Community CROPS June 2009 Newsletter
Community CROPS Farmers' Market Now Open!
Thursdays through September, 4:30-7:30pm, Pentzer ParkThe Community CROPS Farmers' Market opens this Thursday! Don't miss opening day -- we'll have lots and lots of fresh vegetables--Memphis, a new farmer from Togo, will have his delectable spinach, CROPS will be selling lots of fresh kale and Caruso-Rozzano Farms and Little's Produce will have plenty more. CycleWorks will be there providing free bike safety checks, so it's a great day to ride to the market.
Join us on June 11th for a performance from Academy of Rock, in addition to all the great produce.
Updates from CROPS
Spring has been going by quickly for us as we open up new gardens and get new farmers prepared to sell produce.
At the farm, we have a number of families growing produce and raising chickens and eggs for sale. Memphis, a new grower originally from Togo, is growing a wide variety of vegetables, including delicious radishes and spinach which he has been selling at the Sunday Old Cheney Farmers' Market and will bring to the Thursday CROPS Market as well. Phong, another new participant from Vietnam, has been planting a variety of vegetables familiar to us as well as some more unusual ones, and will begin raising chickens shortly. Rogaciano and Enriqueta have returned from last year and have been growing an amazing amount of salad greens and cilantro--they have been selling it through the CROPS CSA, and to local restaurants and grocery stores.
In other news, CROPS was recently awarded a $7,500 grant from the Cooper Foundation to support our work in the community making more local food available.
Community Garden Snapshot: Northeast United Church of Christ
We have a wonderful new community garden at Northeast United Church of Christ, one of 15 in the CROPS Garden Network this year. The church donated a large grassy stretch of lawn between themselves and Easterday Recreational Center to be the site of the current garden. Church members took a lead role in getting the garden set-up by marking out plots and setting up meetings with all the involved parties. They even went to great lengths to get the word out about the garden to the local neighborhood by passing out flyers and holding a community potluck to let everyone know what exciting things were going on in their area this year. The garden is now open and completely filled with people from the community, including a few members of the church. One standout plot at the garden is the youth garden. There are actually two groups of youth, the Pershing Summer Camp and the NEUCC Sunday school, working together to learn about gardening and to care for their plot of earth.
A Good Food Manifesto for America
by Will Allen, director of http://www.growingpower.org/ Growing Power, a visionary program tackling local food issues in a big way.
I am a farmer. While I find that this has come to mean many other things to other people - that I have become also a trainer and teacher, and to some a sort of food philosopher - I do like nothing better than to get my hands into good rich soil and sow the seeds of hope.
So, spring always enlivens me and gives me the energy to make haste, to feel confidence, to take full advantage of another all-too-short Wisconsin summer.
This spring, however, much more so than in past springs, I feel my hope and confidence mixed with a sense of greater urgency. This spring, I know that my work will be all the more important, for the simple but profound reason that more people are hungry.
For years I have argued that our food system is broken, and I have tried to teach what I believe must be done to fix it. This year, and last, we have begun seeing the unfortunate results of systemic breakdown. We have seen it in higher prices for those who can less afford to pay, in lines at local food pantries, churches and missions, and in the anxious eyes of people who have suddenly become unemployed. We have seen it, too, in nationwide outbreaks of food-borne illness in products as unlikely as spinach and peanuts.
Fashion Show Benefiting CROPS
You're cordially invited to a First Friday Artwalk "The Secret Tree" at Iasan and Sebastian Salon. The show features avant garde hair and make-up by the I?S Team and modeled clothing and accessories from Euphoria. The June gallery will showcase work by artists Lucas Craig, Dave Norris, and George Sisson. DJ JLB Soundsystem will be spinning live, and delicious refreshments will be provided by thé Cup. During this month's show they also will be accepting donations to benefit Community CROPS. Join us Friday June 5th 7-10pm at I?S Studio Salon (213 South 9th Street) for an evening of fun!
CROPS wins Lyman Award
On Thursday, June 11, Community CROPS will be presented with the Lyman award from the Wachiska Audubon's Population and Environment Committee. The award will be presented at the Audubon meeting, held at 7pm at Union College. The program for the evening is on Nine Mile Prairie and the public is invited.Upcoming Workshops
New workshops available from Community CROPS include Making your Own Rain Barrel on June 30th and Making Compost on July 25th. More workshops will be scheduled soon--let us know what you'd like to see. More details on the CROPS Workshops Page.
Other Local Events
Stransky Park Concert Series
The ever-popular Stranksy Park Concert Series is under way. Pop over after picking up your vegetables at hte CROPS Market to enjoy the rest of your evening with some great music. 2009 Line Up
Old Cheney Road Farmers' Market
You can buy produce from CROPS as well as lots of other great local products at the Old Cheney Road Farmers' Market on Sundays, 10am - 2pm at 5500 Old Cheney. Vegetables, fruit, cheese, bread, enchiladas, baklava, plants and much more are for sale at this market.
St. Paul UCC Farmers' Market
Another great neighborhood market, open Tuesdays, June-September, 4:30-7:30pm at St. Paul UCC, located on the corner of 13th and F Street
The Garden
From July 10 to July 16 at the Ross, the movie The Garden will be showing. "The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods." CROPS will be planning events around the showing--stay tuned for details. Info on the Ross Site
Keep up to date on CROPS
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