The story of neighbors working together.

Here is the story of The birth of Owen Park's community garden . Interesting to find out the "behind the scene" workings that causes events to unfold.

Making a new life just like the old life

I wanted to share this article with everyone. For those of you who has shopped at the Nam Hai you can relate to the part about the market. I go into the Nam Hai and I look at the produce and wonder what all the stuff is and how do you cook it. The Nam Hai has a lot of root crops. I wonder if they are different kind of potatoes?

There is a movie called The scent of green papaya. I could not find a link to watch it online, but I would recommend watching it if you see it at the rental place or in a bargain bin. The story is rather boring but the food and garden scenes are my inspiration. As I create my outdoor living space I want to replicate the house in the movie.

A quote from the article; "Without stringent regulations or organic certifications, the Saturday open-air farmers market still welcomes all comers." Here in Tulsa these families selling their surpluses would be considered criminals. As I was driving down Charles Page Blvd, I saw a hand written sign nailed to a telephone pole. The sign advertised Home Grown Veggies for sale straight from the garden. I didn't pursue the location of the garden to see if it was in the city limits (illegal) or in the County (might be illegal). But I could not help thinking, how have we gotten to the point that hard work, skills, and entrepreneurship are considered criminal activities in the City of Tulsa. Is it just to limit competition with the big box corporate stores? Or are there previous produce illness outbreaks that have prompted draco

Times are changing and we need to change our 1950's suburban sprawl zoning. We have to be able to be more local with our food. And if someone has a "Green Thumb" they should be able to sell their surplus with no interferences or burdens placed apon them.

OPCG Work Party

Breaking ground and first planting party at Owen Park Community Garden. Edison and Santa Fe. Tonight at 6pm

Requiem for Detroit

I watched this BBC documentary last night. Very good insight into the rise and fall of American's fourth largest city, and the collapse of the industrial world as well. It ends with the Urban homesteaders raising food on empty lots. I loved the guy talking about he makes $500.00 a week growing food in Detroit, and the other guy exclaiming "That is about the same that I make working at Chrysler. You can watch it online. If you have a slow Internet connection, press play, let it connect and buffer, then hit pause till it downloads.

Illicit Gardening

No... Not that kind of gardening...This kind.

Big Bee Buzz Starts Tonight.

Registration Starts at 5:30.

Eastside Christian Church.

15th and Harvard

Countdown to Bee Buzzzzzzz

Bee Buzzz is March 19 and 20th. This is the annual NEOBA Trade Show and Workshop. Cost is $25.00 for Friday night and Saturday.

Friday:

5:30pm Registration.
6:00pm Opening Announcements and Welcome.
7:00om BBQ Dinner.

Saturday:

8:30am to 4pm
Speakers and Vendors and Pot Luck Lunch.

It will be held at Eastside Christian Church, 15th & Harvard Ave.

This is a good opportunity to get to know the Honey Bee community here in North East Oklahoma. If you are thinking about getting started with Honey Bees you might find some local Beekeepers who still have some Bees for sale.

Regular NEOBA meetings are the second Monday of the month at Eastside Christian Church at 6:30 pm. This meeting will be the annual plant exchange.

Owen Park News

After the new year I am going to hold a meeting with Chris and anyone else who want to attend to about the future of Owen Parks Community Garden. The location we are using now does not get enough sunlight. I plan on starting a face book group to organize the neighborhood.

Brady Heights Garden News

Meeting to decide the future of BHCG is scheduled for December the 28th. Call Justin for more details. You can get his number off the sign in front of the garden.

Sad News

Any one willing to help out I am sure BHCG would greatly appreciate your support.

Justin Pickard wrote:

We are officially losing the community garden lot. As some of you know, an heir of the deceased lady who owned the fire-damaged-house that was bulldozed by the City, contacted us a couple months ago wanting to reclaim the lot. Because the lot is encumbered with so many liens (close to $40,000 with the City's liens and a mortgage lien), we believed that no heir would want to go through probate to get a lot that had so much debt compared to its value ($5-10,000). Unfortunately, we guessed wrongly. The heir who contacted us has a wealthy nephew who is a very successful boxer and is unconcerned about losing money on the deal. At one point he considered selling us the lot, but now has decided firmly that he is not going to do that. He has asked us, graciously, to move everything off the lot by the end of January (so we wouldn't have to do it during the holidays).

Obviously, the need to move everything is discouraging. However, it is quite doable. (1)The bed frames will pull up easily and are light to move; (2) I have a friend who has a front end-loader and we can scrape the soil from the beds and transport it with that (3) the fence can disassemble into sections (4) that just leaves fruit trees and strawberries to pull up and some other odds and ends. The main concern I have is that we nail down quickly a new location to which we can move the garden, so that we do not have to move everything twice. And having had this experience, we would want to have the ownership of the new lot sealed to avoid this happening again.

There are two lots that are possibilities (and if anyone knows of others, let us know). One lot is for sale at 1024 N. Denver Ave. (sw corner of Denver and Latimer by the Tisdale Pedestrian bridge). It has some advantages such as its central location in Brady Heights proximity to the commercial buildings (when say when our grocer and Tara's coffee shop are open), room with the closed off portion of Latimer for holding famers' market, outdoor concert's or neighborhood block parties, etc.). Novus Homes is currently asking $15,000, which is probably why they have been unable to sell it. We could offer less. I spoke with the owner and he is interested in self-financing it, but only for two years. This would give us the option to break it out into manageable payments.

The other available lot is the second lot north of Marshall on the east side at 1207 N. Cheyenne Ave. The owner of it actually contacted me when he saw my number on our garden sign. I am now having trouble getting a hold of him, but I think he would take $5-6,000 for it. The lower cost would obviously be a benefit, plus the easy proximity to the current garden in terms of moving everything. I also see it as an opportunity to get to know our neighbors to the north of Marshall. The adjacent owner of the blue house to the south is a sweet elderly lady, who said she was definitely in favor of the garden being there.

What does everyone want to do? Should we have a meeting to discuss this? We could hold it at my house. Should we try raising money prior to the end of the year to catch the tax deductible donations? Or should we try raising it amongst ourselves? Russell or others, do you know of grant opportunities? Again, I'll stress that we really need to work out a permanent location so that we only have to move things once, which means we need to do that in the next month.

Justin Pickard

The right to grow your own food.

I was watching a documentary the other night about how the average Roman lived. In one of the segments Terry Jones talks about what an average Roman would eat. It seems that in Rome only the very wealthy would have a place to grow their own food. Towards the end of the Empire only a few people controlled all the land that was used to grow food. The average citizen would have to earn the money to eat or starve.

I am seeing this same trend here in Oklahoma. Where my family is from out in "wheat country", there is a movement to eliminate the family farm and get people off the land. The corporate aggrow business wants vast amounts of land with no houses or barns to get in the way of the automatic harvesters. The plan is to deliver the equipment to the field then use a satellite to steer the tractor or combine across the field to plant or harvest the crops. Since you eliminate the people from the process, the small towns that supported the family farms are vacated too. Terry Jones mentions the same thing happened in the Roman empire. As fewer people gained control of all the land, the farming communities disappeared.

But what about us folks here in the city. Do we have the right to take over vacant land and plant food on it? Or should we demand our government provide a place to grow our food. I have been observing a vacant lot for a few years now. I think I am going to start planting it. The lot has been vacant for over twenty years now and the owner lives in California and doesn't maintain it. I was thinking a few pepper and tomato plants and if they get mowed over than it will be no big deal.

But when you garden on no man's land things can go terribly wrong. One of our local community gardens is under the threat of the bulldozer everyday. The plot I helped secure for the garden is owned by a lady who died ten years ago, and there are numerous parties battling to get title to the land including the gardeners. Even when the city gives you permission to cultivate a garden on unused land things can change over night.

Here is a link to the documentary "The Garden". Part One. and Part Two. You have to click through some ads but the documentary is well worth it. For those of you who have slower Internet connections. Press play then pause the video and it will buffer so you can watch it without interruptions.

Sorry for such a long post. There are a lot of issues when it comes to food security. I personally think The City of Tulsa should provide Allotments to people to grow their own food. But at least we have gotten past the point of the city thinking community gardens are a bad thing.

Saturday morning garden blogging

Saturday morning garden blogging at DailyKos. Post and recommend.

Note from Crosbie Heights Community Farm

"We here at the Crosbie Heights Community Farm have a few new things going on that I would like everyone to know about.
First off we are starting an educational garden/farm/agriculture workshop every 3rd Thursday of each month. August will be the first month and the workshop will be on saving seeds. 6:30 pm at the garden or the Blue Jackalope. Nothing too fancy, just some basic seed saving tips and demos. Free.
Also, we are having a garden fundraiser/ potluck/ block party on Sunday the 23rd of August. We are having some bands play outside, as well as art installations in the garden and of course free food! Activities will start around 6:30."

Not sure who this is from, or who you would contact for more information.

Young Farmers

Yesterday David and I were out in the weeds - used to be called blackberries and will be blackberries again soon but the weeds surround them. Berries are just turning red so pickers will be coming out about Father's Day and for 3 weeks I will be up at 6 am for 7 am pickers. We failed to give them the care they needed - so this is the year we have to get our act together.

A car turned up the drive - young man and kid - I said lightly, if your here for berries - your too early and he just as lightly asked if he could park in the shade as the little one was sleeping. Sure - and I waddled up the drive to where he parked - dogs barked, kid woke up - mayhem for about 3 minutes and then the dogs settled down. Bill Edgar introduced himself, from Pryor but his mom-in-law was in Mounds and he had tried me before but we were gone that day. Could he ask questions??

Two hours later we parted friends. I think he said 32 when I asked him his age regarding his fear of snakes and I said he had plenty of time to outgrow that cuz I did. Agricultural Biologist in training, sustainable farmer, Edgar Springs Farm in Pryor.

First question was about a weed - lamb's quarter - what is it, how does it grow and he was pleased he could eat it - he's on a diet - a 50 mile radius diet and he is doing without flour products. Said he is eating a lot of goat's milk and goat's cheese and there's 1/2 a beef in the freezer and my Lemon Boy tomato I sliced in the house was the fourth tomato he had this summer after a Sun Gold, Juliet and a Tomatoberry cherry for a bit of a taste test. He liked the Sun Gold. So did Sophi his kiddo - oh she's just the prettiest 4 yr old and she wanted to touch and hug the dogs, cat, fish. How she missed the bunny - well, next time.

Before the taste test we wondered the yard, discussed college, the environment, our thoughts on sustainability and I pointed out weeds that stop blood flow or take out the sting of the nettles, things you could eat and things to stay away from. He had a small handful of medicinal weeds and my small flyer because he decided that CSA's were too hard on the guilt button to try again and we both were afraid of taking money and not having produce to give back to which I have never leaned toward or tried but he had. My flyer says this isn't a CSA here at the farm - sure hope tomatoes start to really produce soon. I end up tilling under things that don't get eaten because there's other things that take priority. He needed a mint, for hot tea that would be taking the place of his out of radius coffee. Said he had sipped hot water with honey in it since the diet began - just for a filler - the peppermint will be better.

Sophi fed fish, ate tomatoes, loved on Porter (the cat), got licked by Gabby and had a couple of lavender blooms to smell. I found her a feather from Moe's tail in the house and let her take that home - it was sticking out of her skirt pocket at an odd right angle when they left.

Oh, David was still in the weeds - his only day off cuz the union dudes with more seniority bumped him for a month so they could stretch the 4th of July weekend. Wink - I got out of some of the work - Wink.

Bill's a young farmer - he's going to come by again - I told him I'd hand him a tool while we talked the next time - maybe because I felt a little guilty for getting out of the work.