Weekly Update for the week of August 30, 2010
Weekly update for week of Monday, August 30, 2010
Happy day!
Did you know…
This Thursday, September 2, 2010 is the deadline for purchasing your tickets to the 3rd annual Earthworks Harvest Dinner, celebrating local food, local youth, and local culture. The evening will feature youth hip hop, gourmet local foods BBQ, interactive story telling and more! Visit www.earthworksdetroit.org to print your registration form today!
To discuss…what do you think should be celebrated more?
I. Volunteer Opportunities:
YFS is back to evening hours Tuesdays 5-7pm and Fridays 5-7pm. NO YFS on Sept 7th (first day of school).
Wednesday 9am-12:30pm Regular Volunteer Hours: Please join us after working in the gardens for lunch in the soup kitchen.
NO Saturday Volunteers on Saturday, Sept. 4: due to holiday weekend!
*Next week we will be looking for volunteers on Wednesday, September 8,10:30am to 1pm to help out in the Capuchin Soup Kitchen: We are looking for earthworks volunteers who want to connect with the food through serving lunch
*Anyone with a pick up truck interested in helping us divert brew waste from the landfill and build compost? Mon-Fri afternoons we are looking for help to pick up spent grain from a local brewery and deliver it to our compost pile. Contact Gwen at gmeyer@cskdetroit.org if interested!
II. Announcements:
1. Meldrum Fresh Market this Thursday! Great time to stop by to get your harvest dinner tickets! 11am to 1pm, here at 1264 Meldrum.
2. We are looking for volunteers to be a part of the community kitchen cooking event for the Harvest Dinner. This will take place on Friday, Sept. 10, 3-9pm. Also looking for volunteers to help set up for the dinner on Friday, Sept. 10, 9am to 2pm
3. SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND URBAN GARDENS IN CUBA
Research Delegation will be headed to Cuba Nov. 12 through 21. For more info, visit http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/1044.html
4. “We have an opportunity to reinvent Detroit like never before. Every Detroiter has a voice and a role in this process.”
MAYOR DAVE BING, State of the City Address, March 2010
Come out and share your voice for a just food system in Detroit and beyond at the Detroit Strategic Plan Community Forums, beginning Tuesday, Sept. 14. Please see full schedule below update.
III. Update from Patrick
and now for the update
I'm gonna make this brief as I have plenty of other things to get to.
New CapCorps Rachel seems to be settling in pretty well, not even two full weeks in and she has already given two interviews/tour to journalists. She shadowed myself and Gwen the first week, and Deni, Kad and Lisa this last week. Now with a better sense of what we do, we put her to work on her tasks very soon.
Gwen is now back, and combined with Rachel, it has taken enough off of my plate for me to do something I haven't done in weeks - catch up on my email and my list of tasks. I even started to clean off my desk.
Out at Gleaners we had big plans to have a concert in the garden for MEBCA day (a community clean up and celebration) but do to a little miscommunication the entry way to the garden now looks like it's been ridden though by a pack of ATV riders. The good part of this is that I can now say the leaves are closer to the compost pile. It once again makes me realize just how few leaves we have left. I'm still on the lookout for more materials for compost making, leaves and straw in particular, but wood shavings and saw dust will work too. Let me know if you have any idea of where I can get some.
We did sift a good amount of compost this week, putting a solid dent in the pile. This was spread out in the beds of the corner lot and the beds we are prepping to sow with spinach and onions at Gleaners this week or next. The second planting of beans is picking well, and should pick for at least one more week. The third planting of squash is delivering some nice patty pan squash this past week, and the first planting of squash, despite plenty of squash vine borers and powdery mildew still keeps producing for us. The tomatoes just keep coming in, I think it might rank as the best tomato year I can recall. The greens are starting to bear enough to pick, this last week we had red russian kale and tuscano kale, this week we will add some collards to the mix. All the squash in donna's lot is pretty much dead at this point, and though it's early enough in the season to plant something else, I think a nice cover crop to enrich the soil is just what is called for. We also harvest the leeks that were growing, not because they we ready - they had at least two months left before they were ready to harvest, but because folks kept taking them. I figured even harvesting baby leeks was better than no leeks.
Corner lot is starting to look like it has some life in it. We harvested beets, scallions, spicy stir fry mix and basil this week. Basil we harvested over 50 pounds, it's in the freezer for latter in the season. I'm thinking garlic scape and basil pesto, it will be oh so welcome come winter time. The carrots, radishes and lettuce that we planted last week have sprouted up, and we have planted more carrots, turnips, and other greens this week. Looks like we are finally getting our act together over there.
Market went well this week. We had a very nice variety of products for sale, and actually sold something. Everyone who worked the market said it went well, the only thing missing was you, if you didn't attend.
EAT folks were able to get over to BKB academy where they have been working on building a aquaponics system and greenhouse. This week they pulled the plastic over the greenhouse, making it one more major step closer to being a reality. They also spent a good amount of time with Tanagra, the Capuchin Soup Kitchen's HR Manager talking about resumes and cover letters and how to write them. Hard as it might be we only have three more months of the EAT program for this year, and then they will be off looking for jobs.
The week ahead we look to get most of the rest of the corner lot finished planting, and I think overwintering crops at Gleaners planted. We need to get plenty of compost sifted laid down and stock piled. Plenty of harvesting left to do, and of course my desk is just waiting for me to finish it's cleaning. And we have to figure out where to plant the garlic, we forgot to put that in the crop plan, but I see several options.
I think that's more than enough for this week, I had meant to keep it briefer than this and it seems to have gone on much longer than planned. Until next week,
Onward
Youth Update from Denis..
It's back to our evening meetings with the youth (5pm - 7pm Tuesdays and Fridays for Youth Farm Stand and 5pm-7pm Thursdays for Growing Healthy Kids). GHK made kale chips while walking around the Gleaners garden I.D ing the fall greens that the EAT participants have been tending. YFS met and talked with Bryce of the Heru organization about rehearsal schedule and up coming performances of their summer media literacy and music production song called The Signs. YFS also helped Grown In Detroit sell vegetables at Wednesday Wayne State Market. This week should be busy as we will be rehearsing for up coming performances, planting some fall seeds and working on building up the soil in the YFS garden, attending our last Eastern Market Grown in Detroit market on Saturday (come visit!). Don't forget YFS will be performing The Signs at 2010 Earthworks Harvest Dinner!
Community Outreach Update from Lisa…
I felt a deep sense of gratitude for all the wonderful people I was blessed to work with at this past Saturday’s MEBCA (Mt. Elliott Business and Community Association) Day, where we celebrated this community, our work to improve it, and did a community clean up. It was great to see a beautiful diversity of folks all working together to keep this community strong and clean. Longtime area residents, local business owners and workers, Capuchin Friars, the Coast Guard, volunteers from surrounding neighborhoods, Praise team members from a local worship center, soup kitchen guests, young and old, black and white, rich and poor all working together! All are welcome to attend our third Saturday monthly meetings.
I was a part of a team working to form a regional approach to agriculture in the Flint/Detroit area. These two days of meetings/brainstorming/plan makings allowed me a chance to connect with great food justice advocates from Flint and beyond. I felt frustrated that the facilitators did not address the elephant in the room, the issue that kept raising its ugly head over and over, that being racism in the food system.
For anyone who’s paying attention, today is the day I promised to share notes from Earthworks journey to be an anti-racist program. I have the ball rolling and it is being reviewed by one of my co-workers but I do not have it ready to share. I apologize.
I’m excited for Harvest Dinner..okay.. That’s a bit of a lie because I am truly a bit nervous, but I am every year and it all works out beautifully! Please get your reservation in today!
IV. Detroit Strategic Planning Community Forums Schedule
Tuesday, September 14,
6:30-8:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
Greater Grace Temple,
23500 W. Seven Mile Road
Greater Grace Temple,
Thursday, September 16,
6:30-8:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
American Serbian Memorial Hall,
19940 Van Dyke Street
American Serbian Memorial Hall,
19940 Van Dyke Street
Saturday, September 18,
10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(doors open at 10 a.m.)
Whittier Manor, 415 Burns Drive
Whittier Manor, 415 Burns Drive
Tuesday, September 21,
6:30-8:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
El Kiosko Banquet Hall,
7271 Dix Street
El Kiosko Banquet Hall,
7271 Dix Street
Wednesday, September 22,
6:30-8:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
Charles H. Wright Museum of African
American History, 315 E. Warren Avenue
Charles H. Wright Museum
Free childcare provided on-site.
For more information:
Detroitplan2010@detroitmi.gov.