CHICO — Local gardeners shared with hopeful growers about solutions for growing food at home and do-it-yourself composting Sunday.
The nonprofit Butte County Local Food Network along with composting service Drop in the Bucket, used Blackbird Books and Cafe to share ideas for healthy soil. Its purpose was to push community members to start with growing their own food in a box, working up to converting a yard into a “food forest” and composting.
Director Pamm Larry said after two years, the goal of the network is to increase sustainable agriculture and local farming, particularly after the Camp Fire. She and the organization have worked with local farmers like Pyramid Farms and Farmelot.
“We’re about primarily creating a strong local food system, bringing the food back from the global market to here as much as we can,” Larry said.
“It involves changing the food system, restructuring it. We can start in small ways — growing our own food, supporting our local farmers, supporting restaurants that buy from our local farmers, and then planting in a way that is good for the soil and retains water, which is really important to us in the years to come, and it also creates nice little micro climates that a lot of times are a lot cooler than those around us.”
Jason Jacques, who has lived in Chico for over 15 years, shared with the small group gathered about his experience, over about a year and six months, composting and using Drop in the Bucket around the Chico community. Drop in the Bucket is now his business, a bicycle-transported compost pickup service serving Chico. Jacques said he will help pick up compost from homes all around Chico and encouraged more communities to participate.
Jacques explained that there options for gardening and composting for any living situation. As he lives in an apartment without a yard, he has turned to maintaining his own food scraps bucket and “worm bin,” cultivating nutrient-rich soil by feeding native earth scraps and adding worms to gardening soil.
Part of the purpose for composting, Jacques said, is to add nutritious microbes back to the soil. Soil from commercial stores is sterilized and lacking nutrients, whereas soil using food scrap compost is full of natural microbes for much more nutritious crops.
The goal for increasing knowledge and use of composting and local gardens is to increase the local food being grown in the community, Jacques said.
“We want a huge local food network where nobody is lacking,” he said.
One visitor, Maria Sanchez said she rents her home but can garden as she likes, and came to learn more about home gardening and compost.
“I like gardening but I don’t really know how to compost … so I’m here to know more about composting,” Sanchez said. Larry and other members said they can help consult her by examining her current garden and offering advice on how she can best compost based on her situation.
To work with Drop in the Bucket, Jacques added, there is no weight requirement or necessary amount of compost to get it picked up.
Other solutions that help increase investment in local food include the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program offered at the Chico and Oroville Certified Farmers Markets, as well as new grants for small and “young” local farmers, Larry said.
Butte County Local Food Network’s next event will be at the 11th annual Seed Swap which will take place Saturday noon to 2 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church. No seeds are required to be brought to participate, which shares seedlings and bulbs for more varied gardens around Butte County. Camp Fire victims can arrive half an hour early to get seeds, Larry said.
The network is also putting together a Victory Garden Box and Bucket Blitz event, calling for community members to start small gardens in their available space all around Chico. The deadline is Feb. 21. More information for to apply for and obtain a box with soil to install and start growing in is available on the network’s website.