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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2015
Portland’s Zenger farm bridges urban, rural divide
By ERIC MORTENSON
EO Media Group
PORTLAND — Zenger
Farm, which operates at the
edge of one of the city’s poor-
est neighborhoods, opened the
doors June 22 on a facility in-
tended to train the next genera-
tion of farmers, consumers and
food entrepreneurs
The Urban Grange, built
with $2.3 million in donations,
has 6,600 square feet of class-
room, of¿ce and meeting space.
A commercial kitchen is avail-
able for start-up food businesses
and community events.
The Grange — the name
was used with permission from
the national Grange — is part
community center, part conduit
to proper nutrition and a vibrant
local food system.
Through camps for children,
school visits, adult classes and
presentations, families learn
where food comes from, how
to grow it and how to prepare it,
Executive Director Mike Wen-
ricksaid.
Rural residents who grow up
in agricultural settings already
understand farming, Wenrick
said. But he asked a group of
children recently where eggs
come from and one boy an-
swered, “A carton.”
“It might be a novelty to
see the reaction children have
to pulling a carrot out of the
ground,” Wenrick said.
“In an urban environment, a
lot of the (food system) educa-
tion rural children get is not hap-
pening,” said Laleña Dolby, Ze-
nger’s communications director.
Zenger’s programs help
them value the farming lifestyle
and farmers as well, Dolby said.
That can pay off when they’re
adults and decide issues that af-
fect agriculture.
“That urban piece is what
makes us unique,” she said.
About 10,000 people visit
the farm annually, and Wenrick
expects that to double now that
the Grange is up and operating.
Zenger Farm has emerged over
the years as a bridge between urban
and rural. The 16-acre property is
owned by the city of Portland and
operated by the non-profit Friends
of Zenger Farm.
The farm founded and sup-
ports the Lents International
Farmers Market, which serves
low-income neighborhoods in
outer Southeast Portland. Crops
grown on the property go to the
market, to a Community Sup-
ported Agriculture (CSA) pro-
gram, and to restaurants.
The farm trains a handful of
interns each year, people who
want to be farmers but don’t
know how to go about it. Chil-
ERIC MORTENSON — EO Media Group
A boy attending camp at Zenger Farm in Southeast Portland holds a chicken for the first time. The farm, owned by the city, offers classes, camps
and tours, and trains new farmers.
Photos by ERIC MORTENSON — EO Media Group
dren attending camps get to pet
chickens, plant, care, harvest
and prepare vegetables and en-
joy fruit trees and berry bushes.
The farm has a relationship
with the David Douglas School
District, and ¿fth graders visit
several times a year as part of
their science curriculum. A wet-
lands on the property provides
additional learning experiences.
Donations for the Urban
Grange construction came from
some of the Portland area’s best
known organizations.
Portland Development Com-
mission gave $300,000. Provid-
ing $100,000 to $299,000 were
Bob’s Red Mill, M.J. Murdock
Memorial Trust, Meyer Memo-
rial Trust, New Seasons Market,
the city of Portland, the Collins
Foundation, East Multnomah
Soil and Water Conservation
Ilwaco: Fireworks show still on
Continued from Page 1A
was passed, approved and
published. Under city guide-
lines, for the ordinance to be
considered published, a notice
had to go into the Chinook
Observer, which publishes
Wednesdays. In that scenario,
the ordinance would not have
been of¿cial until after the
holiday.
At today’s “special emergen-
cy” meeting, the city passed the
ordinance. Under the ordinance,
Williams is able to declare when
the ban is in place and when it is
lifted, this year and in the future.
Ilwaco will still hold its an-
nual ¿reworks display at the
Port of Ilwaco at dusk Friday.
South Bend acts
South Bend also declared
a ¿reworks ban. It has had an
ordinance in place since De-
cember 200, allowing the ¿re
and police chiefs to declare a
¿reworks ban at their discretion.
Unlike the city of Ilwaco, of¿-
cials in South Bend simply had
to announce that a ban was now
in effect for this year’s Fourth of
July holiday.
In a June 23 letter, South
Bend Fire Chief Alan Ashley
and Police Chief David Eastham
wrote the upcoming Fourth of
July weekend “is expected to be
one of the driest in recent histo-
ry” and asked city residents to
use extreme caution.
Burn ban in place
A countywide limited burn
ban is already in place, and, as
of Friday, camp¿res are pro-
hibited until further notice in all
state parks and ocean beaches in
the Seashore Conservation Area,
which extends along most of
Washington’s outer coastline and
includes the areas between Cape
Disappointment and Leadbetter
Point. Under this ban, no char-
coal or wood ¿res are allowed,
even in state parks-designated
¿re rings. Gas and propane may
be used, but only for cookstoves.
Fireworks of any kind are
never allowed on state parks
property.
On average, Ilwaco sees
roughly two inches of rain in
June, said Ilwaco City Councilor
Gary Forner, who has been track-
ing rainfall and weather in the
city for more than a decade. This
June, Ilwaco had only a quarter
of an inch of rain, he said.
“So you can see we’re pretty
dry,” he said at the special meet-
ing Friday.
Adding penalties
Citizens in attendance wor-
ried about the city’s ability to
enforce the ordinance when a
ban is in effect. Ilwaco does not
have its own police department
and relies on the city of Long
Beach’s police department.
“Who is going to enforce it
and how are they going to en-
force it? Or is this just another
law that no one enforces?” Ann
Saari asked.
After some discussion and
additional feedback from the six
attendees, the council decided
to add enforcement provisions
from the existing city code to
the ordinance. City code chapter
8.18, sections 60, 70, 80 and 90
outline what sort of actions po-
lice can take to deal with people
who break the ordinance, how
much those people can be ¿ned
and what the civil penalties and
process look like.
Under the ordinance, any-
one caught discharging, ¿ring or
throwing an exploding or burning
device, including legal aerial and
projectile ¿reworks, could face a
¿ne of up to $20. Fireworks that
don’t travel or explode can still
be used, including ¿reworks like
sparklers and smoke bombs.
In South Bend, people
caught using aerial devices
such as paper lanterns and para-
chutes, or projectile ¿reworks,
such as rockets and mortars, are
subject to a $1,000 ¿ne.
Under state law, ¿reworks
can only be shot off between
June 28 to July 5 and from 6
p.m. New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31
to 1 a.m. Jan. 1.
Saari commented that she
would like to see Ilwaco pass a
permanent ban on private ¿re-
works. The loud noises caused
by private ¿reworks exploding
intermittently at all hours of the
day can be troubling to people
dealing with trauma, as well as
being particularly distressing to
pets, she said, adding the city’s
of¿cial ¿reworks “should be our
celebration.”
There are numerous safety
concerns, too, she said. After
one Fourth of July holiday, she
said she found an exploded bot-
tle rocket on her wooden deck;
a friend found one on her roof.
It was a wetter year that year, so
nothing burned, she said. “This
year it very well could.”
“It’s a small step, but it’s
headed in the right direction,”
said Forner about the ordinance
and the ban. Ilwaco is a unique
among the Long Beach Peninsu-
la cities, in that it has many steep
hills covered in trees and brush, he
explained. If a spark escaped or a
lit ¿rework landed in the hills, it
could easily trigger a large ¿re.
Those in attendance pointed
out that ¿reworks are being sold
right up the road in Long Beach
where no ¿reworks ban has yet
been contemplated.
“If we can keep Ilwaco safe,”
Forner said, “that’s what we
need to do.”
District and an anonymous do-
nor.
ABOVE: With the opening of the Urban Grange, Portland’s
Zenger Farm added 6,600 square feet of classroom, kitch-
en, community meeting and office space. The farm trains
new farmers and teaches people how to raise and prepare
food. LEFT: Executive Director Mike Wenrick and Commu-
nications Director Laleña Dolby cut up veggies for lunch
in the new commercial kitchen at Zenger Farm in South-
east Portland. The kitchen is part of a 6,600 square foot
addition at the farm, which trains new farmers and offers
camps, classes and tours.
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