Dandelion Ridge Farm
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Blog
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Blog
Search

By deepening our connection to the food system, we  can further connect with each other and the world around us.

Supporting Food Security in Central KY

11/16/2020

 
Picture
 We are fortunate to serve as community partners with The Learning Center (TLC), an alternative high school in Lexington, where we recently got to listen to student presentations (via Zoom) proposing solutions to food insecurity in Lexington. It’s wonderful to see the school tackle such an important issue across disciplines, and to hear the students’ creative solutions, ranging from rooftop gardens to food education classes. We look forward to seeing the students’ good work benefit the community as their projects unfold.

Speaking of food insecurity, did you know that 14.9% of all Kentuckians lack consistent access to enough “nutritionally adequate” food? Feeding America has a fascinating interactive map where you can explore food access statistics by county, and some of the numbers are pretty shocking. Especially as we all give thanks for what we have, I encourage you to support local organizations working to end hunger if you can.

At Dandelion Ridge Farm, we work closely with Glean Kentucky, a Lexington based non-profit that fosters a powerful network to tackle both hunger and food waste in the state. They glean excess fruits and vegetables from farms, grocery stores, and farmers’ markets and redistribute this produce to more than 100 local feeding programs. The Access Men’s Shelter and Soup Kitchen in Frankfort works hard to keep many people well fed, especially during the pandemic. They just suffered the traumatic loss of their incredible kitchen manager, and I’m sure could use any love sent their way. The Frankfort Emergency Food Pantry is another excellent organization feeding those in need in our community. They have a virtual food drive underway right now, if you want to pitch in!
Picture
Picture

Juneteenth and Farming as Activism

6/19/2020

 
Today, June 19, is the holiday known as Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when word reached the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas that they had been freed by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier. Black communities across the county have celebrated Juneteeth ever since, making it the oldest annual celebration of the end of slavery and the fight for freedom. Festivities traditionally involve barbecue and a feast of foods specially prepared for the occasion, participants dressing in their finest clothes, prayer, speeches, and games. Understanding history in order to make progress as individuals and as a society has always been a primary focus of Juneteeth ceremonies.

In light of this focus, I’d like to share what I’m learning about the work of Fannie Lou Hamer and her Freedom Farm Cooperative, which exemplified a movement using farming as a vehicle for empowerment, self-determination, and resistance against oppression that stretches through history to the present.

Fannie Lou Hamer is best known for her voting rights work, her activism with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and her cofounding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. But, born in 1917 into a Mississippi sharecropping family, she knew firsthand the way that the mainstream agricultural system oppressed People of Color, keeping them enslaved in all but name. Not only did the sharecropping system keep Hamer and others like her in constant poverty, hunger, and debt, but also deprived them of control over their own lives. When Hamer overcame the many barriers in place to disenfranchise Black citizens and successfully registered to vote, the owner of the plantation where she worked ordered her to rescind her voter registration. Hamer’s reply: “I didn’t go down there to register for you. I went down to register for myself.” He promptly fired her and evicted her from the property. This was a common experience among other Black folks fighting for the right to vote.

In 1969, Fannie Lou Hamer founded the Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC) as an alternative farming model to that which forced Black Mississippians to labor either as sharecroppers or to struggle with poverty on their own small farms. “The time has come now when we are going to have to get what we need ourselves. We may get a little help, here and there, but in the main we’re going to have to do it ourselves,” Hamer stated. With financial backing from from a Wisconsin-based non-profit, Hamer bought 40 acres of farmland to grow vegetables to feed member families and cash crops to support the co-op’s operational expenses. In addition to vegetables, the farm also fed its members through a “pig bank” that raised and distributed thousands of pigs to participating families. Poverty was the only qualification for joining the co-op, Hamer explained. “This is the first kind of program that has ever been sponsored in the country in letting local people do their thing themselves.”

Under Hamer’s tireless leadership, the FFC grew exponentially over the next few years. By the early 1970s, the farm comprised nearly 700 acres, and the co-op expanded to a comprehensive system of community and individual empowerment. Its programs included child education, affordable housing, job training, and health care. It housed a sewing cooperative, a tool library, a commercial kitchen, and community gardens. The Freedom Farm Cooperative strived to address each of the various ways the community had been oppressed and deprived of opportunity, and to provide the tools and the space for members to reclaim their agency and liberate themselves. It envisioned a system that lifted people up rather than crushing them and grinding them down.

The Freedom Farm Collective received little institutional support and dissolved by the mid-1970s. However, other farmers have continued its work and legacy in various ways. Today, farms from Soul Fire Farm in New York’s Hudson Valley to Oakland, California-based Black Earth Farms work to end food apartheid and center People of Color in all they do. Soul Fire Farm offers a multitude of workshops and immersion programs for Farmers of Color, operates a sliding-scale CSA to fight food insecurity, and provides an interactive Reparations Map on its website that connects potential donors with Black and Indigenous-led farming projects seeking resources. Black Earth Farms is a collective of Black and Indigenous Farmers that works to decolonize the food system and provide fresh produce to the unhoused and others in need, including people protesting for racial justice in recent weeks. Other farms in this movement of farming as activism include:
  • Soil Generation, Philadelphia, PA
  • The Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Living, Chicago, IL
  • Cooperation Jackson, Jackson, MS
  • Rise and Root Farm, Chester, NY
  • Backyard Gardeners Network, New Orleans, LA
  • Hilltop Urban Gardens, Tacoma, WA
  • The Fannie Lou Hamer-Sundiata Acoli Farm at the Harriet Tubman House, Baltimore, MD
  • And many more around the country.
 
I am only scratching the surface of this movement, and am excited to start Monica M. White’s book Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement to learn more about Fannie Lou Hamer and others in the tradition of agriculture as a source of resistance and self-reliance.
 
More about the Freedom Farm Cooperative:
  • https://indianapublicmedia.org/eartheats/fannie-lou-hamers-freedom-farm-cooperative.php
  • https://lifeandthyme.com/commentary/fannie-lou-hamer-and-farming-as-activism/
  • https://foodheroespodcast.com/2018/07/03/fannie-lou-hamers-freedom-farm-cooperative-an-early-example-of-food-and-democracy-through-local-food-activism/
  • https://snccdigital.org/events/fannie-lou-hamer-founds-freedom-farm-cooperative/
  • https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07409710.2017.1270647?journalCode=gfof20
  • https://popularresistance.org/black-co-ops-were-a-method-of-economic-survival/
  • https://www.crmvet.org/docs/mvmt/6508mvmt.pdf
“The people in the South are like seeds, each with the potential to grow and spread more seeds, for more growth: creating gardens and forests of themselves—lawns of living. They are planted in their lives.”
–"Fannie Lou Hamer, Crabgrass Politician,” in SNCC’s The Movement, August 1965. https://www.crmvet.org/docs/mvmt/6508mvmt.pdf.

Picture
Fannie Lou Hamer. Photo from http://www.marcelinamartin.com/SouthernEthic/index22.html
Picture
Freedom Farm Cooperative. Photo from http://www.marcelinamartin.com/SouthernEthic/index22.html
Picture
Sunflower County, Mississippi Sewing Co-op. Photo from http://www.marcelinamartin.com/SouthernEthic/index22.html

Black Lives Matter. Black Farmers Matter.

6/6/2020

 
Picture
Photo from John Francis Ficara's photography book Black Farmers in America. Photos and a great article at https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5230129
We cannot be silent. The brutal murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and other African Americans in the past weeks have brought this country’s ongoing legacy of systemic inequality and white supremacy to the fore. In the wake of these killings and amidst the outcry of grief and rage around the country (indeed, around the world), we are keenly aware of our immense white privilege and the ways we benefit from unequal systems.

Systemic racism has long infiltrated all aspects of society, beyond racial profiling, overpolicing and mass incarceration, unequal healthcare access, and housing discrimination all the way to land dispossession and fresh food inequality. Black farmers have faced debilitating discrimination from banks when applying for loans, from the USDA at all levels, and from corporate farms and white farming communities that have driven them from their lands. Heirs property laws have further tied the hands of those farmers who were able to hold on to their land. The very people who toiled the fields while enslaved, amassing wealth for their white masters, were robbed of the ability to grow nourishment for their families.

In fact, George Floyd’s family experienced this land theft first hand. One of his ancestors, Hillary Thomas Stewart, was born a slave, but once free, he managed to acquire 500 acres of farmland in North Carolina. His white neighbors took advantage of Stewart’s race and illiteracy and took over his land, leaving him powerless to defend his property. That was in the 1800s, and since then the Floyd family has been subject to unequal treatment in both rural and metropolitan settings alike. We have to wonder, when will they, and other Black American families, find a place to call home?

We know that we have an enormous amount to learn and to do to make our society one in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive and grow. We stand in solidarity with protesters and others doing the vital work of antiracism. In addition to supporting organizations fighting for justice and equality in all arenas, and giving your business to Black Farmers in your community, we encourage you to explore and support these organizations working on behalf of Farmers of Color and for food access and sovereignty in marginalized communities:
  • Soul Fire Farm is a Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-centered community farm near Albany, NY committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. Its Founding Co-Director, Leah Penniman, recently published the book Farming While Black, which I am eager to read. Soul Fire Farm has numerous other publications and is an incredible source of inspiration and information.
  • Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network (SAAFON) is a regional network for Black farmers committed to using ecologically sustainable practices to manage land, grow food, and raise livestock that are healthy for people and the planet.
  • Black Soil, based in Lexington, KY, organizes on-farm dining experiences that serve to reconnect black Kentuckians to their legacy and heritage in agriculture and to help foster a greater market share for black farmers and producers as they provide healthy food options to a larger consumer base.
  • National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA) is a coalition of Black-led organizations working towards cultivating and advancing Black leadership, building Black self-determination, Black institution building and organizing for food sovereignty, land and justice.  
  • The Land Loss Prevention Project works to curtail epidemic losses of Black owned land in North Carolina, the same state in which the Floyd family once farmed.
  • The National Black Farmers Association is a non-profit community organization that works to encourage the participation of small and disadvantaged farmers in gaining access to resources of state and federal programs administered by the USDA. Founder John Boyd Jr's story is indicative of common experiences of Black Farmers.
  • HEAL Food Alliance is a multi-sector, multi-racial coalition building collective power to transform our food and farm systems. Its member organizations include the Union of Concerned Scientists, Food Chain Workers Alliance, Real Food Challenge, and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance.
There are many more incredible organizations working for racial and food justice. Find more at the following links:
  • https://foodtank.com/news/2020/06/19-individuals-and-organizations-building-stronger-black-communities-and-food-systems/
  • https://civileats.com/2020/06/02/want-to-see-food-and-land-justice-for-black-americans-support-these-groups/

I’d like to end with a poem by Ross Gay that the Xerces Society shared. It was inspired by the 2014 police killing of Eric Garner, another Black American like George Floyd, whose dying words were “I can’t breathe.”

A Small Needful Fact
Is that Eric Garner worked
for some time for the Parks and Rec.
Horticultural Department, which means,
perhaps, that with his very large hands,
perhaps, in all likelihood,
he put gently into the earth
some plants which, most likely,
some of them, in all likelihood,
continue to grow, continue
to do what such plants do, like house
and feed small and necessary creatures,
like being pleasant to touch and smell,
like converting sunlight
into food, like making it easier
for us to breathe.

 [Copyright © 2015 by Ross Gay. Reprinted by the Xerces Society from Split This Rock’s The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database.]
Picture

Growing Resources

4/26/2020

 
In the midst of the current crisis, lots of folks are starting their own vegetable gardens for the first time or digging into existing gardens with a greater sense of purpose. There can never be too many vegetable gardens, as far as we’re concerned, and growing some of what you eat, even if it’s just a few herbs or a potted tomato plant on your deck, is such an empowering way of connecting with your food. I will never forget the thrill of growing our first garden eight years ago--the magic of sprouting seeds and the intense satisfaction of eating our first harvest.

It’s inspiring to see so many of our neighbors and friends turning over ground to start their own coronavirus victory gardens for food security and for the joy of watching plants thrive under loving care. In a time with so much unknown, when many are feeling disconnected from the world we’re used to, it can be profoundly grounding and empowering to put your hands in the dirt and to know in the deepest way where our nourishment comes from.

Growing food is a continual learning experience (part of what keeps it interesting!), but here are a few online resources we have found really useful in our ongoing garden education:
  • Southern Exposure Seed Exchange’s Growing Guides are a great place to start. They are very thorough, covering everything from seed starting and growing for biodiversity to crop-specific guides for just about any vegetable you’d want to grow.
  • Seed Saver’s Exchange also has a very good library of articles on all aspects of the vegetable garden, including site planning, crop-specific growing guides, and seed saving information.
  • Your county extension office is an incredible resource (shout out to our amazing horticulture agent, Faye Kuosman!). They can help you with soil testing (a key step to garden success!), troubleshooting, and connecting you with all the resources you need. The UK Extension Office’s guide to Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky is a useful reference, as well.
  • Johnny’s Selected Seeds’ Growing Center has excellent charts, calculators, and other planning guides, as well as an “Ask a Grower” feature.
  • The Organic Grower’s School has a wealth of resources for home gardeners, farmers, and consumers on their website, including some specific to growing during the COVID-19 pandemic, an excellent Gardener’s Library, and materials from their annual conferences.
  • We haven’t used Territorial Seed’s Garden Planner App yet, but it looks like a user-friendly way to keep track of all of your garden planning information in one place (rather than our approach of massive spreadsheets!). I want to give it a try in the future.
  • The Bionutrient Food Association has a vast library of documents, videos, and book recommendations available online. They tend to be more advanced, for experienced growers wanting to increase nutrient content in their crops by creating a super healthy soil food web.
  • The University of Kentucky’s Center for Crop Diversification is geared toward professional growers growing on a large scale, but its crop profiles and maps contain a lot of good information.
  • I really enjoy listening to the Farmer to Farmer Podcast, in which host and experienced organic farmer Chris Blanchard has down to earth conversations with other farmers about their operations and experiences. Unfortunately, Chris Blanchard passed away in 2018, but there is a hefty archive of past episodes to listen to while you work.

And some of our favorite gardening books include:
  • John Jeavons’ books How to Grow More Vegetables: And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine and The Sustainable Vegetable Garden: A Backyard Guide to Healthy Soil and Higher Yields, which is essentially a condensed and very accessible version of How to Grow More Vegetable. Both books are helpful with creating a solid garden plan.
  • Eliot Coleman’s The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener and Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long are bibles in the organic growing realm. Coleman grows year-round in Maine, so he has the art of the four-season harvest down!
  • Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical Self-Reliant Gardening is another treasure. Bonsall, also a Maine farmer and homesteader, has a strong personality and sense of humor that come though his writing along with his passion and hard-earned knowledge.
  • The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving, put out by Seed Savers Exchange and edited by by Lee Buttala and Shanyn Siegel and Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth are excellent resources if you want to save your own seeds.

We learn so much every growing season, from publications, from other farmers, and from the garden itself. It is so exciting to see many others jumping enthusiastically into growing food. Please let us know if we can share our experiences to help you get started!

Many seed companies have been inundated with orders this spring and many are sold out or are suspending orders to catch up. We have some little plants ready to go into your garden, ranging from cilantro and basil to okra and peppers from our own saved seeds and heirloom tomatoes. We also have a set of edible flower plants to make your harvest as beautiful as it is delicious!

Happy Growing!
Picture
Picture
Picture

GleanKY to the Rescue!

8/1/2019

 
Can you believe it’s August already? We’re still swimming in tomatoes at Dandelion Ridge Farm, and have been struggling to keep up with harvesting and processing them all, so we called in GleanKY for help. GleanKY is a non-profit based in Lexington, KY that tackles hunger and food waste by gleaning excess fruit and vegetables from farms, grocery stores, and farmers’ markets and redistributing this produce to more than 100 local feeding programs. In addition to their grocery store and farmers’ market gleanings, they send volunteer crews to harvest produce from local farms and deliver it to soup kitchens, food banks, and other organizations to help the hungry. We’re enthusiastic supporters of the important work they do! A couple of folks from Glean came out to the farm one morning this week and harvested about 350 pounds of tomatoes and delivered them to recipients in need. It felt good to know that those beautiful tomatoes are going to make a lot of people happy! If you want to know more about GleanKY, including volunteer and donation opportunities, go to gleanky.org.
Picture

    Archives

    March 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019

    Categories

    All
    Books
    Cabbage
    Candy Roaster Squash
    Canned Goods
    Celery
    Chevy Chase Farmers' Market
    Community
    Conferences
    Cooperative
    Edible Flowers
    Education
    Fannie Lou Hamer
    Farmers' Market
    Farm To Frankfort Workplace Delivery Program
    Farm Updates
    Food Access
    Food Justice
    Franklin County Farmers' Market
    Freedom Farm Cooperative
    Garden
    Ginger
    Ginger Marmalade
    GleanKY
    Greenhouse
    Greens
    Herbs
    High Tunnel
    History
    Insects
    Jelly
    Lemon Balm
    Lemon Thyme
    Lizzie's Chow Chow
    Marjoram
    Meet The Crew
    Mint
    Miss Winnie's Mulled Butternut Pickles
    Multiculturalism
    Non Profits
    Non-profits
    Okra
    Organic
    Organic Association Of KY
    Parsley
    Paul Robeson
    Plant Starts
    Pollinators
    Pomodoro Tomato Jelly
    Racial Justice
    Recipes
    Resources
    Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
    Roasted Tomato Coulis
    Roasted Tomato Juice
    Sage & Thyme Butternut Pickles
    Sampling
    Seeds
    Social Justice
    South Frankfort Food Share
    Sovereignty
    Sun-dried Tomatoes
    Sunny Zucchini Relish
    Sustainability
    Sweet Abundance Green Tomato Jelly
    Sweet Potatoes
    Tarragon
    Tomatillos
    Tomatoes
    Turmeric
    Value Added
    Value-added
    Winter Squash
    Xerces Society
    Zucchini

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Blog