Keyword: Reviews

The story of Will Allen and his urban farming non-profit organization (described in his book “The good food revolution”)has inspired a book found in the children’s section of the Miller Library. “Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table,” written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Eric-Shabazz Larkin, focuses on the role neighborhood children played in helping Allen’s enterprise be successful.

In vivid colors, this book captures the diversity of food produced in these greenhouses, including the pools for tilapia, chickens for eggs, sprouts for quick greens, and hives for honey. The people are colorful, too, and of many ethnicities and ages.

The children were especially eager to help bring food garbage, and to come back every day to watch the red wiggler worms turn these scraps into compost. There is tragedy in this story, as some of the worms died until the kids discovered the proper care and feeding they required, but in the end, “the squirmy crew has stayed hard at work.”

Excerpted from the Winter 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.

In describing her book, “The Color of Food,” Natasha Bowens explains, “I never would have imagined that my desire to dig in the dirt would lead me here, digging instead into the stories of farmers of color across America – Black, Latina, Native, and Asian farmer and food activists.” Initially, her interest in improving food and agriculture systems led her to working on organic farms, but often as the only “brown person” there. Through her blog (Brown.Girl.Farming), she discovers there are others like her, and decides their stories need telling.

At the same time, she was learning about her heritage, including the uneasy discovery that her white mother’s ancestors owned her black father’s ancestors. “I’m literally the product of ownership and oppression reuniting, as if to rewrite the story.”

Her trip takes her across the country. For the purposes of this review, I’ll concentrate on stories she found amongst farmers on the West Coast. These include Menkir Tamrat, who came to the United States from Ethiopia for college in the 1970s and now lives in Fremont, California. Missing the special ingredients of the favorite dishes of his native land, he recognized that he would need to grow his own. This is what he does, but also enjoys preparing traditional dishes and some of the intermediate ingredients to sell to Ethiopian markets and restaurants.

In the Skagit Valley of Washington, Nelida Martinez is a Mixteca native – from the state of Oaxaca in Mexico – who now has her own organic farm focusing on raspberries, blackberries, and various vegetables. She made this bold move after her son sickened with leukemia, possibly from exposure to pesticides at the conventional farm where his mother once worked. She describes the experience of Latino farmworkers as “a lot of humiliation for us, and many of us never think about having our own farm because we feel degraded by the work.” Now, she is very pleased to not be working “for anyone else!”

Valerie Segrest is not a farmer in the traditional sense, but rather an advocate for the foraging traditions of her people, the Muckleshoot tribe based in Auburn, Washington. This includes cooking and eating traditional foods in season, a practice that has required compromises because of dams, pollution, or what she calls “European land management styles.” While she appreciates the role of conservation, she argues that the foraging and harvesting of native peoples ensured “a balance with nature where you’re working together and not having dominion over that space. Even as foragers, we use harvesting techniques that make it look like we’ve never even been there while also actually benefitting the plant.”

Excerpted from the Winter 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.

Will Allen grew up on a small farm in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D. C. His parents grew up as sharecroppers in western South Carolina, very close to the home of J. Drew Lanham. As a young man, he was embarrassed by his heritage, instead hoping to make his career as a basketball player.

A talented competitor in both high school and college, he had a limited career as a professional, primarily playing in Belgium. While in Europe, he had time to observe the local agricultural customs, including the many small farms using traditional, organic practices. This reawakened in his interest in growing food. After starting a successful corporate career in metropolitan Milwaukee, he began farming as a hobby.

In 1993 by chance, he discovered the last agriculturally zoned property in the poor, mostly black northern part of the city. At the time he was in his forties, doing well in his career, but feeling unfulfilled. He decided to purchase the property, leave his safe job, and open a vegetable stand because he “wanted to try to heal the broken food system in the inner-city community where my market operated.”

He also wanted to connect Wisconsin farmers to African American communities, especially as Milwaukee is one of the most segregated cities in the country. “But on our small piece of earth, we struggled and celebrated together—black and white, Hispanic and Hmong, young and old—as we worked to produce healthy food.”

This hasn’t been easy, and much of “The Good Food Revolution” by Allen (with Charles Wilson) is the story of the last 20 years of building what is now a very successful urban farming non-profit organization that not only serves its home community but has fostered similar programs in many other cities. The author is a good storyteller, praising the many individuals who contributed to his work, so that they become your heroes, too. While this work is not a panacea to all of the troubles of racism and poverty, there are many happy endings.

Excerpted from the Winter 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.

“The Home Place” is best described by its subtitle: “Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature.” J. Drew Lanham’s love for nature, especially of birds, and nurtured by his upbringing in rural, western South Carolina, is palpable throughout.

This began in childhood. “When the chores were finally done, however, I could break free of the house and enter a fantasy world of earth and sky.” Despite this desire to escape, he was also a good student, and was encouraged to pursue an undergraduate education in engineering. Although this path would have likely led to a more profitable career, Lanham realized his heart had a different goal, and is now a Professor of Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University.

This was not an easy choice, and Lanham laments that very few other men of color have pursued the same career path. It also is sometimes a dangerous choice; black men found with binoculars in a rural setting may risk their lives.

His advice is simple: “Get more people of color ‘out there.'” Echoing the thoughts of Glave, he adds: “As young people of color reconnect with what so many of their ancestors knew—that our connections to the land run deep, like the taproots of mighty oaks; that the land renews and sustains us—maybe things will begin to change.”

Excerpted from the Winter 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.

Dianne Glave is very clear about the main argument of her book, “Rooted in the Earth”. “Stereotypes persist that African Americans are physically and spiritually detached from the environment. This wrongheaded notion is so ingrained in our culture that many of us have begun to believe it ourselves. But nothing could be less true.”

To illustrate this viewpoint, she begins each chapter with a story. While fictional, these stories weave a convincing portrayal of the history of African Americans from their roots in Africa, up to modern times. All emphasize a strong and vibrant connection to the natural environment as expressed in many ways, including through religion, conservation, nature study, and gardening.

I found the chapter entitled “Women and Gardening: A Patch of Her Own” particularly engaging. The focus is on African American women living in the rural southern United States, both before and after the Civil War.

Some used conventional agricultural practices of producing food and other crops in orderly rows. Others embraced a natural aesthetic with a glorious mixture of annuals, perennials, and shrubs. While this has become popular amongst prominent European and American garden designers in recent years, for African Americans this is an older tradition.

The diversity of these plantings was effective at reducing insect pests and left little room for weeds to thrive. Flowers were grown for their beauty and fragrance, and as ways to entice the neighbors over to visit. In addition, “some gardeners sought ethical, moral, and spiritual enlightenment in these chaotic or wilderness spaces much as their African ancestors had.”

Excerpted from the Winter 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.

Molly Hashimoto has exhibited her artwork at the Miller Library for many years. Library patrons and staff alike have delighted in her original works, along with sketchbooks, prints, cards, calendars, and other depictions of regional landscapes and animal life.

It is very exciting to have a new book by Molly, Colors of the West: An Artist’s Guide to Nature’s Palette. This is in part the story of how she came to embrace watercolor painting en plein air (in the open air) after seeing the field sketchbooks of Thomas Moran from the late 19th century. His work was instrumental in the creation of the first national park at Yellowstone.

“This rendezvous with Moran compelled me to reconsider what it meant to be an artist—how to work, where ideas are generated, the purpose of art. I felt that I, too, had to create work in the field, to keep sketchbooks and journals to record my own experiences in the outdoors.”

This book is also an excellent introduction to this style of painting and you quickly learn that Molly is not only an accomplished artist, but also an excellent teacher. “When I teach, I try to reach the ‘inner artist’ who longs to mimic the beauty of nature, without necessarily knowing all there is to know about color, technique, etc. This book, like my classes, urges you to just pick up a paintbrush and get started!”

Published in the November 2017 Leaflet Volume 4, Issue 11

This past summer I enjoyed a three-day tour of Portland area private gardens, public gardens, and nurseries; a trip hosted by the Northwest Horticultural Society. While Seattle and Portland have been long-time rivals in many matters, both are wonderful cities for garden lovers and keen plants people.

I advise calming the competitiveness and instead celebrating our neighbor to the south by becoming acquainted with The HPSO Quarterly, published by the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. Many plant society publications have no content of interest to non-members. This newsletter is the exception to that, with many articles that will be valuable to gardeners throughout the Puget Sound region.

For example, a recent article included an in-depth look at the newer hybrids of crocosmias. Written by Tom Fischer, the editor-in-chief for Timber Press, this article is both witty and informative. “Rather than planting boring old ‘Lucifer’, why not try the searingly scarlet ‘Hellfire’ or ‘Lana de Savary’?”

The same issue (Summer 2017) crosses the border into our state with an exploration of the Wildlife Botanical Gardens in Brush Prairie, Washington. This is a new garden to me, but it is now on my must-visit list.

Other articles profile passionate horticulturists, highlight garden wildlife or outstanding designs, and even review new books in the HPSO library! Every issue of this publication I read cover-to-cover; I recommend you do the same.

Published in the November 2017 Leaflet Volume 4, Issue 11

Plant Conservation Science and Practice: The Role of Botanic Gardens is an in-depth study of botanic gardens, arboreta, seed banks, and similar institutions and the responsibility they have in the conservation of plants on a global scale. Editors Stephen Blackmore and Sara Oldfield have included the input of an impressive list of botanists, primarily at botanic gardens, to observe what is being done, and to consider improvements, especially through international cooperation.

Education and demonstration is an important function of public gardens in the promotion of in situ conservation. The know-how that researchers and staff of these gardens have developed in ecology, horticulture, and systematics also contribute to these efforts.

Ex situ conservation is supported by plant collections – many plants exist only in cultivated settings – and by seed banks, that both preserve and make seeds available for research. This research includes searching for solutions to food and fuel security. Demonstrating that these solutions do not come at the loss of biodiversity is another important message that botanic gardens teach.

In conclusion, the editors look to botanic gardens to continue their public outreach and education, but they expect more. They admonish these institutions to use their special expertise to “take their place as key agents for undoing much of the damage we have inflicted on our planet.”

Published in the November 2017 Leaflet for Scholars Volume 4, Issue 11