Corey and I went to Food Inc. with a friend last week down at Filmstreams. The theater was packed, which says a lot about the level of concern people have about our food system.

We’ve been aware of the problems with the industrial food system for a number of years. We’ve watched documentaries and read books about nutrition, the food industry, and corporate power in the fundamentals of life. This film pulled together the three elements in a way that hopefully makes an impact with people who are just opening their eyes to the problem.

When we leave a theater our conversation usually starts with, “what was your favorite part?” I was at a loss on this one. There were so many enlightening, fun, confusing, or disturbing elements.

Enlightening:
The segment on how Monsanto is enforces their patents on seeds in the courts. There was a feature on a professional seed cleaner who is paid by local farmers to process their harvest for planting the next season. This process is apparently illegal if the seed (or possibly seed from adjacent farms) is a patented Monsanto product. This poor guy was blacklisted, his friends and clients turned against him, and he was run out of business because of the extent of his legal expenses. What is wrong with our world?

Fun:
An small-scale organic farmer Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms provided thoughtful, whimsical, and grounded insight into his life and methods. I was quick to underestimate him when he first came on camera. But it didn’t take me long to figure out that I had a lot to learn from him.

Confusing:
I don’t know how I feel about the segments featuring Stoneybrook Farms and Walmart. Obviously I make my living by helping businesses play a role in driving sustainability. But it was still difficult to reconcile the massive scale and profit driven business models discussed in the film. The camera also took a stroll through a natural foods trade show and highlighted that many of the natural and organic brands that line the shelves of Whole Foods are now wholly owned by conventional corporate giants.

Disturbing:
The segment on industrial chicken producers. These massive and inhumane operations grow chickens in something like 45 days. These are like pathetically malproportioned and unhealthy versions of real birds. So sad. There were also disturbing images of cattle and hog operations that will make you want to forsake fast food.

This documentary is a must see for anyone interested in learning more about our food supply. Like my favorite farmer said, “People would feel differently about the food they eat if the meat processing facilities had glass walls.” (approximation) This film gives you a look inside.

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My birthday is coming up and Corey treated me with an early present. She got me a Grub Hoe from EasyDigging.com.

This thing is awesome. I’ve been obsessed with gardening tools for the last year, and since we expanded our planting area this year I really needed something for cutting into untouched soil. In a catalog last year I saw an Italian Grape Hoe being used and really wanted to find something like it. None of the local stores carried anything nearly as burly as I wanted.

Easy Digging grub hoes (Azadas) from Bellotto of Brazil. The head is solid and simple, and the company includes a strong handle and even a file for keeping it sharp. I’m impressed.

I got it out in the garden yesterday and tilled about 300 square feet in an hour. The technique is easy to adapt to and the head sliced right through my hard clay soil with ease. I had a pickup load of aged manure and another of sand delivered. That’s what I’m tilling in now, down to about 6 inches. Next I’m going to double-dig the bed before laying out the plan and beginning planting. There is still a lot of work but I’ve got a ton of springtime energy to keep me going.

We live only a few blocks away from the elementary school that I attended for 5th and 6th grade. On occasion, our evening walk take us by the school.

Recently, we decided to visit the schools central courtyard to see the vegetable gardens that our good friend Kate helped organize. Kate is a teacher at Western Hills, and clearly hasn’t settled into a ‘business as usual’ approach to education.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to be impressed with the garden. I pictured a bunch of cobbled together beds that were poorly maintained. It was after all summer, and school wasn’t in session. Surely the students would completely forget about the garden while they were spending endless summer days in front of the TV.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Rounding the corner an endless and lush garden came into view. It is one of the most wonderful things that I have ever seen. At the far end is a bright mural, accenting the frame of institutional walls and windows that house the gardens. Wandering through the gardens was awe inspiring, everywhere we looked there were more and more veggies ripe and ready for harvesting. Clearly the students were born with green thumbs, because their efforts put Corey and my little plot to shame.

Kate was generous enough to answer some questions about the garden, and I wanted to share them with you.

How did you get the idea to start a student garden at Western Hills?
Four of us went to the National Magnet Conference in Las Vegas two years ago. While we were there, we were discussing what to do with the courtyard. We wanted to create an outdoor classroom of some sort. We liked the garden (especially the vegetables and herbs idea) because it goes really well with our push to be a leader in Wellness Education in OPS.

How did the students respond the idea?
The kids have always been very excited about it. That is really the element that makes this project so successful. It was the teachers, teachers’ families, students, and parents all working together to create this garden. We would work after school, on Saturdays, and throughout the summer.

How do you blend classroom curriculum with the garden?
We have done it a couple of ways. We use it for math a lot. It helped the kids understand measurement a lot. They had a hands on experience of measuring the depth of the soil for seeds to be planted. Also, over summer school we had the kids each choose a plant to measure and record it’s growth each week. We also use it for science, obviously. We had electives about gardening, worms, and soon we will use the produce for a cooking class as well as a wellness class.

Do you have anyone that you would like to thank?
Well, Lowe’s for sure and also the landscape designer. Also all the wonderful parent volunteers that gave so much of their time over the summer.

Those of you who have been following my sustainable lifestyle progress understand that the ever-growing vegetable garden has been a source of joy this season. Well last night mother nature decided to show me that she can ravage crops on any scale.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. As the work day was coming to an end, Corey and I were making plans to start some new projects in the yard. Then, surprisingly, the tornado sirens started to howl. We checked the weather online and saw a storm rolling our way. The NWS was saying to expect strong winds and possible hail. We debated if we wanted to pull the car into the garage (usually reserved for bikes) or just leave it out. In fact, we thought from looking at the radar that the sirens were a bit of an overreaction in the context of the serious storms that we have had lately.

But we decided to be safe I should move the car. As I was clearing space in the garage (bikes again), I was taking my time. The sky was still blue, and the sun was shining. In an instant, there was a massive rush of noise. I turned from what I was doing and looked out at the front yard. The wind hadn’t just picked up, it had hit our neighborhood like a freight train. Branches started flying everywhere, and our little river birch was almost on its side.

I rushed to pull in the car just as the rain and hail started to fall. It was the most frightening display of natures power that I have ever seen. I was on the edge of being outright scared.

Corey came rushing out and said that it looked like the giant oak trees in the back yard looked like they were going to slam through the windows they were swaying so violently. When I went to the back windows to see for myself, my jaw literally dropped. We have a pretty expansive view of the neighborhood from our hillside home. Every tree that I could see, including ours, were being severely tested by the storm.

The rain and hail intensified and the leaves that were being ripped from the trees were being pasted against our windows by the wind gusts. We heard branches cracking and falling. We grabbed the pets, a radio, and a flashlight, and rushed to the basement. We tuned in to learn that the whole city was being rocked. The view from our windows certainly confirmed it. What a feeling. We didn’t know if the trees were going to come crashing through the house.

The violence lasted only about 15 minutes. But it was an incredibly destructive quarter hour. We went outside to survey the damage. The street’s gutter was a river of water, our yard experienced a year’s worth of erosion, all of our plants were shredded from the hail, and our trees lost several big branches.

The supercell, traveling at 90 miles per hour, generated an unprecedented amount of wind, rain, and hail. The effects were tragic for historic Midtown Omaha. Trees were down everywhere, nearly 300,000 people were without power, and shell-shocked people were forced to cope with massive damage.

Our cherished vegetable garden was completely destroyed. Brussel Sprouts were shredded and broken, beans were torn, and even our once hardy squash were diced.

The next couple of days are going involve a lot of cleanup. It is sad, we take great joy from our gardens. It is really hard to see them destroyed. But we will make it.

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Corey and I are having so much success with our vegetable garden that we decided to plant more. Our garden is on a slope at the very back of our yard, so creating a new plot can take a lot of work.

We learn last season that building a garden can be really expensive if you don’t think things through. The wooden raised bed we built in 07 is really nice, but the total cost was well over $100. When we expanded this spring, we salvaged railroad ties from another part of our yard, along with some scrap rocks, in order to build a 4′x10′ plot. The only thing that we needed to buy for that area was some Peat and Omagro.

But we pretty much exhausted our free materials on that job, so when a friend asked me to help him remove a retaining wall last weekend I jumped at the opportunity. After several hours of pulling stone and pushing a wheel barrel, I had a solid collection of broken concrete and wall rock to work with.

We drew up a rough plan and started in on Saturday. We ended up building a convenient series of steps with a small landing. Then we added a really small 4′x1′ bed for peppers and a 4′x8′ bed for more cucumbers and beans. We also took advantage of some available flat space to put some pots full of dill. My goal will be to make my own refrigerator pickles.

It is getting pretty late in the year, who knows how successful the plot will be. We are starting everything from seed, so there isn’t too much of an expense for the experiment.

We have a lot to learn, but we are resolved to become productive yard farmers. After our trip to City Sprouts last week, we saw how lush an urban garden can be. Our goal is to get better and more informed each year. Eventually we hope to supply ourselves with a nice crop of homegrown goodness all season.