Growing Clarkston

Spring veggies for sale!

Joyous after our first big harvest of 2011. Thank you to Clarkston City Council member Dean Moore for these beautiful pictures.

Showing off some of our spring vegetables -- and Venance with our impressively fancy scale.

Super vendors Maria and Halieth with Susan at the Grant Park Farmers Market.

The Burundi women sold out at their first day at market. Thanks for all those who bought veggies from us! Grant Park reported that 1800 people came to the market on opening day - wow!

Farm Mapping

How do you create a farm map with 15 people who don't speak much English? Part of the issue is the too-many-chefs-in-the-kitchen aspect, and the other part is the challenge of translating something complex like crop rotation. This approach ended up working pretty well.

We spent about an hour gathered around the picnic tables discussing our selling plans to determine what vegetables we would plant this summer.

Next, we began looking at our farm map to see what would be possible. Using two large sheets from a flip chart, we created a paper model of the farm.

It became a bit like a puzzle to put all the pieces together. Having flash card pictures of all the vegetables (image on one side, English word on the other) helped us get around the language barriers.

Here is our almost finished product -- looks great!

Shiitake Shrooms

Over the slow winter months, we decided it would be a great idea to start a small shiitake mushroom farm! We got supplies, found some perfect white oak, then gathered the women to what is now called "the mushroom house" -- Susan's house, that is. We had a ball! And with any luck, we'll be seeing our first mushrooms in the next few months. All in all, we've inoculated 35 logs so far.

Drilling holes for the shiitake spawn. First time using a power drill - oh yeah!

Plugging the holes using the inoculator tools.

All together now!

The women got the hang of it very quickly.

Announcing the Global Growers Network of Georgia

Refugee Family Services announces the

GLOBAL GROWERS NETWORK OF GEORGIA

Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program will support food and agriculture projects in Metro-Atlanta’s refugee community

(Stone Mountain, GA) – In 2011, Refugee Family Services will lead the creation of the Global Growers Network of Georgia. The Global Growers Network will provide linkages and support for existing urban agriculture and community garden projects that involve refugee newcomers to DeKalb County. It will also support the development of refugee leadership for new growing projects in the refugee community, as well as link garden and farm projects with volunteer support, growing expertise, job/business training, and community resources. The Network also supports the development of a Clarkston Farmers’ Market so that food producers and growers will have a place to sell their food, and so that more people will have access to fresh fruits and vegetables familiar to their cultures. Our goals in the refugee community include: increased incomes; access to quality and familiar food; better physical and mental health; independence; and community integration.

The Global Growers Network will also work with key food systems stakeholders such as the DeKalb County Board of Health and the Atlanta Local Food Initiative to strengthen urban agriculture, increase access to healthy foods, and work towards the prevention of chronic disease through active living.

The Network will:

• Meet with refugee and mainstream project leaders to develop Network plans and strategies.
• Support the development of a local farmers’ market and ensure refugee participation in the market, a project led by the Clarkston Community Center.
• Identify and secure land for growing space.
• Establish a “Garden Center” to support growing needs.
• Support Network projects with education and training.
• Host workshops to exchange knowledge and information about growing and selling.
• Support the development of refugee project leaders.
• Coordinate volunteers to assist project needs.

Our Community Farm Project is extremely excited to be a part of the Network. OCFP played a key role in the development of the Network, and we were able to leverage the success of this project in order to expand our work in the refugee community. Robin Chanin, the coordinator of Our Community Farm Project, is moving on to lead the creation of the Network, which will allow her to continue to play an active role at the farm as well as in supporting other food projects. Please contact Robin for additional information.

Resting Farm

We’re finally putting the farm to rest for the winter. We harvested the last of our protected winter and African squash fruits. Now they’ll cure at least a week so their sugars develop and the fruit will be even tastier. The severe frost this past week bit many of our lettuce and cabbage plants. In the spring, we’ll break up and mix in the decomposed plants that belong in the Brassicaceae (Mustard) family to increase the health of our soil. Cabbage, collards, bok choi, and broccoli all belong in this family.

We appreciate the folks from Slow Food Le Cordon Bleu and Slow Food Emory!
Julie Shaffer, Director of Southern region Slow Food, is helping prepare veggies for market.

They mulched most of our farm paths with wood chips, and donated two bags of composted cow manure. Thank you! All-star volunteer Laquita finding worms by the handful. Thanks goes to our beautiful compost.

So now it’s time for our cover crops to take over. We have Johnny’s Fall Mix out in the field. I just took a soil sample so we know what amendments need to be added so our soil and plants will be healthy. Want to test your own soil? See the University of Georgia’s recommended steps: http://www.caes.uga.edu/Publications/displayHTML.cfm?pk_id=7440

Farm Stand Update

Our farm stand at The Atlanta Friends Meeting is off to a successful beginning. It's exciting to hear from repeat customers who are enjoying our greens at home during the week. Bunches of customers were happily buying greens for their family feasts. The Burundi women are doing a great job of setting up our farm stand, keeping track of inventory, taking payment, making change, and breaking down the farm stand. Our salad mixes and bok choi have been fast sellers. In the coming weeks, we'll be giving out a recipe for arugula pesto. We hope to see you there soon.

Produce for Sale!

The farmers of Our Community Farm Project are now selling their all-natural, pesticide/chemical-free produce in Decatur! Come visit The Atlanta Friends Meeting near Decatur High School [Directions]. We sell produce from 11am-12pm on Sundays, except for 11/28 (Thanksgiving). Contact Robin with questions and market availability. So far we have sold arugula, mixed leaf lettuces, spinach, and mustard greens; soon we will be selling winter squash and cooking greens like collards and swiss chard.

Our team comes from Clarkston and St. Mountain to staff the farm stand.

What is our harvesting process? Some plants, like arugula, are pulled up from the field, roots and all. This ensures that the plant stays as fresh as possible. Our lettuce is a cut-and-come-again crop, so we shear off the tops of our lettuce leaving 1/2'' inch above the crown. We harvest everything the preceding day. How about some clean greens? The women have set up a thorough washing system minimize the amount of dirt.

Washing greens.

Weighing and bunching greens

Market Location

Atlanta Friends Meeting http://atlanta.quaker.org/
701 West Howard Avenue, Decatur, Georgia 30030 [Directions] Phone: +1 404-377-2474

Harvest Festival & Picnic

Thank you to all those who joined us at our first annual (we hope!) Harvest Festival & Picnic. We had a great turnout for our family-friendly event, complete with a picnic lunch, face painting, children's activities, and a kudzu basket market from our friends at Bhutan Baskets. We spent the lovely Saturday afternoon celebrating our hard work, eating delicious food, touring the farm, and of course, taking pleasure in the song and dance performed by the Burundi women. The video below briefly captures their performance, which they created especially to thank everyone for coming out to the farm. They told us that their song is about coming to Atlanta and growing vegetables here.

As a fundraiser, the event was a huge success. We exceeded our fundraising goals, thanks to generous support from the community, which puts us in an excellent position to continue our growing efforts next year.

We will post more pictures from the event soon.

Ticket Information

Harvest Festival & Picnic

A Celebration and Fundraiser for Our Community Farm Project

WHEN: October 23rd, noon - 4pm (food served 12:30 - 2)

WHERE: At the farm (121 Sams St, next to Avondale MARTA Station)

WHY: To celebrate our hard work and raise funds for education

Ticket Information:

$15 adults in advance ($20 after 10/20/10!)

$10 children (10 & under)

free for children under 4

1. Buy tickets online ($2 ticket fee) until 10/20/10: click here
2. Mail order tickets (no fee): print this form and mail to RFS by 10/20/10
3. Visit us at Peachtree Road Farmers' Market on Saturday, September 25th, to purchase tickets directly

Save the Date! Harvest Festival & Picnic -- October 23rd

Click image below for details!

In the news!

Community garden gives taste of home to resettled Burundians
By Marsha Walton

Families find comfort in familiar food, companionship in Atlanta suburb.

Buggin' Out on the Farm

In less than 6 months of working to create a microfarm, the ecosystem at 121 Sams St has exploded with diversity. The space is completely transformed and now is teeming with life. While some of the bug species do inflict harm to our plants, we still welcome their presence because we know we are re-introducing balance to the land. I've been accumulating pictures with my trusty iPhone camera, which I can no longer resist sharing. If I've misidentified anything, speak up!

Praying Mantis on African squash

Two lady beetles, enjoying each other's company

An acrobatic grasshopper

Two grasshoppers, displaying their acrobatic abilities a bit differently

Aphid eggs covering our okra! (Spraying soapy water on these does this trick)

Squash eggs on squash plant. We systematically check for these and crush them before they hatch.

Leaf-footed plant bug, sucking the juice out of our tomatoes. They fly, too!

Japanese beetle on okra.

August Update

Annike picks up a Monarch butterfly that likely paid a visit to the farm on its northward summer migration.

Forgive me for the crass picture of the check, but we are extremely excited about our very first restaurant sale! Duck's Cosmic Kitchen hosted a farm-to-table dinner, featuring Our Community Farm Project (specifically, our tomatoes, okra, and mchicha). Susan, Maria, and Robin enjoyed a fabulous five course meal and answered other diners' questions about the farm and project.

Robin leads a tour group from the American Community Gardening Association Conference. We were a part of the Clarkston Tour, also featuring friends at Tobie Grant Garden, Jolly Ave Garden (World Relief), Clarkston Community Garden, and Birch Grove (Bhutanese Garden).

In the news!

Check out this article by Josh Smith from On Common Ground:

Urban farm in Decatur gives African refugees a chance to grow favorites

Preparing for fall

For the past few weeks, we have begun preparations for our fall planting, including seed starting.

The women showing off the seeds brought from Burundi. These are seeds for enormous African squash (like a giant butternut) and mchicha (an African green in the amaranth family). These will be directly seeded into the ground. Reportedly, the vines from a single African squash plant can travel upwards of 100 feet.

Stirring up our super secret seed starting mix.

Seeding trays of lettuce and cabbage, with Obed looking on. In about a month, we will transplant these into our rows. In Burundi (and later Tanzania), the women told me that they started seeds in small bags.

Summertime (and the livin's busy)

Our two farm managers, Venance and Obed, being silly on a Saturday morning. These two never fail to make us all laugh.

Sky high sunflower.

As expected, our sunflowers shot up into the air seemingly overnight. They are upwards of 10 feet tall now. It's a toss up on who likes them more: us or the bees.

Our tomato production peaked in mid-July, but we are still harvesting several buckets of tomatoes each week. We currently track our harvests in bucket loads, since we don't yet have a scale (hint, hint -- we'd love one!)

American Community Gardening Association -- Garden Tour

Our Community Farm Project will be one of the stops on the ACGA's garden tour, which is a part of their annual conference to be hosted in Atlanta this year.

We will participate in the Clarkston Tour, which will also include our international farming friends at Tobie Grant, World Relief, Jolly Ave, and Birch Grove.

For more information about the tour, please visit http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/training/annual-conference/conference.php

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Robin.

Dinner at Duck's Cosmic Kitchen

Duck's Cosmic Kitchen will be featuring produce from Our Community Farm Project in their August 19th "eat local dinner." Please call Duck's directly in order to purchase tickets to this event. Robin and Susan will be in attendance, hopefully in the company of at least one of the Burundi women, in order to answer questions about the farm.

MCHICHA

Mchicha is a leafy green in the amaranth family. One woman brought the mchicha seeds all the way from Burundi, and the women began referring to is as their "African basil," since it someone resembles a basil plant they saw in an American seed catalog. The seeds turned out to be incredibly productive, and the women enjoy being able to eat such a familiar vegetable that they would never be able to find in a grocery store here.