The first place we visited was Mahonia Land Trust. This was a 60-acre plot of mostly mixed deciduous forest purchased by about 10 people in 1975. Two folks named John and Bev run a 20-member CSA from the farm. The two other permanent residents are Karen and Mark, who we met. The land trust itself is directed by an eight person board, and the overall long-term vision is to turn a bulk of the woods on-site into a more old-growth state. Another piece of the vision is to create a community that is practicing sustainable farming. There's also an educational component to the whole project, which is carried out through hosting class visits and being a WWOOF site for volunteers.
Karen and Mark provided a good example for how people can accomplish a whole lot through just going out and trying new things. Neither of them have extensive life histories of farming, yet they have created an enormous terraced space for planting an extensive fruit orchard, have a huge field prepped for fall planting, and have a huge greenhouse. In the 4 years since they've been living there, they transformed a densely wooded area into the current space that will soon be producing bountiful, sustainable food.
Karen and Mark beginning our tour.
Karen and Chloe observing the land.
The great big greenhouse and the main crop field.
Mark and I walking past the terraced hill that will soon be a fruit orchard.
Mark, Brenna and Raven outside the rustic cabin where WWOOFers sometimes stay.
Mike checking out the wood that Mark produced from the trees they cleared.
And of course, lunch!
The other space we visited was Natural Harvest Farm. Here we met Will Newman, co-founder of the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust (OSALT). OSALT is an organization that helps protect sustainable agricultural land and which does research on sustainable agricultural practices. OSALT acquires land by donation, most of the time, and can keep it as agricultural land by holding it in trust. The research and education aspect is carried out by projects which are done on OSALT land. OSALT has a connection to TLC Farm; it enforces a ground-lease on the land which will protect TLC Farm for the future and help ensure that it stays what it is.
In Oregon, as elsewhere, agricultural land is decreasing. State law says that towns must allow for expansion. OSALT seeks to counter that trend by taking land off the market and providing it to farmers. They also have a "Food in the City" project which aims to bring people together in communities where there are gardens, apartments, comhuge greenhouse as wellmunity centers and community kitchens all very close together.
At Natural Harvest Farm, there is food growing happening, of course, along with a couple research projects. One is an experiment using berms to capture and divert water runoff. Another that was fascinating to us all is an experiment in fruit tree grafting. We learned earlier in the day that all fruit trees are grafted rather than grown from seed in order produce the specific fruits that we enjoy. We learned from Will that all fruit trees in the U.S. have been grown from dwarfing root-stocks since about the 1950s. These root-stocks cause fruit trees to grow to the short heights that we're familiar with that allow easier access to all the tree's fruit. The effect of growing trees this way is that they're more susceptible to pests and disease, hence why many commercial fruit growers resort to heavy pesticide use. What they're going to test at Natural Harvest Farm is whether or not fruit trees that are grown to their natural full height are able to produce an amount of reachable fruit that is equivalent to that grown in the same area on a standard fruit farm. I'm excited to learn the results!
And one other fun fact we learned: figs aren't fruit - they're actually unopened flowers. I wish we had a picture of our fig-loving interns' faces when we learned that...
Me taking a pass through a little grape tunnel.
Will giving us the tour.
This is a living, green room where people gather and classes are sometimes held. Very beautiful!
Mike in the greenhouse.
Another view of the land.
-Nick
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