Attention reporters/students/videographers, etc. -- you are advised to read this FAQ before coming to interview/film, etc., and then to bring different questions with you.

A: We bike around most of the time and have carts for tools and harvesting. It's cheaper, more flexible, and funner than cars/trucks. But we don't hesitate to use vehicles when they are readily available for especially large loads. It's about path-of-least-resistance, not ideology. I'd say we're over 90% bike-based.

We also want to make some new pedal-powered contraptions for heavy and/or awkward loads -- if you're a creative bicycle-tinkerer and want produce, contact us.

Q: Bike-farming in the city! What a cool idea!

A: No it's not. First, just the habit of labelling things as "cool" is the luxury of a pampered class that doesn't know the first thing about living with responsibility, and I've got no interest in it. Besides, nothing is "cool" in a world where everything is perfect (and that's the world we live in).

Second, would you tell a carpenter they were cool because they used a hammer to hit nails? What else are they supposed to use? Here we are in the city, on the edge of a crumbling empire, with the conventional food system about to collapse. Where else are we supposed to grow food except all around us? Feeding ourselves is not "cool" -- it is a function of being a human animal.

Q: I don't have land to offer and I want produce. How do I get some? Do you sell it somewhere?

A: You can also offer labor, goods or services to the farming efforts in exchange for produce. On a day-by-day basis, people who come out to help are offered whatever produce is available at that place and time. Additionally, starting in May/June, we will harvest produce weekly and bring it to a central location in Southeast for distribution to helpers and other friends of the farm. You will find out the details of this event when you are invited to it.

Examples of goods & services that the farm needs: bicycle repair, cart-building, heavy-load transportation (use of vehicle), plant starts, pots & trays, seeds, plastic and glass for cloches & greenhouses, compost-brigade, homecrafts, scavenged wood or tools and special supplies. If you have something to offer for food, bring it up.

Q: Yeah okay, but do you sell produce somewhere?

A: Sunroot Gardens has plans to start up a new farmers market sometime in May/June. It'll be on Sundays at a Hawthorne location. Produce will be set out there with prices clearly marked, so if you really only have US$ then you can come haggle there. (Or barter!)

We can also set up deals on a case-by-case basis. For example, Sunroot Gardens has sold coolers of produce to folks going out to the Burning Man festival. Depending on your desires and timing, we'll see what we can work out. If we know about a special event ahead of time, we can plan for it.

Really, we're open to any number of arrangements. We see no reason to limit ourselves -- or you -- to any specific guidelines right now. Again, we're all free agents here.

Q: I want to learn more about urban survival gardening. Can I come help? What days are you in the field? Do you have work parties or what?

A: We're workin' everyday somewhere, from now 'til the November rains, sometimes with multiple crews in different locations simultaneously. "Work Parties" are announced for special, large projects, via the Sunroot Gardens email listserve. If you would like to be on that list, and recieve emails 1-3 times per week about what's happening with the farming, including when/where produce will be available, email Farmer K at kollibri (at) riseup (dot) net.

Q: How much land does Sunroot Gardens own?

A: Not a square inch of it. Everything is on private land, in people's yards and unbuilt lots. We do not pay rent on any of it, either, instead working out other arrangements -- with the exception of 2 acres of country land that we are leasing for the Staple Crops Project on very reasonable terms.

The Sunroot Gardens project acts to steward or caretake all these plots around town at the present time. We assume that someday they will be watched and cultivated by other farmers, perhaps under totally different arrangements. The priority at this point is not to acquire anything, in the capitalist sense, but to break ground and get plants growing. The more land is under food production, the better. The conventional food supply system really is on the edge of failure, so getting localized food networks re-established is essential. Dollar says it's already too late for any of this to make a significant difference, but I guess we'll see.

Q: How'd this whole thing get started?

A: I had six or so sun years
for my first garden in this body
found an Indian arrowhead that was white.
Plant spirits have lined my path in various morphologies ever since
everywhere & when I've lived
if only as a few things on a fire escape.
Now I'm doing "this".
On my own?
or did the plants plant me here?

Q: No I mean the whole urban farming thing. With the bike. In people's yards. You know, the "cool" part.

A: Oh, that again. If you want some sort of story, read this one in the Portland Monthly or this one in the Willamette Week. Or this one on portland indymedia, from back in the growing-in-five-gallon-buckets-on-a-porch days.

I'm not going to bother to get into it myself. I don't see why it matters. It's not like there was some "method" that someone else could imitate or something. 'Twas juss life happening. Wanting to know "the story" seems like voyeurism, and that kind of thing is none of my business.

I am considering the subject closed.

Q: We heard you've grown quinoa.

A: Well the quinoa grew itself. ;-) I do recall being present for certain moments, however, such as the seed going into the ground, some weeding & thinning, and the harvest. Gregorian Calendar Year 2008 was the fourth season that quinoa and I were companions in these ways here in the City of Roses. For photos of this year's crop, in Milwaukie, see this gallery of photos on the Sunroot Gardens blog.

Q: What's quinoa?

A: An ancient South American grain, quite high in protein, in fact nearly a meat-replacement. Grown as a basic staple crop by the humans in South America until the European Invasion. when the Spanish tried to make them stop as part of their genocide campaign. Chenopodium quinoa has experienced a popular resurgence due to its ease of cultivation, immense nutrition, and wholesome nutty flavor. In the kitchen it is treated like a grain, filling a place such as rice, millet, or polenta. Being a seed, it also contains healthy oils. Each "grain" of quinoa is naturally coated with something called "saponins" that must be removed by soaking & rinsing before bein cooked. These bitter-tasting compounds protect quinoa from predation by birds or insects while in the field. Quinoa is an essential part of the so-called "Portland Meal", which is why it was central to the Staple Foods Project.

"Quinoa" at Wikipedia and chetday.com

Q: What's the Staple Foods Project?

A: Fruits and veggies typically make up 10-15% of a healthy agricultural human diet, with grains & proteins making up the other 85% (with exceptions). Therefore, in 2008, Sunroot Gardens took up a $ collection from half a dozen investors and set about acquiring seed, tools & equipment, and use of land. That year, we got over 600 lbs. of wheat. Other crops, such as quinoa and Canellini soup beans and flour corn, did well enough to provide seed for 2009's plantings.

Being that labor is a key to planting, cultivating, harvesting & processing field crops, a significant percentage of the final product is divided amongst the people who helped, based on how many hours they worked. The percentage going to "the farm" (for seed and for the farmers) is a smaller portion of the harvest than what the laborers and $-investors get. This is not hiring anyone -- this is the sharing of labor and the fruits of that labor by free agents acting on their own. It is a purposeful break-down of the modern agricultural model in which "owners" "pay" "workers". It's over for that model, for us anyway: time to get back to the community taking care of itself.

If you are interested in participating in the Staple Crops Project, call or email.

Q: You grow medicinal herbs too?

A: Yes. The Western medical establishment is dangerous to human health. Did you know, for example, that medical errors are the leading cause of death in hospitals, killing nearly 200,000 people per year? Or that use of anti-depressants leads to violence? Or that mammograms cause breast cancer?

That's all just the tip of the iceberg, really, when it comes to what is called "modern medicine". Better to live well and find good plant friends. Everything is there in nature. So we are growing medicinal herbs wherever we can. We harvest and process these plants as we can, but often seek out experienced herbalists who appreciate the material and work with it to bring out and preserve the constituents. This is done on a "gift economy" basis, rather than barter.

Q: What are you smoking?