Living the Dream in Uncertain Times

Do you ever have one of those moments where you realize you're living the dream? Not necessarily every hour of every day, but in one moment all the things line up and if your life was like this all the time things would be all right?

When I lived in idyllic Walla Walla on a farm I would often get that feeling as I watched the sunset behind the hills. Beautiful hills, dotted with wind turbines. I'd usually be on my bike or picking vegetables for dinner, maybe drinking a cold beer, and in that moment I could clearly see the dream.

In the hustle and bustle of Detroit things are often more complicated. If I have those moments its usually in the night life, a funk concert in an old garage, or a Afro-futurist performance behind an urban farm. Sometimes its kids playing in the street at the end of a sweltering day. They're shorter in general, more easily interrupted. Some of it is that I'm older, probably less naive. Some of it is that the problems of the world are nearer the surface in a big city, particularly Detroit. And that's part of why I love living here, even if I can't do anything about the problems of the world I can touch them, and sometimes touch the solutions too.

This morning is ugly, damp, unseasonably warm. We're only a couple days away from the inauguration of a President that promises to stand in opposition to almost everything I believe... but....

I see it, just for a moment. As I sip a hot cup of coffee and eat a Pastry Date from the local Middle Eastern bakery, share spring time dreams with other urban farmers, and write a grant proposal about how its hard to convince folks with little money to share their skills for free.... I see the beauty of this world. Of a place where new immigrants open bakeries, people of all colors coax bounty from the dirt, and I do work along side others fighting the same struggle against capitalism and racism.

In a time when I think we'll be doing a lot of "opposing" on a governmental level it's good to notice and hold dear to moments like this. It's important to know what we're for, not just against. And I'm for Pastry Dates and hot coffee on a damp January day.

Open Letter on "First" Urban Agrihood

Update: Interesting Metrotimes article on many of these points

Michigan Urban Farming Initiative has created the “first urban agrihood” in much the same way that Christopher Columbus was the “first” person to discover America. With this  long history of false “firsts” perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised by all the headlines last week. But even if it was not a surprise, it was disappointing.

I’m a white woman who moved to Detroit in 2011 to participate in the city’s already thriving urban agriculture movement. People have been growing food in this soil since before white settlers got here. The French colonists built “ribbon farms”along the river and many of our streets are named after those farmers. The current wave of urban agriculture continues from the City’s Farm-A-Lot program (1970s-1990s), which distributed seeds and provided other resources for residents to grow food on vacant lots. When the City stopped funding the program, the Garden Resource Program was born in 2003, initially as a partnership of MSU Extension, the Greening of Detroit, Earthworks Urban Farm, and the Detroit Agriculture Network. The program is now coordinated by Keep Growing Detroit, with over 1,430 gardens participating in 2016.

The history of agriculture in Detroit has been mainly a history of people of color, especially African Americans whose families worked on farms in the American south. Without an understanding of both local and national history, we erase the experiences and contributions of the people who came before us. Just like if we say that Elvis invented Rock and Roll we erase the Blues performers that influenced him. By claiming that we are the first we deny the existence and experience of all those other people.

I lay all of this out because history is important. Urban agriculture is not just a short term trend nor is it an entirely new movement. It has been and continues to be a way that thousands of residents provide healthy, nutritious food, and sometimes income, to their families, neighbors, and congregations.

Michigan Urban Farming Initiative didn’t start urban agriculture in the city nor did they invent the “Urban Agrihood” (though no one else may have called it that). The Brightmoor Farmway and its impact on the neighborhood has been written about in many local and national publications. Georgia Street Community Collective, on the near east side, has used agriculture as a transformational force, with a community garden, orchard, community kitchen, and youth programming, to great effect. Georgia Street’s director, Mark Covington, has been much written about in the local press as an advocate for allowing livestock in the city. D-Town Farm covers 7 acres in Detroit’s Rouge Park and grows over 30 varieties of fruits and vegetables while also acting as an important space to teach people about gardening and nutrition. Not a half mile up the road from MUFI is the Oakland Avenue Urban Farm and Farmway with their community house and gardens, farmers market, AfroJam business, and more. I know there are many more examples that I’m failing to mention. All of these projects have been grassroots in their beginnings, slow growing, underfunded, and, for many of them, led by people of color.

The project at the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative is exciting, an interesting corporate partnership in this work, and audacious in its scale. All of these are great reasons to write a news or blog article about it, but none of these things make it first.

http://www.modeldmedia.com/features/new-beginning-north-end-091216.aspx
www.oaklandurbanfarm.org/
http://www.uixdetroit.com/projects/dtown-farm.aspx
http://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/how-paul-weertz-helped-stabilize-the-tiny-detroit-neighborhood-you-almost-never-heard-about/Content?oid=2343926
http://www.neighborsbuildingbrightmoor.org/
http://www.georgiastreetcc.com/

Things I have been doing instead of updating this blog : 2013 edition

It's been another year since I updated this blog, and I promise I have good excuses for it again.  More than busy-ness (though there's plenty of that to go around too) I also tend to write more when I feel certain about things, and I think the last two years I have spent a lot more time learning about complication and the importance of humility and uncertainty.  There are a few things that I'm certain about though, so maybe I'll write about those.  I am also really certain about what has kept me busy the last year.  So here it is:

• Being farm manager at Catherine Ferguson Academy.  I got to take care of some goats and chickens and do a little gardening.  Unfortunately it wasn't as great an experience as I originally thought.  The living conditions for the animals were not ideal and I spent more time working with a local vet than I would have liked.  Layers of bureaucracy at this charter school  made it difficult to make the changes needed and my lack of clear job description or contract were also frustrating.  I eventually left to take a much better job (see below).  And unfortunately this happened about a week after I quit: http://www.freep.com/article/20130604/NEWS01/306040062/catherine-ferguson-animals-killed
• Picking up recycling by bicycle: http://www.detroitgreencycle.com/Home.html  Some of the hardest physical work I've ever done, but totally satisfying.  I worked January through May picking up recycling at people's houses with a giant bike trailer behind me, in all sorts of weather and with all sorts of technical difficulties.  The company is owned by a friend of mine, and having a pile of bins taller than me on a bike trailer behind me made me feel like a bad ass.  Will be picking back up a couple days a week starting in November.
• Making Christmas wreaths.  Will be doing again this summer and selling most at Detroit Farm and Garden.
• Still running City Commons (citycommonscsa.com)  We're on the last weeks of our second season.  Went from 16 shares to 52 shares and pulled it off pretty nicely.  Unfortunately I didn't contribute produce this year because of issues with land (a whole other blog post) related to the fact that I moved and...
• Bought a house!

Yeah, that's my house.  No big deal.

• Been working on the house A LOT.  You can see before: https://plus.google.com/photos/107166267250337581442/albums/5872792512433902785?authkey=CJHx7u_f4sOFhAE and during: https://plus.google.com/photos/107166267250337581442/albums/5914547204988162273 photos here.  It's still not done so there aren't really after photos yet.
• So in May I was really wanting to get a different farming job for the summer and I lucked out because I got a farm manager job at GenesisHOPE!  I take care of about an eighth of an acre at Mack and E grand Blvd right outside of Genesis Lutheran Church.  It's been a really good experience so far.  I've learned that I still don't really like working with youth as a general rule, but I do really like teaching folks about gardening (also taught a compost class this summer for People's Kitchen Detroit and a Seedsaving Class for Keep Growing Detroit).  I'm not sure what to do with that knowledge, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.  Working for a small non profit and a faith based organization (who knew I would ever have a job where I have the keys to a church!) has also been a good learning experience, I'm sure there's a future blog post in there somewhere too.
• Dating.  OKCupid.  There are a lot of stories, not all of which are fit to be shared.  It's an interesting world out there.
• Dancing, hanging out with friends, biking, all the usuals.

 And now you know what I've been up to!

Snapshots of a Dirt Worshipper's city farm, one year in

A normal farming day for me would be getting up, watering the raised bed in my front yard and, after breakfasting, heading out to the farm.  Getting ready to head out to the farm means putting seeds in my bike bag, putting an transplants I might need on my trailer, plus the wheelbarrow, shovel, rake and hoe and then biking about a half mile down the street.

The other day the private school across the street brought out some second graders to do nature study in the lot, which is over 2 acres and we are farming on about a quarter.  the teacher's name was Jerry Ann and she was very nice and told the kids to keep out of the garden.  Later that day I met a man down the street named Rupert.  He told me he'd been keeping an eye on the garden and that there used to be a bakery there.  I told him that we knew about the bakery and actually called it the Bakery Lot, he seemed really happy about that.

Photo credit to Lauren Harroun

 About 3 months ago a church pew showed up at the lot.  No explanation, haven't seen many people other than us ever sit on it.  It is darn convenient to have a bench around though.

Photo credit to Lauren Harroun

The lot is right next to the rail road tracks, in fact a railroad service drive runs on the eastern edge.  There's more traffic than you might think.  Service vehicles, the rail police and border patrol.  Border patrol is a pretty common sight in our neighborhood as we have the Ambassador Bridge (Canadian border crossing) right there.  And many of the trains that go by are headed to or from Canada.  Most of the time these vehicles don't stop.  One time a border patrol guy stopped and asked me about the garden.  I was pretty nervous as we're only semi-legal, but he seemed to think the whole thing was pretty cool.  One of the other folks who farms there met a border patrol agent the other day and he knew our garden as the place with the church pew, who knew!

.....

Had a large Summer Solstice Party back in June, potluck, homemade ice cream, music from a parked pick up.  This past weekend we had a smaller Autumn Equinox party.  Fire, s'mores, cider, whiskey.  Clear night with just the right amount of chill to make the fire seem nice.  Clean up was mostly lining up the returnable bottles so that one of the folks pushing a cart around to collect such thing could find and take them back for the 10 cents.  I heard two guys pushing carts talking about the bottles while I was gardening Tuesday, but with me working there they didn't grab them.  Guy said something about "they've got a garden there".  I should have called out to them that the bottles were theirs if they wanted them. 

.....

Once a work day at the garden is done I load the wheelbarrow, rake, shovel and hoe back on the trailer; water in whatever has been planted; and turn my bike back home.  I usually take 25th between the garden and my house.  Its a densely occupied street with neat, modest homes.  I make a point to say Good Morning and Good Evening most of the time and many folks will wave or ask after the peppers or tomatoes as I bike by now.   I often wonder how many of them walk through the garden when we're not there.

.....

Slowly slowly plants grow
slowly slowly the seasons change
drought
tears
trucks
hydrants
rocks
concrete
rust
seeds and seeds and seeds and seeds
and slowly slowly
days shorten
extra cup of coffee before the dawn
cooler
colder
frost
fruits to
roots
and leaves
"Next year..."

Things that I have been doing instead of updating this blog

Starting and growing food for a cooperative CSA: City Commons

Learning about building and helping to build this chicken coop

 

 

 

 

And then getting some chickens for it

Pulling weeds with friends who are also part of City Commons

And then picking some plums

And getting some help from my fellow farmers to put in a giant squash and melon patch

Going to Dana and Ishai's wedding

And going to the beach

Looking for a Sign Part 4: Am I just lucky or was it meant to be this way?

When I was touring colleges out in the Pacific Northwest I almost didn't go to Whitman.  It is out in the middle of nowhere in not in an exciting city like Portland or Eugene.  I did decide to go for it though and made arrangements ahead of time for a tour and all the other trappings.  The e-mail I got said to show up at the admissions office at 8 AM for my tour of campus.

My mom and I rolled into town kind of late the night before my visit and ended up staying in a cinder block Howard Johnsons (now the Walla Walla Vineyard Inn where they busted a meth lab last year) as all the other hotels were full.  HoJos was nice and close to campus though and so we were able to walk over on a sleepy Saturday morning. (I'm pretty sure it was a Saturday, I don't think there were classes going on).  When we showed up at the Admission Office it was all locked up.  We double checked the print out of the e-mail that said 8 and then knocked.  A woman came to the door and said oh no, it must have been a mistake because the first tour that day wasn't until 9, but we were signed up for that one.  No problem, my mom and I went to go snoop around the school.

I knew that I would want to be an Environmental Studies/Biology major so we walked over to peek in the Science building, at that point just having construction finished up.  We tried the doors, but they were locked so just peered through the windows.  Then the lovely Dr. Wallace came up on his bicycle and asked "Are you a prospective student?"  I said that I was and that I was going to major in Biology and he swept us away up the stairs to his new lab to show us the cool new microscopes he had and the videos his Intro to Bio students had made of some little water critters (and at the time I was really into water quality) and he was just so enthusiastic about it all.

We eventually had a really wonderful tour and I had lunch with some cool students and my mom and I agreed that Walla Walla was a cute town, but I can't say for sure that I would have gone to Whitman if it hadn't been for the error on that letter and meeting Dr Wallace.  And if I hadn't gone to Whitman I would have never ended up in Walla Walla and met Matt and Laura and Lina.   And if I hadn't done that I don't know that I would have ended up getting into starting a local food co-op.  And I might not have ended up meeting farmers and then realizing I wanted to be a farmer.  And then where would I be?