By Pfeif, Portland Warehouse Operations
I'm a recent Portland transplant. Back in April, I moved from the Equal Exchange office in West Bridgewater, Mass., out here to the west coast office in Portland, Ore. Aside from all the great people in my life back East, one of the hardest things to leave was the excitement summer brings with fresh local veggies everywhere. In Massachusetts, I lived in a nine person co-op house where we had two CSA shares, two raised beds and a community garden plot. Needless to say, our summers were full of an endless supply of organic veggies used to craft the most delicious meals.
My first day here in the Portland office, I remember walking into the customer service area and seeing what seemed like hundreds of tomato seedlings growing in the window. I realized I'd fit in just fine. Time went on, the seedlings grew and we needed somewhere to put them. We had recently installed some new coffee bin units at the Olympia Food Co-op and brought the older ones back here to our warehouse. At that point the seedlings were on the back dock getting lots of rain...and some sun. When we were taking the units out of the truck we realized they'd be a perfect home for some of the tomato seedlings!
Later, I visited the Portland Nursery to get some supplies and came across all these seedlings they had. I was like a kid in a candy shop and I couldn't help but bring lots of them back to the office. It wasn't long before we had two more beds built and three yards of compost in the parking lot.
 This project certainly has not been a one-woman endeavor. Everyone in the Equal Exchange Portland community is part of the garden plot, whether by watering on the weekends, planting the seeds or simply enjoying eating from the garden. Currently we have lettuce, carrots, beets, five types of tomatoes, choi choi, bok choi, two types of kale, red and green cabbage, Swiss chard, sweet and Thai basil, cucumbers and zucchini.
I encourage everyone to start growing food in their yard or at work - even just one tomato plant or some basil in a container. I started growing my own food four years ago when The Food Project donated a raised bed to my co-op house though their Build-a-Garden Program. With it came an easy-to-use Growing Guide that you can download for free here.
"The day is coming when a single carrot freshly observed will set off a revolution." -Paul Cézanne, artist
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