Sharecroppers: Redefining Definition and Community

At the beginning of our sharecropping endeavor, Douglas informed me that he was not quite comfortable with my identifying ourselves as "the new urban sharecroppers." He was concerned that it might be insensitive to a storied past where sharecropping was an institution of oppression of former slaves. I did not take this criticism lightly. Indeed, I am aware of our country's past and the role that sharecropping played in continuing to oppress minorities and how it was an institution that kept individuals as indentured servants for years after slavery was abolished. Then I took a step back, history in mind, and thought: we live in a country that is constantly remaking itself and looking at new modes of understanding. It is in this new mode of understanding that I went forward with our catchy name of the new urban sharecroppers.

Our endeavor is plain and simple an endeavor that fits the dictionary definition of sharecropping: we are borrowing land from a landowner and are providing the landowner with some of the harvest from the garden. Plus, while sharecropping definitely has a history of oppression, I like to think that we are redefining it. In our redefinition, sharecropping is not a mode of oppression, but a unifier. Sharing backyards.com, brought three strangers together (two without access to land and one with a vacant backyard). Under our sharing agreement we are utilizing fertile land in the Urban center of Washington DC. As a result we are all learning how to grow our own vegetables and at the same time, I think, in a small way building community, by reaching out to our neighbors. I like this new definition of sharecropping and hope it catches on. Because as my mom always taught me- it is good to share with others.



On a similar note. We are not the only sharecroppers. The "sharecropper project" in new york city is similar. In it a sharecropper borrows urban land to grow a patchwork of gardens throughout the city. The harvest is shared with the landowners and the remaining harvest is donated to various urban soup kitchens. What a great idea! It is nice to see that in various ways we can redefine old modes of oppression and make them into agents of change. In this case developing communities around food and sharing food.

Suburban Sharecropping: Apprenticeship

The Washington Post wrote about a local farmer that is creating new modes of agriculture in the suburban areas around Washington DC. Jim Dunlap, of Snow Bear Farm- a producer at the Bloomingdale Farmers Market- recently took up farming in suburban Loudon County Virginia after retiring from the CIA.

He hopes to create a model that other young farmers can replicate. He plans on hosting young farmers who stay in a tenant house on his land, learn how to farm, and how to make money as a young farmer.

"As part of his experiment, Dunlap is working on a plan to reverse that trend. This month, he's providing room and board in his home to a young but experienced worker. In the fall, he hopes to offer young farmers room and board on his land in exchange for farm labor. If that's successful, he aims to solicit several more acres from neighbors to expand the farm. He envisions small tenant houses where young farmers could gain experience and save money to start out on their own. The plan is in the early stages, but Dunlap says his neighbors are supportive in theory."

This truly is the new age of sharecropping in the suburbs.

(photo courtesy Washingtonpost.com)

Sharecropping: Two Months Later

Douglas and my adventure in sharecropping started about two months ago. May 18th marks the date when we had all three beds planted. At that point both of us were biting our nails in anticipation of what the garden might bring us. Would it feed the two of us and friends? Would it all die? We went through some ups and downs, but we have finally made it to the two month mark.

At one point it looked like two beds were on the verge of disaster, but now those beds are catching up with our stealth bed number 3. We have already enjoyed multiple handfuls of radishes, basil, and chard greens. Soon we will have several baskets of multiple varieties of tomatoes, cucmber, broccoli and bouquets of sunflowers and zinnias.

Here is a little visual before and after. Look how well our garden grows!

Before:



2 months later:

Garden Meal

I have been waiting for this day for a long time: The day that I can eat a meal from my garden. Well maybe not a full meal but at least a salad and an appetizer. And plus I shared it with a friend.

After work last week I made a visit to the garden. These days the trips to the garden have been a bit depressing. Between being assaulted by mosquitoes and saddened by the slow growing beds I generally go to the garden to check on it and in hope that there will be some new growth. Or magically maybe the 1st two raised beds will start growing with abandon. This time I was pleasantly surprised to find enough new things to make a hodgepodge garden dinner. I picked a few of the blood’s bull bright red beet “greens”, some of the outside chard leaves, a few radishes and a male blossom from the watermelon vine, plus some basil.

This made a perfect chard and beet green salad with radishes. Then as an appetizer I took the watermelon bloom, stuffed it with basil and cheese and deep fried. Finally, I took the basil made a makeshift pesto (sans pinenuts and cheese) and tossed with zucchini from the farmers market.

I love being able to share the food from my garden with friends!

Garden Discoveries

The past month has been a disappointing month in the garden. (Hence the light postings). Two out of three of our raised beds exhibited signs of stunted growth if not out right death. The only real harvest that we had was a couple handfuls of French breakfast radishes. Now those were a tasty garden-side treat. Though for these two urban sharecroppers that were hoping to have three beds bursting with veggies throughout the summer we were disappointed by the lack of growth in our first two beds. Was is the soil mixture: did too much “hot” manure compost burn our plant? Was it the unseasonably cool and wet May that caused most everything in the first two beds to basically stop growing for several months? Or was it a combination. We may never know, but now my faith is beginning to return in the garden.

Today after visiting the garden I made several great and exciting discoveries. First, the once though dead first raised bed is showing signs of life again, the tomatoes have new robust growth and also have the beginnings of small tomatoes. Also, the beans are starting to trail up the trellis we made. And the cucumber plant has quite a few cucumbers that seem to be growing well. At last summer is starting to prod our gardening experiment into production.

The third bed is the real place of today’s discoveries. This bed- started later than the stunted beds and planted with a different soil mixture- has always been a winner. We planted it very intensive with broccoli and tomatoes very close together and interplanted with trailing accord squash on the ground. We already have a couple dozen green zebra, cherry tomatoes and Cherokee purple tomatoes that will soon be delicious.

I have been anxiously watching the broccoli plants with a patient yet skeptical eye. I planted them later than you should usually plant broccoli (it is a cool weather crop and is usually harvested by mid June/ July.) Though when I was at the hardware store I noticed the starters (in mid-May) and decided I would take a risk. Thanks to the unseasonably cool ad wet May that stunted the tomato crop, our broccoli seems to be thriving: We should have a broccoli head to eat in about a week. (As long as our recent hot weather doesn’t cause it to bolt.

Then on further inspection I noticed that the winter acorn squash, which has been sending its vine all across the base of the third bed has several baby acorn squash on it. I can’t wait to have toasted acorn squash seeds this fall!

Oh and one last thing. We have one zienna and one sunflower that will burst open in a week or two.

Finally our gardening experiment is starting to come together.

The Perils of Gardening

I am a Kentucky boy that grew up in and out of the country and definitely saw my share of the rural Kentucky forest and farmland. I’ve gotten chiggers all over my body (from restoring a 200 year old family cemetery in the middle of a corn field), ticks from camping, and mosquito bites big enough to cover my whole leg. However, it took moving to Washington DC, in an urban neighborhood for me to get the worst case of poison ivy ever.

After the beginning of the summer, when I “deforested” the fence line of as much vegetation that I possibly could, I noticed a horrible rash on the front of my shins, and later discovered that almost none of my skin surface was spared the scourge of poison ivy. Three weeks, weeping wounds and several bottles of calamine lotion later I was thankful that the last of the itch was gone. Though, a mere 6 weeks later the backyard jungle had returned, this time with more volume than the first. So I made an afternoon project to chop down some of the fence row life that was shading out our raised beds. Then the next day, to my horror, I had the same characteristic poison ivy rash on all parts of my body (including right around my eye!)

You would think that I would learn how to avoid the ivy made of poison. In fact, I know how to identify it ( and no I did not download the apple iphone app for identifying poison ivy that so many friends suggested I get). Growing up in the bluegrass state you learn these things by riddles like: “leaves of three let them be.” But even when looking I was unable to find the poison lurking in the fence growth.

As if poison ivy wasn’t enough of a peril in our urban garden, then the mosquitoes are equally perilous. As soon as you step foot in our shared backyard you are assaulted by a cloud of mosquitoes.

Yikes! The perils of urban gardening.

First Real Harvest

Yesterday we picked our first harvest from the garden a mess of radishes! This harvest came at just the right time. I was starting to loose faith in our urban sharecropping adventure: two out of three of our beds seem to have pretty much died- two squash plants and three tomato plants bit the dust and everything else in the Mel's mix beds just stopped growing. Stopped growing that is except for the radishes.

We picked about a dozen french breakfast radishes and enjoyed their peppery spiciness right there in the garden!

The great thing about radishes is their quick turn around time. I planted them about three weeks ago and now we have garden fresh produce ready to eat. This instant gratification helped with my axiety about the otherwise dying garden. Plus this is the lull in gardening where one must have patience. The beginning stages of gardening are fun: digging in the dirt, planting seeds and starters and watching the first seedlings pop their head out of the dirt. Then comes the waiting game- waiting between germination and harvest. Unfortunately, this waiting game is generally about 60 days. Though little treats like quick growing radishes help the impatient gardener. Plus in this trip to the garden Douglas noticed that there is a baby tomato on one of our plants (In the raised bed that is actually growing like wild fire). Looks like that bed might actually bear several heads of broccoli, tomatoes, acorn squash and lots of flowers.

Also to add to the fresh radish salad we ate garden side I munched on a few cilantro leafs (that may be short lived- it looks like it is going to seed)

Also, to my dismay I noticed that all the vines on the fence, which I cut back a month ago have started to grow back with full abandon.

Local Press

The New Urban Sharecroppers have been getting some local press coverage lately. Yesterday both the Washington Post and DCist covered our Sharecropping endeavor.

Also, we recently opened up our comments so everyone can comment, join in the comments and give us your ideas for intensive urban gardening!

Radishes!

It has been nearly a week since the last garden update. As Washington's strange may weather (lots of rain and chilly mornings and evenings) has slowly changed to DC's characteristic muggy hot summer weather many of our seedlings are taking off. One example is our patch of radish sprouts. Planted about two weeks ago they are now developing real leaves and some have developed the radish root with it's characteristic pink head popping out above the dirt. Now we must patiently wait for it to grow and pray that the squirrel i ran away yesterday does not find it and eat it for its lunch.

Disappointingly, most of our tomato plants that were planted in the first two beds look like they are dying. They have not grown at all since we placed them in the bed and some have had many yellow leaves. I think this may be attributed to the fact that we planted them when it was still chilly. Gardening wisdom (in Louisville) is to plant tomatoes the second Saturday after Derby. Even though we are in DC, our climates are pretty much the same. So I followed Kentucky gardening wisdom. I think the cold weather and monsoon like rain stunted their growth. I think we will soon pull up the tomatoes work some new dirt in and plant new starters. Also, in the same first two beds our zucchini plant turned yellow and died. I am going to try starting a seed and see how it goes now that it is starting to get warmer.

In contrast, our third bed that we planted is thriving! Wanting to save money we decided not to follow Mel's soil mixture 100% and instead used a mixture of pete moss, compost (manure, leaf and general garden) and Miracle Grow dirt. In the third box we decided to add some flowers to the mix (sunflowers- both, dwarf and giant ones that grow 10-15 feet, Maranth Hopi Red Dye, Celosia, watermelon, cantaloupe, winter squash, broccoli, cilantro, tarragon and some additional tomatoes.) This bed is growing like crazy and putting the beds with Mel's Mix to shame. Perhaps it was the timing of transplanting or perhaps it is the dirt.

Sprouts and Aphids

I like to think I am a non-obsessed and patient person. Lately, however, I think I have been a little obsessed and a little impatient. Ever since we planted our garden I have been visiting the garden every single day. Sometimes I actually have something to do (like watering the seeds). But most of the time I just go to the garden and look at everything. I look up real close to the dirt to see if any seeds have poked their heads through the dirt or to see if the tomato plants have grown any. I guess the proverb that a watched pot will never boil is also true of a watched seed (it won't grow). And I guess I am less obsessed and more in love. I love my little garden and am so excited to see it grow.

Yesterday, after being out of town for a day, I made my trip to the garden and was pleasantly surprised. Now we have beet, carrot, chard, pea, radish morning glory, zinnia, and nasturtium sprouts poking their heads through the dirt.

To my disdain, I noticed something abnormal with one of my tomato plants and after looking at the underside of the lead saw the tell-tell sign of aphids. Little black dots and a little green nymph. I did my best to squish most of them but am afraid this won't be the last of the aphids. Looks like time for all out insect warfare is quickly approaching.