Last week at the farmers' market someone responded to the prospect of buying a package of dried lentils by saying, "I couldn't do that. Lentils are like my Kryptonite." A few years ago I might have agreed with him but during our year of local…
New Scientist is reporting that oil-seed rape (aka canola) has escaped cultivated land and become a tenacious weed. The battle against weeds is an age-old story, but this new problem comes with a twist. These "feral" canola plants have acquired a resistance to two of…
The Spokane County Fair is a wonderful educational opportunity for children and a great way for connecting with others around important and meaningful skills. You can enter photographs, vegetables, animals, crafts, homebrewed beer, and more. Go here for the scoop on the competitions. While most…
Here's a VFYG submission from Cat. You can read more about her garden at her blog Growing on the Swan Slough. I was practically raised in the farmers market scene, coming along with my mom while she sold her homemade soap and home harvested honey…
I'm reading Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible by Ellen Davis. In the book she argues that agrarian perspectives offer a helpful lens through which to understand the Bible, especially the Old Testament. She writes; "agrarianism is the way of thinking…
The SFGate has the story on what some people are calling the "Slow Bike Movement." The gist of the trend is that instead of getting suited up in spandex, leaning over your aerodynamic racing bike, and starting the day covered in sweat more bike commuters…
Northwest Food News has a great story on NPRabout mushroom hunters. I love the quote that Guy uses to open the piece: Many cultures, including our own, once considered hunting mushrooms aberrant behavior. They are, after all, a sometimes filthy and occasionally deadly fungus. William…
The United Nations has released their World and Economic Social Survey for 2011 and on cue from myblog post a few days ago about the need for and emphasis on food self-sufficiency to address global food crises, the report states: ...the main policy focus on…
Deer Park and Kettle Falls have recently been asked to change their zoning ordinances to allow backyard chickens within their city limits. After public meetings and planning commission deliberations, the city council of Deer Park chose last night to take no action to allow backyard…
I was startled when I read that statement in a yestereday's NY Times because I'm remembering some pretty horrible incidents of drought and famine in Africa over the last 60 years. Last week U.N. agencies monitoring a severe drought in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti…
CNN has the story of a growing, but still small urban farming movement in Hong Kong. For just $15 per month, Lam rents out toolbox-sized planter boxes to businessmen, elderly couples and families alike, and even runs horticulture classes. He uses imported soil from Germany…
Reviews keep coming in for Year of Plenty. I really like David Crumm's review at Read the Spirit. More than anyone else, he grasped the way our focus on local living in Spokane opened us up to our global connection in Thailand. In describing the…
I'm a couple months into my first Spring season of foraging for mushrooms and other wild edibles. I'm still alive and I'm not on a liver transplant waiting list so I figure I'm off to a good start. I've dabbled in foraging for wild mushrooms…
Neighborhood farmers' markets are popping up across America. According to the USDA, there has been a 250% growth in the number of farmers' markets in the U.S. (1,755 in 1994 to a total of 6,132 in 2010). The growing popularity of farmers' markets is leading…
The Food Desert mapping tool at the USDA has received a lot of attention lately, but I'm more impressed with the USDA Food Atlas that offers a whole variety of ways to map America's food landscape. Here are some screen grabs of my favorites. (Note…
It looks like there is one eastern Washington city made the cut on the list of worst city slogans. Walla Walla Washington's slogan reads, "The city so nice they named it twice." Go here for the full list and map. My favorites: Gas, KS: "Don't…
I wrote a post a few months ago about the role of bread prices in the Egyptian uprising. Foreign Policy has a new article on how rising food prices and increasing food scarcity around the world could mean there is more severe political unrest on…
All the locavore haters will be dancing with joy at the results of a new study done by UC Santa Barbara. The premise of the study is that if any place can pull off a truly local food economy it should be Santa Barbara County…
This Wednesday, May 18 the Millwood Farmers' Market will open for the season from 3 to 7 pm in the parking lot of Millwood Presbyterian Church. Here is the line-up of vendors signed up so far: Rocky Ridge Ranch Arabesque Bakery SuzieDavid Beef Pacific Produce…
After a couple weeks of looking for morel mushrooms in Spokane wilderness areas I finally came across two blonde beauties today. I've seen an abundance of poisonous false morels so be careful if you're on the hunt. I won't reveal my new secret area but…
By all appearances the Future of Food event organized by WashingtonPostLive was an all-star gala featuring some of my favorite writers and food-movement activists. I am a card-carrying member of the choir to whom the speakers of the conference were preaching. Marion Nestle, one of…
I'll be at the Book Parlor tonight, April 28, at 7pm (1425 West Broadway Avenue, Spokane, WA 99201 (509) 328-6527) discussing year of plenty. I will be in Seattle this weekend at the Inhabit Conference, and I'll be doing a book signing at Baker Street…
This story is a couple weeks old but I think it's worth highlighting here given past posts on school lunches. In the latest salvo in the school-lunch wars, Little Village Aacademy in Chicago has let parents know they are no longer allowed to pack a…
In a fluke of this year's calendar, Earth Day and Good Friday both converge today. I wrote an article for CNN Belief Blog arguing that these two events aren't such a bad pairing. The wider context of the article is that the Christian church and…
The Year of Plenty blog was created by Craig Goodwin in the winter of 2008 to chronicle the experiences of his family as they sought to consume everything local, used, homegrown or homemade. That journey was a wonderful introduction to people and movements in the Spokane area who are seeking the welfare of the community through local foods, farmers markets, community gardens, sustainable transportation, and more fulfilling and just patterns of consumption. In 2009 and beyond the blog will continue to report on these relationships and practices, all through the eyes of a family with young children. Craig manages the Millwood Farmers' Market, is a Master Food Preserver and Pastor at Millwood Presbyterian Church. Craig can be reached at goody2230@gmail.com
