Growing food and time for the family

Today has been about pondering. what am I this year in my community? How will it look? I dont' know, but there is something I do know about. Growing food and bringing food security to our local community. I do know the importance of growing our own food and making sure my family is well fed and knows where their food comes from. I see my beautiful front yard that has evolved from lava rock to perennial beds and now to food. life is good because of it.

I grew previously on 800 sq ft of borrowed land from the City of Portland's community gardens. It broke my heart to leave this group of growers, but somehow in the past 8 years I got really far away from my home. I still had to go somewhere to grow and harvest my food. I still had to take time from my family to do so. Some where in the mist of getting a college degree, starting up my own business "Your backyard farmer" and raising a family, I ran out of time. My decision this year to bring my food home was about time and in the process brought me home. Freeing up more time and eating directly from by yard.

Making mine edible, slowly has been evolving into a place for the neighbors to ask questions and give them permission to make a change at home, removing some of their grass and planting a small vegetable garden. Out front! Sometimes being the example, pays off.. Just doing what I love and being passionate around the beauty of food and what it does for a community.

I am just one person in the mist of a food movement. Urban backyard farming or in my case front yard farming is a step, I can take towards becoming "more" sustainable on my own property.