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Welcome to the liveblog of the BlogHer Food '10 panel "Values - Urban Farming."
Here's the description:
What started with a few chickens in a couple of urban backyards has turned into a national phenomenon that is changing the way Americans relate to and consume their food. This panel brings together some of the bloggers leading this revolution. Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook Hank Shaw moderates the conversation with Agrarianista Joshua Stark, Margo True, Sunset Magazine editor and "One Block Diet" blogger, and Novella Carpenter, author of "Farm City". They'll promote plant, garden and animal husbandry, and can inspire you to create a deeper connection to and more personal relationship with the food you eat and serve. Join this session discuss how to get started and what you should consider beforehand.
Your liveblogger is Sassymonkey. Check back during the panel (10:00am - 11:15am October 9) for the liveblog!
Can't make it to BlogHer Food? Get the virtual conference pass and don't miss a thing!
HS: The way we're defining things today is that you are an urban farmer if you are thinking about or planning to grow something to sell at a market. Urban homesteading is raising or wanting to raise livestock or have a garden that provides a substantial portion of food for the year. I don't raise livestock but I have my big-ass garden.
NC: I'm an urban farmer in Oakland and I raise goats and other animals and I have a big-ass garden. I do sell to my produce to people, I teach to people and I'm part of BioFuel Oasis.
MT: I have a one-block diet blog, Sunset.com, and the premise is that we try to grow every ingredient for a seasonal feast. We have a medium-ass garden. We also have chicken, bees. We've made olive oil, wine and beer. We pick the snails out of the garden because they annoy us and cook them. The few imports we had to bring in we tried to change into another food. We've being doing this for about three years.
JS: we bought a house and wanted a garden. We have about 1/10 of an acre and we're allowed four small animals on our property so we have three ducks and dog. We have a medium-smallish ass garden. What I was aiming for was to do a meal a week from something we grew, gathered or caught.
HS: Did any of you have rural backgrounds?
JS: I did. Not on a farm but I grew up in the middle of nowhere so there was always food and gardens around. I wanted to keep that.
M: I grew up in cities but I had a duck as a pet when I was 8. I was always interested in how food was raised but didn't have hands on experience.
N: I was a child of back-to-the-land hippies. That didn't work out for them and we moved off the farm when I was really young. I'm a squatter. I squat on land to farm.
HS: I grew up in quasi-urban New Jersey. My family are foragers and fisherman. No farming background,
We all start this for different reasons. Novella, you mentioned your parents and realizing they had a good thing going with the farm.
NC; We all become our parents at a certain age. I know, you don't want to hear that.
MT: We started the one-block diet but we had to have other people to go along with it. It started as a way to do one story about a summer feast. How do grow and produce all that food? We didn't even know it was called urban homesteading. And then it just kept going.
JS: I wanted to raise something we could eat and the easiest protein I could get was laying ducks. Meat ducks are labour intensive and can be loud and the breed we got for layers are good. They are good layers and they are quiet.
Question from audience - How many eggs a week do you get from three ducks?
JS: We get either two or three eggs per day from our ducks when they are laying. They were born in May of last year and then they started laying in September They molt in the summertime (when they drop their feathers and then replace them) and then it takes about 8 weeks for them to start laying again.
HS: How long do the eggs last?
JS: I have no idea.
