Goes to Market: Food Eating, a Backyard Manifesto

Do you eat food? Thought so! That makes you part of something called a food system. How's that feel?

Every time you buy something and eat it, you are participating in a massive operation by which food is produced somewhere, processed somewhere else, and made available to you somewhere else. If all you do is buy and eat food, you may feel like a less-than-influential player, but nothing could be farther from the truth. As a matter of fact, you're part of the largest, most powerful group in the system. Nobody doesn't eat. Well, I take that back. There are these people, and if you are one of them, you can skip this post. Shouldn't you be outside staring at breakfast, anyway?

Here at Backyard University, we learn about our role in the food system, and work to empower ourselves and our community to have access to the kind of food all humans need. Real Talk: We also eat a fair amount of frozen pizza and sweet luscious candy.

Food Roots is a local non-profit that we enjoy working with. Their aim is to help people in our area be more aware of their part in the food system, and be more effective in the role they choose to play. They accomplish this by serving as a Small Business IDA administrator, growing fresh produce for the local food bank in the Sacred Heart Garden, and updating and maintaining the North Coast Food Guide, among many other efforts.

Being a non-profit organization, they also have several fund-raising events throughout the year, one of which is their annual Incredible Edible Plant and Fruit Tree Sale. Last Saturday Thomas and I went to the plant sale, to lend a hand.

Before the sale started, we labeled tomato starts (plants that have been "started" for you, just add dirt and take credit in the fall).

We transplanted lettuce and tomatoes, and spent most of the sale time talking to people and helping whenever we could.

It is starting to feel like a spring tradition, going to the Food Roots plant sale.

Everyone comes out of their damp little homes to get ready for the sunny days we hope are ahead. There's a bit of catching up, comparing notes, and dispensing of gardening wisdom (mostly by Shelley Bowe, Food Roots Program Manager extraordinaire.)

Food Roots is on a clear mission, but what about Backyard University?

What is our zealous vision for the future? I could start frothing about organic local sustainable blahblahblah, but those definitions are subjective and they speak to a set of values that aren't necessarily universal. Sure, Monsanto is the devil, but what do we do about it? Eat "real food"? Like vegetables and fruit? Okay, does it have to be USDA-Certified Organic (an ever-cheapened standard)? And if so, can it be from Holland?

That's got to be a Sasquatchian carbon footprint. Is the only answer grazing on kale we grow in our backyard and staring at the sun? It's enough to make a girl buy a box of Twinkies from the local convenience store and completely ignore an egg recall. Who eats eggs anymore anyway?

No, this isn't about making our dreams come true. If it were, we'd have an anvil cannon . This is about building personal strength, through awareness and skill development. The students at Backyard University learn how to grow and make food. They learn that it's a little hard, always rewarding, kind of fun, and sometimes weird.

They learn to experiment and cook food they love to eat. They are encouraged to see the food system around them and work within it to support the things they believe in. That's why you'll see us in a garden most sunny days, and at the Tillamook Farmer's Market this summer, working at the Food Roots Community Table and selling our wares. But, if you check the candy aisle at our local big chain mega-grocery store from time to time, you might see us there too. We do so love sweet sweet candy.