Sunlight is the source of all energy on our planet and, by extension, powers all life on Earth. At the end of the day, farming is really all about helping plants harvest solar energy. The current era is characterized by human use of fossil fuels - essentially energy from the sun stored over millions of years. However, for most of human history, like almost all other creatures on Earth, we have survived on contemporary sunlight -- that is energy that the sun provides on a daily basis. Grain & seed-based agriculture was a radical shift in human history partially because it allowed us to grow food that could be stored for long periods of time -- essentially a sunlight bank of sorts! Yes, people had invented all sorts of ways to preserve food long before that, but for better or worse (!) grain & seed-based farming really changed things.

Nowadays, our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels emits far more waste (in the form of greenhouse gases) than our planet can safely absorb. The result is unprecedented changes in our climate at speeds no living creature can keep up with. Any farmer will tell you that the weather and climate are changing and we farmers are struggling to adapt fast enough. Between September 2020 and the June 2021 alone, our farm experienced crop losses of over $100,000 caused directly by climate-related weather events. The very basis of our food supply is under threat but adapt we must...

In response to all of this, Our Table's farm made a strategic decision in 2021 to focus all our efforts on adapting to the changing climate. We initiated a wholesale shift to no-till agricultural methods* which have, so far at least, been a great success. This combination of no-till and organic methods have greatly improved our soil health and soil health is important for many reasons not the least of which is that every 1% increase in soil organic matter (i.e. the quantity of living things in the soil) doubles the soil's water holding capacity. As climate change results in longer, drier, and hotter summers in our region, the ability to store more of our abundant winter rain in the soil is absolutely critical. However, it is not sufficient. Despite plenty of irrigation, we have found that many of our most valuable vegetable crops are increasingly suffering from lowered yields due to our hotter summers. One obvious solution is to give these crops some shade. Problem is, many of them need all the sunlight they can get during the spring and fall but suffer from the excess of sunlight and heat in the summer. In fact, in the summer time, these crops can only photosynthesize a fraction of the sunlight they get and all the excess sunlight just causes heat stress requiring a lot more irrigation and use of precious water. One solution to all of this is AGRIVOLTAICS.

Agrivoltaics - the word is a concatenation of "agri-culture" and "photo-voltaics" - is a relatively new invention. The idea is to create partial shade in farm fields with solar panels which can harvest the "excess" sunlight and turn it into electricity! The trick of course, is to find the optimal balance of sunlight that allows us to maximize the yield of both crops and electrical energy. This balance varies throughout the year (and in fact from day to day) and is highly dependent on a variety of factors including the particular crop being grown, temperature, humidity, soil quality, etc. Yes, it's all very experimental, but the early results are very promising and we are very lucky that our very own Oregon State University (OSU) is a leading institution in the field!

In late 2023, we partnered with Prof. Chad Higgens at OSU as well the Oregon Clean Power Cooperative to submit a grant proposal to Portland General Electric's Renewable Development Fund (RDF). A few weeks ago, we were informed that our proposal was selected to receive a Renewable Development Fund (RDF) award from PGE**!

The project will consist of 75kW of solar panels mounted on a dual-axis tracking system developed and manufactured by an the Oregon company - Stracker Solar - which will allow us to continuously adjust this delicate balance between optimizing for crop needs and energy generation needs. This 75kW of energy generating capacity will compliment the existing 30kW of solar panels we already have on our farm to meet 100% of the farm's electricity usage***. In addition, a battery backup system will allow us to keep our food stored safely (and our farm store open) during power outages while also helping to balance the electrical grid with stored energy. We hope to complete construction of this project by the end of 2024 after which the real work will start. In partnership with OSU, we will use this system to advance research in the field of agrivoltaics in a commercial farm setting. The hope is that we will be able to cover all our electricity needs, increase the yield of valuable summer crops, reduce the use of irrigation water, and make our farm (and by extension our community) more resilient to the changing climate. A win, win, win, win!

FOOTNOTES:
* A little background on no-till farming: Organic agriculture can be thought of as an attempt to minimize the disturbance & damage to soil ecology caused by artificial chemicals. However, as history has so often demonstrated, Organic agriculture is not necessarily sustainable in the long term - many ancient human civilizations collapsed due to loss of soil via erosion and mismanagement. The next logical step therefore, is to minimize the damage to soil ecology from mechanical disturbance. The combination - minimal disturbance of the soil and no artificial chemicals are sort of like the holy grail of a truly regenerative agriculture.

** A huge thank you to PGE and Green Future customers for supporting organizations like ours in our journey towards a cleaner, greener future! Since 1999, over 225,000 customers of Portland General Electric have supported clean energy by participating in the Green Future℠ renewable power program.

*** Why do farms use so much electricity? Well, the primary use of electricity on our farm is cold storage (refrigeration). We have a number of large walk-in coolers and freezers that need a lot of power. Additionally, our farm market has a large number of display coolers and freezers which also need constant power. In the summer months, our irrigation pumps suck up a whole lot of water from our pond and distribute it all over the farm which takes a lot of electricity. Heating and cooling of buildings are also energy-intensive uses. In the future, we would love to transition over to electric delivery vehicles and this project will generate enough energy for us to do so! Yes, it's a lot of energy but we are generating it ourselves on our farm using contemporary sunlight versus drawing down the planet's bank of ancient stored sunlight in the form of fossil fuels!

On Sunday, my daughter asked me if Our Table was going to publicly come out in support of the ongoing protests against police violence and systemic racism. My initial response was that despite any personal feelings I might have on the matter, we have not historically commented on current events unless they are explicitly related to food and agriculture. However, the question came up again on Monday in staff discussions where we agreed that as a cooperative based around the principles of nonviolence, it is our duty to speak out during these trying times.

As a nation, we seem to have a love affair with violence. We’ve been involved, directly or indirectly, in wars on foreign soil almost continuously for the past 100+ years. Stateside, we seem to find reasons to declare “war” on various social ills (poverty, drugs, homelessness, etc.) every few years; efforts that invariably end up failing while only deepening the root causes of the original problem. As our streets fill with righteous protest, and a pandemic rages unabated across the globe, our politicians and our economy respond in stunningly brutal ways. Elected leaders threaten more violence while the stock market continues its meteoric rise thumbing its nose at the rest of us. The disconnect is astounding and drives me to tears of despair and frustration. The history of American agriculture is also infused with violence. From the original sins of colonization and slavery, to modern slaughterhouses and migrant labor camps, to the indiscriminate use of toxic chemicals that pit humans against the rest of creation. I believe that all of us humans have the capacity for violence – it seems to be in our DNA. However, we also have the capacity to come together for mutual benefit and joy. Our ability to cooperate is also built into our genes. Most importantly, we have the imagination and the power to choose.

Our Table is, at its essence, an attempt to imagine different choices in our food system. All of us who are part of this collective endeavor – from farmers to eaters – are effectively imagining (and helping to create) a world where food is grown and shared without violence. No violence in how we treat the people who grow, make, and sell our food. No violence in how we treat the soil. No violence in our relationship with the plants and animals with whom we share this planet. No violence on our health. No violence in our communities. I am acutely aware that this is a tall order. Nevertheless, I am confident that if we dare to imagine a better world, we can collectively work to build it. What other choice do we have?

The author Arundhati Roy recently wrote: “[the pandemic] offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves” and is “a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.” As the smoke from the tear gas clears on our streets, it seems to me that the faint outlines of a portal are indeed starting to appear. There is no utopia waiting on the other side. In fact, there is nothing on the other side other than what we imagine and create together. Here’s a thought – what if we choose to stop the violence? What if we start with the simple idea of neighbors breaking bread together and then, arm-in-arm with solidarity, take some tentative steps through this portal together?

- Narendra Varma
Founder, Our Table Cooperative

Our Table is partnering with local nutritionist Estefanía Llaneza García and our sister non-profit, The Manav Foundation, to create a series of informational posts on how to make healthy eating a daily habit. This series of regular posts will consist of easy-to-follow advice that you can implement in your home, delicious recipes, and child-friendly activities. The focus will be on joy and deliciousness (not calorie counting), and on supporting your immune system and wellbeing during these trying times. We will share this information with our community in English as well as Spanish!

Estefanía is a certified Holistic Nutritionist who helps individuals and families make healthy dietary choices in a simple and approachable way. She creates customized nutrition plans and teaches the practical tools needed to achieve realistic and sustainable dietary changes. Estefanía offers individual consultations, grocery store tours, pantry and fridge organization sessions, and custom meal plans. When she isn’t cooking or reading nutrition research, Estefanía enjoys gardening and spending time with her family at their small farm in the Willamette Valley. 
You can reach her at [email protected]

En Español:
Our Table, está colaborando con la nutricionista local Estefanía Llaneza García y con nuestra fundación sin ánimo de lucro, Fundación Manav, para traerles una serie de publicaciones informativas centradas en el tema “cómo comer de manera saludable todos los días”. Estas publicaciones consistirán de consejos sencillos que pueden llevarse a cabo en su casa, de recetas deliciosas, y de actividades para niños. Estas publicaciones de nutrición se centran en el disfrute y lo delicioso de la comida saludable (no en contar calorías), y en apoyar su sistema immunológico y su bienestar en estos tiempos complicados.
 
Estefanía es certificada como nutricionista y ayuda de forma individual y a familias a tomar decisions saludables de una manera sencilla y accessible. Estefanía se especializa en crear planes de nutrición personalizados y en enseñar las herramientas practices que son necesarias para lograr cambios alimentarios realistas y sostenibles. Estefanía ofrece consultas individuales, visitas a supermercados, sesiones de organización de despensa y refrigerador, y planes de comidas personalizados. Cuando no está cocinando o leyendo publicaciones sobre nutrición, ella disfruta de la jardinería y de pasar tiempo en famila en su pequeña granja en el Valle del Willammette. Puede contactarla por medio de email a [email protected] o seguirla en Instagram @nutritiontranslatedllc 

The governor of our state just announced that all restaurants in our state shall limit themselves to takeout and delivery orders only. Additionally, gatherings of 25 people or more are banned, and the authorities are recommending that we all avoid places with more than ten people. All of us here at Our Table hope and pray that you and your loved ones will be healthy and safe through this crisis.

For us, this is a potentially existential crisis not only as individuals, but also as a community-owned business. Most of our farm’s produce is sold to restaurants and there is no question that many restaurants are liable to slow down or even fail before things get better. Of course, people must still eat and the best way to stay healthy is to eat a diet high in fresh, organically grown vegetables… Therefore, we are working to increase the amount of produce we deliver to local grocers (including our own store) and for sale directly to customers through our CSA. We are also continuing to plant on schedule under the assumption (hope?) that by the time the plants we put in the ground today bear fruit, this crisis will be more manageable. However, it would be naïve to downplay the potential risks. Despite our best efforts to stay healthy, we might not have the staff to harvest and deliver our produce; or too many of our customers might scale back purchases to the point where we cannot sell everything we grow. For a small low-margin business like ours, these scenarios would be devastating.

Part of the logic that drove my wife and I to create Our Table was to help increase the resiliency of our food system. The current industrial food system in our country is so focused on short-term "efficiency" (where efficiency is defined almost solely in terms of dollars and cents) that it routinely sacrifices resiliency, diversity, and the health of people, communities, and the planet. Locally produced food is, by definition, more resilient than food trucked from hundreds or thousands of miles away. Consider that most of the produce in our supermarkets is sourced from California where farms rely on large numbers of migrant workers housed in less-than-ideal conditions. What happens if Covid-19 runs rampant through these communities? Long supply chains rely on dozens and dozens of people in multiple companies showing up to work and doing their bit. It's all very "efficient" and, as a result, fragile.

What then can we do? Well, for one, I think it’s imperative that as a community and a nation, we come together to support each other. The government is considering a variety of measures to help small businesses survive this crisis. Since small businesses employ over 50% of all Americans, such initiatives impact all of us. We recently signed on to a letter to the Governor calling for some very specific relief measures. You too can petition your elected officials for action. It is also very important to continue supporting all your beloved local businesses. The Amazons of the world will probably grow and become even more powerful during this crisis. Sadly, they will likely do so at the cost of small locally owned businesses. Here at Our Table, you can sign up for our CSA, and order your groceries online for pickup or home delivery (use coupon code STOCKUP for free delivery). Please do not come to our store if you are sick or especially vulnerable – give us a call or order online and we will be happy to get your groceries for you. We ask that you not consume any food or drink you purchase at our store on our premises but, instead, take it home. We are cancelling our Friday happy hour and cancelling or postponing all other public events for the next 6-8 weeks. Most importantly, we ask that you take care of yourself and stay healthy! Although we’ll miss visiting with you, these actions will help ensure that a place you love will survive this crisis. For our part, we pledge to do everything in our power to remain open, grow the best food we can to ensure your health and wellbeing, and support our community.
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What’s all this got to do with toilet paper? Well, for one, we implore you not to hoard. Hoarding has little long-term benefit and our need for toilet paper is unlikely to increase during a respiratory viral outbreak. Toilet paper is a modern invention which much of the world does just fine without; perhaps we will learn how to rely less on TP as well! We humans are very good at cooperating and coming together in times of crisis. Let’s support each other by doing just that. Also, conserve those squares…

 As the situation with the Coronavirus evolves and shifts, I want to take a moment to tell you about how Our Table is responding to the situation. As a cooperative and community farm our highest priority is the wellbeing of our staff, our members, and our community. In fact, as a farm and grocery store, our primary business is your nutrition and health! In this spirit, we are taking the following measures:

I read an article in the newspaper this morning about a long-term care nurse in Washington state who doesn’t have paid sick leave because she’s classified as a private contractor. As a worker cooperative, we take a very different approach. All our staff get paid sick leave. We have expanded the amount of paid sick leave our staff can take in order to ensure that they can care for themselves and family members during this crisis. Additionally, our staff has voluntarily elected to contribute a portion of their paycheck into a “fund” to help colleagues who might be sick or quarantined for long periods of time. Sadly, it is all too common in the service industry for people to lose their jobs if they call in sick. This is a travesty and I am very proud of the fact that our staff can rest at east knowing that they will get the support they need.

In our store and on the farm, we have instituted a number of protocols to ensure that high-touch surfaces including door handles, credit-card machines, etc. are sanitized up to four times a day. We don’t have good data on how long this virus can survive on surfaces so our approach is one of abundant caution. All our staff has food-safety and food-handler training and we are constantly reminding everyone to follow good practices. In our kitchen, we are brewing up some elderberry syrup this morning using elderberries that we harvested from our farm last year and honey from our own hives. Elderberry is particularly effective at warding off colds and flus. We will be giving each of our staff members some of this tonic to take home and will also be selling it in our store.

We’ve all heard of the long lines at stores as people stock up on toilet paper! At our store, we are working with out suppliers to ensure that we have ample supplies of not just toilet paper but all sorts of other essentials. Of course, we have plenty of food! One big advantage is that the vast majority of the products we carry are sourced locally. This means short supply chains that are less likely to be disrupted in times of crisis. In other words, local sourcing equals more resilience and food security. This is a big benefit of local agriculture that often goes unmentioned in the glossy advertising. We are here to serve our community and are grateful for your support. You can rest assured that we will never ever engage in predatory pricing or other such unsavory practices that take advantage of people’s vulnerabilities and fear. If you don't want to venture out, we also offer online ordering and home delivery from our store. Like your mother probably said: “Eat your vegetables!” To mom’s advice, I would add that a balanced diet of nutritious, chemical-free, and delicious food shared with friends and family is probably the best way to stay healthy and help your immune system.
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At the end of the day, this virus knows no boundaries and the only way to combat it is to come together as a community and support each other. Be well, eat well, and help your neighbors!

- Narendra Varma, Founder, Our Table Cooperative

The theme of this week at the farm has been the heat! We've been starting extra early in order to get as much done as possible before the heat of the day sets in. The heat makes it harder to transplant because the transplants will wilt and suffer in the hot sun, so we've had to push our plantings back to Friday this week. The extreme temperatures can cause some plants to bolt, or start to go to seed. Cooler season crops like lettuce, radishes, cabbages and peas really struggle in the hot weather. The good news is that crops like squash, tomatoes, peppers and basil love the warmer temperatures and will really start taking off. Even though summer is still a few weeks away, it has definitely felt like summer on the farm this week.  

Welcome to the first day of CSA for 2019! This year we are trying to give you a lot more choice on the variety and quantity of produce in your share. However, this is all new to us so we look forward to working together with you to figure out the best way for all this to work!
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We couldn't be more excited to be growing food for you this season! Over the past four months, we've been busy seeding, planting and cultivating dozens of varieties of fruits and vegetables for you to enjoy this year. The weather this spring has been a little all over place, from 90 degree days in early April to a frost warning in late April, and generally cooler, wetter days compared to last year. The wild weather has stressed some of our early plantings and forced us to adjust on the fly. It can be difficult at times trying to find a balance between following our crop plan and letting the weather inform our decision making about what to plant and when. It's important to remember that no farming season is ever the same, and that's part of what keeps it fun and interesting.