Some people are starting to get it...

http://wakeup-world.com/2011/12/14/a-deliciously-resourceful-town-aims-for-total-food-self-sufficiency-within-7-years/

So good. Thanks for sharing what this town of 15000 is doing, & proceeding towards self-sufficiency. Wonderful!  

Neat story. Something special seems to happen when people "share their food"...greater sense of community, common good, etc

I though this was humorous. ‘Wars come about by men having drinks in bars, good things come about when women drink coffee together,’ says Mary. Same could be said about "the house wives of (?)", ha, ha...but point taken.

....heart warming story.

That's awesome!  I've shared Pam Warhurst's TED talk here and elsewhere, and there are people here in my city trying to get something like this going.  Many of the schools have gardens and farms.  My old high school won an award earlier this year for theirs.  We are at war with big agribusiness and corporations like Monsanto.  The only way to win, is by doing things like this.  

Well said Jazzycat

Wonderful article!

Thanks for posting this.

I'm passing this link along to a local city council person.   A non-profit organization here has been trying to start a community garden within the city limits.  (population 5000)

The obstacles they are encountering are a head scratcher:

• Must meet ADA guidelines
  
• Must have X amount of parking
  
• Must have bathrooms
  
• It will cost $6,000 to hook up to city water
  

That's a steep row to hoe!   

I'm not on the development team, so I'm not privy to all the details.  But, I've been watching closely because I'd like to be involved when they get it established.

I was reading through this after I saw it posted last night. It's such a cool project and I love how multi-faceted it is. Not just having some free veggies here or there, but wanting the whole town to be self-sufficient! How many of us here have thought of being self-sustaining and it gets overwhelming thinking of all you'd have to be able to do. But imagine if your whole community were helping you and you were all in on it together! I love it!

There was an article on facebook a while ago about a new park in Seattle that's going to be planted the Food Forest way and all the food will be free. Can't remember if that made it onto this forum or not.

I would so love to be totally self-sufficient!

Triciasgarden wrote:I would so love to be totally self-sufficient!

Unless you have money, it's a lot of work, everyday.

Boffer,  In Fresno, community gardens are often associated with churches:

Plenty of parking and established water service.

Add an approved sanitary chemical toilet, ADA design, (with servicing and attached handwashing sink, soap and paper towel dispensers) in an area accessible to the servicing truck, maybe build a redwood lattice frame that can be swung open on the servicing side. Bean or flower trellises on three sides creating a "honey shack."

Install decent backflow prevention device on the "church" water line serving the garden.

ADA - SFG is perfect with TT set on donation bricks accessed by wide brick walkways.  SFG is perfect for community gardens in general.

Compost pile design for clean trimmings, waste disposal proposals for trash and diseased waste.

Lease with the church and Rules/Regulations for the members.

Are you sure you can't share with the council?

camprn wrote:

Triciasgarden wrote:I would so love to be totally self-sufficient!

Unless you have money, it's a lot of work, everyday.

 Not necessarily.  With permaculture, there is a lot of work and expense up front, but once it's established, it's actually very little work, and almost no expense, according to everything I've read or seen about it.

jazzycat wrote:

camprn wrote:

Triciasgarden wrote:I would so love to be totally self-sufficient!

Unless you have money, it's a lot of work, everyday.

 Not necessarily.  With permaculture, there is a lot of work and expense up front, but once it's established, it's actually very little work, and almost no expense, according to everything I've read or seen about it.

Your theory, is interesting, but having lived off the grid for several years (quite a while ago now)  I was considering everything from growing vegetables, preserving the harvest, collecting potable water, generating electrical power, harvesting wood for heat, raising animals for meat, etc, etc, etc... It was hell running out of propane which was for the stove and the fridge. I stand by my comment.

The project the OP linked to is a wonderful idea.

jazzycat wrote:

camprn wrote:

Triciasgarden wrote:I would so love to be totally self-sufficient!

Unless you have money, it's a lot of work, everyday.

 Not necessarily.  With permaculture, there is a lot of work and expense up front, but once it's established, it's actually very little work, and almost no expense, according to everything I've read or seen about it.

Instead of calling it work, let's call it time.  Eating veggies from the garden takes a lot of time, period.  

I could pop a can of beets and have them heating up in a pot in 30 seconds.  Or, I can go look around my gardens for beets that are the right size to harvest, scrub and trim each one, boil them for 45 minutes, cool them enough to peel them, and then I have fresh beets to eat.  While the beets were boiling, I could re-plentish the square with compost, and then replant something.  More than an hour, just to have fresh beets from the garden.  

Last winter, I decided my gardening objective would be to eat 2 garden veggies and a green salad from the garden every day of the year, just for my wife and me.  I thought it was a modest objective, but it already feels like a part time job.  Not complainin'-just sayin'-it takes a lot of time.

sanderson wrote:Boffer,  In Fresno, community gardens are often associated with churches:..
...Are you sure you can't share with the council?

Interesting. I can't think of a single church in or around town that has a garden. Some of them offer free meals to the community each week, and a couple have very large food bank operations.

The board of directors of the organization I was referring to has some pretty savvy retired executive types on it who know how to play the game. They're adept at drumming up various donations as the needs arise, and playing nice with local officials.

That world no longer interests me. When they're ready for somebody to make some sawdust or do some arcin' and sparkin', I'll be first in line.

Boffer, I apologize. Fresno sits in the center of one of the largest ag areas in the US. We have a large Hmong population and we have several CGs. Different environment.

Sanderson - I can only imagine that a city council in a small town must set aside a bit of time for community feedback. Love your ideas/vision.

This reminds me of Rowena and her gleaning gardens.

A quote from Rowena
"we think of them as our candle gardens, because we decided to light a candle rather than to curse the darkness."

I hope her projects are all going well.

I have been noticing a few such gardens around my town now.  It started with raised beds at the Food Pantry and Food Coop.

This all ties in with Tricia's lovely thread on sharing garden produce with ones neighbors.

I was talking with a market gardener who commented that she did like growing vegetables for people who couldn't for some reason.  There is a lot of economy in scale, she has 2 acres in wide rows and that does for 45 CSA shares and stuff to sell at the farmers market and our online farmers market.  But what she really likes is enabling people to grow their own vegtables at least for the summer.   This as she was pushing me to expand to a bigger greenhouse

Another related thread I love https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t12795-backyard-and-community-garden-plots