2010 in Review: Living Culture's best videos

by Nate Rafn

2010 was an eventful year for Living Culture. We completed 8 full episodes featuring 19 new guests; received 22,500 views on YouTube; won awards from the Statesman Journal and 1000 Friends of Oregon; and established the Living Culture Blog.

Displayed below are three video segments from 2010. Each video highlights individuals and organizations who are impacting the local foods movement in a powerful way. Please support their efforts.

Cauliflower harvest in Woodburn reaches food banks throughout western U.S.

A partnership between Marion-Polk Food Share, Farmers Ending Hunger, and Neighborhood Harvest of Salem, was successful in shipping 80,000 lbs. of fresh cauliflower to food banks and canneries in four western states.

The crop was donated by a farmer just north of Woodburn, Oregon. Farmers Ending Hunger hired a professional farm crew to harvest the cauliflower, while Neighborhood Harvest of Salem signed-up volunteers to pack the vegetables for shipping.

On Wednesday, the first load of cauliflower was piled onto a large plastic tarp in an empty Woodburn parking lot. Armed with work-gloves and five-gallon buckets, volunteers picked through the mound of cauliflower, placing whole heads into large cardboard boxes to be shipped.

Today, another 120,000 lbs. is being harvested and shipped, bringing the estimated two-day total to 200,000 lbs.

Learn More

To volunteer, donate, or learn more about these great organizations, please visit their respective websites.

Neighborhood Harvest of Salem
Marion-Polk Food Share
Farmers Ending Hunger

Volunteers packing cauliflower in Woodburn, Oregon.

Volunteers needed for huge cauliflower harvest in Woodburn.

Neighborhood Harvest of Salem is partnering with Marion-Polk Food Share to collect a massive amount of fresh cauliflower for regional food banks. 200 volunteers are needed on Wednesday, October 20th at 5 PM, in Woodburn.

Listed below are the details from Lisa Clark-Burnell, project manager with Neighborhood Harvest.

"We have an unusual event this week:  we're helping Marion Polk Food Share  make sure 200,000 pounds of cauliflower, yes, 100 tons, being donated by
a farmer doesn't get wasted. 

100 tons of good quality cauliflower is being professionally harvested by a farm crew hired by Farmers Ending Hunger in partnership with Marion Polk Food Share and the Oregon Food Bank.   The farm crew will be placing it on tarps in a large parking lot (Hershberger Motors), near Woodburn Company Stores/Outlets .  Our role is a giant bucket brigade:  take it out of the giant piles and put it into wooden totes.   As usual, our  volunteers can take part of the harvest home (up to half).   This is how all of our harvest parties work.  What's different about this one is that you don't actually have to harvest the cauliflower, just scoop it up!  

This crop is going to all of Oregon, WA, UT, AZ!  Part of it will be sent to a cannery to be put into soups for longer storage.  Please help us make sure that 200,000 lbs of nutritious veggies don't go to waste.  Be part of an army of volunteers fighting hunger.  Kids who can scoop stuff into a bucket are welcome.    What you need to bring:  gloves and a large bucket (5 gallons is a good size) for moving piles of veggies and something to take cauliflower home to your family in. 
Register as a Neighborhood Harvest volunteer picker at http://salemharvest.org/PickersInfo.html   Once you're in our database you can sign up for any harvests at the   Harvest Parties web page: http://www.salemharvest.org/harvestlist.php  When you sign up for the harvest, a thank you page shows up giving your exact directions to the harvest party."