I grew up in Montana with lots of room to grow food, raise animals and roam around without bumping into other people. We raised all sorts of animals--chickens, horses, pigs, lambs, turkeys, rabbits, cats, dogs and an occasional other odd animal (like rats and donkeys!) Each summer we grew massive gardens and my mom canned most of the fruits, vegetables, sauces and jams we ate year round. We ate the meat we raised supplemented by the plentiful wild game of Montana.

When I moved to Portland to go to college, I missed the food from home...the freshly picked vegetables from the garden, the free range and wild meat...food in the city grocery stores couldn't compete. My mom sent me care packages filled with home grown fare (she would pick green tomatoes, wrap them in newspaper and ship them off to me. By the time they arrived they'd be ripe and ready to eat) to supplement my city food adventure, but I craved some home grown veggies myself.

I started growing tiny gardens in my small city yards. I foraged fruits, nuts and berries growing wild all around me. I learned to can (on my own, not just as Mom's helper). And I've eventually added chickens to my city farming adventure, with rabbits soon to follow.

Although city farming is on a MUCH smaller scale than the plentiful acres of my childhood, I've learned to make small spaces work and best of all, I've brought a bit of the country into the city!

It's my hope that as you join me in this exciting adventure of city farming that you, too, will experience the thrill of harvesting your own fruits and vegetables, collecting your own fresh eggs and 'putting up' some of your bounty for the winter.

It really is an adventure! So join me, won't you?

Kerrie Hubbard
Happy Valley, Oregon