Marra Farm Chicken Cooperative

Last summer we introduced 17 teenage chickens (pullets) to their new home at Marra Farm as part of the Marra Farm Chicken Cooperative (MFCC)!

This was a monumental step towards the dream of a community-led chicken cooperative at Marra Farm. Though Lettuce Link provided staffing and support for the initial phases of the project, the long-term vision, however, has always been to see the chicken co-op become self-sustaining and self-governed by South Park community members.

Over the past few months, the Marra Farm Chicken Cooperative has narrowed down to a core group of 13 members who share the responsibilities of morning and evening care for the brood of hens. With the help of Lettuce Link’s Marra Farm Coordinator, Kyong Soh, and AmeriCorps member Amanda Reeves, the cooperative has developed systems for accountability, communication, and collecting dues, ensuring that they properly care for the chickens and fairly share the work (and benefits).

Cooperative members have committed to daily care of the chickens, cleaning the coop on a regular basis, and regularly communicating with each other. We commend the ways that the members have worked together across linguistic, cultural, and relational differences!

To maximize the health of the chickens, the land, and the eggs, the group decided to feed the ladies organic feed, greens, and other plant scraps. With an abundance of fresh greens at Marra Farm—including scraps from Lettuce Link’s Giving Garden, the brood has a diverse array of healthy greens to munch on alongside the store-bought feed. The hens get quite excited when presented with some scrumptious chard or bites of winter squash.

Given the timing of the project, the hens approached egg-laying age as winter approached and egg production dramatically tapered off. However, in late October co-op members collected the first few eggs, allowing the group to see their commitment pay off! It’s a nice taste of what the springtime will bring.

We welcome you to visit the chickens at Marra Farm. Community neighbors and visitors alike have enjoyed watching the chickens and seeing urban farming on a whole different level. The chickens also provide an opportunity to educate visitors about the importance of ethical and healthy animal care, and the amazing possibilities that emerge with community collaboration. Next time you come to Marra Farm, please walk around and say “hello” to the Marra Farm chickens!

Winter at Marra farm

With chilly temperatures and shortened hours of daylight, Northwest gardeners are taking a much-deserved winter’s rest. Cover crops have been sown, leaf mulch has been spread, and the gardeners are resting and remembering the year’s harvest.

While much of Lettuce Link's Giving Garden at Marra Farm has been “tucked to bed,” we are still hard at work tending 10 newly planted beds for winter growing! Garlic, spinach, chard, fava beans, bok choy, radishes, and carrots will grow slowly but surely throughout the winter months and help usher in the new season with an early spring harvest.

In November we set up hoop houses over the delicate crops to shield the small sprouts from bitter winter winds and freezing temperatures. We hope that the plants, snugly tucked in under these portable greenhouses, will make it until March.

Our preparations for our long winter's nap were no small task. The water to the whole farm is shut off to avoid freezing pipes, requiring resourceful and creative solutions to nourish the fledgling plants. Thanks to the help of South Park resident and grower, Irene, we set up a gravity-fed water barrel system to collect and distribute water. As a member of the Marra Farm Chicken Cooperative, Irene also helped set up a winterized water system for the coop.

Winter is also a time for preparation. Even though Marra Farm doesn’t appear to be very active, we are using the respite from the busyness to organize the sheds, maintain and clean the tools, order seeds, and plan for the 2014 growing season. Beyond preparing farm operations, we are planning for community events in South Park in the upcoming year. We are excited for the possibilities in 2014 and hope you'll stay tuned for updates on opportunities to join us!

Chickens Have Arrived!

For many months now, we've been busy planning, organizing, building, moving, discussing, and planning some more to bring chickens to Marra Farm. We’re happy to announce that the hens finally arrived at Marra Farm in late July, officially kicking off the start of a South Park chicken cooperative.

Our 17 happy hens are finally home, but getting them there took months of planning and years of dreaming and scheming.

A Bee Swarm

Some of Lettuce Link's interns and volunteers will be guest blogging for us over the next few months. Today, we welcome the words of Molly Bell, a UW student and Lettuce Link spring intern.

At Marra Farm we recently witnessed an unusual and exciting event: an enormous swarm of bees migrated from the hive to a nearby tree branch!

David, the bee caretaker, quickly came over to the farm. He estimated that the swarm had 1200 to 1500 bees!

The bees swarmed in order to search for a new hive. Most of the swarm waited on the tree branch, while a few bees flew around and searched for the perfect new home. Lucky for us, the bees were very mellow, so we could stand nearby and watch all the action.

To keep the bees from relocating their colony outside of Marra Farm, David had to collect the swarm and move them from the tree branch back into a hive box.

He cut off the branch the bees were swarming on, and gently tapped the branch until the entire clump of bees fell into a hive box.

We watched intently, but also a little nervously. David had warned that despite their mellow mood, we should be prepared to quickly move away if necessary. In the end, no one was stung and the bees were collected safely in the box.

This was an exciting event to witness for the volunteers, but a stressful one for David. If he had waited too long after the swarm to come to Marra Farm, he could have lost the entire bee colony!

Bees are essential for pollination - we would not be able to enjoy many of our favorite fruits, vegetables, and nuts without them. Unfortunately, bee colonies have been declining in number across the country in recent years.

One reason for this decline is the widespread use of pesticides. The chemicals can cause neurological damage in bees, making them confused and unable to find their way home to the hive. This is one of the many reasons why we practice organic growing methods at Marra Farm.

We’re glad David helped the bees return to the hive at Marra Farms so they can stay busy pollinating our crops all season!

First Harvest at Marra Farm!

Last Friday we gathered chard, chives, asparagus, oregano, and cilantro for Providence Regina House food bank and the South Park Community Kitchen. We are now (im)patiently tending the rest of the garden until the vegetables are ready for harvest.



Want to learn about organic gardening, enjoy the company of other volunteers, and improve food security in Seattle? Volunteer at the Marra Farm Giving Garden this season! Contact us at lettucelink@solid-ground.org for more information.

Thanks to Lettuce Link volunteer Steve Tracy for taking these beautiful photos -- find the entire set here

Advocacy Corner: Support the Let's Grow Act!

Do you like federal food policies that:

• Create incentives for people to use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) to purchase fresh, locally-grown fruits and veggies?
• Encourage connections between preschools and small farms?
• Offer grants for the creation or expansion of community gardens?
• Amend laws to allow farmers of color, women, veterans, tribes and first-generation farmers increased access to USDA funds and other subsidies?
• Provide nutritious food on weekends and holidays for hungry schoolchildren? 

So do we!!!

These fabulous progressive programs are just a few components of the Let's Grow Act, recently introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH). The Let's Grow Act recognizes the potential of community-based agriculture to address hunger and decrease obesity, especially among children, the elderly, and low-income Americans.

We need your support to help move this Bill forward!

Please join Lettuce Link in fighting hunger and building local food economies by asking Seattle's Rep. Jim McDermott to co-sponsor the Let's Grow Act. Click here to send an e-mail or call 206-553-7170.

Here's a sample letter to get you started:

Urban communities deserve access to healthy and affordable food, which can also expand local economies. I urge you to co-sponsor the Let's Grow Act! H.R.4351 introduced by Rep. Fudge (D-OH). Everyone should have access to nutritious and affordable food, and I believe that the Let's Grow Act will improve the lives of people in my community. 

Seattle community leaders have stated their commitment to equitable access to healthy food and a health-centered food system with the Seattle Farm Bill Principles. I believe the Let's Grow Act builds on these principles and I urge you to show your support by becoming a co-sponsor. Thank you for your time and commitment to representing the voices of Washington's 7^th district.

(Not a constituent in Washington's 7^th district? Enter your zipcode to find your Representative here.)

After you call or e-mail, let us know how it went! Leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.  

Tomatoes & Peppers & Eggplants, OH MY!

Update: At the end of May, the Marra Farm community came together for food, celebration and planting. See photos of the day here.

The rumors are true, folks: we are now the proud stewards of a grand new greenhouse, to be used and enjoyed by all who grow food at Marra Farm.

Stretching 60' x 25', it looks impressive and feels even better 
Come visit the steamroom soon!

In a greenhouse, incoming solar radiation (light) enters through clear glass or plastic walls and becomes trapped, creating heat. Greenhouses help farmers in many ways - allowing us to extend the growing season, control weather conditions, and grow delicious vegetables that thrive in climates warmer than Seattle. The greenhouse, like almost everything at Marra Farm, has already been been adapted for unforeseen purposes, serving as an 'indoor' garden classroom for the young farmers from Concord International Elementary who came on a rainy day.

Sue McGann, who coordinates Lettuce Link's Giving Garden at Marra Farm, has been dreaming and scheming about this project for years. The greenhouse wouldn't have come to fruition without the extremely generous support from our friends at the BDA Corporation. Over the past ten month, these fine people not only provided funding and materials, but volunteered their time and labor to move existing garden beds, level the ground, and finally build the greenhouse.

We are also grateful to Eddie Hill of Seattle Tilth, who used his skills and expertise learned from Growing Power to oversee the construction procress. José Basilio and gardeners from the Marra Farm P-Patch, Yao-Fou Chao and other Mien community farmers, Marra Farm beekeeper David Feinberg, and many others came together to raise this project up from the crabgrass.

Day 1: Leveling the ground

Measuring the site

Sawing the pipes, which will become the support beams

End of Day 1: the skeleton is up!

Day 2: Wrangling a gigantic piece of plastic

Eddie secures the plastic

And voila! A greenhouse is born.

Marra Farm in 2011: Success, Challenges and Looking Ahead

As the Giving Garden farmers at Marra Farm transition into hibernation mode until February, we want to recognize our accomplishments and give you a sense of where we’re going next year.

This year, Lettuce Link produced more than 18,500 pounds of produce from our Giving Garden at Marra Farm. These organic vegetables were distributed to a wider-than-ever array of community organizations. We continued to donate the majority of our harvest to the Providence Regina House Food Bank, and also broadened our donation network to include the Beacon Ave Food Bank.

Many of the vegetables that grow abundantly in our cool climate, such as kale, daikon radish, mustard greens and bok choy, are more familiar to families from Vietnam, Cambodia and China. The Beacon Ave Food Bank primarily serves people from these and other Asian countries, so our partnership with them increased our ability to connect food recipients with culturally appropriate vegetables. 

In addition to our Giving Garden, we also: 

• Supported our friends at the SeaMar Community Health Centers and the South Park Community Center with the launch of a bilingual South Park Community Kitchen. Participants came together monthly to prepare and share food from the Marra Farm Giving Garden, while learning new recipes, nutrition and cooking skills. 

• Painted a mural on our shed!

• Educated scores of young gardeners, aged 4 through 11, who came to Marra Farm from SeaMar Child Development Center and Concord International Elementary School for weekly classes this spring. They romped around, nurtured seeds, fed worms and conducted science experiments as well as harvested fresh, organic vegetables for their families. One guardedly optimistic student informed us, “Peas are not that bad.”  Click here to watch Amy's video about the pre-kindergarten kids at Marra Farm. 

• Partnered with the Cooking Matters program at Solid Ground and the South Park Community Center summer day camp to offer another summer of Gardening for Good Nutrition classes to elementary school-aged students. This includes the return of Chef Sue Sheldon's purple vegetable pancakes, developed by Sue and the Marra Farm summer program students in 2009 during an abundant beet harvest. Click here for the recipe - it recently won a national award from Share Our Strength. 

• Completed our pilot Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project. As a way to generate a modest amount of revenue, we sold a small percentage of our weekly harvest to paying customers, which usually meant 7-10 items packaged up in snazzy orange bags. 

• Worked to train 1750 volunteers about food justice, sustainable agriculture, and anti-racism - principles that provide the foundation for our work at Solid Ground. These amazing volunteers devoted nearly 6000 hours in 2011. We are so grateful for your work to improve healthy food access for struggling families as well as educate yourselves on social justice.

As we look ahead, we see challenges and opportunities.

• The Giving Garden is infected by the soil disease clubroot (which affects members of the brassica family - including cabbages, radishes, bok choy, kohlrabi, kale, collards, and broccoli). We will be unable to grow these vegetables, which are both well-suited to this climate and popular among many eaters!

• Our supporters at BDA Inc have donated the supplies and labor for a 25’x 60’ greenhouse, which we anticipate constructing in the spring of 2012!  

• Our CSA combined many strands of Lettuce Link’s work: delivery of fresh local produce, recipe sharing and culinary literacy, and education about sustainable agriculture. Furthermore, it offered a small source of revenue, crucial in a time of frugal budgets. As we evaluate and expand our CSA in 2012, we hope to find ways for this model to not just generate income for Lettuce Link, but serve the needs of low-income members of the South Park and White Center communities. 

Thank you to all of you who support our work and use our services. We are truly fortunate to work with such an outstanding constellation of people.

~ Amelia and the rest of the Lettuce Link team 

Seattle Community Farm wraps up its first season

Lettuce Link’s newest project, the Seattle Community Farm, completed its first growing season this month. Volunteers spent months preparing the Farm, and we had our first harvest in July. Despite the late start (due to our highly variable weather!), we harvested a grand total of 3023 pounds! 2586 pounds of that went to the Rainier Valley Food Bank, and the rest went to work trade participants. Any volunteers from the neighborhood who struggle to afford fresh vegetables can sign up for a Work Trade. Two hours of volunteer time equals a a bag of produce. This season has been successful overall, and with an earlier start next year we’ll be able to grow even more fresh produce with and for Rainier Valley!

The Farm built up a strong network of regular volunteers this year, and they contributed over 300 hours of volunteer time. We also partnered with local organizations to host work days and field trips for childrens, including Asian Counseling and Referral Services, the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club, and Refugee Women’s Alliance. Some of the kids who live next to Farm helped out and enjoyed eating the fresh vegetables and berries!

It was a great first season, and Lettuce Link staff are taking a few weeks to breathe before launching into the excitement of planning for next year.

Celebrating Food Day at Marra Farm

Food Day -- sounds like a rough description of many holidays, right? National Food Day was indeed all about eating, but the 2,300 groups participating in this nation-wide day of action were hungry for more than a special meal. Across the United States, organizations working in the fields of nutrition, anti-hunger, garden education, sustainability, farm worker justice, and more held events to spark conversation and action around our food system.

At the Marra Farm giving garden, we welcomed more than 120 young students from Concord International Elementary and Somali Community Services Coalition. Together with our partners from Healthy Foods for South Park, we harvested pumpkins, pressed apples into fresh cider, and helped put the garden to bed for the winter. Some of these students had come down to the farm last spring to plant the very pumpkin plants that they harvested on Food Day, which they had started from seed into their classrooms.

Youth from Somali Community Services meet "Tiny", our friendly tromboncino squash.

One my favorite lessons to learn with new visitors is that everything we eat was once alive. Whether it's a head of lettuce, a cheeseburger, or even a can of soda pop, we can trace everything back to plants. Several visitors felt a little nervous about sampling fresh apple cider because it didn't come in a package, which is a very justified way to feel given the way our food system disconnects all of us from the farms and people that grow the stuff we eat. Marra Farm is a place where we intervene in that system to revive and embrace the relationship between humans and food. Not everyone felt comfortable sampling cider on Food Day, and that's okay. Maybe next time, or next next time ... it's a long process and we're all learning together.

First grind the apples (left), and then press the pulp into cider, and finally take a long, sweet sip (if you dare!).

Thanks to all the students, parents, teachers, and volunteers who joined us on Food Day!

Marra Farm is letting forth a big yawn as winter approaches, but we're not sleeping yet. Please contact us at lettucelink@solid-ground.org if you'd like to help out with our last work parties of the season.

How to hack a hubbard squash

We grew many different varieties of winter squash at Marra Farm this year: divine delicatas, charismatic kabochas, and absolutely-scrumptious acorns. Throughout the autumn, we harvested up these squashes and sent them to clients at the Providence Regina House and Beacon Ave food banks. One squash that we seemed to have in particular abundance was the tremendously hefty Hubbard. These were a challenge to distribute; they frequently weigh more than 20 pounds, and food safety rules at prevented us from cutting them into smaller pieces for food bank clients. So the hubbards went out to many partners: the South Park Community Kitchen, meals programs, classrooms at Concord International Elementary, and the Food Justice delegation at Occupy Seattle. Below is an illustrated journey into the seedy heart of this great fruit. This particular squash went out to clients of our inaugural Community Supported Agriculture program.

Step one: find yourself a very sharp knife.

Caaarefully open the hubbard; the skin is tough (but edible & full of fiber!)

Squish around the seeds, scoop em out, and set aside for roasting. Now your squash is ready to bake.

Bake your squash at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes, or chunk it into cubes for soup. Many people will put the squash face down in a pan with water, so that the squash cooking via steaming and does not burn. Did you know that most canned "pumpkin" is really hubbard squash? That's because hubbards tend to be sweeter & more flavorful than most pumpkins. Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite winter squash recipe!

The photogenic Marra Farm Harvest, 10/14

Can you name em all? As always, thanks to superstar volunteer Steve Tracy for the beautiful photos. We'll be harvesting every Friday til the end of November -- come join us! 

Contact Robin at lettucelink@solid-ground.org

Spring harvests & summer plantings at Marra

The buzzing bees of Marra Farm are busy busy busy: harvesting spring vegetables, sowing summer edibles, readying the farm for the next crop of kids -- and of course pollinating the crops. School's out, which means that our spring classes have come to a close. The 5th graders peeled back layers of weeds to discover lots of good food in their gardens, and gave reports to their classmates on their garden experiments. Most parties concluded that the most dramatic result was from Team Organic, who asked "what happens if you plant vegetables in the dark?" Their finding? They don't grow, at all. The 2nd graders ended on a thunderously rainy day, but were still able to sample their garden-fresh peas alongside canned & frozen peas. See the below picture for their conclusions.

Marra Farm propaganda?

What's more: our kids' garden is looking especially radiant thanks to an awesome donation from the folks at Home Depot. Their team of skilled builders installed raised beds, a fence, and fresh paths -- in addition to donating many flats of herbs, fruit shrubs, tomatoes, and more. Huge thanks also goes to Ruby over at Concord International Elementary for connecting us to this project.

See the shiny fence, raised beds, and bright new mulch

Thank you, oh readers, and please remember that you can support Lettuce Link in many ways. One of the easiest for folks on computers? Continue voting every day through August 1 to help the Seattle Community Farm win some cash! Head to http://www.deloachcommunitygardens.com/.

As always, find more beautiful Marra Farm photos taken by volunteer Steve Tracy here