WILMINGTON COLLEGE GROW FOOD GROW HOPE

NEWSLETTER JAN-FEB 2013

WHY WE GROW

WHAT MAKES GARDENING SO IMPORTANT TO US?

FRIENDS OF HOPE BACKYARD GARDENING FOOD SYMPOSIUM

GET GROWIN THIS SEASON WITH GROW FOOD GROW HOPE

WORKING FOR YOU
Grow Food Grow Hope works to provide families and individuals with access to fresh and nutritious foods by teaching the benefits of small-plot gardening. Through the Friends of Hope Community Garden and our Backyard Gardening Program, we work to partner beginning gardeners with more experienced Garden Mentors so that they can learn what it takes to grow a healthy, sustainable and productive garden of their own.
Located on the Wilmington College Campus, the 40 individual plots of the Friends of Hope Community Garden are a teaching ground for families and individuals to learn the basics of small-plot gardening. From April till October, our gardeners have access to all of the tools, resources and support they need to maintain a 12x4 plot of their own. Gardeners and Mentors meet once a weekly at Tuesday or Saturday Garden Meetings where they participate in lessons, training and cooking demonstrations. All costs are provided for by Grow Food Grow Hope.

FRIENDS OF HOPE COMMUNITY GARDEN

APPLY TO GARDEN TODAY!

VISIT
WWW.GROWFOODGROWHOPE.COM

Since 2009, GFGH has established almost 30 backyard garden sites throughout Clinton County. Every spring, we make a team of volunteers available to anyone just starting out to till and construct a raised bed and to assist with a first planting. Backyard Gardeners also attend weekly Garden Meetings at the Friends of Hope Community Garden where they participate in training opportunities and work with a Mentor to develop better and more efficient gardening skills.

BACKYARD GARDENING

OR CALL 937-382-6661 EXT. 382

APPLICATIONS DUE APRIL 1ST

WILMINGTON COLLEGE GROW FOOD GROW HOPE

1145 Pyle Center 1870 Quaker Way Wilmington, OH www.growfoodgrowhope.com growfoodgrowhope@wilmington.edu 937-382-6661 ext. 382

Show your support

Provides the tools and resources necessary for a family to garden for an entire year

50

Lets Grow! 2013 Mail-In Application

Application Deadline: April 1, 2013 Personal Information: Name _________________ ___________________ Address_____________ ______________________ City_________________ State______ Zip_______ Email___________________ Phone_____________ Date of Birth_____________ Program: A) I want to grow.... Friends of Hope Community Garden_____ Backyard Garden____ B) I want to teach... Garden Mentor____ Household Information: Number of Household Members_____ Number of Children in Household_____ Yearly Household Income__________ Are you are renter?_______ Mentor Meeting Availability: Tuesday Evenings (6pm-8pm)_____ Saturday Mornings (10am-Noon)_____ Signature______________________ Date ________
All information provided will remain private and for the use of GFGHs records and nonprofit reporting only.

DEAR FRIENDS,
In this issue of the Grow Food Grow Hope newsletter, we wanted to take the time to share with you not only what weve been up to, but our real motivations for doing what we do. We want to share a little bit about Why We Grow. I have been growing since I was very little. As a young child I can remember my mom, and her friends, eating strawberries on the back porch. I became fascinated with strawberries and when my parents bought their first home I found wild strawberries growing in the back yard, so I ate them. The first produce I remember growing was lemon balm. My mom thought it would be fun to plant some by the back porch so that summer I learned to garden. I watered, weeded, removed insects and searched for worms to add to the bed. A few weeks into summer we had large plants that smelled like lemon and tasted like mint. It was easy to grow but to a young child it seems like quite an accomplishment. As I grew I continued to tend to the plants and honed my skills. Today I know that there is so much to learn about plant care but I am thankful for the interest I took in growing as a young child. Because of those early experiences I have never been afraid to eat something that came out of the ground. I hope that these words and the words of the rest of the GFGH team will serve as a since of inpiration for you as you prepare for the upcoming growing season. Dont be afraid to get involved with gardening this year. Give us a call (937-382-6661), visit our website www.growfoodgrowhope.com, follow us on facebook (www.facebook.com/growfoodgrowhope) or send us an email growfoodgrowhope@wilmington.edu. Sincerely, Anthony (Tony) Staubach Project Manager, Grow Food Grow Hope

eynote: WILL ALLEN

rmer and Founder & CEO of

ROWING POWER

Events include a pie contest, panel discussion, keynote address and book signing urban gardening program in lwaukee and Chicago Free & Open to the public 5 WILL ALLEN TO SPEAK

CONTENTS
AT ANNUAL Info 4TH call: 937.382.6661 FOOD SYMPOSIUM 7 GARDENING BY THE SEASONS 8 PERENNIAL VEGETABLE GARDENING 9 WHY WE GROW 13 THE FRED KRISHER GROW FOOD GROW HOPE ENDOWMENT FUND 14 UPCOMING EVENTS AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

8 WEDNESDAY MAR
20

FROM 1 PM(CAMPUS)

9 14

Wilmington College

FOOD SYMPOSIUM 2013

Foodscapes:
Cultivating a community food system for the future

Keynote: WILL ALLEN

Farmer and Founder & CEO of an urban gardening program in Milwaukee and Chicago

GROWING POWER

WEDNESDAY20 MAR FROM 1 PM(CAMPUS)

Events include a pie contest, panel discussion, keynote address and book signing Free & Open to the public

Info call: 937.382.6661

WILL ALLEN TO SPEAK AT 4TH ANNUAL FOOD SYMPOSIUM

Wilmington, OhioWill Allen, farmer and CEO and founder of Growing Power, Inc., will speak at the 2013 Wilmington College Food Symposium March 20, at 7:30 p.m., in Boyd Cultural Arts Centers Hugh G. Heiland Theatre. The theme of this years symposium is Foodscapes: Cultivating a Community Food System for the Future. The event is free and open to the public. Allen, a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award recipient, retired professional basketball player, and author of The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities, will discuss his role in facilitating community food systems, designed to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. The Growing Power organization, led by Allen, offers workshops on how to grow, process, market and distribute food. Most demonstrations and training modules take place at designated hubs or Community Food Centers established in rural and urban areas across the United States. I was intrigued by Will Allen when I saw him in the documentary Fresh. I thought, here is a charismatic guy introducing urban gardening to folks in poor sections of Milwaukeewho will appeal to a broad range of people, especially anyone interested in using innovative ways to feed people, said Michael Snarr, professor of social and political studies and member of the symposium planning committee. Allens main two-acre Community Food Center in Milwaukee is small compared to the average local farm in Clinton County, Ohio. But, it houses six greenhouses, two aquaponic hoop houses, seven conventional hoop houses for plants, a worm depository, an apiary with 14 beehives, three poultry hoop houses, outdoor pens for goats, turkeys and chickens, an anaerobic digester to produce energy from farm wastes, and a rainwater catchment system. The entire center attracts tourists from all sectors and walks of liferepresentatives from government, education, and religion and large and small farmers, alikeall interested in the Growing Power model. In a statement from the organizations blog, Allen says, I am a farmer. While I find that this has come to mean many other things to other peoplethat I have become also a trainer and teacher, and to some a sort of food philosopherI do like nothing better than to get my hands into good rich soil and sow the seeds of hope. Allens innovative model for community-capacity building has received significant accolades in recent years. Along with the MacArthur award, he received a Ford Foundation leadership grant in 2005 and a Kellogg Foundation grant in 2009 to facilitate his work with Growing Power in the area of urban and sustainable farming. In 2012, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee awarded Allen with an honorary doctorate degree in agriculture. His model for growing food will surely continue to spread to communities throughout the United States and beyond, said Snarr. In addition to the keynote address, the symposium will feature a pie-baking contest from 12:30-1:30 p.m., with a public tasting event to follow, and a panel discussion on the topic of Gaps in the Food Chain: from Production to Distribution to Consumption, from 2:30 to 4 p.m., in Heiland Theatre. Pie-baking contest winners will be announced at the 7:30 program. For more information on this years symposium, call Corey Cockerill at 937-382-6661, ext. 302.

GARDENING BY THE SEASONS

of snow on the ground. And probably, youve even started clearing out your pantry and readying your canning jars even though the first spring harvest is still months away. But dont despair too much! On January 23rd, Grow Food Grow Hope partnered with the Wilmington Public Library and Guy and Sandy Ashmore of That Guys Family Farm to host a workshop on Gardening by the Seasons. And while everyone walked away with something new to add to their gardening repertoire, maybe the most important piece of information that we all took away was this:You never have to be done! Even past your last fall harvest, you can keep that gardening state of mind going all year round. Here are some of our favorite tips to make four-season gardening work for you.

HOW TO BE A FOUR SEASON GARDENER Seed, soil, sweat aybe no time of the year is tougher for a gardener to deal and Mwith than the Dog Days of Winter. some inspiration . That longing for the taste of a sun ripened tomato has re Guy Ashm turned.You find yourself fetching a spade from the shed to ore test whether the soil is workable even though there is a foot

Succesion planting on That Guys Family Farm

WINTER PLANNING & PREP

Winter is time for letting your gardening imagination roams. This is when you come up with your gardening plan for the upcoming growing season. Start digging into your gardening books and seed catalogues and figuring out whats right for you. Be mindful of your past experiences. What worked and what didnt work for you? What solutions can you find? During the winter months you should decide: What do I want to grow? How involved do I want to be with my garden this year? Do I want to experiment with any new techniques? Where can I find the help that I need?

SPRING GET GREEN, GET DIRTY

Get your greens in the ground as soon as you can beat the frost. Leafy greens are more resistant to the cold and will stand up to the unpredictable spring weather better than your other fruit producers. Most gardeners will wait until at least April for their first planting, but March is not too soon for planting things like spinach, lettuce and radishes for an early season harvest. Youll also want to get your transplants started indoors by early April for a good planting mid-May.

SUMMER IN FULL GEAR

Summer is where you make it, but its also where you break it. No matter how experienced a gardener you are, you are going to experience some hiccups during the summer months. Dont let them get you down. Keep at it.

FALL PLANT FOR SPRING

Fall is often an overlooked time for gardeners. It shouldnt be. A well planned garden will keep producing well into October.

Fall is also the time that you are going to want to plant your crops for over wintering. Things like The harvests will start coming garlic and onions grow best when steady and strong through June and planted in October and harvested July. As your spring time plantings the next spring. of leafy greens and root crops start You can also start thinking about to come out, get ready for your planting a cover crop. Sowing succession planting. Plant new seeds in their place or settle in your winter rye or buckwheat over your plot will not only help to replentransplants. Whatever works for ish much needed nutrients in your you. bed, it will also serve as a valuable By continuously planting new green manure when it comes time crops and harvesting the old, you to till your soil in the spring. not only set yourself to better stand the inevitable setbacks, you put yourself in prime position for an even better fall harvest from your garden.

PERENNIAL VEGETABLES
T
THAT WORK FOR YOU
oo often (and probably too unfairly) we overlook perennial vegetables when it comes to plotting out space in our gardens. A constant and productive food source, perennial vegetables are a table staple for a wide range of people and cultures around the world. Perennial Vegetables require little attention, are easy to care for and usually one good plant is enough to provide you with food for a lifetime. To boot, many perennials thrive where annuals cant, grow well in shade and are attractive in a flower bed.
It can take asparagus up to three years before it yields and substantial harvest but once it does, youll have it in bundles. A typical plant will yield for 15 years.

ASPARAGUS RHUBARB

Rhubarb is probably our most familiar perennial. Used like a fruit by many gardeners, the sour stalks are often used in pies and sweets. Just be careful not to eat the leaves or roots, they are poisonous.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE

So why dont we grow them here?

Strangely enough, the Jerusalem Artichoke is one of the few perennial vegetables native to North America. Sometimes also called a sunchoke, these artichokes grow tall with attractive sunflower-like flowers and yield an enormous bounty of tubers every year.

DAY -LILY

On February 6th, Grow Food Grow Hope called on Ron Williams of Windy Hill Urban Farm in Huber Heights to host a workshop and answer exactly that. The reason? Usually, we just dont know we can. Here are some of Rons favorite perennial vegetables for our particular growing climate.

FRENCH SORREL

Day-Lilies? Seriously? Yep. A favorite for many gardeners, these low maintenance perennials thrive on neglect. The flower buds can be prepared and eaten just like green beans and even the flowers themselves can be used for salads or as a garnish.

The lemony leaves of the sorrel plant make it a favorite in France and across Europe. French Sorrel has an extremely long season. Its leaves are often the first available in spring and the last to be harvested in fall.

FOOD FAMILY TRADITION COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY HEALTH NATURE FUTURE FRIENDSHIP FAITH SELF-RELIANCE QUALITY OF LIFE THERAPY BUDGET CONSERVATION WELL-BEING. BY THE GFGH TEAM

WHY WE GROW

KAYLA BELTZ
Gardening was not always prevalent in my life. I knew people that had a vegetable garden, but I didnt realize how gardens could be such a satisfying experience. When I started working at Grow Food Grow Hope, I knew I was gaining new skills. Still living with my parents, I ran home to tell my mom about how easy gardening was and how much fun it would be to have a garden. Little did I know, she was totally on board and encouraged me to continue. So, we went out and bought all of the necessary ingredient- soil, compost, plants, seeds, and lumber to build a bed. We planted everything, and in just a week (or less!), plants were coming up! We were so excited! How amazing that we were able to grow something! Then, next thing you know, we were harvesting real food. I couldnt believe it. Our cucumbers were crunchier than any store, the tomatoes were juicier, and the strawberries were sweeter. It was magical. My mom and I were able to grow something that we can enjoy, and it was easy! There is something that is so fascinating about gardening.You plant a tiny seed, little sprouts come up, a plant grows, we see flowers, and then the flowers turn into food. Wow. Gardening brings such happiness and joy. This is life and I helped create it. This life will help sustain me and my family. For me, gardening provides such satisfaction and achievement. I grew something. I kept something alive. I gave myself a healthy future. I grow to experience the magic.

Recently having graduated from college, I am at a point in my life where I can go in many directions: I can find a job in the field of my major, I can follow up with graduate school, I can move out of the Midwest and into new territory where adventure and uncertainty awaits. While I can do all of these things, I am allowing my intuition, rather than my college diploma, guide my decision to follow the path of making farming a career.

NELLIE ASMORE

Gardening has been a life-long passion of mine, but deciding to try to make it a livelihood of it is a recent development in my life. I know instinctually this is what I want to be doing, but deciding to choose this path over all of the others takes deliberation and weighing the options, but most importantly, a deep and unrelenting love for it. There are many reasons why gardening has captured my heart and brought me to the point where I am head over heals in love with it. For one, I get to be outside. No one should underestimate the beneficial power of spending time outside on ones mental and physical well-being. When I get the chance to be in freshly tilled soil, have the sun shining high in the sky, and seeing beautiful colors all around me emanating from vegetables, flowers, and trees, I dont even care if I am standing in a garden bed with weeds waist high. My mood has improved exponentially. Through the act of gardening I know I am making an impact on not just my health, but the land I am farming, and those that I interact with who are able to share in the harvest and knowledge of gardens. A garden has far-reaching effects and lets me know that unassuming acts such as planting a seed, can be grow to become much more. There are many more reasons why I am trying to patiently wait out the winter for my first chance to scoop up a handful of soil and pick the first flower in bloom, but so many reasons are simply felt when gardening. This is why gardening is such a joyful, personalized experience, and each year brings new outlooks. What a wonderful experience to look forward to, especially if I plan to do this for a while.

DESIRAE BEDFORD
Gardening opened up a new world for me. It wasnt until this year that I learned the importance of vegetables; not just the nutritional value of the fruit, but the overall production process the fruit has to go through. Most people, like me, only acknowledge what we see at the grocery store and have no concrete knowledge of where the fruit or vegetable came from. This year I got to develop a relationship with vegetables in a way that I never would have before. For the first time, since being a child, I played in dirt and I loved every moment of it. But unlike my childhood, the playfulness that I now had with dirt was purposeful and meaningful. Because this was my first time up and close experience everything that is involved with gardening, I had to find out exactly how to care for these plants. I dug holes to plant seeds that would grow and bear fruit. I sought out information with my new friends, the VISTAs, who were more knowledgeable about the growing process. I learned a lot from them about the different pesticides and chemicals that are sometimes used to grow plants, and how a lot of these products are unnecessary, in some cases unhealthy and how they can end up on the foods we buy at the grocery store. Being the mother to this garden, I wanted the best for it. I tended to my plants and looked after them with the natural products that mother earth has already provided for us. The tools that were needed for this garden were already established for me long before I got here; I just had to take heed of what was around me. It was important to me that I nurtured my plants and gave them the best so they would grow healthy and strong. If my plants are healthy, I will be healthy. This experience taught me to build a relationship with the food that I consume and to pay closer attention to how my food is being processed. How we take care of our plants is a reflection of how we take care of ourselves.

I remember being ten and sitting on the rickety picnic table in the back yard watching my grandfather install my garden.

ERIN RICHARDSON

As he gingerly tucked young transplants into the earth he explained with great patience and care the importance of healthy plant roots. For the most part I did not pay attention to these small lessons. Instead, I often occupied myself with seeking shade or avoiding garden work all together.Year after year the gardens he carefully planted for me would either slip into a weedy oblivion, wither from a lack of watering, or be decimated by an assortment of hungry pests. Ever patient, my grandfather would allow me to struggle through these garden problems intervening and offering advice only when he felt it was absolutely necessary. It took years until I finally learned to slow down and listen to the practical gardening advice he had been offering me the entire time. Along with my grandfather some of my greatest gardening mentors have been my own mistakes and short comings. I garden because it cultivates within me a patience and acceptance for the things I cannot control like the weather, hungry pests, and a seemingly endless supply of eager weeds. I garden because it teaches me to offer myself patience and to appreciate the trial and error learning process that is life.

MAX WEBSTER

If there was anyone in my familys long history that I would have wanted to meet it would have been my Great-Grandmother, Wilma Vaughn. Born in raised in McCreary County, Kentucky, she packed the family up and moved them north to Cincinnati in 1958 in search of better jobs and better lives. In making the move she left behind a way of living that had sustained my family for countless generations. She went from working hard to scrape a living out of a narrow patch of fertile ground to dealing with the hustle and bustle of big city grocery stores where it seemed like everything you could every want was available on the cheap and in abundance. She didnt like it. She didnt like the noise and congestion. She didnt like the snatch and run and gobble relationship that so many grocery shoppers seemed to have with their food. So, she did the only thing she could. She started growing again. For the rest of her life, she tilled a plot with my Great-Grandfather in the backyard of their Cincinnati home. From that small-plot they raised 10 children on homegrown fruits and vegetables. She passed away the year before I was born. But that didnt keep me from growing up with the stories. Every Thanksgiving youd find somebody talking about the first time they tried her stuffing, or the strawberry preserves they had for breakfast, or of homemade sauerkraut so sweet that even kids would line up to eat it. Even today, its not uncommon to hear family members reminiscing about the taste of Grandmas tomatoes, or her beans, or her cabbage that you just cant find anywhere. So, when I noticed that way of knowing you food, of seeing the relationship and the care that was going into it, was on its way out in my family, I decided to start gardening myself. When I was 17, I paid the $15 dollars necessary to rent a plot for a season at my neighborhoods community garden and set to work. I never wondered why I was growing. What it was all about. I knew I was growing for Wilma Vaughn. Growing to keep her memory alive by doing what she knew how to do best. Growing food, growing family and ultimately growing a connection to place and community.

GET

D E V L INVO

Grow Food Grow Hope Endowment Fund

In 2012, we lost a cherished member of the Grow Food Grow Hope family. Fred Krisher, a Wilmington College alumnus and trustee, had been with our program since the beginning, sharing his knowledge and love of gardening with our participants as a mentor. Fred not only enjoyed sharing his knowledge of gardening but also his love for the land and the personal satisfaction one receives when learning by doing. He imparted his passion for gardening and for his community on those around him. Always eager to contribute to the Friends of Hope Community Garden, we are incredibly grateful he chose to spend his time with us. In memory of Fred, an endowment has been established, which will create enduring operational support for our program.

The Fred Krisher

For more information on how you can contribute to the Fred Krisher Grow Food Grow Hope Endowment Fund, contact Project Manager Tony Staubach at 937-382-6661 ext. 321 or email us at growfoodgrowhope @wilmington.edu

Krisher Family Gardens

February 13th March 3rd Read and Seed Lesson GFGH Spring 5k with Rainbow Village. March 7th February 19th Read and Seed Lesson with Read and Seed Lesson Patri-tots Learning Center. with Head Start March 10th February 19th Community Garden Read and Seed Lesson Start-Up Day with Head Start March 12th February 21st Learn + Grow Lesson at Read and Seed Lesson Denver Elementary with Head March 12th February 21st Learn + Grow Lesson at Seed Starting Workshop Help Denver Elementary February 21st March 13th Read and Seed Lesson Read and Seed lesson with Head Start with Rainbow Village February 26th March 13th Read and Seed Lesson with Learn + Grow Lesson at Wilmington Child Care and East End Elementary Learning Center March 14th February 28th Read and Seed lesson with Read and Seed Lesson with Patri-tots Learning Center Wilmington Child Care and Learning Center

VOLUNTEER INFORMATION
March 14th Learn + Grow Lesson at Denver Elementary March 14th Learn + Grow Lesson at Denver Elementary March 15th Learn + Grow Lesson at East End Elementary March 17th Community Garden Start-Up Day March 18th Read and Seed Lesson with Head Start March 18th Read and Seed Lesson with Head Start March 19th Learn + Grow Lesson at Denver Elementary March 19th Learn + Grow Lesson at Denver Elementary March 20th Learn + Grow Lesson at East End Elementary March 20st Read and Seed Lesson with Head Start March 20st Read and Seed Lesson with Head Start March 21st Learn + Grow Lesson at Denver Elementary March 21st Learn + Grow Lesson at Denver Elementary March 22nd Learn + Grow Lesson at East End Elementary March 27th Learn + Grow Lesson at New Vienna Elementary

Seed Starting February 21, 2013 Friends of Hope Community Garden 5:30pm

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Garden Weeds March 23, 2013 Wilmington College, Kettering Hall, Room 103 2:00pm Bed Preparation April 4, 2013 Wilmington College Farm, Fife Ave. 7:00pm Backyard Chickens and Beekeeping April 17, 2013 Wilmington College, Kettering Hall, Room 202 7:00pm Container Gardening May 4, 2013 Denver Park, Shelter A 2:00pm

Beneficial Bugs and Pests May 20, 2013 Wilmington College, Kettering Hall, Mason Room 7:00pm Compost June 11, 2013 Friends of Hope Community Garden 7:30 pm

Backyard and Small Plot Fruit Production March 6, 2013 Wilmington United Methodist Church 7:00pm

T R A ST

Wilmington College Grow Food Grow Hope works to provide families and individuals with access to fresh and nutritious foods by teaching the benefits of small-plot gardening.
1145 Pyle Center 1870 Quaker Way Wilmington, OH www.growfoodgrowhope.com growfoodgrowhope@wilmington.edu 937-382-6661 ext. 382