Food Not Lawns - Kansas City

  Here I am jubilantly holding up one of the sweet potatoes we harvested from our median in midtown KCMO. We decided to take a different tack this summer with that useless strip of land between the street and the sidewalk, the area that just sits there needing to be mowed week after week. My husband and I planted the whole thing with sweet potatoes, which is one of our favorite vegetables — decorative, delicious, and highly nutritious. We divided it into three sections using two pathways of stones, so people getting out of cars had somewhere to walk besides tromping on our crop.

Normally, we can expect to find doggy doo and trash on our median several times a week. There was none of the former and little of the latter throughout the summer. People seemed to recognize that something special was going on and out of respect kept their dogs on a tight leash as they passed by. If I was outside, they’d ask, “What is THAT?”  “Sweet potatoes,” I’d say. “Cool,” they’d say, or “Way to go!” Sweet potatoes are super easy to grow, and the twining leaf is pleasant to look at. 

We got well over a bushel of sweet potatoes out of our plot. As a friend and I were digging them out this fall, we became the neighborhood attraction. Kids wanted to help out (and did). People walking on the sidewalk stopped to admire and chuckle. One guy drove around the block and returned with his cell phone camera. “Did you get those out of the ground?” he asked incredulously. Then he asked if I minded standing next to the bushel of sweet potatoes so he could take a picture and put it on his Facebook page. 

We also grew sweet potatoes at the Rainbow Mennonite Church Community Garden, which we helped to start, and as a result we ended up with over two bushels in our basement. What did we do with all of them? We gave some away. We made pies. As always, we enjoy them just baked and with a little butter.

 This year, we’ve discovered a fabulous recipe for black bean-sweet potato burritos that has become a favorite. Just heat some onion, 3 cups of diced sweet potatoes, and spices until tender, then mix in a can of black beans, roll into 8 flour tortillas with some shredded cheese, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes!

Diane Eickhoff 

Food Not  Lawns KC Participant

Creekhouse Norganic Community Garden

From the 1890’s to the 1950’s the Heart of America was a major producer of fresh fruits and vegetables. During World War II Kansas City was one of the cities with the highest number of Victory Gardens in America. We need to recreate that food system and improve upon it. 

 Kansas City needs perennial food gardens and edible landscapes like the ones the Indians created before 1492. They managed the forests from the Atlantic to the prairies as their primary food source.  Large portions of their calories came from nut trees. 

Wes Jackson says we get 70% of our calories from grains and oils. Vegetables won’t be enough to  feed the city. Nuts can provide a large part of those dense calories, from oils along with protein.  We need pecan, hazelnut, almond, chestnut, hickory, apple, peach, pear, cherry and all the others fruiting trees in our parks and neighborhoods.  We need papaw, persimmon, fig and all kinds of berries. Flowering in the spring they beautify and also feed us.

We don’t plant orchards we spread the trees around so the pests and problems can’t jump from one to the next like dominos falling.  Lets grow sweet potatoes in the park landscape beds.

We need to grow our annual crops in the floodplains where the soils are renewed by periodic flooding.

We need to have gardens outside the kitchen door of all the homes in Kansas City.

 We need distributed polyculture tended by a new generation of urban farmer an Ecosystem Manager who is stepped in Permaculture principles and the wisdom of our elders.  We have to relearn the ways of those who feed our grandparents until the time when we each have a Paradise Garden to Be in.

Here’s a excerpt from a blog by Joe Hollis http://webpages.charter.net/czar207196/eden.htm

“Paradise is, first of all, a garden. A garden in which everything we need is there for the taking.

2) And Paradise Gardening is a way of life which serves to maintain the garden, and is in turn maintained by it. Odum calls this the “ecosystem manager… an organism that utilizes a small fraction of the total energy budget and in return provides a service which aids the system in its function and continued survival.” ( The concept “illustrates the ideal which man should immitate in his attempts to manage a natural ecosystem.”) Genesis, with the characteristic compression of myth, says we were put into the garden ” to dress it and keep it.” Same thing.

3) Paradise gardening is not work. Work is a subjective concept: one person’s play may be another person’s work. It has nothing to do with effort: tennis, for example, is usually “play” ( unless you’re a pro), sitting at a computer terminal is frequently “work”. Work is whatever you are doing when you’d rather be doing something else. Paradise Gardening is not “work” in the same sense that what a bear does all day is not “work”. This is the distinction which the Taoists make between “doing” and “not-doing”. Genesis refers to the same matter in saying that only outside the garden do we have to earn our living ” by the sweat of our brow”.

4) Paradise Gardening is not agriculture. From chemical to organic, agriculture is a step in the right direction, but only the first step. Agriculture itself is, after all, half of the one-two punch that knocked us out of Paradise in the fist place. (Good) farmers, to be sure, love nature: but they love her in the context of plowing her up every year and deciding what to grow next. Our addiction to annual species and disturbed habitats has put us at odds with the main thrust of the biosphere (and ourselves).

Oh, Earth is patient and Earth is old

And a mother of Gods, but he breaks her,

To-ing, fro-ing, with the plow teams going,

Tearing the soil of her, year by year.

Sophocles, Antigone

Every spring, nature begins again to clothe the earth in beauty, the process of succession, the initial strands of the intricate web, rebirth of the Tree of Life. And every autumn we scrape it off, rake it into barns, take it to market: we increase human diversity and complexity (butcher, baker, candlestick-maker…) by appropriating to ourselves processes which are meant to benefit all.”

 We need to give back as much as we take.

 Steve Mann

2009 has been the best year for catching

one of the most ravenous garden pests.

the best use for beer is for catching slugs!

Caught six slugs in the beer trap yesterday - they love it!

Toby

Goats at BadSeed Farm

Food Not Lawns is about converting unproductive resource intensive landscapes into productive sustainable permascapes.  It’s about growing our own food near the back door and creating a secure local food system. All the work and time the Kansas City Food Circle and the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture and all of you have invested is under attack. Brooke Salvaggio and Daniel Heryer who operate BadSeed Farm in south Kansas City Missouri face a concerted effort to shut them down by Kansas City officials.  If the city is successful in their prosecution then all urban farms in Kansas City are at risk. BadSeed farm is the poster child of the Food Not Lawns movement in Kansas City. Brook eradicated an acre of lawn liberating the soil of its bondage to turf.  She grows food for our community with loving care in the living soil she nurtured back to health.  

 The following is a letter from Brook to her supporters.

Dear Eaters,

To me, it seems absurd that a group of our neighbors should so greatly fear a small, organic farm in a suburban backyard.  They would sooner seek its demise than walk through its open gates to see it firsthand.

Amidst the worst economic times in recent memory, people fear for their jobs, for their homes, for their marriages, for their very way of living.  So we should not be surprised when a long-time neighbor tells us that she fears she may have to move back into her second home if she cannot sell it due to our organic efforts.

Afraid of declining property values and an invasion from poorer black neighborhoods to the east, our politically powerful neighbors fingered us for troublemakers and demanded the city do something.  The officials in the city issued us with numerous violations, despite our compliance with city codes, because they fear for their jobs.

How many of us stay in jobs we dislike for fear of losing health or retirement benefits?

To be free is to live without fear.  I have lived in America for 27 years.  I have visited Cuba, China, Europe, and Peru, and I find this definition of freedom to be the truest.  And yet, I believe that Americans are less free than ever before.  And we are more fearful than ever before.

We are fearful not because of the economy, not because of the value of our homes, not because of our jobs.  We are fearful because we have lost the ability to control our own destinies.  We have lost the ability to do for ourselves.  For if we have the ability to feed ourselves, to build our own homes, to sew our own clothes and to mend our own wounds, what have we left to fear?

Answer: Natural disasters, and the government.  These are my greatest fears.

Brooke Salvaggio & Daniel Heryer

BadSeed Farm

Kansas City Missouri

August 27 2009

Arjay's 'debris' pile

 My friend Robert Josephine was convicted Tuesday evening August 18^th of having debris, refuse and garbage on his property at Lake Waukomis.  What he actually had was a backyard compost bin.  Arjay as he is known to his listeners on KKFI’s Morning Buzz used the frame from a 12 ft trampoline. He removed the top and fastened fencing around the edge to hold the compost and aid aeration. For the last 10 years Arjay has been composting the large amount of leaves falling from the many oak and hickory trees on his parent’s lakefront property.

 He asked me to be a witness on his behalf.  He thought I could explain the many benefits of backyard composting since I use it. Well the prosecutor wasn’t impressed with my wisdom and he said it was irrelevant since there was a statute against composting and he would simply amend the complaint to include that charge. The judge wasn’t having any of this and believed the marshals account of a malodor fuming from the stinking pile.  I had just visited the compost and found no odor what so ever which is usual for a pile of oak leaves. Essentially Arjay was convicted of composting.

According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources…

“Yard waste need not find a home away from home. It is one part of the waste stream that can be managed in our own back yards. Solid waste management is everyone’s responsibility. Each person should be able to find new and more effective ways to lessen their community’s dependence on landfills. The State of Missouri’s solid waste law focuses on the need to reduce the volume of waste generated.”  

http://www.dnr.mo.gov/env/swmp/composting/compost1.htm

 So here we have the dichotomy of this transitional time we live in. The guardians of our natural resources for the state of Missouri recommend composting. It appears that state law encourages the reduction in the volume of solid waste going into landfills.  The US Department of Agriculture also recommends backyard composting.   http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/FEATURE/backyard/compost.html

Composting creates humus , the most valuable substance on Earth.  We have lost over half of the topsoil and its humus content in America since Columbus landed.  We need humus from compost to grow our food in our yards because our industrial agriculture system is fast letting our soil wash and blow away. We will have to feed ourselves. That’s what Food Not Lawns is all about. Personal Food Security for you and your family.

Now is the time for cities like Lake Waukomis to guide their citizens to reduce the waist stream and reuse and recycle all of our natural resources.   We need to stop burying the organic matter we needed to produce the living soil necessary to grow healthful food for our families.

Kansas City :

Article II Division 1 section 48-25

“(2)   Grass, leaves, chipped brush, weeds, chipped foliage or shrub 

cuttings or clippings, unharvested vegetable waste grown on the

premises in more than three organized composting bins, or in organized

windrows, greater than 150 square feet in total area and more than 49

inches in height on residential premises less than one acre in size,

or 150 square feet in total area and more than 49 inches in height per

acre on residential premises greater than one acre in size. The height

and area restrictions do not apply to composting bins or windrows on

nonresidential premises. No composting bin or windrow shall be

constructed or maintained in such a manner or condition as to emit

noxious odor, provide bedding or shelter for rats or other pests, or

be in violation of other provisions of the Code. On residential

premises, composting bins and windrows shall only be located within

the back yard. For purposes of this section, the back yard is defined

as the area bounded by the back line of the parcel boundary and rear

wall of the dwelling extending to the side parcel boundaries.”

Lenexa :http://www.ci.lenexa.ks.us/planning/CompostInfo.html

Prairie Village: City s composting regulations, contact Marcia

Gradinger at 913-385-4605

Overland Park:  Jim Twigg, environmental programs coordinator, at 913/895-6273

Steve.

former lawn

GET RID OF THAT BLUEGRASS, GROW VEGGIES INSTEAD!

Food Not Lawns KC Workshop at Olathe Public Library

, Sept. 12, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m

You spent all summer mowing, spraying, raking and reseeding the front lawn, but what have you got to show for it beyond a sore back and more grass to mow next spring? Instead of mowing and weeding, you could have spent your summer filling your freezer and pantry with homegrown vegetables and fruit. Come to the Indian Creek Branch Library, 12990 S. Black Bob Rd, Olathe, KS 66062, Saturday, Sept. 12, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and learn how to grow food, not lawns.

More and more area residents are tearing up their front yard and planting tomatoes, sweet potatoes, strawberries and other edible plants as part of a growing national movement. Toby Grotz and Steve Mann from Food Not Lawns KC, will show how to prepare your lawn for vegetable planting. Fall is the best time to get ready for a productive summer.

For more information about the class, or to register, call the Olathe Public Library reference desk at (913) 971-6888.

Creek House Norganic Community Garden

6310 NW Waukomis, KCMO 64151

Homemade Peach Ice Cream, Raw Food  Potluck, Squash, Watermelon, Fun, Sun, Community

Please bring a dish to share, and reusable plate, cup and utensils for yourself and chairs.

Directions:

Cut and paste in your browser

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=6310+NW+Waukomis+Dr,+Kansas+City,+MO+64151&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.784549,53.349609&ie=UTF8&ll=39.206586,-94.609795&spn=0.007582,0.013025&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A

Contacts:

Steve 816 352 9213

Hello FNLies - Steve invited me to share some stories from the North, greetings from Minnesota. (thanks Steve.) I was involved with the beginnings of Food Not Lawns KC and impressed to see how it’s growing.  I hope the happenings of a different city will inform and inspire the KC efforts.

Thought I’d share a big picture city government program Homegrown Minneapolis that is similar to the KC Healthy Food Policy Initiative. Even though the policy avenue is not everyone’s cup of tea it generates a nice outline on key areas, including suggestions related to the growing urban farming and gardening efforts. (Yea for KCCUA & KCCG!)  KC has a unique opportunity to convert vacant land to community gardens/urban farms and willing gardeners like FNLies could lead the way.  Anyway thanks for the opportunity to share… hope others will contribute stories and pictures highlighting the bounty of their transformed lawns and how you’re working from the ground up in the community to bring change.

Homegrown Minneapolis is an initiative to develop recommendations for the City of Minneapolis to improve sales, distribution and consumption of fresh, locally grown foods to positively impact the health, food security, economy and environment of our City and the surrounding region. http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/dhfs/homegrown-home.asp

Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution supporting the production, sales, and consumption of healthy, locally grown foods in the city!  The resolution also called for the formation of a Task Force to help oversee the implementation of key recommendations over the next 18 months.  The Mayor Rybak officially signed the resolution at the Emerge youth garden in North Minneapolis.  The Emerge youth garden is a city-funded summer program that uses a community garden to teach youth about local food production and sustainability.  The program is a collaboration between the City’s youth employment programs and Homegrown Minneapolis.

 Sarah