What
Backyard Bounty Farm is an urban farming operation growing fresh, high-quality vegetables, fruits, and herbs for Portland area folks. Over 100 varieties are grown in love for CSA, restaurants, farmers’ markets and others who want to eat good nourishing food.
The produce comes from fertile soils along Johnson Creek in Milwaukie at Lovena Farm, just 7 miles from downtown Portland (see map here). Upon entering th
e property, the sounds of the car traffic and neighboring industry fades to the bubbling of the creek, birds talking, people laughing, and plants being kissed by the wind. Cottonwood, maple, birches, willows, and native bushes line the creek bank and surround the farm holding the land as a sanctuary. Four households are scattered on the 2.7 acre land amongst the 50 fruit trees, vines and bushes, cars, falling down barn, new barn, cats, muddy driveways, greenhouse, and 1/2 acre field for vegetable cultivation. At work is a dynamic experiment in community attempting to interact with nature and each other in harmonious ways.
Backyard Bounty’s third season on the farm follows a deep history of humans connected to this land. Native Americans held the site as sacred and hunted and gathered their sustenance. In the 1950′s Lovena and Curtis Horner planted the fruits, grew corn and other crops, and tended to the land into their 80′s. In 2005, four households bought the property together to raise their families and live more connected to the land. Since 2006, the 1/2 acre field has been a production farm.
What we Grow
Backyard Bounty offers a diverse mix of over 200 varieties of vegetables, herbs, and fruits, all year round.
- Vegetables – arugula, asian greens, beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, chicories,
collards, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuces, mustards, onions, peas, potatoes, parsnips, peas, peppers, radishes, rutabaga, squashes, tomatoes, and turnips.
- Herbs – basil, chervil, cilantro, dill, and parsley.
Farming Methods: Natural Style!
*Varieties chosen with nutrition, flavor, and yield in mind. 85-90 % open pollinated seed source.
*No synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides or genetically modified seeds.
*Amendments added to build soil fertility including alfalfa meal, kelp meal, rock phosphate, dolomite and agricultural lime, and azomite.
*Crop rotation, cover cropping, low till and mulch for soil health.
*Attempt to limit inputs and energy expended.
*Some transportation by bicycle.
*Save seeds.
*Dry gardening experimentation.
*Insectary plants and other landscaping to provide habitat for wildlife and restore and conserve creek and land.
Backyard Bounty History
This will be my fifth year running a CSA. Backyard Bounty has its roots in turning lawns into food. In 2007 in my parent’s and neighbors’ SW Portland backyards, I started a 8 member CSA. The second season I partnered with Sunroot Gardens turning over 20 lawns to farm plots throughout SE. We were mostly “bike farmers:” toting tools and produce around with the trailer! The last two years leasing land at Lovena changed the operation by increasing scale and decreasing number of lots one large backyard.
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2008/12/14 Published |
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| Photos 2007 – Draft |
2009/02/09
Last Modified Photos 2008 – Draft
2009/02/09
Last Modified Wk 6, July 1st CSA Harvest – Draft
