Food Farmer Earth: Hydroponics + Aquaculture = Aquaponics

In my interview for Food Farmer Earth with Ann Forsthoefel of Aqua Annie, she explains why growing plants and fish together is a sensible way to produce food.

Growing up, Ann Forsthoefel’s family owned a small, three-acre parcel of land that supplied most of the family’s food. She joked that her mother invented permaculture, the au courant term for caring for the land and the animals, insects and plants that live on it, because it was the only way she knew how to farm in the days before corporate agriculture took over the food system.

Now, her home on a standard city lot in Portland has more raised beds and chicken runs than lawn, and she started a CSA (community supported agriculture) for her neighbors during the growing season. There’s also the burbling sound of water, but instead of a typical backyard water feature, it was coming from structures filled with flourishing plants fed by water pumped from nearby fish tanks, even on a cold day in late winter.

It’s obvious she’s excited by aquaponics, the growing of plants fed by nutrients from fish, which in turn provide a source of food when they reach maturity.

“There are so few inputs compared to growing crops in the soil,” she said. With her gardens, she’s constantly building up the soil that is depleted at the end of each growing season. The beauty of aquaponics, she said, is that there isn’t that constant work because the fish are giving nutrients to the plants.

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This week's kitchen segment, naturally enough, is a recipe for Southern Fried Catfish and Hushpuppies. To get regular updates on local producers featured on Food Farmer Earth, consider a free subscription.

Market Report: They're Here! They're Here!

Word rocketed out of the Portland Farmers' Market at PSU last Saturday that pimentos de padron were spotted at the Viridian Farms booth. Within the hour there were meetings in Situation Rooms all over the city and strategies of attack were being devised for dinner parties and menus for the rest of the month.

Why the fuss over some little wrinkled green peppers? Well, my friend, these peppers, when fried in olive oil and served warm with a sprinkling of salt, are just about the perfect appetizer for end-of-summer dining. No utensils are required since the little stem provides a handle, and the whole pepper is small enough to pop in your mouth and consume in one bite.

There's even a thrill factor, since, while most of these tiny delights have a mild, sweet character, every once in awhile one will pack a frisson of heat that explodes like a capsaicin IED. Exciting!

Details: Viridian Farms appears at the Portland Farmers' Market at PSU on Saturdays from 8:30 am-2 pm and on Wednesdays at Shemanski  Park between SW Salmon & Main from 10 am-2 pm.

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And speaking of the Portland Farmers' Market, executive director Ann Forsthoefel has announced her resignation after two years at the helm. And no, political intrigue was not involved…her husband took a new job at a company in Missoula, Montana, and that's what has prompted the change. With the successful expansion of the PSU market and the start-up of the King market last year and two new markets this year at Pioneer Courthouse Square (Mondays) and in Northwest Portland at 23rd and Savier (Thursdays), attention shifts to possible candidates to take her position. And with attendance up by double digits, it's a key part of Portland's strategy to bring residents to, and to keep tourists spending money in, the downtown core, much rides on someone who can surf the political waves and balance the needs of vendors and the food community. Not an easy task!

Growing Pains at Portland Farmers' Market?

With more than 40 farmers' markets in the Portland metro area and more in almost every community statewide, Oregon has become a national model for establishing a direct linkage from farm to table. A recent report found that farmers' markets have had a collective impact on the region's economy of more than $17 million.

The Portland Farmers' Market, while announcing the closure of its Ecotrust location at the end of last season, is opening two new markets this year, one downtown in Pioneer Courthouse Square and another in NW at 23rd and Savier. It's also increasing its footprint on Saturdays at the market at PSU, spreading out to include the block directly south and relocating vendors to the perimeter, opening the area in the center for music, picnicking and just plain hanging out.

Doubling their space will only add 25 more stalls for a total of 120 separate vendors, the point of the expansion being to decrease the crush created by too many people crammed into too little space. As might be expected with an effort this ambitious, however, rumors have been flying about who's in and who's out and reports of some bumps in the road on the way to opening day.

As was reported on Eater.com, Morgan Brownlow's Tails & Trotters will be a vendor at the PSU market after all, after an initial report that they would not be included in the new mix. Executive Director Ann Forsthoefel said that Brownlow's hazelnut-finished pork will be filling in for the first part of the season until one of their other vendor's pigs are ready.

Forsthoefel was surprised to hear that Viridian Farms, the go-to vendor for the latest and greatest produce in the area, including their orgasmic pimientos de padron and the "it" greens of last year, the succulent known as glacier lettuce, was rumored to have been summarily downsized. On the contrary, she said, they were given more space in a coveted corner location. There was also some talk that the decision on which vendors would be included in the new markets opening this year had been delayed, but Forsthoefel said that only about 10 vendors at each of those markets were still undecided. She said that the focus right now is on getting the PSU market season launched, and that after it opens a final decision would be made on unfilled slots.

She added that they just found out this week that the construction on the south end of the new block, which was supposed to have been completed by mid-summer, was at least eight weeks behind schedule. It has meant that the layout of the new space, as well as access points for load-in and load-out, has had to be reconfigured, but that all will be in place and ready to go by opening day. Check the website for a schematic of the new layout of the market, with an interactive map of vendor locations to follow in the near future.

You can count on finding the market opening its eighteenth season on Mar. 20 at PSU, methinks with even more anticipation than usual.

Details: Portland Farmers' Market, Saturdays starting on Mar. 20 at Portland State University in the South Park Blocks between SW Hall & SW Montgomery.