will miss if we are unable to continue in this path. Appreciate this time while we are living it.

Thank you to everyone who has shared details and feelings about the inner workings of their lives or is willing to in the future. It is so helpful to us as we try to draw a sane map forward.
We are open to any and all ideas and thank you so kindly for reading.

Courtney + Michael

Everglades guides, so wonderful to see them and meet her husband Michael, cook lots of yummy food and talk. Neil and Courtney were guides at the same time and Michael worked with Outward Bound, met Courtney and they continued guiding down there for a while. They also think about farming in the future. The where and how are definitely things they consider. It was great to show them the farm, Michael so happily sampled everything. They are off to climb Mt Rainier. They also are great with yarn - she crochets and he knits - beautiful hats he had just made one that he knitted and then felted for her and a super intricate Fair Isle pattern he was working on for another hat. It was really sad to see them off. Possible they will be back around Labor Day... we hope. Before they head back to California to teach at an outdoors school they've been working with for the past couple years. Very inspiring.

I love ladybugs + Biggie farm photos

More farm photos coming soon - took extensive plant details, maybe I can post them in an online photo album and link to that... Here are a couple views of the field to start:

Red table grapes still tiny green...

Here are the little grapes outside the bathroom window on the east, still tiny and growing every day.

Grapes engulf the north !

From the moment we landed and happily pushed our way through the blackberries and bamboo along the north side of our house while exploring, the old vine quietly sensed he had us.

Oh wow! I run into an old hard branch of, and quickly discover, the massive gnarly old grape vine right outside our bed room door. We are both mesmerized.

Right then, he knew he was right. He knew he had us. He knew it was time to slowly, but thoroughly, take over the north side of the house. From east to west and amassing over the roof towards the south.

I think his ally is this beautiful red rose that has steadily grown up out of the vast Saskatoon berry tree outside our bedroom window. The second rose has just come on. Reminding me of my Grama, who loved roses and died on Valentine's Day ten years ago. I've never lived anywhere with roses growing out my window.

Lemon Balm hanging to dry

The Puff and The Leg Lamp guard the Lemon Balm.

All the tea and culinary grade herbs have been going in the dehydrator or warm oven, but the massive lemon balm harvest from Biggie is hanging to dry with the lavender and hopefully will go into soap or some other concoction eventually. It has a much more floral, pleasantly perfumed smell dry, versus the more tactile lemon scent when it's fresh.

Bouquet I put together for today's route:

The harvest and delivery days continue. They are long days, but I do really like harvesting flowers and making bouquets, too and it is inspiring for us to work with and talk to Carlos in the early morning. The customers who order flowers are mainly regulars every week. It's pretty neat to see how the flowers that are ready change weekly through the seasons. Grown with years of good compost.

Pear tree in front of our house

Rainy day harvest for Pumpkin Ridge Gardens

This morning was our second harvest with Carlos for Pumpkin Ridge with some very welcome rain. The family is on vacation for a couple of weeks. Carlos rocks, he is great to work with, very pure energy, sharp with the numbers/baskets and best ways to harvest, wash and prep and he's funny.

It was nice after so much sun and dryness, to be out in the rain. In the stillness of the early morning, digging carrots and sorting them in piles of ten for a total of 580+ Many delicious yellow and green zucchinis and patty pans (the yellow color is so helpful for picking in those giant squash leaves). Beets, potatoes, scallions, onions, garlic. Enormous rainbow chard leaves and kale - both growing in the greenhouse to tropical proportions and basil.

I've been checking weather on weather underground, but I'm not sure they're the most accurate. It showed a very slight chance yesterday and did not show it was indeed actually raining from 3:30am on through the day, just cloudy and a 20% chance, while it was raining. We got a better tip last night from our friend Courtney's husband, Michael who was on Mt. Hood with good weather sources... and he was right. She's guiding a trip in Yosemite and hopefully they will visit us soon while they are up around here.

So I'm going to compare NOAA and see if there's a strong difference. Any other good sources?

(Pink Bee Balm, Goldilocks Rudbeckia, Red Crocosmia... flowers look especially vibrant on a rainy day to me. Harvesting and making bouquets for customers while Polly is away, too).

Lavender Anna

Went to the Lavender Festival with Anna yesterday. There are three lavender farms within 7 miles of us and a lot more in Yamhill County that we weren't able to make it to.

I found Anna at the one behind this pretty old church. It has a nice farmhouse with a breezeway, recently bought by a lawyer... I think the neighboring farm helps take care of the plants and the festival set up. A number of interesting old timers selling lavender lemonade (so delicious) and other treats, directing parking, saying hello. Anna is an awesome photographer and I know she took a lot of really great photos, but in the meantime I like this one of her getting ready to document the field.

The Ladies move into their Bamboo Pirate Chickie Raft

Lucky chicks set sail on 7/7/7 ! Very smooth transition, they were all thrilled to be outside and immediately foraging, so it seems that giving them patios and feeding them lots of greens (and some chick grit to digest it) worked well. It's great to watch them fly and run around with more space. And now we non-feathereds have our little office and sun room/workshop back and the furries have a newly appreciated full reign of the indoors.

Scythe from Shadybrook Rd.

There is this fascinating older woman named Dolores who lives on an old farm near us. She is sweet, intelligent and reminds me very much of my father in a comforting way. Her home is deeply eccentric and layered with special objects, great books, plants, a dog named Buddy. I really like talking with her. Chickens stroll around. Two of them are best friends and a bit on their own versus the rest of the ladies who are older. Their names are Butterscotch - a buff orpington I think and a little bantam named Brownie. She also has an amazing peacock and a couple of pea hens. We've seen the peacock way up high in the barn calling, his tail is insane, it's incredible and they can fly so high. She lends me a lot of great herb and farming books and old copies of ORGANIC Gardening and Farming magazines, including one with Ruth Stout on the cover from February 1957, when the words Gardening and Farming held equal weight on the title. I've also been itching to buy a scythe, but good ones are expensive. Maybe they are on my brain so much, I don't know if I brought it up or not?? but Dolores gave me this awesome old scythe. It needs a lot of work, I'll take a photo, I love it.

Chicks are BIG + beginning of the Raft

The chicks are really growing up...
going from little down puffs to feathery ladies in what seems like only a couple of weeks? Here is a photo of their new Bamboo Pirate Chickie Raft in progress (yay!) and some of their current D-Lux cardboard and wire cabin. One of The Vultures voices is slowly changing from little bird chirps, to the beginning of a bawc sound, but still mainly little sweet birdie chirps. We've only heard a few isolated attempts. It's hard to really imagine them clucking, much less laying eggs... Here they are getting a brief visit, as the little ones are getting bigger and want a patio, too.

They love greens and they all get completely wired up at the sight of us in the hopes we have some. Teaching them to be good, proper foraging ladies out in the wild backyard. We have tried letting them together but it's still a little alarming, so we're mainly letting them be separate and hope they'll get along when they move out in a week or two and have a lot more space. The little trio of Banti (the Bantam), PJ (the Barred Rock, black and white stripes named after lady rocker PJ Harvey) and Lima (a Peruvian Araucana named after the capital of.. Peru) want their own Le Patio. The Vultures have a lot to discuss amongst themselves right now and want their patio privacy.

We've added on to their housing a number of times now. It started out with the two Australorp chicks while waiting for the feed store to get some Araucana chicks. The Aussies or The Vultures, as they've come to be known, now that we have the younger three are bigger, look like baby vultures (in our imaginations) and are currently a bit inconsiderate about their new buddies or it's just that their reptile feet and sharps claws are already as big as the little chicks soft downy heads and that's scary. So when it was just the two, we started them in the galvanized tub with a chicken wire top in the office. Then the three younger ones came and we made a divided 2h x 4w x 2d box. The cats were banished to the porch at night and when we were gone just in case and we were lulled to sleep by lots of little bird chattings every night. Then when it was warm enough, we took the office back and moved them out on the sun porch and the cats switched places and seemed to realize they missed us. We added on Le Patio for The Vultures and gave more interior space to the little chicks who still needed more enclosed warmth and then now that they are bigger, they demanded their own private patio (not pictured, but a nifty wire bike basket turned and attached sideways).

And we've begun the raft as our version of a mobile "chicken tractor" which can be moved around the yard and garden beds for foraging, mowing and fertilizing. After thinking through other designs and trying to find a weather appropriate (damp winter), secure and inexpensive plan that would give them some height and room to enjoy, we decided to try to use some of the bamboo growing on the north side of our house. We thought about a curved structure and different heights and settled on making one we could walk in half of for cleaning and gathering eggs, which they can also hop and fly a bit in and a lower portion to peck around in. We're going to do hardware cloth on every side but the bottom to keep the predators out and chicken wire on the bottom, to keep animals from borrowing up and under or just lifting it up since it will be so lightweight. Here's a lashing detail and The Puff guarding the ladies' feed.

Portland Veggie Truck Chronicles + National Pollinator Week

Some of the beautiful Icelandic Poppies and Foxgloves from home:

On the route I see so many good bumper stickers in Portland and the metro area. I've got a lot scribbled down on various bits of paper... I'll get around to typing them up to share with you one of these days. In the meantime, love these two.

Driving this route really fires my brain up about humanity, housing, food, what it is to be alive as a human - to be this funny animal we all are.

And I see so many versions of houses. Houses, houses, houses. They stretch on and on... Variations on the form of what we think our basic needs are - ideas actually based on the major building industries' decisions about 'standard' materials and the building departments which follow on the industry's coattails and set the regulations for your hut.

So many strict structures, with sharp lines. Many staring blandly out like impersonal hotels. The photo is from Forest Heights, neighborhood of perched megabuildings, looking out on views of each other while vying for the mountain sunsets. I've got some more thoughts and photos to come on the Heights in the future...

These materials we can not make with our own two hands. Without far away factories we never set foot in, heavy machinery, un-thought about toxic chemicals and the laborers.

These materials form what our ingrained imaginations see a 'home' to be.

Granted many around Portland and in the woods are quite cute to me and I'll take more photos of those in the future, too. Same building materials, though, just different imaginations and skill interpreting them.

Drywall, the 2x4 stud/stick, cement, glass, you know - imagine all the parts to your house and what it would be like if the parts weren't manufactured for you. So interesting (not even available at the dump or neat rebuilding center to reuse).

Regardless of income - What would it be like if everyone had to build their own shelter in this country, themselves. What would that look like? What would the food people eat now look like if they were responsible for growing their own and bartering with each other for what else they needed?

Right now those basic needs, food and shelter, are shaped by the income generated through other tangled lines on our corporate driven, consumer society. Each person is literally a cog in the overall machine. Or an ongoing play with a huge array of characters playing their roles. You generate a certain amount of money and then choose to place it back out in exchange for housing, food, vehicles, clothing, trips - all work done and income earned by other people who then go on and place their money out in exchange for their versions of the same needs and wants.

The income your cog generates, determines and often displays whether your house is truly basic with minimal square footage or if it has been frilled out and elaborated on often to a grand square footage scale. And whether your food is as good as you'd like it to be or if it's the most caloric value you can get while stretching your dollars. It is generally not that affordable to make choices that are as local, organic and supportive for food or as green, environmental and humane as a person would like for housing, clothing, vehicles and other goods.

There are an amazing number of Prius cars in this area, but if everyone who needed to save on gas and/or wanted to try to make a better environmental choice, could afford a hybrid car, they would really be everywhere. There would also be a lot more well insulated, low-e windows and efficient appliances, solar panels and lots of other neat energy conserving technologies that can be expensive up front, but do save people money in the long run if they can afford it initially.

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Okay, this is the area my brain goes in when it's not deeply listening to OPB/NPR.

Speaking of which, I heard today that it is National Pollinator Week. The website is really neat.

Here are some photos from home and some of the flowers we hope help the pollination go 'round (Banti is looking out from the window above the cosmos):



We would have very little to eat without pollination! In case you don't make it to their website, this is text describing important pollination info:

"Pollination is vital to our survival and the existence of nearly all ecosystems on earth. 80% of the world's crop plants depend on pollination. Pollinators, almost all of which are insects, are indispensable partners for an estimated 1 out of every 3 mouthfuls of food, spices and condiments we eat, and the beverages we drink. They are essential to the fibers we use, the medicines that keep us healthy, and more than half of the world's diet of fats and oils. Insect pollinators, including honey bees, pollinate products amounting to $20 billion annually in the U.S. alone.

What is pollination and who are pollinators?

Pollination occurs when pollen is moved within flowers or carried from one flower to another of the same species by birds, bees, bats, butterflies, moths, beetles or other animals, or by the wind. This transfer of leads to fertilization and successful seed and fruit production. Pollination ensures that a plant will produce full-bodied fruit and a complete set of fertile seeds, capable of germinating.

Why are pollination issues worthy of attention?

Today pollinators' existence may be threatened. Since pollinators are largely overlooked, assessing their condition and economic importance; seeking to understand their circumstances, biology, and benefits better; and working to help keep them healthy are positive, pro-active approaches to conservation."

NY Friends and Mamo visit within a few days

Our first visit of friends from out of state... Gail and Eric just came from New York to visit us. Yay : ) !! and brought my favorite 'veggie' gummi bears from the co-op and other treats, like a very nifty green cutting board and their happy smiles... The last time we had seen them was October 1st when they kindly helped us load our moving truck in Brooklyn, including the old claw foot tub we hope to someday make a new home for, and kept us calm. I had to put the city picture of them in downtown Portland by the 'tall' buildings and in the country photo Eric's wearing a cool yellow shirt with 'Gowanus' the name of our old neighborhood and an extremely polluted canal, now becoming very fancy (ie. Whole Foods spends years trying to build on a brownfield site and condos eagerly wait in the wings to line the infested shores..), that we used to walk over on the way to the subway... Here's a photo Gail took of our address sign and Lima + Banti.

I felt an interesting feeling I can't quite place - having to do with friends from such a specific place and part of our recent lives, who in a certain sense represent that- here now in this very different new place and time of our life. Have you ever experienced that?

It was also our first reason to take a day off... so maybe that tilted my perspective on life.

We went to show them Biggie and to the Rock Creek Pub for lunch. We had a little dinner party with them and Mish and Steve. Neil cooked delicious burritos and we set up tables down by the fields from our house to watch the beautiful sunset.

The next day Neil had to do the route and I took them places our friends Jess and Michael took us to when we were out last summer. To the rose garden, Pittock Mansion and downtown; the industrial area by Hwy 30 which I thought they'd appreciate as crafty artist/builders they are. Gail saw this nifty train car and wanted to cross the tracks to go by the fear caboose and I think in the picture I am fighting her from doing that and she is saying alright little mother hen pipsqueak, i won't cross the tracks, gotcha.. and Eric in the car is saying, any day ladies, rental car is parked illegally... then the Rebuilding Center and Mississippi neighborhood and then had dinner with their really neat friends Dimitri and Jessica, who had moved from New Jersey and were staying with her parents in the Irvington neighborhood where she grew up. (We deliver to a lot of CSA subscribers there and think of it as the Knott St. neighborhood...)

She made these amazing pizzas. Mmm... We talked a lot about life, dreams and work. He seriously explored farming and boat building, but came to the conclusion that it would be too financially challenging to start with two young children (who are very smart and funny by the way). They are headed to Seattle and he's about to start architecture school. We talked a lot about all the neat things we'd each like to do and the difficulty in the end of making the numbers work. That he came to the realization that he was going to have to fit himself into one of the pre-laid down career paths available. Jessica is an artist and illustrator and showed me and Gail how to make crocheted bags out of plastic shopping bags, by cutting them in to strips, knotting them together and crocheting away. Very cool. We also talked about making and selling things like that, as the three of us like to be crafty, but also how much time it can take to make something you want to sell at an affordable price someone can actually buy. Hours versus income. She also introduced me to The Complete Tightwad's Gazette, gave me the awesome pizza crust recipe, and other Portland tips like Knitten Kitten, potholder looms, "Goodwill As Is" by the pound, Interstate Farmer's Market, 4over4.com and vistaprint.com, also screen printing with cross-stitch and puffy paint. It was hard to see Gail and Eric off, just as easily as they are here, poof, they are gone. Off to his grandparents anniversary party in Spokane. Thank you for making a special trip to visit us!

A day went by and the next monumental visitor appeared. I think my Mom actually just visited on Father's Day. I showed her around our house and we took lunch to eat with Neil, Steve and Mishelle who were working at Abundant Harvest, that was really nice. Then we went up to Biggie and she seemed pretty impressed and it was neat to get her outside opinions and view on it. And she got to meet Robin and the cat, Snaggles, photos were taken... she's going to mail them to me, but I don't have any in the computer to put here. We planted some red coreopsis flowers together in with a pepper row. We'd had an idea to somehow make it to the ocean for a hike as it's only an hour away and I haven't been there since we moved here, but she'd been on a trip up the coast on her way up to Portland and there just was not enough time before she needed to catch her flight. She was here less than a day and then also, poof, gone on a plane. Too fast, but very special to have her here, too. Definitely something unusual about people visiting you from the place you knew each other to the place you are now. I guess people leave these traces of themselves in memories of being at your home with you. And that's really nice.