As food prices soar, salmonella stalks the supermarket, and fresh and local claim their place at the table, city dwellers are getting back to the land by opening their back doors. With visions of Victory Gardens and sugar snap peas in their heads, urbanites are rediscovering how to turn their lawns and landscapes into larders.

For everyone who believes that food production should once again take a prominent place in family and civic life, the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development is sponsoring the premiere SPIN-Gardening™ workshop on Saturday, May 10 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the 1900 Building, 1900 S.W. Fourth. Participants will learn how to grow and process like a pro with a step-by-step guide that fits into any lifestyle or life-cycle.

“You don’t need 10 acres and a mule anymore, a backyard is plenty,” says Roxanne Christensen, co-founder and President of Philadelphia’s Institute for Innovations in Local Farming. Christensen collaborated with Gail Vandersteen and Wally Satzewich, two Saskatchewan farmers, to create SPIN-Farming.

SPIN is short for Small Plot Intensive and it’s a production-driven, organic-based philosophy that has cultivated a new crop of farmers raising big dollars from small parcels. The SPIN-Farming creators have conducted workshops across North America, sowing the seeds of a revolution that is both a call-to-farm and a call to good eating.

And you can’t keep them down on the farm after they’ve seen the possibilities. So, SPIN-Gardening was born, taking farming principles to backyards, front lawns and neighborhood lots. Pioneering SPIN-Gardeners can attain prodigious levels of productivity that go far beyond current practices, resulting in a steady and dependable supply of vegetables.

Christensen and Vandersteen will be in Portland on May 10 for the debut of their SPIN-Garden workshop and will teach their methods of growing, harvesting and processing. The class is open to all levels of gardeners, working alone or in multiple locations with family, friends or neighbors. It’s a day for anyone who wants to grow healthful, fresh food , lower their grocery bill, and transform their understanding of what it means to be a home gardener.

A $40 workshop fee includes lunch and the first edition of the SPIN-Gardening guide. For more information and registration details, go to http://www.portlandonline.com/osd or contact Lindsey Maser at Lindsey.maser@ci.portland.or.us or 503.823.7553.

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