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Comment by Ellen on April 3, 2010 at 3:40pm

Maplewood Elementary School Garden Angels Meeting at the garden site


Thursday April 8, 2010 7931 Gaithings Drive 12 noon to 7 pm

Meeting at the garden site.
We will plant spring crops....cabbage, kale, etc.....
We will move leaf mold, and compost about the garden.
Come to the garden at any time during our work time frame.

Directions: Go east on Tillman Rd. past Anthony Blvd. continuing East past Hessen Cassel Road make a right turn at the first housing addition into Trier Ridge Park continue on Gaithings Drive until you come to the garden site at dead end.

Comment by Ellen on March 29, 2010 at 12:11pm

The number to reach Ephraim and the Garden Angels has been changed.
New # 260.467.7150
Ephraim has been really busy at Maplewood School, and has a lot of plans for the Garden Angels/community gardens program this year.
Grants that have been applied for have not been forthwith, so a lack of funding is an issue, but not an obstacle.

Comment by Ellen on February 27, 2010 at 4:06pm

Aquaponics- hydroponics + aquaculture

http://www.growingedge.com/aquaponics-in-the-new-york-times

Comment by Ellen on February 23, 2010 at 1:22pm

The incredible edible urban jungle [slideshow] _ Grist.htm

Comment by Ellen on February 10, 2010 at 12:57pm

Kidsgardening.org
helping young minds grow
http://www.kidsgardening.org/School/registrydetails.taf?id=11091

Ephraim Smiley@fwcs12.in.us

Comment by Ellen on February 8, 2010 at 2:09pm

Great video on Urban Farming
City Goats: Barnyard Animals in Backyards

Comment by Ellen on January 8, 2010 at 1:43pm

This from the city of Fort Wayne I find really amusing, or not so amusing.
The city installed their take on a Burmese community garden last spring, fully funded, raised beds, mulched paths, privacy fence, gazebo, built in irrigation system, market tent, on approx. 1/2 acre lot located downtown Mainstreet. Well tended by city employees.

Whereas the non-funded, not a non-profit FortWayne urban farming/gardening project located their refugee/Burmese community garden on a approx. 25+ acre vacant city lot miles away in a neglected area of the city NEXT TO the largest Burmese resettlement community. Well tended by homegrown volunteers. Go figure.
Check out the pictures.
Looking forward to Spring planting Ephraim!
//www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/local_wane_food_for_the_fort_052820091135" target="_blank">

Comment by Ellen on January 3, 2010 at 12:13pm

Heads Up! Detroit urban land reform.

DetroitPublished: January 3, 2010 3:00 a.m.
Detroit’s dream? Farms gain steam
P.J. Huffstutter


DETROIT – On the city’s east side, where auto workers once assembled cars by the millions, nature is taking back the land.

Cottonwood trees grow through the collapsed roofs of homes stripped clean for scrap metal. Wild grasses carpet the rusty shells of empty factories, now home to pheasants and wild turkeys.

This green veil is proof of how far this city has fallen from its industrial heyday and, to a small group of investors, a clear sign. Detroit, they say, needs to get back to what it was before Henry Ford moved to town: farmland.

“There’s so much land available, and it’s begging to be used,” said Michael Score, president of the Hantz Farms, which is buying up abandoned sections of the city’s 139-square-mile landscape and plans to transform them into a large-scale commercial farm enterprise.

The urban agricultural movement has grown nationwide in recent years, as recession-fueled worries prompted people to raise fruits and vegetables to feed their own families and perhaps sell at local farmers’ markets.

Large gardens and small farms – usually 10 acres or less – have cropped up in thriving cities such as Berkeley, Calif., where land is tough to come by, and struggling Rust Belt communities such as Flint, which hopes to encourage green space development and residents to eat locally grown foods. In Detroit, hundreds of backyard gardens and scores of community gardens have blossomed in recent years, and helped feed students in at least 40 schools and hundreds of families.

Yet it is the size and scope of Hantz Farms that makes the project unique. Although company officials declined to pinpoint how many acres they might use, they have been quoted saying that they plan to farm up to 5,000 acres within the Motor City’s limits in the coming years, and raise everything from organic lettuces to trees for biofuel.

The project was launched two years ago by Michigan native and financier John Hantz, who has invested an initial $30 million of his own money toward purchasing equipment and land.

It will start small. In the spring, the farm is expected to begin growing crops on about 30 acres, Score said.

Because it has been difficult for Hantz and his team to purchase large contiguous parcels, much of the acreage has been grouped into smaller “pods.”

They envision a city in which green fields and apple orchards flourish next to houses and factories, and forests thrive alongside interstates and highways. “People look at these abandoned houses and think, ‘No one could live there. Let’s tear it down,’ ” said Score, a former business development consultant for Michigan State University’s agricultural extension program.

“I look at it and think, ‘Maybe we could grow mushrooms inside there.’ ”

Local leaders say they are encouraged by the idea of farm jobs coming to Detroit, which could help ease the region’s grim economic situation: The Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn area had an unemployment rate of 17.7 percent in October, the highest in a region of 1 million residents or more, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But local officials put the number far higher: Mayor Dave Bing recently said that nearly half of the city’s workers are either unemployed or underemployed. They support the effort to redevelop the estimated one-third of Detroit’s 376,000 parcels that are either vacant or abandoned.

And in a city where there are no major grocery store chains, and more than three-fourths of the residents buy their food at convenience stores or gas stations, the idea of having easy access to fresh produce is appealing.

Yet city officials remain cautious about the project. They are concerned by paying to clean soil, rewriting the city’s zoning laws and adjusting property taxes.

Comment by Ellen on September 21, 2009 at 8:59am

A bountiful season is coming to a close at community garden sites. We have had a bumper crop of squash, tomatoes, beans, okra, broccoli, leafy greens, sour-leaf, and peppers. The Cow Peas are still going strong, as well as the okra, and peppers. Kool season Kale has been planted, and we are going to let some leafy greens self seed, cover with cold frames to produce greens until Dec.

Comment by Mrs. Cara Dafforn on July 5, 2009 at 10:27am

SARE GRANT FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

The deadline for 2009 Youth Grant proposals was Friday, January 30, 2009.

2009 Youth & Youth Educator Sustainable Agriculture Grant (Word)

NCR-SARE announces the 2009 Call for Proposals for Youth & Youth Educator Sustainable Agriculture Grants. These grants are an exciting new part of the Farmer Rancher Grant program. Their purpose is to provide opportunities for youth in the North Central Region to learn more about Sustainable Agriculture. There are two options:

1. YOUTH GRANTS. These are grants for on-farm research, demonstration, or education projects by youth ages 8-21. Research and demonstration projects are for hands-on efforts to explore sustainable agriculture issues and practices. Education projects can involve teaching others about sustainable agriculture or attending a sustainable agriculture conference, workshop, or camp. $400 maximum.

2. YOUTH EDUCATOR GRANTS. These are grants for educators to provide programming on sustainable agriculture for youth. $2,000 maximum.

Questions? Contact Joan Benjamin at 402-472-0809, 1-800-529-1342 or jbenjamin2@unl.edu.

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