Fair Food Matters' 2011 Garden Grants

Here is the Gazette article detailing the 16 community gardens that are receiving grants this summer!

I added some links to their respective sites (with help from SW Michigan Dining), pretty cool...

KALAMAZOO — Kalamazoo nonprofit Fair Food Matters has announced recipients of its 2011 Community Garden Grants.

All 16 community gardens are located within Kalamazoo County and will receive between $350 and $850 to purchase raised beds, plants, seeds, garden tools, fencing and other supplies.

The grants are funded by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation.

The focus of the program, according to a press release, is to provide healthy, fresh food to neighbors and friends, to encourage physical activity and strengthen neighborhoods by sharing work, food and fellowship.

Below are the gardens awarded grants.

• Beauty from Ashes Community Garden, West G Ave. at Waldorf St.

• Come-Union Garden, 532 Autumns Way

• Comstock Community Center, 6330 King Highway

• Downtown Kalamazoo Inc. Community Garden, corner of Rose and Lovell St.

• Douglass Community Garden, 1000 West Paterson

• Edible Edison, 1607 Egleston Boulevard

• Historic Stuart Neighborhood Garden, 703 West Willard St.

• Ka’desh Community Garden, 1339 North Krom St.

• Kalamazoo Central High School Community Garden, 2432 North Drake Road

• Mt. Zion Community Garden, 120 Roberson St.

• Oakwood Community Garden, 2529 Springmont Ave.

• Parkwood-Upjohn Elementary School Garden, 2321 South Park St.

• Salvation Army Community Garden, 1700 Burdick St.

• Schoolcraft UMC Community Garden, U.S. 131 at Clay St., Schoolcraft (formerly Hoppy’s Garden store)

• Tree of Life Urban Garden, 111 Dixie Ave.

• Vine Neighborhood Community Garden, east side of Westnedge (between Dutton and Walnut).

Kalamazoo Farmers Markets

The transitioning 2011 market season is upon us in Kalamazoo.

Here are the links and schedules for current winter markets and future summer markets:

Bronson Winter Market

601 John St.

Bronson's Sky Court Cafe

Last day: April 29th

10:30A.M. - 2P.M.

Borgess Indoor/Outdoor Market

3025 Gull Rd.

Marketplace Cafe

(Year round)

Every-other Thursday

(Next day: April 28th)

11A.M. - 2P.M.

Kalamazoo Farmers Market (Bank St.)

1204 Bank St.

June - October

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays 7 a.m - 2 p.m.

May and November

Saturdays (only) 7 a.m. - 2 p.m.

First day: May 7th

Douglass Farmers Market

1000 W. Paterson

One Tuesday per month

First day: May 24th

3P.M. - 7P.M.

People's Food Co-Op 100-Mile Market

436 S. Burdick (PFC Parking Lot)

Wednesdays

3P.M. - 7P.M

(Will probably be at PFC's new location this year, check their website)

Spring wrap-up, project evolution?

This class and this semester has certainly provided the impetus and spark to start a project and feed my personal interest in the local food community of Kalamazoo. Seeing how various student organizations operate; how the winter months can be taken advantage of as an undergrad.

I have been to markets, grocery stores and gardens in Kalamazoo - but only as an onlooker, a consumer. What changes now is how I become a student to the neighborhood, learning the ways of some old timers and newcomers alike.

I've made connections with the Kalamazoo Land Bank, People's Food Co-Op, Fair Food Matters, and various WMU organizations. I have yet to hit the pavement with the neighborhood "garden network" who have members in the Vine, Oakland, Douglas, Westwood, and Edison districts. The wide breadth of knowledge at Tillers International and local CSA's has not been tapped yet either.

Of course, something more to look forward to is the growing season. Spring has arrived, with the showers of April providing water that will spur May buds and flowers. Seeds are germinating, compost piles are being sifted, potting soil stuffed in containers. The Kalamazoo greenhouse district is at a frenzied pace, preparing for the commercial flat selling season.


When the madness of final exams is over, this blog will be correctly redesigned and resources will be organized.

April 8th, Campus Beet Open House

Alrighty! So these pictures are from almost TWO weeks ago. The Campus Beet Open House on April 8th was awesome.

Some of you went and experienced the unique atmosphere and truly exquisite food. The place was packed. I think all 500 people were fed that showed up, the Jazz band was setting the mood until the poetry began.

Tons of options from an Avocado raw soup, root vegetable pasty, spicy chai tea... the list went on to total over a dozen menu items that could potentially be offered at a student-run cafe on campus.

The whole point of this shindig was to get the students exposed to the high quality of food and character such a cafe would provide to the university community. In my opinion and conversations from the night, the crowd was very impressed, very engaged in the ideas and ambience set up by the Campus Beet and gang of volunteers.

Check out the pictures and hit up their blog at http://thecampusbeet.wordpress.com/
You can also find them on Facebook here.

Carbon footprint test

--Green Lake House--
~2500 sq. ft., 2 residents
March 2011
Eletricity : 443 kWh
Natural Gas : 17.5 mcf
Carbon footprint : 4734 lbs. / month

--Kalamazoo House--
~1100 sq. ft., 3 residents
March 2011
Electricity : 654 kWh
Natural Gas : 5.1 mcf
Carbon footprint : 2649 lbs. / month


Two different houses on opposite sides of the state, both are in similar climates but have contrasting floorplans and energy consumption patterns. The driving habits are not too far off, us in Kalamazoo drive around 1500 miles a month between two cars. At Green Lake, the two residents drive about 1800 miles a month again, between two cars.

The World Resources Institute is an American think tank based in Washington D.C. Their mission is to "move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations".

The carbon footprint model they created uses the two most carbon intensive activities most people carry out daily. Transportation, miles per month and the efficiency of the vehicle - is half of the puzzle. The other side is energy usage in the home. The Green Lake house has a gas power water heater, clothes dryer, and stove. Kalamazoo house uses electricity for the appliances. Both houses have gas furnaces.

Muddy flats

The Growing Matters Garden is located on what seems to be some darn good black soil of Kalamazoo's old claim to fame, celery. The mucky, muddy flats are a great starting point for a vegetable garden. While a bit compacted and water-rich, it is much easier to fix than soils high in clay or sand. Today's focus was on the compost piles and spring cleanup - two things perfect for Saturdays in April...

They had three different groups out for the first volunteer workday of the season at their location on N. Westnedge. I had gotten there with two groups overlapping - it was picture time and they thought I was their photographer.

One of the first groups was a high school class on their way to Peace Jam. I wasn't familiar with the event, but I should have! Western was involved, along with our Student Association.

The other morning group was a fraternity taking part in a volunteer operation through Spring Into the Streets.

Bill McKibben post : Eaarth

I do not really enjoy dealing with the idea that our home is doomed. Did the last century kill our visions of greener pastures and blue skies? McKibben knows...

"360[ppm] is now known to be the level at which coral reeds cease to be viable in the long run." -Zoological Society of London, 2009, on the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

McKibben is an advisor, an avalanche gun revealing the instabilities of our global society. He's telling us what is scary, how we're responsible, and how we cannot do anything about it. Sometimes literally nothing. You can't shut off the methane leaking from permafrost layers.

"We're running Genesis backward, decreating."
"Here's all I'm trying to say: The planet on which our civilization evolved no longer exists."

I've heard ramblings from the small farm agriculture community that growing seasons are becoming longer and in some areas more arid or wet. McKibben touches on some topics. Rain will come down harder and in greater quantity in a shorter period of time. Lightning strikes are increasing, cloud formations and respiration are lessening. In the Amazon, the flow of water away from the ocean has been slowed - usually it would make its way to the Andes range west of the great forest... now the waters are becoming more and more saline. Even in our own backyard, gardeners can plant sooner and harvest later. Flowers are blooming forty days earlier in the Himalayas.

Some awesome USGS visuals of Kilauea
Kilauea Pt. 1
Kilauea Pt. 2

Fair Food Matters

Radio Farmer gains steam. Later this week, I'll have some news from the WMU gardens, plus WMU Natural Areas and Landscaping Services. Pictures to follow on Sunday from the volunteer workday at Growing Matters Garden.

Fair Food Matters is a not-for-profit community organization founded about ten years ago in Kalamazoo. Growing Food Matters is the gardening / education arm of Fair Food Matters. Their quest is similar to that of Radio Farmer, including their affinity to using locally grown food as a catalyst in community building.

Their garden locations are north of the city, and they serve multiple markets in the summer season including People's Food Co-Op's (PFC) 100-Mile Market and - new for this year - the Douglass Market which meets once a week. More info on those markets in future posts.

Internships at Growing Food Matters can include more teaching and social interaction or more gardening and market work. On a daily basis, the workshops range from learning about soil maintenance to music in the garden. Interns can go into a shadow-type position with full time employees to become comfortable around the community and material.

April 2nd, 12 - 4pm Volunteer Workday @2119 N. Westnedge
May 21, 2 - 5pm Open House @2119 N. Westnedge

You can check out everything Fair Food Matters does at
http://www.fairfoodmatters.org/

Bill McKibben : Hope, Human and Wild

Bill McKibben. Born 1960, Palo Alto, California. Acclaimed author of The End of Nature (1990). McKibben has been known to be quite the "doom and gloom" writer, someone who throws the dreadful facts in our faces with no shame whatsoever and lives on to write another bestseller. He is easy to read, fun to follow on adventures and analysis, but also quite insightful with his methodologies.

The second chapter of Hope, Human and Wild is one of the keystone topics of the book. McKibben focuses on the livability of Curitiba, Brazil. Bringing in former experiences living in other major world cities, the compare and contrast scenarios exemplify how different cultures, politics and agendas roll with the design of a city and lifestyle. Where automobiles are the common thread among cities in the U.S., Curitiba immediately took a hands-on approach to this issue by focusing on the people. How can a city live lightly with a million and a half inhabitants? Curitiba showed McKibben the way to salvation with public transportation, appropriately designed streets and buildings, and probably most importantly - a political environment that bends with the times.

The Radio Farmer Blog Project

The Radio Farmer student project aims at exposing the local and regional food communities of Kalamazoo and West Michigan but also involve areas such as Detroit and Pittsburgh. We'll bring together the innovative techniques and experiences of city farmers, producers, marketers, and buyers. Creative information for local agriculturalists and holistic land users in the new age.

With support from guest writers and photographers, Radio Farmer will hit on a broad range of topics important to local communities. News and events, volunteering and activism. As the growing season gains steam, Radio Farmer will be covering everything from seed to fruit.

Stay tuned!