Community Garden Action Team Minutes 8-11-10

Monument Community Partnership

Community Gardens Neighborhood Action Team

Wednesday August 11

Minutes

Present: Mike Kerr, Dave Pitman, Katia Ginesta, Harold Blair, Cesar Ortiz, Catalina Ramos-Wright, Mary Lou Laubscher, Stan Hansen, Lorena Sanchez, Jenna Carlsson, Luz Sierra, Kathy Greene

Announcements:

• Teens Needed: (Luz): If you know any teenagers from 13 to 18 MALES who would like to participate in the pilot project Friday, from 12 to 1:30, M W F next week. Free Lunch! Call MCP at 808-7392

• Famous member!: Catalina is featured in the ‘Concord Activity Guide”, p.21 check it out!

• Grand Opening: (Mike): Los Medanos Community Health District community garden is opening Saturday Aug 14! Come check it out 10-12:30. Featuring a workshop on winter gardening by Janet Miller.

• Monument Health Fair (Jenna): Oct 2 at Meadow Homes Park: Bone density check up, other health check ups. We'll have a community gardens booth - let Jenna know if you can participate 246-5461

• Gehringer Garden Fundraiser: Gehringer (2 1/2 acre community garden that also grows for food bank) is having a Harvest Day Festival. August 21^st, 1 -4pm. Food, drinks, prizes, and crafts for kids! $10 for tickets, under 21 free. Contact Katia for more info. or to buy tickets: number

Community Reports/Speakers:

• Brookview Garden: Stan's garden at Brookview has 38 garden beds and has been donating 40 pounds of tomatoes a day to the Monument Crisis Center!

• Ellis Lake Clean-Up: 26 people came, it was very successful!

Program Reports

Backyard Gardens Project Update:

• Compost: Pablo and Lorena went to Allied Waste to collect 100 donated bags of beautiful dark compost! Many thanks go to Allied Waste for their generous donation and to Pablo for helping out.

• Seedlings: Mike and Lorena went to Sunnyside Organic in Richmond to volunteer at Pilar Vernay’s greenhouse. Her generous donations and knowledgeable persona have helped the Backyard Gardens project go forward beyond the pilot garden. Many of the seedlings have gone on to find a home at the pilot garden and at the Sun Ridge Apartments in the Monument, where children and their families are learning to tend and care for them.

• Vermicomposting: Mike, Lorena, and Cesar went to volunteer at Mama’s Worm Composting in West Oakland. There, the three learned about vermicomposting (worm composting) and the laborious work that goes into this fantastic composting method!

• Dave showed pictures available on our blog

Iron Horse Advisory Committee (Mayette drive buldge area): Mary Lou, Jenna, Dave, and Bruce attended Iron Horse Trail Advisory Committee meeting last week with Stan Hansen and rest of the committee. They would like a presentation from us about our proposal to have a community garden at the Mayette drive buldge of the trail and are skeptical about sustainability due to past projects. Also want to know about liability insurance.

Sun Ridge Apartment Complex – Lorena has been working with them. They are interested in starting a community garden but a lot of their area is shaded. We will try to arrange a meeting between the manager and a master gardener to find out more. Kathy volunteered to help out with this.

Container Gardens – Lorena has done 3 container garden workshops showing kids how to make contain gardens out of milk cartons. She will do another one with First 5 parents.

Next Steps and Assignments

• Outreach: We need to recruit more gardeners. Katia and Ron can work on this, perhaps Luz and Kathy. *Idea: presentation at Michael Chavez Center

• Set up meeting with property manager at Sun Ridge (Jenna)

• Attend Winter Gardening sessions on Aug 13 and 14

• Buy tickets for and attend Gehringer Fundraiser Aug 21. Contact Katia

• Set up our own Iron Horse Trail committee. (Kathy, Mike, Cesar, and Stan interested.) We have to report back to them on Nov 3.

• Anyone who is interested in getting free seedlings can volunteer at Sunnyside Organic Aug 30. Contact Pilar Vernay at sunnyside@organic.biz for future volunteering and gorgeous organic seedlings!

Next Meeting Date: Wed Sept 8 7pm KH (always 2nd Wednesday)

Next Meeting Agenda: Plan for health fair, Lorena presents resource manual information

Meeting Eval

+	Δ
Got a lot done! Mike and Cesar's fabulous help Dave's pictures Stan's help with the Iron Horse Trail Committee

Backyard Gardens in the News

Contra Costa Times:
Bumper crop of backyard gardens in East Bay
By Hannah Dreier

... a growing number of locals who, driven by steep grocery prices and a still stumbling economy, are taking advantage of the East Bay's good soil and Mediterranean climate.

Sunnyside Organic

Our team volunteered 2 days at Sunnyside Organic in exchange for free seedlings for our backyard garden project. Check out pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baypointcommunity/sets/72157624232999091/

Grow Your Own Vegetables

Flyers for Community Gardens near you.


Lorena speaking at National Night Out block party August 3.


Neighbor getting a seedling from Lorena with Elva and Jenna.

Compost Workshop July 31

The seedlings are in!


Jenna gathering some compost material.


Billi Haug Master Gardner with her compost stirring tool.


Mmmm... That's good compost!

Backyard Gardens Progess July 17

Lorena, Cesar, Ron, Emmanual and Mike K. digging in the manure and compost.

Thanks to Allied Waste Services for donating the compost!

CGNAT Meeting Minutes 7-14-2010

Present: Name, role, and favorite summer fruit!

· Dave Pitman: Blogger for MCP!

· Jenna Carlsson: MCP Community Gardens Action Team facilitator. Fruit: peaches, strawberries

· Kathy Greene (AKA Alice): Home gardener who wants to help out with the backyard gardens. Even though she lives in Martinez, she wants to help out the Monument community. Peppers and tomatoes are her favorite vegetables.

· Siamack Sioshansi: From the Urban Farmers, his son and his son’s roommate started the project. Both of the boys are very busy this summer, going from San Francisco to Lafayette to tend to the farmers there. Planted 900^th plant recently!

· Francisco Martinez: From Pittsburg, has been working with MCP for a while now. Favorite fruits: Strawberries, watermelon, and mangos. Mango expert! Francisco says that mangos grow best under the warm rays of a summer sun.

· Cesar Ortiz: Huge helper with the Backyard Gardens! Favorite fruits and veggies: Tomatoes, chiles, loquats, and cactus fruit.

· Catalina Ramos-Wright: Has lived in Concord for 50 years! Fruit: Peaches, guava, and loves avocados!

· Mike Kerr: Coordinator of Ambrose Community Gardens. Having a bit of trouble in the garden, the well water might be shut off. Favorite veggies and fruits: peaches, tomatoes, and plums. Mike has forty types of fruit trees, so his favorites vary depending on the fruit tree he’s near by!

· Edi Birsan: Concord Diablo Rotary. Geez, can’t even grow a rock! Favorite fruit: plums.

· Mary Lou Laubscher: love strawberries, growing her own in an old BBQ

· Luz Sierra

Announcements:

1. Gleaning Project Update (Edi Birsan)

You provide, we pick, and we all give to those in need! The Concord Diablo Rotary Club picks excess fruit from trees, so why not donate if your tree is ripe with lush fruits? Contact Edi if you have excess fruit in your yard or if you can help with this project: 798-3537 or cell 510-812-8180

Example: Today got a call from Anna Chan (Lemon Lady) to pick apples at Alamo house. Within 2 hours he and 17 yr old grandson picked & delivered 75 lbs of apples to Food Bank.

2. RotoCare Update (Edi Birsan)

Free Health Care Clinic – Open every Thursday evening from 5-9pm at Cambridge Elementary School. Open to people with no medical insurance. Make an appointment, since there is limited space. If it isn’t used they might move it!!

3. SCUFI – Sustainable Commercial Urban Farm Incubator Update (Mary Lou)

Starting soon! A project in which people are trained to make their own businesses out of locally growing food. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement of when SCUFI training will start.

4. Monument Crisis Center Bicycle Donation Finished! – Wes Laubscher collected bikes repaired by Marsh Creek Detention Facility inmates and donated them to people in need of bikes for transportation for school or work.

5. Irrigation Volunteers at Cambridge: Master Gardener Janice Winsby is looking for 2-3 volunteers to help out at Cambridge Elementary school for irrigation installation. Please contact her at 938-6126 for more info.

6. Garden group at DVC: Pretty earnest folks that are willing to garden.

7. Blog: We are going (more) virtual! Check it out: http://communitygardensactionteam.blogspot.com/

Speaker: Siamack Sioshansi from the Urban Farmers www.theurbanfarmers.org

1. Background: His son, Cameron, who is a junior in college, goes to school in Chicago. Two summers ago, instead of enjoying the joys of video games, he and his friend, Alexander, set out to find their passions. Those passions turned into the Urban Farmers, to feed people sustainable, clean, and local food in a way that is environmentally sound, socially just, and culturally compatible.

2. Current State of Agriculture System

a. Our idea of the American farm is an illusion: pesticide use, monocrops, and the distance between farmer and consumer is growing rapidly.

b. Energy resources: the distance that food travels is environmentally and economically unreasonable

c. Environmental Damages: soil depletion, once the soil is depleted of nutrients necessary for crops, it’s done. At the rate we are doing so, we will run out of soil in 50-70 years

d. Water wise: our water supply of clean water is running out. At the rate we are using it for agriculture, we will run out in 25 years.

e. Pesticide Use: Farmers in the United States have been authorized by the USDA to use an abundant amount of pesticides on fruits and vegetables (37 for an apple). In the EU, only two types of pesticide agents are allowed.

f. Social Justice: In the U.S. the FDA determined that the number of people who cannot put food on the table (are hungry) is at an all time high.

3. To combat this, they decided work with a Local Food Environmental Task Force in Lafaytette to start a local food production program in 20 Lafayette backyards in Lafayette. Selection Criteria:

a. Accessibility

b. Home owner’s attitude

c. The amount of land and the quality of sun exposure

4. Then they build the gardens:

a. They have found that homeowners have wanted to be involved, learning how food is grown and spending $3-5000 each ($78,000 total) on irrigation systems, etc.

Updates from our own backyard garden:

· We secured free manure for the soil and Ron and his son’s have put in it!

· Now we need to continue prepping the soil

· We got wine barrels donated to plant the seedlings in while the soil is being prepped

· We need soil!

· Work party this Saturday at 5pm at Ron’s house to prep the soil – 1213 Grove.. Please come! Call Lorena for more information. (Ron, Mike, Cesar, Lorena, Francisco, Kathy, Manuel, anyone else who wants to come!

Next Steps

· Attend work party this Saturday

· Find soil

· Volunteer at Sunnyside Organics in Richmond for free seedlings – Friday July 30. Contact Lorena at 246-5461 if you are interested in going.

· Set regular meetings for the Backyard garden group

Next Meeting: August 11, 7pm, Here

This meeting:

+ -Meeting went excellent! Siamack’s presentation was fantastic, thank you Siamack for presenting! -Everyone was eager to put their 2 cents in, it’s great to have participation!	-