Posts by Working Hands Farm
Working Hands Farm is a small org@n!c CSA farm located 17.4 miles outside of Portland, Oregon. We utilize a variety of different environmentally friendly farming methods such as, cover cropping, integrated pest management, inter-planting, composting, etc… We believe that it is essential to feed our community safe and nutritious fruits & vegetables. Our farm specializes in growing European varietals that should inspire new gastronomic adventures in all of the households we feed. Working Hands Farm was started in 2010 by Brian and Jamie, a young Portland couple with the goal of bringing a new perspective to our urban farming community. We invite you all out to the farm to come see and experience how we are doing things differently. Bring a nice bottle of…
Jamie is currently in Indiana collecting her parents and moving them to Portland. I would like to be the first to welcome them to their new home. Jamie’s parents originally moved from Santa Barbara to Indiana to take care of a sick family member. They have lived away from the West Coast for far to long and I wish them a safe journey home, home to the land of lush forests, breathtaking mountains and unbeatable beaches. Welcome! Jamie my love, although you weren’t here to start the farm with me, you have never left my side. You have sacrificed and supported me all the way with our little farm dream and I can’t thank you enough. It is in your absence that I am…
What is a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture)? In basic terms, CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members or “share-holders” of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. -Suzanne DeMuth, An EXCERPT from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): An Annotated Bibliography and Resource Guide.impl In simpler terms, CSA…
Community-Supported Agriculture Too Lazy to Garden? Area Farmers Have Your Back. by Tony Perez PHOTO BY NOLAN CALISCH TWO WINTERS AGO there was snow on the ground in Portland—Snowpocalypse!!! We laughed at all the hyperbole, and took a couple days off work. Over the hill in North Plains, however, a couple of farmers wereactually experiencing something like the devastation our weathermen so often invent (and milk) that time of year. Pumpkin Ridge Gardens, a small family farm, was buried under several feet of snow and ice. Their hoop houses (plastic-roofed greenhouses built over flexible piping) collapsed under the weight, and with it, so did their ability to grow any vegetables until the spring. Pumpkin Ridge operates a year-round CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture), a subscription-based service in…
<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/11064723″>Use Less Plastic</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/takepart”>TakePart</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
Tyler and Alicia Jones on their farm in Corvallis, Ore. More Photos » By ISOLDE RAFTERY Published: March 5, 2011z CORVALLIS, Ore. — For years, Tyler Jones, a livestock farmer here, avoided telling his grandfather how disillusioned he had become with industrial farming. After all, his grandfather had worked closely with Earl L. Butz, the former federal secretary of agriculture who was known for saying, “Get big or get out.” But several weeks before his grandfather died, Mr. Jones broached the subject. His grandfather surprised him. “You have to fix what Earl and I messed up,” Mr. Jones said his grandfather told him. Now, Mr. Jones, 30, and his wife, Alicia, 27, are among an emerging group of people in their 20s and 30s who have…
James and I returned home from Haiti more than two weeks ago. It feels good to be back in Portland, to be back in our home. It’s that view that always brings me back and swaddles me in homeishness. You know the one, as you head south on I-5 and you pass over the Willamate. You look down at Portland below with its lights, warm… and their reflections dancing in the water. That’s the view that lets me know I have returned to the town I was born in. To the town I was born to live in. After a week of snow and rain and coffee and beer and sweat pants and Netflix’s finest we decide it is time to get back to…
first day back to the farm for the season and the mood was silly. brian and i were both very excited to be back… breathing fresh air, marveling at our kale trees (pictured in the background of the photo above), listening to music, and working at our own paces. i hadn’t realized how much i missed the pace of the farm until brian would come bounding out of the greenhouse to share his latest brilliant idea, or i would get completely absorbed in the silence of my current project. i had ample time yesterday to reflect on the start of our second year on the farm and how it compared to where we were at this time last year. last year at this time…
It is a short film that depicts another side of Haiti, a collection of short clips of Haitians that are happy. Enjoy.
I thought I would lighten the mood a bit and post a video that I think gives a very accurate portrayal of life on the farm. It shows with deep sincerity the ways in which we toil to bring life into our soils and reveals subtle magic of the true farm experience. p.s. This video is for mature audiences only.
This is a picture that I took today on my way to buy beans and rice in the market. It is a day before the official 2nd round election announcement is made and the MINUSAH (United Nation stabilization Mission in Haiti) has been making its presence known. Tomorrow will be an important day for Haiti and we patiently await the outcome. yours truly, Working Hands Farm
This is a set of photos of one of the 24 schools in Port-Au-Prince that ILF is weaning off of a charcoal dependency. We began distributing large briquette (made of paper waste and sawdust) burning stoves to schools last may we are still going strong. By the end of February we will have distributed over 100 stoves and trained as many school cooks. Here are some photos of the schools we work in. To learn more about Lifeline click here.
Hello friends, Today I have decided to make a post of a post, or rather a post of a blog. This is a blog that Jamie and I have been following for a while now and it never ceases to amaze and inspire. It is extremely well written and the pictures are as incredible as the stories they tell. I hope you take the time to check it out, it is called “On the Goat Path.” yours truly , Working Hands Farm
This is a short film that I put together to mark one year after the earthquake in Haiti. It is a montage of images from my daily life here. Much of the footage comes from my commute to work, distribution days in the IDP (Internally Displaced Peoples) camps and my favorite hikes in the mountains. All of the images you see were taken within one week of the one year anniversary of the earthquake. I hope you enjoy the film. If you like it please share it with others.
here is another visual morsel to tickle you today. it was made by partners in health (‘zanmi lasante’ in kreyol), an organization started in haiti in 1985 to provide access to healthcare to poor, rural haitians. it has since expanded to several other countries worldwide. here in haiti, it has also expanded to include agricultural program, called ‘zanmi agrikol’. this program excites me greatly. and although i am not in accord with their use of chemical sprays, this program helps empower haitians through education, seed-sharing, and community-building. after spending months witnessing (and decades reading about) aid organizations perpetuating a culture of dependency (haiti has become known as the ‘republic of ngos’), zanmi agrikol is an inspiration for those of us who hope to see…
We thought that you guys would enjoy this. It is a film that some good friends of ours at Juliet Zulu produced last spring. Our Jamie from Working Hands Farm stars in it and we are very proud to say so. We love the work that Juliet Zulu is doing in Portland, it makes us fall in love with our fair city time and time again. We encourage you to check out their website, http://www.julietzulu.us/
A YEAR AND A DAY by Edwidge DanticatJANUARY 17, 2011 n the Haitian vodou tradition, it is believed by some that the souls of the newly dead slip into rivers and streams and remain there, under the water, for a year and a day. Then, lured by ritual prayer and song, the souls emerge from the water and the spirits are reborn. These reincarnated spirits go on to occupy trees, and, if you listen closely, you may hear their hushed whispers in the wind. The spirits can also hover over mountain ranges, or in grottoes, or caves, where familiar voices echo our own when we call out their names. The year-and-a-day commemoration is seen, in families that believe in it and practice it, as a…
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