Today’s gardener, tomorrow’s farmer?

Published 9:00 am Saturday, May 21, 2005

John Chang makes do by raising vegetables in his front yard.

John Chang cultivates vegetables, but also ideas for food and community.

He’d like to see kids learning to grow food become an activity as valued as violin lessons.

While it is not realistic nor necessarily a parent’s dream for his or her child to become a farmer, “no one thinks their child is not going to become a concert violinist and so doesn’t give them violin lessons,” Chang said.

“If we do realize how good it can be for a person’s development (to grow food), then maybe more people will be as crazy as I am.”

Chang is the newest produce grower to join the Bainbridge Island Farmers Market, open Saturday mornings outside City Hall, and he will be coming to market every other week as Wiggley Worm Garden, sharing space with a seafood vendor.

A five-year “market gardener” – a person who grows food in their free time, for sale – Chang came to growing through concern about food quality, social issues of how growers live and the culinary delights of food.

He was motivated after college to take a one-year apprenticeship in organic agriculture and horticulture at the University of Santa Cruz.

His family’s move to Bainbridge Island was partially influenced from hearing about the Trust for Working Landscapes, which is working with the city to lease city-owned farmland – like the Morales and Johnson farms – to growers.

While Chang waits for city-owned land to become available, he’s started with six beds in his Winslow front yard.

“I’d love it if it went faster,” he said of the city’s efforts to provide more farmland, “but I’m not complaining. (Leasing of city-owned farm land to farmers) is going to be faster than I’ll be able to come up with money for two acres.

“They are trying to do a good thing for me, and I’m hopefully trying to do a good thing for the community.”

While a lot carries over from the market gardening he did in Palo Alto, Calif., being an organic farmer and moving to a new region means learning the Northwest’s ecology.

Chang appreciates the good advice from Betsey Wittick of Laughing Crow Farm, Brian MacWhorter of Butler Green Organic Farm and Rebecca Slattery of Persephone Farm.

“It’s neat,” he said. “They see more growers as better, (and) helpful in boosting the depth of the market.”

For his part, he is hoping to grow produce complementary to what is already at the farmers market, including Asian and Italian vegetables.

That would include Chinese broccoli, daikon radish, Chinese cabbage, broccoli raab, Thai basil, Japanese shiso leaves, edible Chrysanthemum greens – used in Korean cooking – as well as the more commonplace leeks, onions, arugula and radishes.

“The neat thing about small scale is you can grow things which don’t make it to supermarket shelves” because they may not ship or store well, Chang said.

At the same time, he emphasizes that he does not have a romanticized vision of the typical farmer or migrant worker’s hard life, and would not pretend to the title “farmer.”

He feels lucky to have a good home, family and job while still being able to grow vegetables on the side.

The important thing is to be growing food, even though he has to work full-time in Seattle to support his family.

“I’m not going to worry about what percentage (of time I spend) farming, whether that percentage is 25, 50 or 100 percent,” Chang said. “My attitude is to do as much as I can. I know it’ll be more than zero.”