Thinking of Marketing?

[digitS']

"Sullivan said the local farmers markets she helps coordinate have seen produce sales increase by 27% this year ..."

COVID-19 shifts how food is grown, processed and delivered

The coronavirus pandemic has altered every aspect of our traditional food systems, from small farms to massive grocery store chains. Experts say the pandemic is exposing longstanding issues in how we produce and purchase food. They also think it's giving us an opportunity to make food systems...

www.opb.org

This is an Oregon story but the reporter was talking to people across the US. (There's a picture from Kendrick Idaho - not all that far from here .) One should realize that the person being quoted on market growth is not talking about a "locally grown" avocado. Ha! I remember my mother in Oregon wishing that she was again living closer to the avocado and orange groves of California.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

I agree that being able to only buy seasonally wouldn't be a bad thing. WE here are learning how to store our foods, frozen, canned, freeze dried, dehydrated--and the products that help us do so allow us to eat them later and they still taste like we just bought them.
I bought DD an air fryer/toaster, etc. for Christmas. It was one of the hottest buys of last season, and she really uses it. I planted a basil plant in each of their tomato pots, (one is grape, the other cherry, and one is genovese, the other opal,) and she intends to harvest and dehydrate the basil for the winter.

 

[flowerbug]

for those living on the fringes of cities and in more agricultural areas it isn't so bad but for those who live in the bigger cities where they don't have as much access to locally grown foods it becomes a much tougher issue.

even people who attempt to grow food in the cities themselves face really hard problems from the environmental issues of trying to grow food in soils that are heavily contaminated to the issues of community itself where you might grow something but then have it stolen before you can harvest it.

 

[Prairie Rose]

My grandmother used to have all her garden produce stolen right as it was ripening....at first it made her amused, but then it made her sad, and she quit gardening altogether.

One of my really far out there goals, once I'm done with the grocery store, is to produce enough extra food from my garden I can have a little farm stand and donate to the local homeless shelter and food bank. There is a real need for fresh food for people who can't always afford to buy it, and every summer the call goes out to local gardeners. They will take everything...and they have teams of people who will preserve it if they get enough.

Working in grocery during this pandemic has really shown me how fragile the food distribution system we have is (i have so many horror stories from the last six months), and unfortunately the price of everything is going to go up. This fall I am planning on doubling my raised bed space (all that I have room for in the good sun area of the yard), and as a family we are debating asking for our old garden plot back from the farmer. It's about the size of the grocery store I work in, and when I was a kid it produced so much of our produce. It's been conventionally farmed for the last 15 years, but the landlord always said we could have it back if we wanted it.

It will be years of hard, hard work to get it back to where it was, but it would allow us to grow all of our yearly needs of quite a few crops.

 

[ducks4you]

Because of disputes over land, access to green space, and equal rights to the city, urban gardens have become a symbol of community activism and empowerment, and they are part of a contemporary grassroots movement supporting environmental justice, collective action, and equitable access to nutrition and good health.Mar 1, 2016
Just a sampling of how people who care are making a difference.

Urban Growers Collective

urbangrowerscollective.org

Urban Agriculture Philadelphia: Garden Resources for Growth

Find links to valuable information on reclaiming vacant land, growing your community garden, and more in Philadelphia, PA.

groundedinphilly.org

Denver Urban Gardens - Community Gardening, Urban Agriculture & Farm Denver

DUG focuses on reducing barriers to fresh, healthy, and organic food by providing access to space, knowledge, and resources for anyone wishing to grow their own produce. Contact us.

dug.org

GrowNYC Green Space

Founded in 1975, GrowNYC's Green Space program builds and supports community gardens and urban farms throughout the five boroughs. BUILDING NEW GARDENS GrowNYC has built more than 160 new gardens, including GreenThumb community gardens; gardens in public housing developments, churches, daycares...

www.grownyc.org

10 Cities Pushing the Bounds of Community Gardening

Seedstock takes a look at ten cities pushing the limits of what community-scale agriculture can accomplish.

seedstock.com

 

[ducks4you]

@Prairie Rose , you might be interested in the Overwintering thread.

Overwintering

Should this be the time when we give some thought to winter?! When Eliot Coleman wrote his book about "Four Season Harvest," or shortly there after - he came up with a definition of what he called, the “Persephone Period.” It was named for the daughter of Demeter, the Greek Goddess of the...

www.theeasygarden.com

As you may remember, I have been trying to build a cold frame for several years now. I have researching and researching how to extend the planting year, or start early. Starting inside has become almost impossible. The 3 kittens that we rescued trash some of my indoor gardening starts--dunno why the others leave them alone--and most of my beds are vulnerable to any fierce winter wind, so plastic over a raised bed won't work for me. I tried it and it failed.
Do you have any sheltered areas on your property? You could use one or more of these ideas:
https://www.epicgardening.com/cold-frame-plans/
http://mytinyplot.com/advice/how-to-build-a-brick-coldframe/