|
|
Happy Earth Day, Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm!
I want to thank everyone who came out to our last workday out at the Citizen’s Co-op Porters area community gardens! It is looking (and tasting) GREAT out there!
Please read below about how you can take this spirit and energy international to spread the green world wide, literally! My Dear friend Leah’s Dad started it all and it sounds like a fantastic idea and opportunity! If you feel like giving back to the ‘Friends’ and doing so with the push of a few buttons, send that juice to the ’ReGreen the World’ campaign by following the simple directions below. I know many of you were looking forward to working for the berries you picked last year-well here is an opportunity to give back and pay it forward, since we are no longer able to do work trade at the farm. And please let me know you did so if you have the time!
Have a Fabulous Earth Day!
maureen
www.GvilleBlueberryFarmFriends.org
Please read on and spread the word (please forward)=>
Check out the Green World Campaign my dad has been working on . . . today is the day to text tree! Leah
On Friday, April 22, from the heart of Times Square, the Green World Campaignwill launch a year-long initiative to “ReGreen the World.†Supported by Earth Day New York, the GWC’s dazzling animated graphics will swirl across jumbo screens day and night, inviting spectators—and people across the country– to Text TREE to 85944 and ReGreen the World. It will be spectacular, with more than 10 jumbo screens involved—including the building-sized NASDAQ and American Eagle—turning Times Square into a virtual forest at regular intervals.Go to
vimeo.com/greenworld/texttreeto see the video.We’ll be using the same technology—text2give–deployed by the Red Cross for disaster relief. Here’s the basic way it works: When the word “tree†is texted to the number 85944 by anyone from anywhere in the U.S., a $5 donation will automatically be charged to their cellphone bill. The Green World Campaign will use this to plant 5 trees on degraded land from Kenya to Mexico, from India to the Philippines. Trees help restore biodiversity, reduce atmospheric CO2, revitalize soil and support economic self-sufficiency in struggling indigenous communities.
A $5 donation can be made right now–and repeated up to 5 times.
And here’s a cool feature: Contributions texted on Earth Day, April 22, between the hours 10 a.m and 1 p.m. EDT, will show up in real-time on a giant Toshiba display in Times Square.
So, we’re asking people to donate starting now, but especially to donate on the 22nd to visibly demonstrate how global citizens can work together to really “move the needle” for people and the planet. Anyone, anywhere in the U.S., at any time, can Text TREE to 85944 and $5 will go on the cell phone bill to plant trees to restore the ecology and economy of the world’s poorest places. And they
will be able to go to the GWC website to check our collective progress.
It will be like a national positive feedback loop of what we’re achieving together, what global citizens can do to tangibly change the world now and for generations to come (with a technology that has mostly been used until now for temporary relief efforts). This is going to roll out in many other forms after Earth Day in the public domain.Please invite your social networks via email,
Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Vimeo, etc, to this unprecedented collaboration for the health of our environment and the harmony of our global village.
CSM is an official partner of Green World Campaign and Earth Day New York.
|
|
Scan our QR code with your smartphone to donate right now.
Text TREE
|
|
|
|
|
Marc
Marc Barasch
www.compassionatelife.com
www.greenworld.org
Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/qbnl8r
http://www.healingdreams.com/comments.htm
Interview: http://tinyurl.com/Itz3rx
Facebook:http://bit.ly/GxU22
Articles:
http://ow.ly/221DK
http://bit.ly/ckfDy
http://ow.ly/2uoVb
http://ow.ly/2uoPK
http://ow.ly/2up3r
http://ow.ly/2xln5
http://ow.ly/2nSPJ
http://ow.ly/2nSVq
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MarcBarasch
Amazon: http://ow.ly/2Bp1C
Course: http://tinyurl.com/yemktux
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx8Rxd2EmRU
|
Hello Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm,
Thanks to you Hearties who came out last weekend to the Porters Gardens and helped plant all those trees, move all those bricks and dig those irrigation lines, despite the terribly short notice. So much work got done by ‘Friends’ and the kids from Florida Alternative Breaks and dozens of UF students from the greek system, that it is really starting to take shape (check out the pix attached). The orchard is small now but when those trees grow up its going to be a fruitylicious place to be! And of course thanks goes out to the Edible Plant Project www.edibleplantproject.org who donated the trees, and to the Citizen’s Co-op www.citizensco-op.com who helped get this garden dream started
Today (yes today, Sunday 4-3) at 9am (yes 9am) we will be out there again planting more goodies and moving more mountains. So drink your coffee, grab your gloves and come out to help us turn the place into a garden of eden! As always it is good to bring your own drinking water, but there is a water fountain across the street.
Thanks again and Have a Great Day!
maureen
www.GvilleBlueberryFarmFriends.org
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
|
This online album has 4 photos on SkyDrive.
|
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
|
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
|
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
|
Hello, Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm!
Happy Springtime! First I’ll give a shout out to the volunteers who showed up to plant trees at the Citizen’s Co-op, CMC parking lot, and to the Edible Plant Project www.edibleplantproject.org who donated those trees. Thanks to you all there are now 2 mulberries, 2 figs, 2 loquats, a pinapple guava and a grape, as well as blueberries and sunchokes and edible cannas where before there was only grass and weeds. And the place looks 100% better!
And get to bed early tonight so you can come out tomorrow morning (Sat 3/26) starting at 9am to the Citizen’s Co-op Porter’s Community Gardens to plant an orchard of trees donated by the Edible Plant Project. We will be digging in and planting:
5 fig trees
3 mulberry trees
3 pinapple guava bushes
4 loquat trees
2 strawberry guava bushes
2 thornless blackberry bushes
2 pigeon pea bushes
1 nettle plant
and one nopale (thornless prickly pear cactus with edible pads)
as well as sunchokes,
edible cannas
yucca
sugar cane and
and strawberries.
Please bring gloves and drinking water and any shovels or rakes you might have (please mark them as your own before coming). and you can tell your friends, “Yeah, I helped plant those trees full of fruit, and it was FUN!” make sure you sign in and out because hours worked count toward hours pledged with the Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm.
And speaking of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm, it is buzzing with life and blooms and fruit! Kenny is planning on running U-Pick at $4/pound again this year, and he will pay a dollar per pound of good berries that you pick for him. So if you are a fast picker you could make some money, or just pick delicious organic berries for a good price right here within city limits. And the farm is looking better than it has for years thanks to your hard work as well as Kenny and friends, kicking it up a notch here recently and really cleaning the place up.
On a very sad note Kenny’s friend Tommy who was working wonders out there, has passed on. He will be sorely missed. I didnt know him well but I recognized him as a rare ‘heart of gold’. Bless you Tommy – The farm wont be the same without you!
I find that when I get down it helps to plant a fruit tree with other hopefull humans, so c’mon and plant your cares away!
Please join us tomorrow between 9 and 11:30 for some good dirty fun with lasting benefits to our beautiful community, it will make the fruit you pick there so much sweeter if you helped plant it, and its a great way to impress your kids!
Hope to see you tomorrow morning!
maureen
www.GvilleBlueberryFarmFriends.org
Hello Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm,
This Sunday at 10 am Joni Ellis will be hosting a work party to plant fruit trees in a neighborhood near her house and adjacent to the blueberry farm. First we will need to clear the brush and garbage that is there and prepare for the fruit trees. I will bring our hand tools, you bring gloves and drinking water. We will meet on SE 23rd Pl. just off 15th st. This is the next road (semi paved) south from the blueberry farm on the same side of 15th st. The trees will be for anyone to enjoy, especially the neighbors on that road- Thanks Joni for the idea of spreading a little sweetness on down the road.
Maybe we can plant some blueberry suckers there later once the site is ready. Also at 1:30 that same day, the edible plant project will be working at Joni’s house to prepare for the edible plant project to move there. If you think you will come at 1:30, go all the way down that same road and you willl enter Joni and Will’s gate. Please email Michael at ufdionysus@aol.com if you are planning on coming at 1:30.
There is roadwork going on near the Citizen’s Co-op Porter’s Community Garden but we are planning on working there again, maybe starting in March.
Also check out the following events starting tomorrow at the budding community gardens at The Highlands Presbyterian Church on NE 16th ave. Looks like fun!
Thanks!
maureen
www.GvilleBlueberryFarmFresh.org
please read on!=>
TWO EVENTS:
1. Showing of FRESH & Potluck
WHAT: We will play the documentary FRESH and share food potluck style
WHERE: Highlands Presbyterian Church
WHEN: Friday Feb 25th Potluck starts at 6p and movie at 7p
We are planning to have it outside, so bring blanket and warmies. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. **Trailer ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwR44T69_Is)**
Please bring a dish (preferably made of local-in-season food) and eating utensils (plate, cup and fork or spoon) will be provided.
COST: We are asking for a sliding scale donation of $2-$10 to cover facility costs.
NEEDS: Projector and Screen. 2. Work Party
WHAT: Shrub Removal, Lots of cardboard and woodchip laying and float tub assembly
WHERE: Highlands Presbyterian Church
WHEN: Sunday, February 27 · 12:30pm – 2:30pm
Ready for the Very Best,
Ba Ba Bryan
Hello Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm!
A great big THANK YOU to the members who showed up in the cold and wet yesterday to help plant blueberries and strawberries in what may be Gainesville First community orchard (a dear dream of mine), made possible by the wonderful folks at the Citizen’s Co-op and everyone who has helped with their incredible garden in the Porters community, and a BIG THANK YOU to the members of the Alpha Phi Omega co-ed service fraternity/sorority. You all did so much it was amazing! 3 strawberry beds and the beginning of a blueberry lining to the lovely brick walkway. I cant tell you how excited I am and how grateful to everyone who showed up, and to Zach for rounding up all those tools, and Gretchen for answering my wish to plant blueberries in a public place. The picture only shows the folks who showed up first – many more came out to help after it was taken – gives me hope for this world!
THANK YOU!
maureen
www.GvilleBlueberryFarmFriends
Hello Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm!
Hope you are all enjoying the great weather. I know I am loving being outside without a coat. If you are missing working outside with the ‘Friends’ then please join us at the Citizen’s Co-op Gardens to install a blueberry patch, and a strawberry bed, this Thursday 2/3/11 at 4pm! The gardens are located on the sw corner of the intersection between sw 5th ave. and 3rd st., if you havent checked it out you will love what you see, I sure did!
Bring a shovel if you can and maybe a rain poncho if it looks wet that day (all the better to transplant!) The blueberry suckers were taken with Kenny’s permission from between the rows where they would have gotten mowed at the Blueberry Farm, and the bareroot strawberry starts are from the Edible Plant Project www.edibleplantproject.org .
Also some friends are selling a 10 acre parcel of cleared land with a nice house on it, located right behind the blueberry farm. For more info click on this link |
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/Se-27th-Street-Gainesville-FL-32641/2129015161_zpid/
I am looking forward to diggin in the dirt with you, planting berries for the future!
maureen
www.GvilleBlueberryFarmFriends.org
PS-If you havent seen the movie ‘The Future of Food’ you can check it out at the library ,or order it from netflix- but be warned its pretty scary!
Also check out the forwarded news from the Citizen’s Co-op and get on their mailing list if you are interested.
|
 |
 |
|
|
Your New Store Manager
Please join us in welcoming the newest member of the Citizen’s Co-Op management team. Ian Mitnick brings a wealth of food service knowledge to this project. He has worked in the restaurant and hospitality industry in a management capacity for over 15 years. As a young child, Ian grew up on a farm in Maryland, where his parents raised their own vegetables, chickens for eggs, and turkeys for the holidays. All of these, Ian and his younger sister would carry to the local dairy or orchard to trade for fruit or milk. From those products came the cobblers and cheeses that shaped and nurtured Ian’s love of truly good food. During his teen and young adult years, Ian spent the majority of his waking moments inside the stainless steel and stifling heat of commercial kitchens, absorbing all of the knowledge about food that he could. While most recently working for a large corporate restaurant establishment, he came to the realization that he would like to have the intimate relationship with food that he once had as a young, aspiring chef. Citizen’s became the obvious answer with its fresh, local products and dedicated core of passionate members. You can contact him at ian@citizensco-op.com.
|
|
New Website!
Check out the beautifully designed and organized new website for Citizens Co-op. We hope to provide more transparency and communication about the Co-op through this site, and receive member feedback and comments, as we work towards our Spring store opening.
Some quick links for you:
Join this new member-run google group to learn about and discuss issues important to you in the start-up of the Co-op. An open forum, welcome to any member. |
|
Food Film Series
The Co-op is sponsoring a series of documentaries at the Civic Media Center, 433 South Main. Join us for a great film, popcorn, & connecting.
* Supporting UF’s Alternative Spring Breaks
|
Message from a Producer Member
Hello everyone,
The cold has slowed things down quite a bit, but thanks to God, we are still pumping out the veggies. I’m writing to let you know that I would like to sell 11 more CSA shares, to bring me up to 100. It will be a 16 week subscription for the spring with all the good stuff like watermelon and tomatoes. The details are here. You can sign-up online. Thank you,
Jordan Brown
The Family Garden CSA
|
|
|
Submit Content
As a co-op member, you are welcome to submit content to the bi-weekly newsletter, announcing community events and issues around the local food system. Leave a comment on our community connect page. |
 |
|
| Join Today! |
|
|
Invest Online
Thanks to you – we have reached our initial fundraising benchmark of $100,000 in Investment Shares sold!! Members can still purchase shares online now, for a limited time, until we raise all the required funds. If you purchase soon, you can still receive an 8% annual dividend at the end of this year.
|
|
|
|
|
Hello, Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm,
I would like to thank all of you for your efforts and contributions large and small to the Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm these past three years. We have laughed and sweated and worked and picked together at the farm, and in so doing, have maintained the berry bushes and roadways enough so that co/owner Kenny, who has allowed us to do our thing the last three years, is interested in farming it himself. This is a fulfillment of part of our mission we were hoping would happen when we formed the group in early 08, that the farm would remain a farm and the bushes would be maintained for future harvests, and not allowed to be engulfed in vines and trees, and that some public access(this year in the form of U-Pick and on-site vegetable sales) would be made possible. So our group will be ceasing work trade activities for the time being (at least until after this summer is over), and ‘working on our roots’ so to speak, by formalizing our structure and focusing on obtaining other forms of support for, and from, the community and the farm. Also Kenny has expressed support for continuing to bring groups of children out to pick berries and show them their local farm, and the beauty and potential of this gem in our midst. I will keep my records of all of your hours in case anything changes, but I must inform you that no pickin cards will be handed out this year and the only access to berries will be through Kenny, but he has a friend who is doing a great job mowing and he is talking about hiring professional crews out to maintain the bushes and growing row crops, and this could be exactly what the farm needs to reach its potential productivity. I will continue beekeeping at the farm and I will keep you updated about future opportunities to participate at the farm and elsewhere and contribute to its productivity and viability as a farm. Future activities could include facilitating groups of children to come out picking, facilitating startup of a farmers market or veggie stand at the farm, leasing a patch of blueberries for the friends to pick (Next year at the earliest), and any other way we can help bring the community and the farm together that jibes with Kenny’s wish to farm the land, and maintain controll over the berry and other crops.
I am aware of how many people were excited about working – I was one of you! Please believe I have spent the last few months since the season trying to make this happen where we could continue working while respecting Kenny’s wishes, but he has finally made it clear he wants no work trade. Though I am not giving up hope on work trade forever, since I believe it was an overwhelmingly good program for the farm and the communtiy, and I feel there is a need in the community (and on the farm). So we will work in other avenues until we again have permission to implement the work trade.
Kenny’s main issue with work trade, it seems is that he believes that some of our group picked berries and sold them without giving him the $1/pound that he asked for. So if this applies to you, you could do the ‘Friends’ a great service by letting me know and sending a check. I doubt there were many of you, if any, who did this, but Kenny is convinced someone sold berries at Wards and other stores that he should have gotten paid for. If you know of anyone who picked on the farm and sold berries, but were not members of the group – please let me know – it might help.
Although there will be no work parties for the ‘Friends’, the Edible Plant Project will be in need of your help in relocating and building a facility nearby (literally right behind the farm)as they have been asked to leave the farm by Kenny. To be added to the edible plant project’s email list please contact Michael at ufdionysus@aol.com so you can keep updated on work parties and events.
Thanks again for all of your hard work and support! Because of you, the farm is still a farm and more productive now than it has been in years!
Stay tuned for more updates in the continuing saga of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm!
maureen
www.gvilleblueberryfarmfriends.org
PS=>Pls Read below about how you can help the edible plant project =>
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:28:01 +0000
From: edibleplantproject@yahoogroups.com
To: edibleplantproject@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [edibleplantproject] Digest Number 732
Messages In This Digest (2 Messages)
Messages
- 1a.
-
Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:09 pm (PST)
Hi everyone. We’ve set a time and date for getting the fence material
from the donor site.
This Saturday, 1/15/11, from 10am till 2 pm.
We really need people to come help with this one. I,E, not our normal
Sunday skeleton crew. (actually, Dan and I won’t be there)
Please meet at Joni’s place, where our new nursery will be. She will lead
the group to some land that was recently acquired by the Alachua
Conservation Trust, and has some fences that are not desired by ACT. We need
loppers, bolt cutters, and post-hole diggers. We need you to clip the brads that
attach the fence to the posts, and then wiggle the posts out of the
ground. Sometimes there are vines that need to be removed from the fence too.
The posts will be stacked on Joni’s trailer and the fence will be rolled up
and put on the trailer too.
Directions:
To get to Joni’s place, follow the directions to the blueberry farm, but go
past it. Take the next left turn at 23rd pl. Go to the end, and go
through the gate with all the no-trespassing signs. Follow the road all the
way around. You will see blueberries from the back side of the berry farm
through the fence to the left if you look. Keep going till you get to the
fenced enclosures with chickens and sheep, etc. Park somewhere out of the
way, but not near the house. Our new nursery will be in the cleared area
behind the turkeys.
Good luck. If we get enough help, we should be able to get all the fence
we’ll need in one or two trips. We need the fence to protect our plants
from the deer that are common in that area. Thanks in advance for your help
in this challenging time.
Michael
- 1b.
-
Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:17 pm (PST)
I forgot to mention, to contact Joni call 352-262-7300 or email
_joni@opticsforthet ropics.org_ (mailto:joni@opticsforthetr opics.org)
In a message dated 1/11/2011 9:09:57 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
ufdionysus@aol. com writes:
Hi everyone. We’ve set a time and date for getting the fence material
from the donor site.
This Saturday, 1/15/11, from 10am till 2 pm.
We really need people to come help with this one. I,E, not our normal
Sunday skeleton crew. (actually, Dan and I won’t be there)
Please meet at Joni’s place, where our new nursery will be. She will lead
the group to some land that was recently acquired by the Alachua
Conservation Trust, and has some fences that are not desired by ACT. We need
loppers, bolt cutters, and post-hole diggers. We need you to clip the brads that
attach the fence to the posts, and then wiggle the posts out of the
ground. Sometimes there are vines that need to be removed from the fence too.
The posts will be stacked on Joni’s trailer and the fence will be rolled up
and put on the trailer too.
Directions:
To get to Joni’s place, follow the directions to the blueberry farm, but
go past it. Take the next left turn at 23rd pl. Go to the end, and go
through the gate with all the no-trespassing signs. Follow the road all the
way around. You will see blueberries from the back side of the berry farm
through the fence to the left if you look. Keep going till you get to the
fenced enclosures with chickens and sheep, etc. Park somewhere out of the
way, but not near the house. Our new nursery will be in the cleared area
behind the turkeys.
Good luck. If we get enough help, we should be able to get all the fence
we’ll need in one or two trips. We need the fence to protect our plants
from the deer that are common in that area. Thanks in advance for your help
in this challenging time.
Michael
Yahoo! Groups
Start a group
in 3 easy steps.
Connect with others.
Need to Reply?
Click one of the “Reply” links to respond to a specific message in the Daily Digest.
Hello, Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm!
Hope you have all had a great year and are enjoying this crisp weather after the scorching summer. Now the farm is blanketed in gold and brown and dappled with red and yellow, the bees are brooding and biding cold time and the roudy bands of wild turkeys are giving thanks and living large. The ducks on the pond seem to enjoy the cold, and the coyotes were heard having a wild party last full moon night!
Its high time to get to work in the rows and this Thursday at 1:30 we will have a chainsaw day to cut oak trees out of the blueberry rows. Even if you dont have a chainsaw, there will be lots of brush to be hauled out of the rows after the logs are cut. Bring gloves and If you bring a chainsaw, please bring eye protection and any other protective gear you have. Also remember to bring plenty of water, and that there are no bathroom facilities available.
Tis the season for cutting logs to inoculate with shiitake and other mushroom spawn to grow your own gourmet mushrooms. Michael, from the Edible Plant Project www.EdiblePlantProject.org will be spearheading this endeavor and he has made a yahoo group to make communication easier, so…
If you are interested in learning how to grow your own shiitakes (and other edible and medicinal fungi)and would like to participate in the process at the Blueberry Farm please email Michael at UFDionysus@aol.com.
Thank you all for your kind emails, and please accept my apologies for not always responding - I am hopefull about the future of the farm, and I will continue to do my best to make it as productive and beautiful as possible. I look forward to working with you all this year and next, making our favorite farm a better place.
Also if you are interested in digging blueberry sucker plants out of the places they will be mowed, bring a shovel and plastic bag/s.
So C’mon out this Thursday at 1:30 to help cut oak logs out of the rows. Please come through the entrance by the creek which usually has a chain across it and park in the mowed area near the yellow tractor outside the back of the fenced in barnyard compound. (take the first right by the corner of the fence near the greenhouse and park outside the fence and walk in to the greenhouse/potting shed area) Please do not enter through the main gate by the barn because Kenny has asked us to limit traffic through there.
Hope to see you this Thursday at 1:30 down at the farm – dont forget hats and gloves and please leave pet friends at home.!
maureen
www.GvilleBlueberryFarmFriends.org
|
|
