Small Farm Conference @ Wilmington College

This weekend, the Clinton County OSU extension office is hosting a regional small-farm conference here at Wilmington College, and the schedule should be exciting to anyone remotely interested in small-scale food production.

There will be workshops on pastured poultry, Community Supported Agriculture systems, bee-keeping, starting a small farm, specialty crop production and dozens of others. The presenters for the workshops are a mix of local farmers, OSU extension educators and college professors from around Ohio.

The conference will begin on Friday, March 12 at 5:30 p.m. with a discussion called "A Night of Organics," which will explore all things organic farming. The workshops will begin in earnest on Saturday morning, with registration beginning at 7:30.

We highly recommend you look at the full schedule here, to see if any of the workshops are of interest to you.

Click here for a registration form for the conference,  click  here to view a conference flyer, and here to see a map of Wilmington College.

Choice Comes to Clinton County

Today's post comes from Jessica Braun, our Food Distribution Coordinator.

Today marked the first day of a Choice Pantry system at Sugartree Ministries on Main Street. (In a previous post here, we discussed the benefits of choice pantries.) The clients who came in expecting their usual standardized bag of groceries were extremely pleased to find shelves full of items for their choosing.

Serving over 100 clients in under an hour can be a challenge even in the simplest of pantry systems. The Sugartree volunteers, however, took the new choice pantry idea in stride assisting clients in how many and which items to choose.

"This is only the second time I've been here to get groceries," one client said. "But this is much better than last time, I'm going to bring back the things I won't use from last week's bag."

But she wasn't the only enthusiastic client today. Many were delighted with the idea of being able to choose their own groceries to better compliment what they already had in their pantries at home. "It makes you think. It's like going to the grocery store, you have to think about what you already have and what you can make when you put things together."

Choice Pantries are not unique to Sugartree Ministries. Many food pantries throughout the country have found great success in moving to a choice system. Hope Emergency Program in Lynchburg has found great success in choice pantry stating that it has saved them money because they no longer purchase items that clients do not want. Another local pantry, the New Vienna United Methodist Church also employs a choice system where clients check wanted items on a grocery list of things and orders are filled by volunteers. They find it works very well for the small space they employ but does not allow as much client interaction as could be hoped.

Director, Allen Willoughby, and the rest of the Sugartree Ministries Board have been enthusiastic about the project and are hoping to perfect the process in the coming weeks. They are also hoping that projects such as the Choice Pantry inspire surrounding communities and food pantries to see them as a model of how to make their own communities a better place.

Everyone loves Choice!

March Newsletter

Our March newsletter is now available to download and print, or you can find a copy around Wilmington at various locations. There are also copies available in the Center for Service & Civic Engagement at Wilmington College.

Click here or the icon above to view the newsletter.

Nearly 70 local citizens attend Fresh Network community meeting

Last night's introductory meeting of the Clinton County Fresh Network was very well attended, and we were pleased with the number of farmers and citizens who showed up to learn about this new initiative and network with the local distributors who came to present.

If you weren't able to attend, below is a recap story about the meeting that ran in today's Wilmington News Journal. Here is a link to the story, but it's also copied below.

Need a job? Come work with us this Summer

We're excited to announce that this May, when the growing season is in full-bloom, we will be offering 20 paid Summer Associate positions who will help in all aspects of our project. Summer Associates will be working in our community garden, in backyard and school gardens around the community, at the Clinton County Farmers' Market and in other capacities within Grow Food, Grow Hope.

The positions are funded through AmeriCorps* and last for 10 weeks, from May 24 through July 23, 2010. This is the perfect opportunity for college students returning home for the summer, for high school seniors about to leave for school, or for anyone looking for an interesting and meaningful job this Summer. There are no restrictions for who may apply; we encourage anyone interested to submit an application.

Click here to view and print the application instructions, which also list the pay and benefit information for the positions. If you think this opportunity would interest a friend, family member or someone you know, please spread the word!

This Saturday! Winter Farmers' Market returns

Bundle up and come join us for our second Winter Farmers' Market of 2010 on Saturday, February 20th. As always, we will be providing the freshest, most local homemade baked goods, fresh meats, natural skin care, herbs, preserves, and more! The Market will run from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm at Swindlers' & Sons Florists (321 W. Locust St., Wilmington, Ohio).

Click here to view the updated product list and click here to place an order online!

Additionally, while at the Feb. 20th Market, why don't you let Sycamore Tree General Store help you get a jump start on your Spring planting with their free gardening class..."Starting Seed with Soil Blocks - A plant-healthy, economical, & environmentally friendly way to start plants from seed."

This class will cover the basic ingredients and techniques for making and using soil blocks, transplanting using soil blocks, advantages for healthy seedlings, money saving ideas, and more. Participants in the class will receive a free booklet with additional information and techniques for making & using soil blocks. Come get a jumpstart on your spring planting and try your hand at a fun new technique that produces great results. Additional tools, books, seeds and resources will be available for purchase.

The class will begin at 10:00 am on the 20th. For more information, please contact Tim or Jamie Patten at info@STGeneralStore or by calling 937-987-0988.

As always, we encourage you to place a pre-order before Thursday, Feb. 18, to ensure that our local growers have enough of the products you want.

Hope to see you there!

**Postponed: Clinton County Fresh Network introductory meeting**

Because of the weather today and the forecast for more snow over the next two days, we've decided to reschedule tomorrow's Clinton County Fresh Network introductory meeting for Wednesday, February 24th, two weeks from tomorrow. All of the details-- the start time, the place, the schedule-- will stay the same. (Click here for the full event details).

We apologize for the last minute update, but after talking with participants and organizers, we've decided it would be safest to shift the meeting to a later-- less snowy-- date.

Thanks for your cooperation, and check back here for more updates.

Reminder: Clinton County Fresh Network meeting tomorrow!

It's not too late to RSVP for our introductory meeting of the Clinton County Fresh Network tomorrow, Wednesday the 10th, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. on the Wilmington College campus (click here for full details).

Come join local farmers, restaurants, distributors and others like you, Joe / Jane Consumer, as we discuss techniques to network with local actors in our regional food economy. The meeting will be proceeded by an informal reception with refreshments provided, courtesy of Sodexo.

We're hoping the weather lets up a little between now and then, but as things stand now, the meeting is still scheduled as planned. Check back here often for updates, or sign up at right for our mailing list, which will be updated frequently.

Thanks, and we hope to see you tomorrow!

'Read & Seed' and the joys of sweet basil

We hosted another 'Read & Seed' event on campus this weekend, where kids learned about herb gardening and potted their own sweet basil seedlings in take-home containers.

We had about 10 children participate this week, despite the cold weather. There are a bunch of good photos taken by volunteer Rachel King, and more information about 'Read and Seed' after the jump.

Why the beef with school gardens?

If you follow the world of food policy online, even casually, then last week's doozy of story in the Atlantic titled "Cultivating Failure" surely caught your eye. In it, the talented but seemingly misguided Caitlin Flanagan fiercely criticizes the idea of school gardens, claiming that allowing our children to toil in a garden reduces them to the status of migrant workers, who have striven desperately to pull themselves from such taxing and backbreaking manual labor. A school, she posits, is a place for learning science, math and literature, from books alone! and surely not from the natural world.

I won't spend much time arguing with Flanagan's non-sequitor; instead, I'll link you to some excellent and much-expected critiques. First, there's Chef Ann Cooper's response here. Hers is particularly important to read because she's spent much of the past 10 years advocating for school gardens and increased education about food issues in our elementary schools. Next, there's Tom Philpott's response, where he draws on his experience as both a farmer and an educator to pick apart Flanagan's rationale. My favorite response is from Philpott's fellow Grist writer Kurt Michaael Friese here. In it, he writes three sentences that sum up our view on the matter verbatim.

There is nothing taught in schools that cannot be learned in a garden. Math and science to be sure, but also history, civics, logic, art, literature, music, and the birds and the bees both literally and figuratively. Beyond that though, in a garden a student learns responsibility, teamwork, citizenship, sustainability, and respect for nature, for others, and for themselves.

 Flanagan's article is particularly salient to us, as we are in the planning stages of collaborating with local school systems to implement school gardens into their curriculum. We are very close to establishing a number of raised bed plots at Hillsboro Elementary, where almost half of the student population (49.5%) qualifies for free or reduced lunch. Gardens can be exceptional learning tools for our youth, and if more people like Flanagan actually spent time in a garden, with children, they would realize it immediately.

Choice Pantries: An obvious choice

Today's post comes from Jessica Braun, our Food Distribution Coordinator.
     Imagine for a moment you do not have enough money to go grocery shopping this week.  You arrive at your local food pantry, wait in line, sign-in, and be handed a box of food and pointed toward the door.  Do you feel that you've been helped or do you feel like a number?  Now take your box home and open it inside you find: cans of green beans, corn, cranberry sauce, and tuna as well as boxes of mac n cheese and ramen noodles, some frozen sausage, and hamburger buns. Now do you feel you've been helped?  You have a box of food but you're allergic to tuna, so you throw it out.  Your kids refuse to eat green beans and cranberry sauce so the cans sits in your cupboard collecting dust.  Perhaps you eat only Kosher foods and give the sausage to your neighbor.  That doesn't leave you with much, not to mention the food waste.

     Now imagine that when you go into your local food pantry a volunteer walks you through a grocery store setting and helps you choose items that you and your family will eat.  You walk through the aisles and choose peas instead of green beans, fruit cocktail instead of cranberry sauce, skip the tuna, and choose frozen chicken breast over sausage.  You thank the volunteer who'd walked the aisles with you as they offer to help you carry things out to your car.  Do you still feel like a number?  Do you feel you've been helped?

     A Choice Food Pantry operates like a grocery store.  Clients choose the items they want/will use based on their families needs.  Choice Pantries eliminate food waste as well as allow for dietary restrictions such as allergies or diabetes.  Less food being wasted is economical for the pantry allowing it to buy more food and better serve their clients.  It also creates more volunteer interaction and the chance for volunteers to teach clients responsible food choices.  But most importantly it allows clients to make their own food choices which boosts client morale and lowers the shame many feel about going to a food pantry.  Don't believe us?  Visit a Choice Food Pantry online!

Introducing: The Clinton County Fresh Network

On Wednesday, February 10, 2010, you are formally invited to the introduction of the Clinton County Fresh Network.

During this informational meeting, we hope to explain in detail the Fresh Network and explore what the Network can do for you. The meeting will be held from 5:30 - 7:30 at the Pyle Center, Wilmington College, in the dining room C & D.

Those who would like to attend are encouraged to RSVP. For more information and details on how to RSVP, please see our Upcoming Events page here.