Update on Portland Cropsharing

My grandmother did some digging - ha ha, get it? digging? hello? - into the details of the communal farming project in Portland she and my grandfather are contributing land to. I think there's easily enough here to warrant its own post.

I've gotten to know Colibri much better since the day I read "Cropsharing in Portland" to him while he weeded the bean field. A few days after the reading I ran into him at the Common Grounds coffee shop on Hawthorne Blvd (best scones in town.) He stopped by my table to invite my friend and me to visit his "show place" garden, just a couple of blocks away. We did that, and I have to tell you, the tomato plants were very impressive!

I now possess information that will refine your understanding (as it has mine) of the arrangement details.

Toxins in the soils. "He amends the soil so that the pH remains above 6.5. Even if there were poisons present in the soil, this would prevent their uptake into plants." You got this exactly right. Colibri was pleased you represented that correctly. But he doesn't test for lead. Because:

1. Where would he test? He could make twenty spot tests in our smallish plot, and still miss the one spot where we or some previous occupant had regularly dumped toxic substances.
2. Each test costs...I forget...$47? ...$74?...Too much for Colibri's profit margin to bear.
3. We would be shocked if we knew the condition of the agricultural land where our food is grown commercially - polluted by the very fertilizers that made the high yields possible? I don't know if I understood Colibri correctly on this point.

Rationale for "Cropsharing." I hadn't heard the Katrina story. Sue told me, or maybe I read in the newpaper article, that Colibri had leased some acreage and signed agreements with a number of customers to provide them with fresh produce. Then he lost the land lease because....I don't know. I imagined a reason like "Evil corporate land owner discovers possibility of realizing obscene profit by developing shoddy ugly multi-family housing in midst of historic neighborhood." Whatever, Colibri hit upon the backyard plot idea to keep from defaulting on his contracts.

In response to being described as a "crazy hippie" he told me, "I have no political agenda. I'm just trying to make it." But then he went on to tell me the historical reason for lawns: they demonstrated that the land owner was so rich he could forgo raising edible crops. And then Colibri said, "But it isn't true. We need to grow food wherever we can. We've been living in fantasy-land."

Anyway, it's great to not have to worry about weeds in the back lawn. And it's great to see eight different varieties of beans growing - you can literally watch them grow. Colibri says they don't need much water. What they like is heat.

It's a good arrangement. We are happy with it.

Cropsharing in Portland

Some crazy hippy* in Portland is running a collective farming operation with the food being grown in local backyards.

I discovered this on my last trip to Portland; much to my surprise, my grandparents' backyard had been converted to cropland (beans, I think).

It sounds like the arrangement details vary quite a bit, but I understand it often works something like this: farmer dude bikes over, creates garden, comes back periodically to maintain garden, and splits harvest with land owners and shareholders of the farming collective.

My first thought was that bringing back sharecropping (a fairly oppressive form of employment, as far as I can tell) to give power to the people was fairly ironic. But I suppose that in this particular mode it's a bit more free-enterprisey - you aren't dependent on any single landowner for your sustenance.

My second thought was that I like the idea of putting my own monster backyard to productive use without doing any work myself, but I am pretty paranoid about the possibility of toxins in the ground - I live pretty close to a highway (when was leaded gas banned?). The hippy in question has a feel-good answer about handling lead and miscellaneous "poisons", but I don't know enough chemistry to know he's correct...

Thanks for your question, Craig. I forwarded your question to Kollibri, who responds that he tests for lead in all his plots.

Also, he amends the soil so that the pH remains above 6.5. Even if there were poisons present in the soil, this would prevent their uptake into plants.

Anyway, pretty neat idea. Anyone doing this in the Lower Mainland of BC?

* I know crazy hippies. Trust me. Plus, his adopted name means "Hummingbird Earth Sunflower" and he was inspired to this task by the fact that sufferers of Hurricane Katrina were dependent on the outside world for food (underwater gardening, anyone?).

Update 2008-08-04: My grandmother has supplied additional details about the arrangement.

Wicked in Portland

Drove to Portland last weekend to (among other things) see the musical Wicked.

Based on the book by Gregory Maguire, the premise is that the events depicted in the Wizard of Oz are factually correct but wildly misrepresented. The Wicked Witch of the West turns out to be not so evil and mostly just misunderstood.

While I am not a huge fan of musicals (I tend to lose focus during the non-plot driving songs), the story and production values were excellent. Very much worth seeing if you get the chance. I plan to read the book now, which I hear is much darker than the musical.

The seats in the Keller Auditorium are brutal though. They seem to be made for people even shorter than I am; I pity the (6 foot +) fool that has to sit in those things for very long.

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Semi-related notes:

• If driving across the BC/Washington border anytime soon, stay away from the Pacific Truck Crossing. It has been demolished for construction, resulting in waits both before and after crossing. To add insult to injury, they actually have a guy on the Canadian side that forces the line to stop and let in the queue jumpers that drove through the duty free parking lot.
• The Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Portland is nice, new, clean, and has a great staff. Unfortunately it also has thin walls and really noisy air conditioning. Not recommended if you have a pregnant wife who can't sleep unless the air is super cold.