Urban Chickens Class May 5 at Imago Earth Center

Want to add a little protein to your great CSA greens and vegetables? Raising fowl—chickens or ducks—might be just the answer. They don’t need much room, and they are usually the only type of farm animal allowed in urban settings. “I got chickens because it seemed like one more step toward sustainable living,” said Nancy Sullivan, a CSA member and resident of the Enright Eco-Village near the Imago Earth Center.

It’s true—you can keep chickens and ducks in Cincinnati and many nearby communities. And people are interested in learning how, so Imago Earth Center in Price Hill is offering a class taught by an urban chicken expert, Heather Redden from Nature’s Harbor Farm. Heather will cover the basics of keeping chicken in the city, including topics such as housing, care and feeding, choosing breeds, keeping peace with neighbors, the biology of egg laying, the benefits of producing your own eggs, chicken behavior, and much more.

Chickens eat grass, bugs, and kitchen scraps, but most enthusiasts supplement the leftovers with chicken feed, at about $1 a day for a half dozen chickens. In Cincinnati, you must have some kind of enclosure for chickens and follow general health department regulations. If you add in costs of building a coop, you may not be getting “free” food from your chickens, but the eggs taste great—and you know exactly where they came from and how the chickens are treated.

The “Backyard Chickens” presentation at Imago is scheduled for Saturday, May 5 at 2:00 pm, and the instructional time with Heather Redden will be followed by a chicken and duck tour of the Enright Ridge Urban Eco-Village, where class participants will have the opportunity to see different backyard arrangements and talk with owners about their experiences keeping chickens and ducks in an urban setting.

The cost is $10 per person for Imago members and $14 for nonmembers. You can preregister online, by email, or by phone at (513) 921-5124.

Every Day Should Be Earth Day

Happy Earth Day 2012! It’s the 33rd annual celebration of Earth Day today, and of course the Enright Ridge CSA helped celebrate. Thanks to Enright CSA members who have been out and about spreading the word about urban agriculture at Earth Day and wildflower events around town in the last week or so. Nancy, Suellyn, Michelle, Jim, Deborah, Emma . . . your advocacy work is appreciated by the everyone in our CSA, and we all hope we raised a little consciousness out there, too.

The Enright Orchard Project, spearheaded by Suellyn Shupe, also got some nice press in the Green Issue of CityBeat that came out last week, just in time for Earth Day. The elderberry trees and currant bushes have already been planted, with more native fruit and nut trees to come.

But wouldn't it be great if people thought of every day as an Earth Day? We don't have to make a big fuss every day, but there are a lot of little things we could do. For example, think about growing some of your own food . . . it’s a good place to start. If you have a little space in your yard, plant some easy-to-grow vegetables, such as zucchini or just a row of leaf lettuce. Or, if you aren’t ready to make the plunge into dirt farming yourself, find out more about a community garden near you, the Enright Ridge CSA, the Hillside Community Garden at Mt. St. Joseph College in Delhi—there are lots of possibilities.

Or take a look at what’s growing in your yard right now. Chances are a lot of the shrubs and flowering plants, maybe even the trees, are non-native species. Pick a corner of your yard, eliminate the invasives, and plant some native species instead this year. You will be providing a habitat for pollinators and other “good” insects, helping to preserve species that could eventually be crowded out by non-natives, avoiding the use of pesticides (and perhaps fossil fuel in your lawnmower), and you will probably like the results, too.

If growing your own food—even with the help of the Enright CSA—seems like too much of a commitment, maybe that native plant garden is just the right thing to help you keep Earth Day in mind all year round. Or, if that seems like a lot of trouble, there are other, smaller steps you can take. Compost your food scraps. Take your bike to the store. Ride the bus to work. Every little bit helps, and together, all these little steps might just add up to a movement.

Enright Ridge CSA—Part of an Urban Farm Revolution

I read a statistic once that said as much food was raised in Victory Gardens during World War II as was produced by commercial agriculture. That is, during the war, half of all the food consumed in the United States was raised in people’s backyards and in community gardens. The Department of Agriculture estimates that 20 million Victory Gardens were planted and more than three times that many people farmed them.

Twenty million backyard gardens raising half of America’s food—wouldn’t it be amazing to see that again, but without a war? And it is happening, little by little. Next month we’ll collect the first harvest of our fourth growing season at the Enright Ridge Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) project in Price Hill.

We’re already working in the greenhouse on Enright Avenue that serves as the CSA’s headquarters, and on Saturday, April 7 (9 am to noon) we'll begin preparations for the Enright Orchard at the Terry Street garden, which will have native species of fruit and nut trees. Seedlings are sprouting, and onions have already been planted. The first harvest last year included several kinds of lettuce, vitamin greens, spinach, and green onions.

Right now, besides preparing garden beds and starting seedlings, we’re also looking for new members to join the Enright Ridge CSA. We get some grants, but we’d like to expand to make the cooperative self-supporting. If you or a friend are interested in joining the CSA, you can find information about the cost and amount of work involved in different shares is available on the Enright Ridge CSA website.

As the season progresses, our gardens will yield beets, turnips, carrots, basil, peppers, tomatoes, beans, squash, greens, and other produce. The food is distributed to share members every Saturday morning from mid-May through mid-November, which means we have plenty of fresh, local produce for half the year. And many members preserve the bounty of mid-summer so we have homegrown food even in the middle of winter.

It’s hard to describe exactly how much better food tastes when you know where it was grown, who grew it, how it was grown, and how it got to you. You don’t have to worry about preservatives or pesticides or petroleum costs; what you see is what you get: broccoli is just broccoli, beans are all beans and nothing more, and you have to try a fresh-picked carrot to realize just how delicious it can be.

Join the food revolution and take up farm implements to fight the status quo in America’s food production methods and raise your own local, sustainable, delicious produce. We’re happy to show people what we are doing, and we’re working this year to encourage people to start CSAs in other communities, too. Contact the Enright CSA to tour the greenhouse and see urban farming in action.