Calliope's Table

Colder weather, shorter days and the start of holiday gatherings mark the end of 2009 farming season for Calliope's Table. This has been a fantastic season for us and I thank you sincerely for supporting the CSA in it's first year. While my vision of creating some local, urban food has not changed, I have had some new thinking over the season about how to best accomplish that. Thank you to the subscribers who could make it to our Enchilada dinner in November. It was great to share some food and ideas with all of you, and your input has really helped me decide where we can go from here.

Here's some new things that will be happening, and some that already are:

• While there is not really an off-season in farming, winter activities become more about crop planning, spending much time with seed catalogs, and catching your breath a bit. The slowing of the season has given me time to think about how we can improve the CSA for our subscribers and for the farmers as well. I've updated the CSA page with some new info such as the upcoming season dates, more pickup days, the expanded 2010 crop list, and we're now going to offer delivery of CSA shares! There's also a PDF document with all the details of the CSA, Summer/Fall 2010 CSA Share Info.

• It's official, I'm going to be doing more farming this coming season with my good friends Marie of Sellwood Garden Club and Nikki of RiverHouse CSA. In fact, we've already started. Nikki and Marie are both quite amazing with anything concerning agriculture, and we're also kindred spirits in where we see urban farming heading.

• One thing we're going to do this winter is build some Garden Boxes to get some new folks started growing food for themselves in their own yards. Besides the actual box we'll provide good soil, seeds, plant starts, and any help they need to get some food growing at their house. We've also got this idea how we can build these Garden Boxes for folks that really need them to put some food on the table but may not have the money to get started. Read more on a new Garden Box page.

• Early on this past season I started to realize the least productive thing I was doing was moving me and the produce from place to place, and since then I've really been thinking about how to focus our efforts in a smaller area. Southeast Portland turned out to be a pretty big neighborhood all together, especially traveling on bike. It not only turns out there are others starting to do this, it even has a name, Neighborhood Foodshed. Read more about it on the new Foodshed page.

• The Links page has been updated, and there's a new About page too. The videos that were here on the home page, and a new one, have been moved to the new Foodshed page.

If you see something you like, or even if you don't, get in touch. We love hearing what you think when it comes to growing and eating the best food around.