In the Garden of Eatin’

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

By Warren Rojas

Attention would-be NoVA farmers: The road to sound food production runs just due north of Warrenton.

That’s where you’ll find Local Food Project director Pablo Elliott coaxing about 60 seasonal crops out of a modest two acre farm (including the recently erected passive solar hoophouse) built on the Airlie Foundation campus just over a decade ago.

But the LFP doesn’t just grow food. It helps spawn more local farmers.

“It’s kind of an empowerment model of food production,” Elliott asserts.

According to an LFP aide, the garden supplies the Airlie Center kitchen with 100 to 125 pounds of produce—including: mixed lettuces, heirloom tomatoes, Swiss chard, strawberries, bok choy, lavender, lovage and an array of edible flowers—per week from May to late October.

“It’s all about having a really efficient system that churns out good food,” he insists.

Elliott fosters sustainable agriculture by hosting monthly workshops and annual farming conferences that draw hundreds of attendees. He estimates that they hosted nearly 1,000 participants in 2008, laying out a lofty goal of forcing 4,000 Airlie conferees out into the sunshine for a garden tour this year.

During a January 2009 workshop, one grizzled farmer voiced concerns that all his peers seem to be dying out for fear of modernization. “Sometimes I feel like an anachronism,” he stated woefully. A green roofing designer shared that she was hoping to flesh out ideas for weaving urban gardens into our high-traffic areas.
Another Airlie regular was totally enamored with idea of raising her own food—even if it’s only a very limited capacity.

“I’m just a backyard, not-very-good farmer,” she admitted. “But I like to dream about it.”

Airlie Foundation and Conference Center: 6809 Airlie Road, Warrenton; 540-347-1300. To learn more about the Local Food Project, please visit: www.airlie.org/activities/foodproject.htm.

Wise Acres
Sage advice from local fieldhands Plagued by groundhogs?
“You need Jack Russell terriers.”

Got rabbits?
“I recommend you grow garlic.”

Feeling sluggish in winter?
“Join a gym.”

Bad back?
“If you can’t lift it, don’t grow it.”

(April 2009)

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