Getting hot in here.Photo: Josh Kellogg

Q. Your new book, Chasing Chiles: Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail looks at both the future of place-based foods and the effects of climate change on agriculture through the lens of the chile pepper. Why the chile pepper, as opposed to, say, corn?

A. There is an easy enough metaphor behind the heat of chiles and the heat of global warming, but really it’s much more than that. Chiles are grown all over the world and have become the hallmarks of certain cuisines. There exists a tremendous amount of diversity in the shapes, tastes, and ecological adaptations of the chiles that reveal much to us about how climate change is affecting place-based foods. But there is also great diversity in how people process and consume chile peppers. They fire up people’s imaginations (and taste buds) in ways that corn, wheat, or soy can’t do. Plus we happen to love the hot little suckers.

Q. Over a year-long journey traveling in the U.S. and Mexico, the three of you — an agroecologist, a chef, and an ethnobotanist — came face to face with the realities of once thriving farms and producers now in danger of losing chiles integral to their local cultural identity. What chiles did you focus on, and why?

A. Of course there are many more heirloom chiles than the handful we focused on in the book. We happened to choose these because they are integral parts to the places we visited. Chimayos in New Mexico, Chiltepines in Sonora, Habaneros in the Yucatan, Tabascos in Louisiana, Datils in St. Augustine, Fish Peppers near Chesapeake Bay, even Beaver Dam peppers in Wisconsin and Jimmy Nardellos in Connecticut — each chile pepper has its own poignant (and pungent!) story and a role in local culture and cuisines.  

Q. How did the three of you come together to work on this project?

A. It started with a conversation between Gary and Kurt, about following the pepper trail — tracing how this simple nightshade made its way from Central America all the way to Southeast Asia. Gary admired the vitality of Kraig’s field work and enthusiasm for chile cultures, so we invited him on board the “spice ship.” For our first orbit, we decided to focus on plant hunting for peppers in North America. But we hope to take the spice ship around the world someday.

Q. I didn’t realize Tabasco™ sauce was once created solely from Tabasco™ peppers grown at the McIllhenny company production site in Avery Island, Louisiana. And while the company still produces all of their seed peppers in the original location, currently their peppers are farmed in over 165 countries worldwide. In your book, you talk about how this could be seen as a model for achieving resilience in the face of climate change. Can you speak more to this issue?

A. The key idea here is indeed resilience, the capacity to survive change. How do we adapt our culinary traditions and our cultures to deal with the changes that come with global warming without compromising identity and authenticity? 

For those who saw the vulnerability at Avery Island of having all their chiles in one basket, it was a very easy decision. Diversify where Tabasco would be grown, or risk losing everything. Yet in implementing some viable bet-hedging strategies, the McIllhennys admirably maintained links to tradition. All their peppers — wherever they are grown — are mashed with salt mined from Avery Island and all the seed for all the Tabasco grown elsewhere is maintained and propagated at Avery Island. Forced to make a change, this community figured out a way to adapt which maintained some sense of place and tradition.  

Q. How has the sustainable food movement and increased interest in terroir affected small-scale chile growers in the U.S.?

A. Because of the resurgence of direct marketing by small-scale growers, there is more vegetable diversity offered today at farmers markets, through CSAs and in grocery stores than a dozen years ago. Terroir — the taste of place — is still better known in wines, tequilas, maple syrup, and coffees than in vegetables and fruits, but growers and connoisseurs know it has been there all along. This, however, is the first book of many recent ones discussing the taste of place which recognizes that terroirs as we know them are being dramatically scrambled by climate change. [See Gary Nabhan's Grist post on "global weirding and the scrambling of terroir."]

Q. What is the most delicious chile dish each of you have ever had, and where did you eat it?

A. Kurt: Of course I can’t pick just one, but for me the most delightful recent discovery was learning about Xnipec in the Yucatan. It’s a kind of pico de gallo with habanero chiles and sour orange juice, sometimes they add cabbage. The name comes from the Mayan for “dog’s nose,” because when you eat it, it may make your nose run from the heat.

Kraig: Only one? A green chile cheeseburger  — either in my parent’s backyard, or at the Owl Bar and Cafe in San Antonio, New Mexico.

Gary: So many chiles, so little time … My two favorite traditional chile products are the Halaby pepper from Aleppo, Syria and chile Coban from Guatemala, but my favorite dishes is Ysleta green chile stews served near El Paso and my own chiltepin-vanilla bean ice cream, which is so hot you have to eat more of it to cool yourself down …

Q. How can other chile lovers join the movement to protect and support heirloom chiles and their farmers?

A. A mutual friend of ours, Poppy Tooker, has coined the phrase “You’ve got to eat it to save it!” which is so true. The more of a market that exists for heirloom and local foods — not just chiles — the better their chance for survival.

For those who are gardeners, the best thing they can do is to grow and save and share heirloom seeds at home. In addition, there are some great organizations doing important work to protect biodiversity in our food system, including chiles. Native Seeds/SEARCH, Seed Savers Exchange, and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange are among the many nonprofits that work to conserve chile seed stocks and their related cultural legacies. And of course, support the chile farmers themselves and the many nonprofits working to save food biodiversity, such as Slow Food and its Ark of Taste.

I recently talked to Deppe about how her form of resilient gardening compares to “traditional” gardening, the importance of not seeking perfection, and how all of this ties into food security.

Q. What’s the first step toward achieving food resilience?

A. There are three ways to do that. The first is through local buying patterns and trade. A second is through knowing how to store or process food that is available locally, whether we grow it ourselves or not. The third is gardening. In The Resilient Gardener, I talk as much about storing and using food as growing it. I love gardening, but not everyone is in a position to garden every year of their lives. However, the person who has learned to make spectacular applesauce or cider or apple butter or pies can often trade some of the processed products for all the apples needed.

Gardening is important, but so is trade. Neanderthal stone tools, interestingly, are all found within a few miles of where the rocks originated. And the tools didn’t change very much over time. But Homo sapiens that lived at the same time had tools made from rocks that were clearly traded over long distances. And Homo sapiens’ tools changed and developed rapidly. We traded our ideas along with stuff. Any Neanderthal tribe that met a sapiens tribe was a single tribe against an entire species. I’m a Homo sapiens, and I follow Homo sapien traditions. I aim for appropriate self-reliance, not for independence. Independence is for Neanderthals.

Gourdian angel: Gardener amd scientist Carol Deppe Photo: Keane McGee, Nichols Garden Nursery

Q. Traditional gardening books show perfectly tended ornamental beds and flawless vegetables that look almost too good to eat. How is “resilient” gardening different?

A. Much of our garden writing is about the gardens of rich people who have employees to do the work. Even non-rich people with full-time jobs and no hired help are encouraged to take the gardens of rich people as their model. Beauty and showing off and ornamental plantings and huge high-maintenance inedible lawns have mattered more than food, for example. I’m not rich enough and haven’t the time or inclination for that sort of gardening. I delight in all the knowledge about plants, ecology, and gardening we have today. But I take peasants as my basic model. I aim to be a modern peasant. I focus primarily upon growing food, especially upon staple crops and crops of special nutritional value. And I want lots of delicious food for the least possible work.

In addition, in the real world, things are always going wrong. These can be private or personal, such as an injury or family emergency that removes your labor from the garden for a while. Or they can be financial. Loss of a job can mean you really need to know how to get most of your food from the garden, not just fruits and vegetables.

The resilient gardener knows we have our ups and downs, as individuals, families, societies, and as a species. The resilient garden is designed and managed so that when things go wrong, they have less impact. Most gardens are good-time gardens. They self-destruct rapidly if deprived of our labor. They depend upon constant imports of fertilizer and seeds. They need relatively stable weather. The resilient gardener has learned to operate with minimal external inputs, and in a world where climate is changing and weather is more erratic. The resilient gardener knows how to save seeds. The resilient garden is one that thrives and helps its people and their communities survive and thrive through everything that comes their way, from tomorrow through the next thousand years.

Q. The huge topic of global climate change can seem daunting when you’re considering cultivating a small patch of land near where you live. What do gardeners need to know about climate change?

A. For the last 50 years, the weather patterns have generally been unusually stable. Our modern gardening and agricultural practices actually depend upon that stability. Our farms and gardens have become good-time farms and gardens. They are likely to fail just when we need them most. We now need gardens and farms that survive and thrive in the face of greater unpredictability.

Wild erratic weather is typical of climate change, and is much more important to gardeners and farmers than a fraction of a degree’s change in average global climate. However, humanity has made it through the transition from relative stability to instability in climate before, for example, in our adjustment to the erratic weather of the Little Ice Age. There are agricultural patterns and methods we have developed in the past when we needed them that we can relearn and expand upon today.

Q. In your book, you focus on five crops for achieving resilience: potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs. Talk about one of them. Why potatoes?

A. Potatoes are a great source of both carbohydrates and protein. They yield more carbohydrate per square foot than anything we can grow in temperate climates. They yield more protein per square foot than anything we can grow except beans. They have good levels of vitamin C and significant amounts of calcium and other minerals. They are the easiest of all staple crops to grow. They yield much more carbohydrate and protein than anything else per unit labor. Small grains take fine seed beds, meaning tillers, tractors, or draft animals. Anyone with a shovel can grow potatoes. And potatoes can be grown on rough land, land just converted from lawn or pasture or patch of weeds. Grains usually require special grinding equipment. Anyone who can build a fire can cook potatoes. Potatoes grow well in places too cold or wet for grains. Potatoes are far more impervious to nasty weather than grains.

People these days tend to remember the Irish Potato Famine, when late blight destroyed the entire Irish potato crop. But we should also remember that the potato was one of the major saviors of Europeans during the Little Ice Age — a crop that was central to their adjustment to the erratic weather associated with climate change, a crop that yielded year in year out, decade in decade out, before there were any problems.

Makenna Goodman: As a respected cheesemaker,  instructor, and speaker — what do you think is the current state of the cheese world?

Gianaclis Caldwell: Amazingly, the boundaries continue to expand, both in respect to the opportunities and in the quality of artisanal farmstead cheese being produced. When we got started there were just a few articles and news events that showcases handmade, small production cheeses, but now cheese is everywhere!  I mean, when Wine Spectator magazine puts cheese on its cover and devotes a “top 100″ list to it, you know that cheese is taking it’s rightful place in the world of fine food. I am so privileged to be a part of this generation of cheesemakers!

MG: What drew you to become a small-scale farmstead cheesemaker?

GC: Our story is fairly typical; involving a 4-H project gone wild, on obsession with cheese, and a desire to move “back to the  farm”. Vern, my husband, spent 25 years in the Marine Corps (I usually say “we spent” 25 years!) so during that time, I was a bit of a closet farm girl.  I enjoyed some of our more metropolitan living, but I was always wanting to get back to my roots- milking, growing, and making food from the bounty of your own land. Once Vern’s retirement loomed, we knew we could move back to some family land and when the goats and cheese came into our lives, it just seemed like the right path to pursue. Who knew our timing would be so ideal?  We sure didn’t, but are very excited to be where we are today.

MG: Why goats?

GC: I was originally a “cow-girl”, but when looking into getting cows again for milk for our family and a livestock project for our youngest daughter, it became evident that their scale, impact on the land, and volume  of milk would be inappropriate for our lives at that time.  Amelia, our daughter, and I became intrigued by the Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goat—a small breed that even a child of her age could handle easily.  Once you get to know goats, at least for us, it would be hard to go back to cows, in fact, I have a saying that is modeled after the old standby of “Goats are the poor man’s cow.”  Mine is “Cows are the unenlightened man’s goat.”

MG: What is a normal day like for you?

GC: Boy, this time of year (kidding season) there is no normal day, just normal chores that we try to accomplish and stay sane!  Last night, for example, I got about one hour of sleep (from 4-5) and had to get back up to start the morning chores.  We have our down times, though, and moments in the day that we set aside to catch our breaths and appreciate what this life has brought to us.  But most days we are up at 5:00 for coffee and tea then out to milk and feed at 6:00.  Cheese is made 2-3 times a week, with the following day being clean up and packaging.  Baby feeding takes place 3 x a day during the spring.  Office work takes up more time than I would like, about 10 hours a week- answering emails, invoicing, updating the website, etc.  Other chores that occur daily are pen cleaning, taking the goats for a hike, and property maintenance.  We milk and feed again at 6 in the evening.  We are real wimps about staying up late (even before we had a farm), so we try to be in bed by 9PM.  All in all, not very glamorous!

MG: Besides making cheese, what do you love to do?

GC: Well, writing books, for one thing!  I am working on a second one, although during kidding season all of that work stops.  Before starting on this career, I did art as my main life pursuit- I made large mixed media and installation art pieces.  I used to love to ride horses and still have a gorgeous saddle mule that I hope to get back to, but it becomes difficult to take time out for things that don’t relate to promoting our business and securing our future.  That is something I didn’t realize would happen—giving up other passions to this extent.

MG: Your book, The Farmstead Creamery Advisor, is referred to as an “essential guide for anyone starting a farmstead dairy,” according to readers.  What would you tell an aspiring cheesemaker, who’s still in the idea stage? 

GC: To do their research to the extent that the romance of the idea is completely wiped away.  Then if they still want to do it, it might be a good idea.  Honestly, for most of us this does start out as a bit of a “oh what a wonderful, wholesome life that would be!” kind of prospect, but there are trials and difficulties that are almost impossible to adequately share with anyone considering doing this full time.  I think it is like most things in life, only when you experience something yourself do you fully appreciate it.

MG: Many farmers have their own “system”, or wisdom gained from experience. Do you have any particularly useful tricks of the trade you’d share with other cheesemakers?

GC: I believe we do, and hope that they are shared well in the book, but probably the most important thing I can pass on (other than finding ways to make the work load sustainable) is to never let your guard down on quality—both from the  standpoint of safety and of sensory.  If you can maintain a high alert level in both of these areas- meaning you continue to educate yourself, challenge your palate, and pursue excellence, then you will not only survive as a business, but thrive.

Yiamas! (Gianaclis taught me that word means “cheers,” in Greek.)

Makenna Goodman is Assistant Editor at Chelsea Green Publishing, the publisher of Caldwell’s book, which is now available here.

Last week I went to California for the 2010 Eco Farm Conference — a three-day organic farming extravaganza featuring big names (and big influences of the organic agriculture movement) such as Wes Jackson, Frances Moore Lappé, Deputy Security of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan, and a ton of folks who are part of an ever-growing and expanding movement for healthy food and a sustainable planet. But make no mistake about it — this wasn’t no utopian hippy fest (at least not all of it.)

I came to Eco Farm looking for some inspiration, but also as a skeptic. As both an editor of farming and food books, and a young farmer myself — I was psyched about the three days of nonstop grad-school-ish conversation and networking, but worried about the elitism of the “organic” movement. And sure, there was a lot of self referencing, but you learned about people, and fast. At workshops: “I farm X, Y, and Z. What brings you here?” At meals: “I farm X, Y, and Z. What brings you here?” At the dance and the movie screening and on the way to the toilet: “I farm X, Y, and Z. What brings you here?” Turns out, though, most of the people there were hard working, sun-up to sun-down folks looking towards a future where people have more power over their lives.

At Eco Farm I met an entire family (three generations!) of organic walnut farmers, and a couple of “hermetic hippies” who had a small but working farm, and ran an illegal underground market/CSA (and refused to get certified, because it’s too expensive.) I met a Canadian fellow who salvages cedar from beaches (and splits it along the wood grain) for custom furniture. I met a lot of women farmers. I met permaculturists and rice growers, orchardists and garden educators. Old timers and newcomers.  Farmers and foodies. (And a lone conservative who came to the last banquet as someone’s date and hurrah’ed  the new Massachusetts senator…yikes.) Indeed, after three days of much needed West Coast rain showers and farm fresh meals in a dining hall filled with over five hundred like-minded, hard-working, truly Democractic thinking, healthy farmer folks, I was frothing at the mouth thinking about razor hoes, hoophouses, perennial vegetables, and the power of food to heal national wounds.

I expected the hippie contingent. Hell, people who were farming organic in the 60s and 70s are basically the backbone of this country’s movement. I expected the social justice activists bringing some much needed perspective on the politics of food, and what kinds of people (wealthier, whiter, landowning) have access to healthy meals (this, in fact, being one of the most important aspects of the food movement in general–stopping hunger, democratizing food, and redistributing power.) I even expected the unfortunate and veiled cultural appropriation that subconsciously permeated the fashion and spiritual energy of the retreat. (Which is to say, yes, I oiled my feet in a yoga class and dance-chanted to my Cherokee ancestors from the North and South.) What I didn’t expect, however, was the dominating corporate influence among the home-growers and anarchist farmers. I didn’t expect to leave the conference feeling deflated and powerless after days of uplifting, anti-corporate brainstorming. Because Mother Earth wasn’t the only thing watering the soil at Eco Farm 2010. Big business, too, came to rain on the parade.

Take, for example, the new administration of the Asilomar Conference Center, campy resort and host of the Eco Farm conference since it’s beginnings.  In the past year, the place was bought by Aramark, a food and facilities provider supplying businesses, courts, prisons, schools, and all sorts of other corporate institutions.  The leaders of Eco Farm were really pissed about the new management–they didn’t get into too many details, but suffice it to say, the conference may be moved to another site next year.  And so it began–the opening plenary was rife with anti-corporate sentiment, and with good reason. Because, for one, with the rise of big business we’ve seen the rise in world hunger. The myth of “green” and “good” big business hangs over society like smog.

In fact, most of the conversation at Eco Farm was focused on the power of the organic movement to change the way the country treats its roots–which is food, and people–and yet the delicious local farm-donated meals we were eating were forked from the same plates that serve garbage to the incarcerated, a paradox that seemed fitting considering the theme of the conference itself: Where the Future is Planted. Because, folks, it may be planted in the produce aisles of the Wal-Mart that put your family feed store out of business. It’s about exclusion masked as inclusion.

It was appropriate then, for the closing plenary session of the conference to be focused on the future of food. And the question up for debate was: Is small the only beautiful? And who better to speak on this subject than Eliot Coleman, farmer, author, and proponent of small-scale organic farming; Dick Peixoto, owner of Lakeside Organics, California’s largest organic farm; and Gary Hirshberg, self-described “CE-Yo” (that’s everyman terminology for CEO) of Stonyfield Farm Yogurt.

The hottest part of the debate sparked between Coleman and Hirshberg–two East Coasters on opposite ends of the farming spectrum. And whoa nelly, did sparks fly.

Eliot Coleman, first of all, pretty much stole the show of the conference with his season-extension small-scale farming techniques and devotion to old-world organic practices he learned outside of the U.S. that go “deeper than just bottom-line certification.” He talked about how small farms are relentlessly subversive and keep big corporations nervous because of the possibility consumers will become farmers, and won’t need to buy a product. And while his idyllic farm in Maine may not be the reality of every one of our futures, it represents a counter-corporate model that needs more support in order to make change in a world that is far, far, far from sustainable.

Gary Hirshberg, in contrast, sells his certified organic yogurt in Wal-Mart. In fact, he’s a big supporter of Wal-Mart. He’s a big supporter of big business, and has perfected a rap on how BIG is going to change the world. Hirshberg’s speech was successful in that he’s basically a politician. He wooed the audience with his charm, his humor, and constant affirmation about all of his heroes — the small farmers out there. He aligned himself with the entire movement around organic by using the classic stats that prove healthy food is better for everyone. He talked a lot about “our children” and “poor people” and “carbon footprint.” It all sounded legit until you realize this guy’s company is owned by the same corporation who owns Dannon and Evian (how can he be “for” the health of the environment when he’s in bed with bottled water?) He kept talking about his friend Tom Vilsack and how they were just in the oval office talking to Obama about healthcare. He came across as a real leader, and agent of legitimate legal change. There were frequent smatterings of applause after he pressed each progressive talk-button.

But wait a minute. We had just spent the last three days talking about how to get more people farming, more farms in urban areas, healthy food to low-income communities, and how to decrease the negative impact of large scale agriculture (as Wes Jackson put it: The biggest enemy of the environment.) Now there’s a bigwig on the podium telling us it’s not farming, but buying that’s going to save the world. Now, I’m not saying we have to choose one or the other — big or small — but what’s the model we’re striving for? What kind of society do we see ourselves becoming in the future? Big businesses and their CE-Whatevers bloating the economy? Or a culture of self sufficiency, ownership, and access?

What scares me (and I think it scared Eliot Coleman, too, or at least half of the people at Eco Farm who sat in their chairs, angrily shaking their heads) is that it’s companies like Gary Hirshberg’s that are making it impossible for small farmers to make their own yogurt and sell their own milk to their own communities. Stonyfield Farm Yogurt may have started as a small family farm, but as Eliot Coleman said, they “sold the cows” and became a proponent of the model that puts sustainable agriculture at dire risk. But Stonyfield does bring organic yogurt to urban places (far from farms), and they bring it to big stores. And thus they bring a healthier yogurt to the masses, which is great. They also keep conventional companies in check — at least theoretically. For that, we can thank Stonyfield Farm.

The most worrisome part, however, is how easy it is to listen to guys like Gary Hirshberg, and be convinced there’s real progress being made in the world. He uses all the buttons we want to hear about global warming, diabetes, saving our children. But what he doesn’t say is that big businesses like his are putting small communities at risk by putting families out of business (at least the ones not part of his co-op), and risking the future of the family farm while claiming to be saving it.

I’m not saying there aren’t farmers out there who don’t benefit from the dairy co-op model. In the hurting industry, it’s certainly a good thing for some (a dairy farmer couple I met at Eco Farm sell to the Organic Valley co-op, and told me they’re one of few farms surviving these bad times.) But I don’t want to make the success of a few farms cover up for the MANY more that have gone under because of the corporate model. (Gary Hirshberg even admitted himself that Butterworks Farm has the right idea, run by a husband and wife team in Vermont that has stayed small while still earning a profit.)

Hirshberg went on to say we are a culture of consumers, so we should just make that culture a “certified organic” one. He said the most important thing we could do was to be a conscious consumer, and to buy the right thing. He said we should embrace both big business and the small farm, and just be friends, but didn’t go into detail about the negative side of big business, or how that model came into existence in the first place. Who’s benefiting here? The people, or the shareholders?

I’m lucky. I live and farm in Vermont, a state that still has small towns, local food co-ops, and small-scale farms who operate on a local scale. I can sell eggs to my neighbor, or go in on a community cow. But where are small towns across the U.S. going? They’re not prevalent, I can say that. They’re disappearing. A Wal-Mart comes in, small businesses go under, and people who have no other choice are forced to shop there. We’ve robbed them of a choice to do different.

One woman asked Hirshberg (at the head of a gigantic line of questions which were turned down due to lack of time): “So what you’re telling us is that we are a culture of consumers, not a culture of self-sufficient beings?”

And Gary Hirshberg said, “Yes.”  He said, “This is the reality of our world.”

Good for him, I guess, for becoming a voice for all the other large-scale organic companies keeping hush hush about their corporate values. I hate using him as a scapegoat, because he’s certainly not a bad person, and he’s trying his best. But I also didn’t elect him my leader. His reality may be that of a consumer, but that doesn’t mean mine has to be, at least not forever. Unless of course, I lose my job, my (limited) funds, my access to land, and therefore all of my power. And yes, I buy blue jeans and leather shoes. It’s cheaper to buy them than to make them myself! Which is a shame.

I’m not sure the directors of the Ecological Farming Association are on board with Hirshberg and the mega-coporate model, but he still got the last word. Are we to think the future is planted in a corporation? That our power as people lies with these men in suits? I felt like a CEO had taken my language and changed the meaning of all the words. Like “organic,” for one. A word that started off substantial is now a label with regulations that cover only the bottom line, not the deep practice.

So while we’re all talking about how far organic has come, we need to face the reality that it is in danger in an entirely new way.

It’s always sunny in this Philadelphia community garden.Photo courtesy Tony the Misfit via Flickr

A new wave of farming is happening in a city near you. While true, Old MacDonald had a farm (ee-i-ee-i-o), his offspring have some urban fish to fry. They’re working off loans, and can’t necessarily afford a parcel of land. They’re young parents who want to save money on cherry tomatoes. They’re newlyweds paying off healthcare debt, and growing taters in their trashcan. They’re students avoiding crappy dining plans. They’re urban farmers. Plain and simple.

In Fresh Food From Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting, author R. J. Ruppenthal turns a seemingly anti-urban idea — that farming has to be done outside, with a red barn and rolling fields of wheat — on its head. Because urbanites, too, can grow their own food indoors, in cramped spaces, and without access to land! For real.

So without further ado, I give you Ruppenthal’s comprehensive “how-to” info for growing fresh food in the absence of open land; it’s here for the taking. Nom nom. Here’s my discussion with him:

Q. Without the luxury of land or space, is it really possible for someone to grow and produce their own food?

A. You do not need much space to grow some of your own food. If you live in an apartment, condo, or townhouse, you might not think that you have enough space to grow anything, but my goal is to change your mind on that. You can grow nutritious sprouts on a counter top, salad greens on a windowsill, dwarf fruit trees on a patio, tomatoes on a balcony, and much more. Most vegetables, and even fruit trees and berry bushes, can thrive when grown in containers. Indoors, try mushrooms, sprouts, and fermented cultures such as yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, and kimchi.

Q. What are the top five things a city resident needs to know about urban gardening?

A. First, you need to know that you CAN grow a lot of different food crops in limited spaces, even in apartments, condos, townhouses, and other small homes. I described some of the possibilities above, and there are more in my book. Hopefully, you will try some of these and also come up with new ideas on your own, as many of my readers have done. Second, start with something that is relatively trouble-free (such as salad greens, peas, or even tomatoes) and work up from there. You will learn a lot from your successes and your failures. If you try some simple crops and do everything you can (such as provide good soil and water) to ensure their success, then you WILL experience some success. Third, do not be afraid to fail. All of us have our hits and misses. Sometimes you forget to water or you planted the wrong variety for your climate, or for whatever reason, a particular plant simply was not happy. A lot of people would quit after an initial failure, but I hope you will stick with it. The only difference between a “black thumb” gardener and a “green thumb” gardener is that green thumbs learn from their mistakes, try again, and keep trying until they get it right. Then they replicate, and build upon, their successes. A black thumb gardener would quit after the first failure or two, not understanding that there is a learning curve associated with gardening, just as there is with anything else. Stick with it and you will succeed.

Fourth, people do not realize that they can build a garden bed directly on top of concrete, stone, or rocky soil. Almost anything can grow well in containers, but even a patio, driveway, or walkway can be converted to a productive garden bed by building the soil up (as opposed to digging down, which you would not be able to do without a jackhammer). I built two beds on top of my patio, and today, I cannot tell the difference between what is growing on them and what is growing in my soil-based beds. Twelve inches of soil is deep enough to grow almost anything. I’ve had two kale plants that each grew nearly six feet tall on those patio beds, plus peas, chard, beets, lettuce, and a few potatoes. I believe that this really increases the available growing space in cities; so much of our good space is paved over, but it is not longer off-limits to creative gardeners!

Fifth, try to reuse your resources in the garden. I wash my produce in a bowl or basin, and then dump that water back into the garden. It conserves water and saves a small amount of good soil from going down the drain. Then compost your food scraps along with any coffee grounds, newspapers, cardboard, and old plant material. Start a compost pile or buy a tumbler, bin, or worm composter. Check and see whether your city or county provides discounts or free bins for people to compost. Each year you will need to continually add organic matter to your garden soil, and compost is a wonderful source of both organic matter and soil nutrients. For plant fertilizer, though, do not rely on your own compost: you will need to add some organic fertilizer as well, which is available from your local nursery. Most kinds have a base of manure or seed meal for nitrogen, plus natural sources of phosphorus and potassium, which are all key plant nutrients. Kelp extract makes a great supplemental source for both trace minerals and natural growth boosters.

Q. If one family could grow one type of food in their small space — in order to save money — what would be the most viable option?

Curbside corn. Photo courtesy Mike23mcg via Flickr

A. I would recommend trying something that is both simple and productive. For a survivalist crop, nothing beats potatoes (and homegrown potatoes taste great!). You would need fields of grain to feed the family, but you can grow a meaningful amount of potatoes in a pretty small space. Spuds pack more calories per square foot of soil than any other crop. They can grow in most climates and in most soils (even poor soils). You can store them for months at a time. You absolutely do not need ground soil to grow potatoes, and even though I have some ground space available, I now grow all my potatoes in containers. So far, all of my container-grown spuds have been completely pest-free and disease-free, so I am able to use the smaller potatoes as seed potatoes for the next crop. Some people grow spuds in garbage cans, stacked tires, wire fencing rolls, and in other unique structures. They are quite prolific and hard to kill, so be creative. Even if you do not treat the plants well (forgetting to water or fertilize as often as you should), you are likely to harvest at least a few pounds per square foot. You can improve your harvest greatly by mixing some compost into the soil, keeping the pH pretty low (by adding a few scoops of peat or pine needles), watering regularly to keep the soil barely moist, AND fertilizing regularly with an organic fertilizer that includes healthy amounts of both phosphorus (P) and potassium/potash (K). Do not use a high nitrogen fertilizer, as this will make the plant grow too vigorously at the expense of the roots and tubers (the edible part). Look for an organic fertilizer with an “N-P-K” number where the “N” is no higher than the “P” or “K”. Most fertilizers for acid plants (azaleas, rhododendrons, etc.) and bulb fertilizers (if the nitrogen is not too high) will work very well for potatoes. Fish emulsion + kelp extract is a nice combination too.

Most first-time gardeners want to grow tomatoes. This is another good choice for a first-time crop. Like their spud relatives, tomatoes are amazingly productive in the home garden and they taste far better than anything you can buy in the store. If you are buying store-bought tomatoes, you can save a lot of money by growing them at home instead. With just 2-3 plants, you may well have enough tomatoes for the whole family and even some left over for drying, canning, giving away, or selling. Tomatoes will grow well in certain containers, provided that these are large enough to accommodate their root system (at least 12-15 gallons of soil capacity). Where light is limited or in cool summer areas, try the smaller-fruited tomatoes such as cherry, plum, and even Roma tomatoes. You are much more likely to ripen a crop with these than with the giant-fruited varieties. If diseases are a problem, choose disease-resistant varieties, and do not feel bad if this includes hybrid varieties rather than heirlooms. Growing hybrids is not a crime against nature; it just means that you cannot save your own seeds for the next generation. Seed catalogs and nurseries feature hundreds of varieties from which to choose.

Q. What are some of the urban gardening techniques you’ve found most effective?

A. Urban gardeners can face some key limitations. The most obvious one is lack of space, but another limitation is lack of light. The only available space for your garden may be shaded by a building next door or a tree overhead. So you may not get the 6-8 hours of full-blast direct sunlight that most gardening books recommend. But the good news is that those other gardening books are wrong here; they were written by people who garden on acres rather than feet or inches. Small-space urban gardeners know that many food plants can grow well in partial sunlight, dappled sunlight, reflected sunlight, or with just a few hours per day of direct sunlight. Leafy greens, legumes, and most root crops can handle limited light and will produce just fine even if the harvest is a little smaller than in full sunlight.

Vertical gardening can help you address both space and light limitations. Even if you do not have much horizontal space, you may have vertical air space or wall space available to grow some crops. Tall plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, and some squash can be trained upwards or even downwards, growing large and productive even if they have a small horizontal footprint. In some urban spaces, there may well be more light higher up (or lower down) that vertical plants can grow into. If your light comes in at an angle, you can grow shorter plants in front of these taller ones. Dwarf fruit trees and some berry plants can be espaliered against walls or fences, growing from a small patch of soil next to a walkway or wall. The branches are trained two-dimensionally so that they spread in height and width against the wall, but do not spread outwards. Pears, apples, stone fruit, persimmons, and hardy kiwis or grapes (with wire or trellis support), and are all candidates for espalier or 2-D training.

Q. I’m planning on starting some seeds indoors this weekend. What type of planter would you suggest, and can I build it myself?

Plant’er here.

A. You can start seeds in any small container that has adequate root space and drainage. 2-4 inch peat/coir/cow pots, reused plastic pots from the nursery, egg cartons, and the bottoms of milk cartons all make suitable planters for seed starting. A sunny window makes a good spot or else you can use some indoor light to get the little plants going. Fluorescent or Compact Fluorescent light bulbs work well, but you will need to keep the plant seedlings within a foot or two of the bulbs to get enough light energy, and you will need to run the light for at least eight hours per day.

Depending on the variety of seed, you may need to “pot up” (transfer it to a larger pot) after the plant gets its first true leaves and starts to outgrow its old home. You should put your seedling pots on a tray that catches water runoff and it is important not to over-water seedlings (which is tempting to do). Over-watering will increase the likelihood of disease, so keep the soil just barely moist between waterings. As the plants grow, you need to harden them off by gradually exposing them to the outside sunlight, wind, and temperature changes. Pick a nice, mild day and put them outside for half an hour in bright shade, then an hour the next day, and then some more time in the sun, and you get the picture. Then they will be ready to succeed in the garden.

Q. Is fruit from trees grown in lead contaminated soil safe for human consumption? If not, what about birds and animals eating berries?

A. I have not dealt with this personally and do not know much about it. The soil may need some remediation before being used to grow food crops. I would not advise anyone to eat food grown on contaminated soil. There are ways to remediate the soil using certain deep-rooted plants like sunflowers and comfrey, but then the plant matter needs to be disposed of as toxic waste. It is a multi-year procedure which requires some crop rotations and regular soil testing. Anyone interested in this would have to research it more and follow proper procedures.

Q. This might sound weird, but, what about dog poop? Is it toxic?

A. Animal poop CAN contain pathogens and parasites, so it is important to keep this away from food crops. Generally, fresh manure of any sort should not be applied directly to plants, since it can burn them (though there some safe exceptions, like rabbit manure). However, aged and composted manure is an excellent source of plant fertilizer, and the composting process can kill both bad organisms and break down the manure into a compost that is safe and nutritious for plants. Compost of any sort also improves the soil structure by adding more organic matter.

It may sound gross, but both pet poop and human waste (humanure) can be composted for use in gardens as well. You would need to follow proper “hot composting” procedures to kill any potential pathogens or parasites. Because small-scale compost piles and composting bins rarely get hot enough to achieve this, I would discourage small-scale gardeners from composting pet waste. Manure from non-carnivorous animals (e.g., cows, chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats) is a lot safer and makes a great addition to a compost pile.

Q. What types of food work well grown in the “off-season”?

A. A diverse array of salad greens can be grown in cooler seasons in many climates. In the coldest climates, they may need some protection from a small greenhouse, row cover, cloche, or other type of covering. Spinach, arugula, mache, and kale are some examples, along with a bounty of Oriental greens such as Chinese cabbage and mizuna. You could try green onions (scallions) as well. Or plant some root crops earlier (such as beets or carrots) for winter or early spring harvest. Indoors, you can grow sprouts, microgreens, and mushrooms.

Also, if the indoor temperatures do not drop too low, and if you have a sunny spot under a window, you could try growing dwarf citrus trees in containers. They can live outside in warmer seasons and come indoors in winter. Lemons, and some limes and mandarins, do not need as much heat to ripen as oranges and grapefruit do. Most citrus bear during the “off-season” months and do not need pollinators to set fruit. For that matter, if you had a sunny room that did not get particularly cold in the wintertime, you could experiment with a parthenocarpic variety (no pollination needed) of just about anything, from greens beans to cucumbers to tomatoes. Some of these may not ripen with the shorter day length, but there are some amazingly prolific varieties of veggies being developed for “off-season” greenhouse cultivation; the only way to know is to experiment and see what works!

Q. Many more urbanites are raising chickens or keeping bees. How does one deal with zoning laws?

A. Of all the food-growing topics I covered in my book, I have been most surprised by the overwhelming interest in raising chickens for homegrown eggs. This has been a huge trend over the last year or two, and local governments are responding by changing their outdated laws. Most of these ordinances, for public health or zoning reasons, limited the number of chickens or livestock that someone could raise on a city lot. In my book, I go through some examples of these laws. The good news is that many cities have been waking up to the fact that it is not a health hazard, nor is it loud or obnoxious, to allow someone to keep a couple of hens for egg-laying.

A few months ago, I gave a presentation in San Francisco and a gentleman was there who told me a story about how his young granddaughter had wanted to get some chickens but found out they were illegal to have in her town. So this young lady, who I think was in middle school, went to her town’s council meeting and showed them that all of the neighboring cities and towns allowed chickens. And she got them to change their law to allow this as well. So the trend definitely is in that direction, but urban residents should be especially careful to follow any applicable laws. Check with your city, county, or other local authority, and make sure that what you want to do is legal. If it is not, let them know they are in the dark ages.

Q. Is it possible to make an in-apartment root cellar?

A. Any small home might have some good areas for food storage. Even if you are buying most of your food, some produce is cheaper in season and can be stored for periods ranging from weeks to months. An apartment dweller can think of any unused space that may be good for storage, such as a closet, carport, cabinet, or underneath a staircase. There are different temperature and humidity requirements for optimal storage of various fruits and vegetables, and air circulation can be important, so someone interested in serious root cellaring should research this more thoroughly. I do not have a root cellar, but we normally store some apples and winter squash in the garage for later use. In addition, we have enough refrigerator space to store a few beets, kohlrabi, and carrots.

Bee there, do that: organic beekeeper Ross Conrad.

Makenna Goodman: Your book, Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture, offers up a program of natural beehive management, and an alternative to conventional chemical-based approaches. So—why organic beekeeping?

Ross Conrad: History has shown us that the industrialized “economy of scale” approach does not work when applied to agriculture because we are dealing with living biological systems, not an inert assembly line food production system where the economy of scale approach can be applied across the board.  One of the biggest issues is the large number of chemical contaminants that are being found in beeswax and pollen, often at very high concentrations. Toxic chemical contamination has been implicated in Colony Collapse and the reality is that there is no effective regulation of chemicals in Western society. Let me tell you why:

When the EPA was created in 1970 and sanctioned with the task of regulating chemicals, all the chemicals that were already used in commerce up to that time were grandfathered in. Additionally, since the EPA is given very limited personnel and financial resources, the agency ends up relying on the chemical manufacturers for the majority of the scientific data that is used to evaluate the safety of the regulated toxins…a serious conflict of interest. When chemicals are evaluated for toxicity, they are studied in isolation. Little thought is given to the chemical’s break down products which can prove to be more toxic and longer lasting than the original chemical itself, such as in the case of Imidacloprid Olefin, which is produced as the neonicotinoid, Imidacloprid degrades. Once in use and released into the environment, chemicals, and their breakdown products, will combine with other chemicals already in the environment to form new compounds. The synergistic effects of some of these combinations have proven themselves to be hundreds of times more toxic than either compound on its own.

Recent research into endocrine-disrupting chemicals (the kind often used as pesticides), reveals that the timing of exposure combines with the amount of exposure to produce a chemical’s effect. Thus, a certain dose might be very toxic to an organism in its developmental stage, while not having any obvious detrimental affects on the organism once it has matures, or vice-verse. To make matters worse, in some cases low doses of a chemical can be more damaging than higher doses. These new understandings of chemical toxicity have proven wrong Paracelsus’s 450-year-old maxim, “The dose makes the poison.” Today we know that often the timing can make the poison and that sometimes less is actually worse.

Add to this the many studies that now show that a cocktail of “insignificant” doses of several chemicals each acting on their own can combine to have significant results. In other words, exposure to very low concentrations of several chemicals at the same time can cause biological effects that none of the chemicals would have on their own. Thus when an living organism is exposed to a mixture of chemicals, every component contributes to the overall effect, no matter how minute their concentration. The only sane answer to our ignorance in the use of these toxic compounds is to stop using these chemicals, not only in our hives, but in our everyday lives. Thus, organic beekeeping came into being in just the last 20 years as a response to the fact that chemical use in bee hives has became the common way to try to control Varroa mites. Organic beekeeping is not only possible, but necessary.

What are the biggest obstacles faced by organic beekeepers today?

The biggest challenge beekeepers face today is the same challenge facing all of Western industrial civilization…

In his 1980 book, Overshoot, William Catton, Jr. states, “Infinitesimal actions, if they are numerous and cumulative, can become enormously consequential.” This statement refers to the problem of cumulative impacts where actions that are harmless or tolerable at the individual level can degrade the planets life support systems if thousands or millions of people do them. One person fertilizing their lawn near Chesapeake Bay for example makes no significant impact, but when thousands do it the bay becomes degraded and Blue Crab populations decline precipitously.

When it comes to chemicals the current regulatory approach to controlling pollution does not deal with global pollution. The main focus has instead been on the maximally exposed individual.  In the United States, we conduct risk assessments (used when conducting “cost-benefit” analyses) to evaluate the risk to a hypothetical “maximally exposed” individual. If the threat to that individual (or honey bee) is found to fall within acceptable limits, then regulation does not occur and these so-called acceptable amounts of contamination are allowed to be released forever after. Then another risk assessment and cost benefit analysis gives the go-ahead to another acceptable release or use of a different toxic substance or harmful activity. Then another and another. What we have not started to look at until recently is the total impact of all these acceptable risks. Our society has assumed that it could tolerate unlimited small amounts of harm as a byproduct of economic growth. It is only when a particular activity is demonstrated to fail to provide a net benefit to society that most of our property and environmental laws are permitted to interfere with economic activity.

Biochemist and lawyer, Joseph H. Guth, legal director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, has analyzed this situation and offered solutions in several scholarly papers one of which was published in the Barry Law Review, titled “Cumulative Impacts: Death-Knell for Cost-Benefit Analysis In Environmental Decisions.”  In this paper Guth points out that our laws only forbid damage when the perceived benefits are not considered to outweigh the cost or destruction to the environment or human health. The law also puts the burden of proof that an activity is creating more harm than good on the injured party, or the government. If the victim (or the government) can not meet the burden of proof, then the damaging action is allowed to continue by default. This burden of proof transforms doubt, and missing scientific information into a barrier to legal protection for the environment (and honey bees). The default presumption is that the benefits of economic activity always outweigh the costs unless a specific cost-benefit analysis (often based upon incomplete or faulty research conducted by those that stand to profit) can show otherwise.

According to Joe Guth, “These laws do not permit regulators broadly to take account of what is happening to the world around them. They embed regulators in a decision-making structure that may seem scientific but in fact is profoundly unscientific because it prevents them from responding to the ever more detailed findings by the world scientific community that we are overshooting the Earth’s ecological capacities. Rooted in the assumption that ecological overshoot does not occur, our current statutes are incapable of containing the cumulative scale of ecological damage… It is an approach that has become outdated because it is based on assumptions that are no longer valid.”
Guth sums up by stating, “To maintain a functioning biosphere in which humans can prosper, the law must turn its attention to the problem of cumulative impacts. The law will have to abandon its use of cost-benefit analysis to justify individual environmental impacts and instead adopt the goal of maintaining the functioning ecological systems that we are so dependent upon.”

In Section II of his “Cumulative Impacts” paper, Joe Guth states that “Our legal system already harbors examples of decision-making structures that establish a principle of standard of environmental quality or human health and do not rely on cost-benefit balancing.” and that these examples “show that such legal principles or standards can enable the legal system to contain the growth of cumulative impacts.” The cumulative impacts of our culture are destroying the life support systems of the planet and the bees are simply acting as the proverbial “canary in the coal mine.”  As a result we don’t have an environmental problem that we can “solve” we have a situation we must learn to adjust to.  The actions that needed to be taken to rectify our predicament should have been taken years ago. At this point the damage is done.  The only real question left is whether our actions today are going to result in our great grandchildren living a difficult life in a crippled world that is a shadow of the world we live in today, or are we going to inflict damage that is so devastating that we will have created a total catastrophe for future generations?

Describe briefly beekeeping as a business. How much energy do you focus on honey production?

Honey production is not the focus of my beekeeping business at all.  The focus is on caring for the honey bees and keeping the colonies as healthy and vibrant as possible. This means primarily reducing stress on the bees.  In fact the only consistent observation that has been made of hives suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is that the bees in infected colonies are always suffering from stress that has caused the bee’s immune systems to collapse.  While there are numerous stresses that the bees must deal with that we cannot directly control (see below), there are numerous other stresses on the hive that we do have control over.  Such stressors include reducing chemical contaminants in the hive, eliminating the presence of antibiotics in the hive, making sure that the bees are fed a healthy diet of honey and pollen from a wide variety of plants and that the hives have access to clean uncontaminated water.  When the bees health needs are taken care of, a honey harvest tends to be the natural result.

Let’s say I’m an aspiring small-scale farmer, or beginning life on a homestead, or merely thinking of expanding my urban garden. Why should I keep bees, in terms of honey production, and their pollination benefits, etc?

The biggest benefit honey bees provide is pollination.  Pollination fees are what is keeping the beekeeping industry alive today. Honey is really a byproduct of pollination. Why should anybody keep bees? As suggested above, the life support systems of our planet are collapsing. The forests are disappearing, desert regions are growing, the climate is shifting so that some areas are getting dryer, other areas are getting wetter, some areas are getting colder, other areas are getting warmer, and our oceans are collapsing with large dead zones, acidification, giant “islands” of floating plastic debris, collapsing fisheries, and ocean animals that are dying in greater numbers every day from cancer. My observation is that it is our industrial civilization that is, if not the actual cause of all this destruction, it is certainly contributing to the devastation. As a member of this society then, I am partly responsible and part of the problem.  This is a wonderful thing, for if I am part of the problem, then I have the responsibility and am empowered to be part of the solution.

One of the greatest lessions we learn from the honey bee is in observing how they go about making their “living” here on earth.  As they go about their business collecting pollen, nectar, propolis and water (everything they need to survive) they do not harm or kill anything in the process.  Unless they feel threatened and are forced to defend themselves, not so much as a leaf on a plant is harmed.  In the process of taking what they need to survive they in turn give back more than they take and make the world a better place through the pollination the plants.  This gift of pollination ensures that the plants can thrive and reproduce in vast numbers which produces a large variety of seeds, nuts, berries, fruits and vegetable in all shapes and sizes, which in turn ensures an abundance of food for all the rest of the insects, animals and people on the planet.  This is the ultimate lesson that the bees teach us and challenge us to accomplish: How to live our life in a way that by taking what we need from the world around us we leave the world better than we found it.

Each one of us who takes care of the honey bees and makes sure that there is adequate habitat and flowering plants for the native pollinators in our regions, is indirectly through the good work of these pollinators, making the world a better place for all of creation.  This is the kind of healing our beautiful blue-green planet needs desperately at this time in history.

Yes!

Contrary to popular belief, a good living can be made on an organic farm. What’s required is farming smarter, not harder. I talked to farmer Richard Wiswall, author of newly released The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Managing Finances, Crops, and Staff — and Making a Profit, about how he manages an organic farm, and what aspiring farmers can do to make some dough.

In your book The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook, you explore the ways organic farmers can not only make their vegetable production more efficient, but also better manage their employees and finances. How have you managed to do this on your own farm?

As a manager or owner of a farm, it is ultimately your responsibility to keep the farm in business. Time must be made for running a sustainable farm, economically as well as ecologically. Long range planning, employee management, and financial management don’t just happen on their own. An effort must be made by the farmer to manage these responsibilities. Just recognizing this duty is the first step to better management.
 
I make time for employee management. I look at the week’s projects and daily tasks that need to be done and try to budget employee hours accordingly. I spend a bit of time mapping out the day, and develop contingency plans if something goes awry (never happens). I know roughly how long each task should take and share that information with employees. On their first day of work, employees are given a job description/personnel policy that outlines work on Cate Farm. Employees are paid by the hour, but the farm is paid by the piece (by each head of lettuce or pound of tomato). Production per hour is important for the farm to succeed. It is also stressed that no matter how small or insignificant a task may seem, it is still important to the overall success of the farm. Employment at Cate Farm is a team effort, and in that spirit, we pay our employees well.

As for financial management, years of trial and error is an effective but expensive learning experience.  I now set aside one or two half-days a week to tackle desk work. (Otherwise it would happen at 10 o’clock at night). I have developed systems to make office work as efficient as possible to save time and money. I use a computer when appropriate, but I’m a big fan of a sharp pencil and pad of paper. 

Your organic farm, “Cate Farm”, has an interesting history. Can you talk briefly about its inception, and how it became what it is today?

Suzannah and Enoch Cate settled the farm in 1793, and the land stayed in the Cate family until 1901. It remained a farm (dairy or sheep) through various owners until Goddard College purchased it in 1964. It was used for faculty housing during the 1960s, and then by Bread and Puppet Theater in the early 1970s. The Institute for Social Ecology was here in the late 1970s, prior to my buying it from Goddard College with four other partners in 1981. I leased Cate Farm from the partnership to start up the farm business. I bought out the partners in 1993, after I had established a viable farm operation and convinced lenders that I was bankable. Now my wife and I are sole proprietors of the farm.  

What do you think are the most common business blunders made by organic farmers, and how can they best avoid making them?

Farmers are attracted to farming, not necessarily business. Often the business aspect takes a backseat in the sometimes frenetic pace of farm life. But eventually the business and farming worlds collide, and it is a wake call to figure out how to make the farm survive as a business. The irrefutable business equation, Profit = Income  – Expenses, needs to be looked at closely and thoughtfully. And not just for the farm business as a whole, but each farm enterprise, for example carrots vs. potatoes vs. blueberries vs. eggs vs. milk which are the parts that make up the whole.

Your farm is certified organic. How expensive is the certification process, and what does it entail?

Certification takes about two hours of application work in April, plus a two to three hour farm inspection by the certifying agency. The better records you keep during the year the easier the job is. Cate Farm is certified by Vermont Organic Farmers and costs us $650 per year, but for years there has been a rebate that brings the net cost down to $200/year. 

In your opinion, what are the most important reasons for going organic — both environmentally and from a business perspective?

What is the most important reason for NOT going organic? Take a look at the label of any agricultural chemical with all the warnings, and then spray it on your fields and what you are about to eat. Don’t forget the fine print.

I grow organically because of my values, not market opportunity. When I started out in 1981, some buyers were scared of the term organic. Even though the organic market is big right now, it doesn’t mean it is a profitable venture. Any farmer has to pay attention to net profit, not just gross sales.  

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your 27 years of operating an organic farm?

The challenges have changed over the years. First it was learning the ropes and getting the ball rolling — like building infrastructure and fertility. Then it was balancing the needs for raising a family amidst all the farm work. Then I borrowed a ton of money which really put the focus on the business end of farming. Now the biggest challenge is not biting off too much.

Considering the current economic climate, if you were to advise a young person considering farming as a way of life, what would you outline as the reasons for and the reasons against starting your own organic vegetable farm?

Being an organic farmer is a great way to make a good living: watching food grow, being independent and your own boss, working outdoors with nature’s rhythms, and creating your own farm plan each year.

The downsides are: the learning incline may be steep, long hours for little return at first, nature and business throw curve balls at you, credit may be tight, and markets may be fickle. But a healthy desire to farm, and farm smart, will overcome any obstacles. 

READ an excerpt from the book, click here.

WATCH a video of Richard Wiswall on his farm, click here.

Gene Logsdon on his farm.Gene Logsdon

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M.M.: In Small-Scale Grain Raising you write that, “We have become a nation dangerously dependent on politically motivated and money-motivated processes for our food, clothing, and shelter.” In light of the current economic crisis, how can growing your own food help people achieve a greater sense of independence?

G.L.: The politicians and corporate puppet masters have been successful over the past century in convincing people that ‘independence’ is an idea for the country as a whole, if even that, which is what enables the government to protect our ‘independence’ by spying on its own citizens. Or on defining it as the freedom to buy a bunch of crap as prices that can only support slave wages. Happily, nearly any of us can see through this with just a little prodding-and our Latest and Greatest Depression does the trick pretty well, or the prospect of something like Peak Oil for that matter. Independence only really means something when it applies to individuals, to families, to communities. That’s what people are yearning for, and growing your own grains is about as basic to true independence as you can get. And anyway, industrial food doesn’t even taste all that good!

Describe your concept of the garden “pancake patch.”

The pancake patch is just a sort of cute way to refer to plots of grain grown for homebaked goods. The concept is what the whole book is about.

What are the main differences between the commercial grain grower and the small-scale grain grower?

The commercial grower raises large acreages of grain, using large equipment and methods that encourage soil erosion, usually uses chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and genetically modified seed. The small-scale grower raises small plots not as prone to soil erosion or compaction, and often grows the grains organically or with minimal chemical applications or genetically modified seed.

When Small-Scale Grain Raising was first published in 1977, the locavore, organic, sustainability, CSA, and whole-foods movements were barely beginning. Now that eating locally is becoming more mainstream, how do you see local farming-and specifically grain growing-progressing in the next thirty years?

I think the commercial method of large acreages, huge equipment, where the grain may move faraway to animal factories and the meat, milk and eggs shipped back to where the grain was grown will become too expensive and inefficient to survive. A mere sixty years ago every local area had several flour mills, and many bakeries and breweries. Worked fine. In another 30 years we will be well on our well to the same kind of local, decentralized food economy.

Do you have to be a market farmer to grow your own grain?

Anybody who knows how to garden can grow grain. And if you don’t know how to garden yet, grain is as good a way to start as any.

Can you talk a bit about the current economic climate surrounding grains and the products made from them–for example, flour?

The grain markets are extremely volatile at the moment. Last summer’s historic highs have collapsed. Right now corn, for example is about $3.80 a bushel, about a breakeven price considering the high costs of seed, fertilizer, equipment, and land. The predicted increasing demand for grain from other countries has not materialized. On the other hand, specialty grain growers and flour producers, especially organic products, still have a fairly good price to work with.

What do you think has sparked a new (or renewed) interest in homegrown grains?

The uncertain economy, of course. People are looking for ways to save money, or more precisely, for a way of life less dependent on the regular economy.