Next DC Crop Mob – Saturday, June 19th!

Want to get your hands dirty while learning about local, sustainable agriculture? Join the DC Crop Mob, a volunteer group that gets together once a month at a local farm to lend a hand. This month we’ll be working at Fields of Athenry farm in Middleburg, VA. Field of Athenry specializes in sustainable, ethical meat production, raising heritage breeds of pasture-raised cows, chicken, turkey, lamb, and pigs. Stick around afterwards to meet Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions, who will be giving a talk at the farm that afternoon. Carpooling will be arranged. Email info@cropmobdc.com to sign up, or visit www.cropmobdc.com to learn more!

Please vote for NFI on justmeans.com and help them revitalize the garden at Fort Dupont!

Fort Dupont Community Garden is DC’s 2nd largest community garden (3.572 acres!). In recent years, this garden has seen underutilization of its plots with many lying fallow throughout the growing season. The garden has been largely comprised of seniors. NFI and Fort Dupont NPS are working in partnership to rejuvenate interest in the garden by offering educational programming and the justmeans.com grant would help them achieve this goal!

VOTE HERE: http://www.justmeans.com/contestidea?ideaid=NTc1

Volunteers needed!! On June 3, 2010, participating schools across the District of Columbia (including all of DCPS) will serve fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens in their school lunches!  This will be part of a celebration called “Strawberries & Salad Greens” organized by the D.C. Farm to School Network.  Learn more about the event and how to get involved at dcfarmtoschool.org/strawberries.

Thanks to super volunteer John Kinhart for making DC Field to Fork’s latest how-to video and Neil Zimmerman for teaching us how to make sauerkraut!

If you have enjoyed any of City Blossoms’ gardens (school gardens in D.C, Baltimore, and Takoma Park, Girard Children’s Community Garden) you are going to LOVE Marion Street Intergenerational Community Garden!

We are working to make this space a model for innovative urban neighborhood gardens, a place to inspire the makeovers of unused lots all over the city.  We will be beginning programming this summer with over 100 kids, and we need help to get the space ready for some serious gardening!

Please donate here: the first $250 will be matched by Razoo and I know we can go even higher! And help spread the word!

In the meantime, remember that we have regular work days at Marion Street every Wednesday evening this spring from 5-7 and this weekend from 11-1 we will be continuing to transform the space.  Don’t miss out on the fun!

Thanks for your support!

Building A Butterfly Garden: Monday, May 17, 7:30-9:30pm, Brookside Gardens, Wheaton, MD. The Silver Spring Garden Club invites you to this talk by Carol Allen on attracting “winged flowers” aka butterflies to your garden. Doors open at 7:30pm, speaker starts at 8pm. Free and open to the public. Directions at http://www.brooksidegardens.org/.

The Future of Local Gardening: Sunday May 23. Panel Discussion led by Kathy Jentz, Washington Gardener Magazine. Come join us for a slice of cake and cup of bubble to mark Washington Gardener Magazine’s 5th Anniversary in print. We will host a panel discussion on local garden trends and the future of urban gardening in the 21st. Local experts will share their views and we anticipate a lively discussion of where we’ve been and where we are headed next. The talk is free and open to the public. It is at the HSW-DC, directions at: http://www.historydc.org/

FRESH Screening and After-Party! Friday May 21, 2010, 4:30-6:30, Rayburn House Office Building Foyer The National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association and FRESH are sponsoring a special screening of FRESH for our legislators. Has FRESH inspired you?  It will also inspire those who make our laws. The food safety bill is in front of the Senate right now.  FRESH will educate our legislators on the benefits of a local food system threatened by S 510. Let’s get our Senators and Representatives there so they can see and understand the unintended consequences S 510 would have on our small farms. More info here.

Sowing Seeds Here and Now!: A Chesapeake Area Urban Farming Summit: Friday, June 18th, 2010 at the Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Keynote speaker and inspiration is Will Allen, CEO of Growing Power in Milwaukee, WI. Will Allen is a pioneering urban farmer whose organization Growing Power does exemplary work and who was named a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow in 2008.  Dr. Molly Jahn, Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics at the USDA is confirmed to attend the event.  The goal of our one-day hands-on learning and strategizing event is to catalyze and support urban farming throughout our metropolitan area – Washington, DC, Prince George’s and other local counties, and Baltimore –which we call the Chesapeake area. Buy tickets here.

Help fund the Healthy School Act! The DC City Council recently approved the Healthy Schools Act, which makes significant improvements to the food served in schools across DC, a great step toward reducing obesity and the health issues related to malnutrition in the district.There is a job opening for a one-week stint for organizers who will help collect signatures for the petition to fund the act through a tax on soda.  The position is posted here.

The Neighborhood Farm Initiative seeks Volunteer Assistant Team Leaders to grow vegetables with teens! Deadline for applications is today!
NFI is looking for Volunteer Assistant Team Leaders to work with the NFI Team Leader and our 12-person summer youth team. The Assistant Team Leaders will help monitor the space, provide instruction and supervision, build relationships with youth, and assist with general garden maintenance.
We’re looking for volunteers who can commit to one day per week for 5 hours each week for the duration of the program, which runs Monday-Friday from June 28 through August 20 2010. Volunteer shifts will be between 8:30-1:30 on weekdays. Please send a note describing your interest and experience with organic gardening and/or working with youth, plus 2 professional or academic references to NFI Volunteer Coordinator Liz Whitehurst at NeighborhoodFarm@gmail.com by May 17.

This Saturday, May 15th, the DC Crop Mob will descend for the third time on a local sustainable farm to lend a helping hand. After two successful events in March and April, we’re ready to bring farmers and friends together at Blueberry Gardens in Ashton, MD! But first:

Report from the April Crop Mob: Mountain View Farm

Nearly 30 mobbers converged at Mountain View Farm in April to spend the day working outdoors, learning about farming and getting to know other good food lovers.  The day’s tasks included planting onions and leeks, spreading compost, weeding garlic and peas, and transplanting beets – just to name a few! With so many hands, we accomplished days’ worth of work in just a few hours, to the sincere appreciation of farmers Shawna Dewitt and Attila Agoston.

Shawna and Attila grow vegetables and free-range eggs on 3 acres of land leased from the Blue Ridge Center, a private nature preserve in Loudon County, VA.  They have been working that land for four years, farming from the start without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Their two year old daughter, Ruby, accompanied us in the fields and around the farm, totally at home amongst the peas and the goats!

Our mid-day lunch break was a delicious spread of veggie and venison chilis, rice, quinoa salad, artisan breads and several homemade desserts. There are few things better than sitting down to a homemade meal after putting in a morning’s worth of good hard work!

Everyone brought a different level of farming experience. For many mobbers, this was their first or second time just being on a farm – others were former farm workers and returned Peace Corps volunteers. The only requirement to be a mobber is an interest in agriculture and willingness to get your hands dirty. No special skills are needed – we were taught how to do everything as we went along.

After our jobs were done, Shawna and Attila took us on a tour of the farm, the highlight of which was the small menagerie of livestock they keep mainly for their own use. We walked through the pasture with nanny goats and kids, the dairy cow and her calf, and the flock of laying hens. The farm is also home to a pair of rare heritage breed pigs – Guinea Hogs – who had just recently had a batch of adorable piglets.

One of the more unique items on the farm is a portable poultry processing unit – that is, a trailer that contains all the equipment you need to slaughter and process broiler chickens. They received it through a grant and rent it out at a very low cost to any other farmers that need to use it. Because slaughter facilities and equipment can be a limiting factor for many small livestock producers, this is a great asset to the local farming community.

We were even joined by a reporter from the Lancaster Farming News, who did a story on the day’s events. Check it out! All in all, it was a fabulous day. Be sure to stop and say hello at Mountain View Farm’s two farmers market stands in DC: at Penn Quarter on Thursday afternoons and at 14th & U St. on Saturday mornings.

This month’s Mob: Saturday, May 15th!

This month’s Mob is at Blueberry Gardens, an established pick-your-own organic blueberry farm in Ashton, MD. In addition to working with the berry plants, we’ll be helping with a new vegetable farm that is starting up on the same property. You’ll have the opportunity to see an established perennial fruit farm and a startup vegetable farm, all in one day.

Carpools will leave from various spots around DC at about 8:30am. We’ll be working from 9:30 to 2:30, with a lunch break in between. No experience necessary – just curiousity and willingness to help!

If you’d like to attend, email info@cropmobdc.com with your name, location and phone number, and whether you can drive or need a ride.

If you can’t make it this week, but want to stay in the loop, join the Facebook group!

The D.C. Farm to School Network invites you to be a part of Strawberries & Salad Greens – a District-wide celebration of healthy, fresh, seasonal foods on June 3, 2010!

On June 3, 2010, participating schools across the District of Columbia (including all of DCPS) will serve fresh, locally-grown strawberries and salad greens in their school lunches as part of a celebration organized by the D.C. Farm to School Network. The Network will help interested schools set up tables in school cafeterias with plants, farm pictures, and props to remind students where their food comes from. Schools can also organize field trips, chef demonstrations, and other activities to celebrate the healthy, fresh, local foods available in the springtime!

How can you get involved?

Parents & Teachers – Make sure your school will serve fresh, local strawberries and salad greens on June 3rd. Work with the D.C. Farm to School Network to have a “Where Food Comes From” table in your cafeteria that day – email Andrea at andrea@dcfarmtoschool.org to request one! Incorporate lessons about local, sustainable strawberries and salad greens into your lessons. Organize other fun activities like field trips or chef demos for students – visit www.dcfarmtoschool.org/strawberries for tools, resources, sample promotional materials and contact information.

Chefs & Garden Educators - Would you like to come into a classroom on June 3rd and do a cooking or gardening demonstration with students? Contact a school you know, or Andrea at andrea@dcfarmtoschool.org to connect with an interested school.

Volunteers – We’re looking for volunteers to visit school cafeterias and set up tables with plants, pictures and props to get kids excited about fresh, local strawberries and salad greens. Click here to learn more and sign up.