Vegetables from your own backyard

Ask a child living in an urban environment where food comes from, and she might answer, "From the grocery store." A recently released book by Michael Pollan entitled The Omnivore's Dilemma explores this question in a more thorough and fascinating way. Pollan traces the natural history of four meals from their origin to final consumption.

First a look at industrial agriculture and grain fed beef eventually culminates in a fast food meal eaten in a car. Next, Pollan cast the light on the organic movement, which largely substitutes slightly better inputs for the final product but maintains most of the grossly unsustainable practices of industrial agriculture. According to figures from a Cornell ecologist, the production and transportation of Earthbound Farms lettuce requires 57 calories of fossil fuel for every one calorie of food. The final section of the book discusses Pollan's own hunting and foraging for food.

It was the third section of Pollan's book that intrigued me the most. Pollan tells the story of Polyface farms, an intensely managed farm based on the principles of permaculture which uses few inputs, but is able to produce more than a sufficient amount of a variety of foods. The animals at Polyface are treated more as fellow laborers than as production units and perform many of the same tasks that they evolved performing. Cows graze on the naturally growing vegetation. Hens follow, pecking through the cow manure that would be troublesome waste in a typical industrial environment. The nitrogen in the cow and hen manure fertilizes the grasses. Pigs aerate the manure produced while the cows were wintered and eagerly convert it into rich compost. Wood from the naturally growing forests is used as a carbon source the compost pile. Human life is well sustained, and the land and animals are the better for it.

The story of Polyface encouraged me to reconsider the notion that food comes from the grocery store and to attempt to grow at least some of the food that I eat. Starting very small, I took out a 4x4 foot square of grass that became the beginnings of a compost pile.

Many sites on starting an organic vegetable garden begin with instructions on how to improve the soil with the addition of compost and organic fertilizers. My hope is the very effort of planting, composting, and mulching will improve the soil over time without resorting to any purchased inputs.

I have started by planting vining peas to grow up a trellis. Peas are members of the legume family, all of which have root nodules which host a bacteria capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, and thus improving its fertility. The peas were spaced about 3" apart and planted in two rows about 6" apart, with the trellis installed between the two rows. They were slow to germinate, but after three weeks there was near 100% germination. At the same time, I also planted mesclun greens, none of which have germinated. This weekend I gave up on the greens and planted nasturtiums in their place.

Last week, I gathered some of dried pine needles on the property and used them to mulch the vegetable garden. Mulch improves the water-retaining capabilities of the soil and may also reduce the number of weeds growing in the garden by blocking the light some weed seeds need to germinate. An organic mulch will also break down over time and improve the structure of the soil. Pine needles may also have the added benefit of increasing the acidity of the alkaline soil over time.

Currently, I have all the excitement of a school boy on Christmas morning with my new hobby, eagerly checking the plants each day. Hopefully the small start will allow that excitement to continue through the more difficult seasons to come. And perhaps in a couple months I will eat something without a barcode.