potential paid internship

this message from Chrissa:

Hi Hugh,
I was chatting with one of my favorite farmers at the market today, and he asked for assistance in identifying college student types who might be interested in working on his farm. He typically uses immigrant labor but recognizes the growing interest in learning farming skills and would like to share this opportunity…he’s also looking for help staffing farm stands. I THINK his intention is to pay (not sure)… He’s definitely an old school farmer, not organic, but he’s a mid-sized 5th generation family farm and is really trying to change with the times. He’s a real character…

Could you share this with your students? The farm is in the White Marsh/Perry Hall area, they can look at the farm’s website at www.martinherbfarms.com. If anyone is interested, they can contact Kimberly Martin (kmartin@martinherbfarms.com). They can say that they heard through me that Earl was interested in finding intern farm hands.

Thanks!

Chrissa

Chrissa Carlson
Food Supplement Nutrition Education
Gardening for Nutrition Educator
Baltimore City and County FSNE Project Leader

Maryland Cooperative Extension
1840 York Road, Suite J
Timonium, MD 21093
chrissa@umd.edu; 410-666-0445; 410-667-6219 (fax)

Fresh Start, or Great Kids Farm is a day dreamy example of successful farming on a local level. Greg Strella is casual but still approachable when explaining the many ongoing projects at the farm: the maintenance of a handful of acres of greens, beans, turnips and soon corn, a weekly collection of micro-greens, beehives, goats, chickens, hosting workshops with students as well as community members as well as an evening with Will Allen, a small CSA and growing food for:

this guy. (Tony Geraci)

What is most important about Great Kids Farm (in addition to the very impressive agricultural success the farm has experienced this year) is what the Farm symbolizes.

Though Great Kids aims to be exciting to students, seeing goats and chickens is always pretty neat...at any age. The farm's layout (with the chickens immediately seen upon driving toward the fields) highlights the stuff kids will think is cool, as well as promotes accessibility of the farm. With the exception of what keeps the animals herded, there aren't many fences at Great Kids, just trails and trees. Greg mentioned today, that most people in agriculture, at least the people he's met, have been relatively open about learning how to grow. Great Kids farms exemplifies a movement of open, exciting, and intelligent agriculture.

Tony Gerachi's plans to incorporate good food into the school system are introducing new standards of health to students across the city. By incorporating Great Kids, it not only creates a respectable stable location for farm learning, but makes farming seem meaningful. Additionally, Great Kids works with many other local (Parks and People, Roy Skeen) as well as nationally known organizations (Will Allen and Growing Power), but the whole operation remains approachable and open.

Really, Greg Strella seems like a nice guy. He makes me want to do what he is doing. Working there today, I felt far away from my normal life (which is sometimes just as consumed with shoveling and growing plants). Great Kids, though a tangible example of agriculture in the city, felt far away. The layer of sweat, mushroom and manure coating my face felt pretty alright to me.

Rain-Barrels

Some of you in the class have expressed interest in making rain-barrels, and we talked briefly about the possibility of metal drums earlier today. As I was looking for the address for the Pepsi plant here in Baltimore which sells barrels, I came across the information that rain barrels must be food-grade containers, or else thoroughly cleansed, in respect to the chemicals that will otherwise contaminate the water and soil. To obtain barrels from the Pepsi plant, you must call ahead and arrange an appointment to pick them up. Barrels are $5 each.

this is the address and contact information for the Pepsi plant:

1650 Union Ave,
Baltimore, MD 21211
Charlie Dickerson, 410.554.7785.

and here is a page with details on building the rain-barrels:

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/ed/rainbarrel.html

The Future of Food

Many of you may have already seen this but for those of you who haven't, it's a fairly interesting documentary about genetically modified food, especially the second half:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/67878/the-future-of-food

Help Exchange

HELP EXCHANGE: free volunteer work exchange

This is a very interesting website with some good opportunities. It is a network where people post want ads for farm help (or homestays) in exchange for room and board. One of my friends participated in a homestay in Glasgow and really enjoyed it.

Here is a link to the page describing opportunities in the mid-atlantic region.

Mid Atlantic USA volunteer work exchange

There is one opportunity in Newburg, MD and several in NY that sound interesting.

You need to sign up for the on-line community to get the contact info. in most cases :( however I think my friends are still signed up for it. So if you are interested I can try and get contact info.

Here is a link to WWOOF which is a similar program, and just in case: couch surfers.

-Amber

Institutionalized Gardening

Despite the excessive driving and gas guzzlage, visiting all of the sites with Chrissa Carlson made for a productive and wonderful Wednesday. Though claiming to represent "the man", Chrissa's voice spoke louder for the children of Baltimore City Schools than for any government system. The benefit of playing this part is that she has the opportunity to find loopholes around and healthy alternatives to the legalities of school food, bringing community and institution together. The problem, however, appears when other people come between the two. Teachers, who one would assume care passionately about their students and job, sometimes just don't want to "waste time" gardening when Chrissa isn't there. I emphasize sometimes because we met one teacher who clearly loved her job helping the students: Ariel Demas, of Hampstead Hill Academy, who I'll talk about further on.

The day began with a visit to Rosemont Elementary, a charter school affiliated with the nearby Coppin State University. An unfortunate realization came to pass as Chrissa was informed that two men had urinated on the garden, forcing the school's decision to refuse any future harvested crops. "I think this project is doomed," Chrissa said as she approached the class with the bad news. But as we all know, a simple wash (hopefully not in the Baltimore City School leaded water) is all you need to clean those crops. Disappointed, we all got in our cars and drove off to RICA. And I must say that RICA truly met the vision stated on their website:

"Our vision is to be a national model comprehensive care provider of quality mental health treatment and educational services to emotionally disturbed adolescents and their families. The services offered are fully integrated into the continuum of care available in Maryland."

Without a doubt, this school is devoted to the education of their students. Now I wont risk getting anyone in trouble here, so I wont say much other than some great loopholes can really benefit the students!

Our next trip was over to East Baltimore near Patterson Park at Hampstead Hill Academy, which brings us back to Ariel Demas. Mrs. Demas' program at Hampstead Hill Academy is magnificent. These students will come out of school well prepared for a healthy life, as well as socially and culturally educated, things I wish I had the privilege of learning in my younger years. At Hampstead Hill Academy, we practically gutted and replanted the butterfly garden, where the monarch butterflies Mrs. Demas' students watched grow from caterpillars were to be released on Thursday. Another charter school, Hampstead Hill Academy is blessed with a Principal who truly cares about the education and growth of his students. If only similar ideologies could be practiced in all the rest of Baltimore's schools.

Our day was drawn to an end in front of City Hall. The new garden initiatives that have progressed in the last year or so have already shown their fruit. Food harvested is delivered to nearby soup kitchens, and not sold. Unlike all the other gardens this class has visited, City Hall was not organic, nor pesticide-free. However, I think that can be forgiven considering the many homeless families that receive their dinners from the crops.

Of all the sites, I would argue that RICA is doing the best. I will, however, recognize that not every school has the same opportunities that RICA does. RICA is capable of incorporating summer programs and camps into the students' curriculum, while all other schools can only suggest summer activity, limiting how much they can do with their students. It limits what other schools can grow as well, only foods that can be harvested year round will do well in a school garden. RICA also fundraise with the food they grow, something other schools don't get the chance to do.

Chrissa made some great points. Today, with fast food so cheap and readily available, children don't understand time invested in meal preparation. Because we can buy all of our food processed and frozen, our society has very little horticultural knowledge, and harvesting becomes an issue when teaching children to garden. All we need is to bring back the importance of growing local food, and then we can begin to live sustainably. We cannot continue to live off of over processed and chemically produced foods. Not only are they unhealthy, but they are energy inefficient. But as long as the government subsidizes certain foods, people will always take the easy way out, buying those cheap foods. We need more people like Chrissa to get involved. More people who can bring the government and the people together for the benefit of the whole.

N55 on land ownership

Here is a link to the Denmark based art collective's thoughts about the ownership of land. It pertains to what the class has been talking about in terms of "the commons".

and here is their "manual" (a project) about collective land use.