A Visit to Twin Ponds Community Garden

Lettuce Link Intern Rhona visited the Twin Ponds Community Garden this summer.

Nestled within Twin Ponds Park, a $30,000 initiative by the City of Shoreline City Council to create a community garden resulted in today’s Twin Ponds Community Garden. Since 2010, the once-fallow area previously mined for peat consists of 38 garden plots, water hydrants, shed, gathering area, and most notably, a “giving garden” staffed by volunteers for food donation. Along with being an effective use of land and promoting views of a “healthy city,” Twin Ponds Community Garden strives to stimulate community interaction and improve economic development within the area.  

A walk past the Honey, Mason, and Spelling beds, all food donation beds commemorated after different types of bees, spans 17 plots and growing – and not a minute is spared. Beds are turned over as soon as the harvest is in, crops are rotated to keep the soil nutrient-rich, and volunteers are year-round to ensure maximal yield of the land, no time wasted nor inch spared.

Upon arriving to Twin Ponds, Nancy, a 4^th year garden coordinator, led me on a tour of the community garden, proudly pointing out the zucchinis, squash, and tomatoes that were starting to come out. She led me past some well-maintained P-Patch gardens with quirky garden art hugging the vegetation, past the giving gardens, and to the garden gathering area, where garlic sprouts were sun-bathing on the picnic table. She and three others, Shellie, Randy, and Mical, were appointed by the city to head each work day, to oversee farm operations, and to communicate with their local food banks – a year-round effort.

Twin Ponds Community Garden is not only an example of sustainable gardening, but it is one of many symbols of community engagement. Here, we have neighborhood interaction and community cooperation – a badge of sustainability and service that the city of Shoreline can proudly wear.

There are four garden coordinators at Twin Ponds. They monitor the P-Patch rented plots - 36 10ft×10ft raised beds and 2 4ft×10ft accessible beds – but their real job lies within the center of the garden, a “giving garden” run by volunteers that has yielded upwards of 3000 pounds of fresh produce to date for the Hopelink Shoreline Food Bank.

To learn more about Twin Ponds Community Garden and how you can volunteer, click here.

Training and Teaching, Gardening and Giving

Lettuce Link Intern Rhona got a chance to meet with Dorothy and Lar, two community giving gardeners.  

Meet Dorothy and Lar, both are lovers of all things outdoors, nature, and gardening. Growing up in Gilroy, California on an apricot prune farm with two hundred chickens and a cow, Dorothy was able to find an outlet for gardening in her current house, a quarter-acre plot of land she and Lar have worked and lived on for the past eight to nine years.

Having bought the land knowing they could fix the house, Dorothy and Lar worked intensively to make their quarter acre into the lush and plentiful garden it is today – one that yields over 130 pounds of produce a year, most of which is harvested to feed the family, to offer to the neighborhood, and to donate to Picardo Food Bank. Together, Dorothy and Lar have become strongly involved in their local community, getting people involved with growing their own food, and forming a seed-trading and garden-teaching program with friends and neighbors. In addition to providing a source of seeds and planting advice to the public, they have initiated a neighborhood Blockwatch, a neighborhood alert system connecting residents within a safety network, and been the head organizer of events such as Tuesday Night Out, the first Tuesday of every August when Lar and Dorothy roll rye, trade seeds, and invite policemen and firemen to come and talk about neighborhood safety.

As we walk through beds of potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, and zucchini, Dorothy points out each vegetable, making a checklist of things she has to do and things she already has done. Through her explanation the work seems to never end, and one can see the long and tedious process of turning residential land into farmland, the amount of effort put into breathing life into the soil and having sustainable food come out. Their job isn't easy, but their work is paying off year by year, leaving a deeper and deeper impact on the landscape of the neighborhood and the people of the community.

What follows is a piece by Dorothy herself on why she gardens:

“Why Do I Garden?”

By Dorothy Spencer

A friend came by and said, "Your always out in the garden." As I thought about this, I thought, "Not always." My life is full of activities shared with friends family and neighbors.

Why do I garden? Hmmmm...

I like the company of crows, intelligent critters who seem to sense I'm a friend. The dirt turns black and friable with care, welcoming seeds and plants. Dogs roll in my pesticide free grass, what little we have, and they eat it too. They rest happily in the shade as their owners trade seeds and plants with me, or we just graze on ripe fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Children are my small way to change the world, one person, one family at a time. Once they taste food warm from the sun, and sweet with the rich deep fresh picked flavor, they remember, get the growing bug, and get their families to garden too. One little boy came by with his family, gravely accepted sugar snap peas, then stood there holding them in his hand. When his Mom asked him why he wasn't eating them, he said, "Because I want to plant them." He said what was true for him. This

left me wondering how many more people garden because we do. A lovely synergistic thought.

I remember when I was a child in a family low on money. I was not able to have a second apple when I was hungry. This experience left me feeling empathy for families in need, so we now share our bounty with the food bank. Stories from people getting our food warm me and keep me growing.

It's the wonder of it. My husband, Lar laughs at my childish glee. Every spring, anticipation follows me around the yard as I look for favorite perennials to poke tender heads through the soil. "Look, look, it came up, there it is!" I get to be this delighted every year in the spring and through much of the growing season.

Alone, I lean on my hoe to rest and think about the next steps. I spent time early this year developing my own companion planting chart, including a rotation schedule. We compost food waste and greens, and make weed tea to fertilize our plants. This year, as each planting finishes its growing cycle, we mulch with cardboard, chips, fall leaves, and grass clippings. This slows down weeds and helps the ground hold moisture. In a few weeks, we can pull back the mulch, plant winter crops, and gardening gets easier for me for next year.

I like gardening. It feeds me in many ways. And I really like it being easier and more fun!

Growing Kale at the Mayor's Office

Today we welcome guest blogger Allison Burson, who works in the office of Mayor Mike McGinn and helps tend their Giving Garden.

Over the past few years, volunteers have helped us start a garden on the west-facing balconies of the Mayor’s Office on the 7th floor of City Hall. We donate the produce to the Cherry Street Food Bank and encourage others to consider doing the same. The balconies get bright sun all afternoon and evening, and they get a lot of wind as well.

The food bank has requested dark green leafy vegetables, such as kale.

We are also growing raspberries, Sungold tomatoes, and lettuce. Thanks to Deb Rock from the Interbay P-Patch we have extremely robust rhubarb.

It doesn’t take a lot of space for a garden, and the food banks are really grateful for fresh produce.  

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Thanks Allison and all the staff at City Hall who tend the balcony Giving Garden! If you'd like to start a Giving Garden at your workplace, check out the resources on our website or contact us. 

(photos by Allison Burson)

Urban Farming: Abundant Harvests and Unexpected Challenges

Summer has arrived at the Seattle Community Farm! We have much going on at this small yet mighty space nestled in the Rainier Vista Housing complex.

When I arrived for a visit yesterday, Farmer Scott and the volunteers were carefully washing bok choy and harvesting cilantro. The cilantro leaves had already bolted, but it was the roots that were being harvested. Cilantro root is rarely seen in most grocery stores, but Rainier Valley Food Bank clients use it to prepare soups, curry pastes, and more. Talk about a specialty crop!

Most of the kale, mustard, lettuce, and spinach greens remain in good shape despite our recent warm weather - the greens in my garden at home have all bolted. The strawberries are almost ripe now, and then, well, there are the peas.

Nicely trellised, over eight feet high, and vines chock-full of fruit. What an abundance!

We passed another unexpected milestone at the Seattle Community Farm last week: surviving our first fire.

Scott has been collecting bags of grass clippings from the neighbors to use in the compost piles. We think that some youngsters, while experimenting with a lighter or matches, placed a burning object into one of these bags of grass clippings. Thankfully, a neighbor saw smoke billowing out from the bags and quickly reacted to put out the fire! We are most grateful to our attentive neighbors at Rainier Vista.

The fire did not damage the farm, but does serve as a reminder that we need to continue to help young people find constructive ways to spend their time.

This is one reason we’re excited for an upcoming partnership with Coyote Central this summer to work with local middle-school aged youth. Led by an artist-in-residence, the youth will design and install art at the Seattle Community Farm. The participants receive a stipend for their work, and the positive, creative results will be displayed for all to see. Stay tuned for updates and photos as the project progresses.

We’re ready for a busy summer!

~ Michelle Bates-Benetua, Lettuce Link Program Manager

 

Sharing Your Backyard Bounty

The sun is shining, the rain is (almost) gone, and plants are finally growing at an alarmingly fast rate. This time of year, we know exactly what all you gardeners are wondering:

What in the world am I going to do with all this zucchini??

We at Lettuce Link are excited to remind you of the perfect solution:

DONATE IT!

Food banks across Seattle have a continual need for fresh, nutritious produce, so what better way to cull your garden of those delicious but over-producing squash, greens, beans, and tomatoes than to share them with families who need it most?

And if your garden is not yet overflowing with excess veggies, consider growing an extra row for your local food bank as you plant your fall crops! It can be as small as a row of greens, or as big as a backyard committed entirely to giving (à la the Seattle Seedling). Big or small, every donation is appreciated!

To help you, here are a few pointers we've developed on growing and giving, and a list we've compiled on where to donate your veggies as well as the types of produce most popular at local food banks and meal programs. Thank you in advance for your time, work, and veggies, and believe us, there’s no such thing as too much zucchini...

If you need help, let us know!

Contact Jessica Sherrow, the Lettuce Link Summer VISTA with any questions, concerns, or requests for help with harvesting and/or donating! jessicas@solid-ground.org 206.694.6746 x2

Thank you Hangar Café and Friends!

This past Saturday, the Hangar Café hosted a Beer and Wine garden outside of their normal business hours to raise funds to support Lettuce Link’s work at Marra Farm. It was a lovely summer evening spent on their garden deck and raised $300.

This amount will go far! Every dollar invested in our work at the farm is worth at least twice as much in organic produce for people in need. Plus, it produces many other intangible benefits such as life-long learning, friendships across cultures, a child’s love for vegetables, a home for honey bees and a beautiful piece of biodiversity in an unexpected place.

If you weren't able to stop by, you can still donate funds to Lettuce Link by clicking here and next time you go out for breakfast or lunch, visit the Hangar Café!

Honey bees at the Seattle Community Farm

We recently acquired a new addition to the Seattle Community Farm. Well, thousands of new additions actually. The Seattle Community Farm is now home to two colonies of honey bees!

Honey bees, along with birds and bats, pollinate over one third of the food that humans eat. Without honey bees it wouldn't be just honey that we would miss, but many fruits, nuts, and vegetables.

To prepare for the bee's arrival, we built a small enclosure for the hives so people can view the hives up close without having bees fly in their faces. The enclosure also prevents people from accidentally bumping the hives.

The bees came from an apiary in California, by way of the Beez Neez in Snohomish. They arrived in a wood and mesh package that contained:

• Three pounds of worker bees 
• One queen bee 
• Food for the bees during their travels 

After we picked up the bee packages, we dumped them into their new hives, gave them some food to get started, and let them do their thing.

The bee travel boxes are lying in between the hives

There are three types of honey bees:

• Drones are the male bees. Every day they fly around and look for a queen bee to mate with. Drones are only a small percentage of the bees in the hive.
• Worker bees are underdeveloped female bees. They are the majority of the bees in the hive, and they do many different tasks. The worker bees gather nectar and pollen from flowers, raise the young bee larva, and defend the hive from intruders.
• Queen bees are fully developed female bees. A bee colony usually has only one queen bee, and she lays all of the eggs. A queen bee can lay 1,500 eggs in a single day!

Our new bees will pollinate flowers and crops in the surrounding area, provide a great learning tool, and (we hope) give us some sweet honey.

Can you spot the queen?

Interested in beekeeping? The Puget Sound Beekeepers Association, Urban Bee Project, and Seattle Tilth's Backyard Beekeeping 101 class are great places to start!

~Farmer Scott, Seattle Community Farm

The Marra Farm CSA

In June we kicked off our second season of Lettuce Link's CSA at Marra Farm! A CSA, which stands for community supported agriculture, is a way for consumers to purchase produce directly a farmer. Customers pay upfront at the start of the season, when farmers have high expenses, and then receive a share of the harvest weekly. 

We are very excited for this year’s CSA and truly appreciate everyone’s support as we enter our second year of the project. Although our CSA is small (5-8 subscribers per ten-week session), we package each bag with care. We hope that the funds generated from selling a small percentage of our harvest will help support our work and give our program greater financial stability.

With that in mind, we are happy to report that our crops are growing wonderfully. Hopefully the warm temperatures and sunshine that we have been graced with will be staying for the long haul. Last week, middle-schoolers from the VOICE (Volunteer Outreach in Communities Everywhere) program on Mercer Island and Seattle teens from the Student Conservation Association Summer Crew helped with our weekly harvest. With their help we harvested a variety of fresh produce, including carrots, beets, peas, chard, kale and broccoli for both the CSA bags and the local food banks we support.

We are optimistic that with this nice weather the tomatoes will eventually be ready, so stay tuned!

A blog post by Wendy, DukeEngage summer intern. Check out her other blog reflections here.

Here's to Our Volunteers!

By now the growing season is in full swing, and thanks to the help of our incredible volunteers we got off to a fantastic start!

This spring, we had over 700 volunteers! People weeded and planted at our Giving Garden at Marra Farm, distributed seeds at food banks, grew starts in the Wallingford greenhouse and tended the giving garden plots and community gardens around the city. Our volunteers commit their time, energy, knees and backs to providing hungry families with nourishing food, and with the number of food bank clients on the rise, their hard work has never been more important--or appreciated.

To show our appreciation for our wonderful volunteers, Farmer Sue opened up her home for a potluck to end all potlucks - after all, no one cooks quite like a gardener. Kale and herb salad, black sesame asparagus, fresh-from-the-garden mojitos, strawberry-rhubarb pie... A deliciously local spring feast, indeed. We ate, we drank, we talked, and hopefully over the course of the night, conveyed our immense appreciation to our volunteers. You are the heart of our mission - we can't do it without you!  

So, here's to our volunteers, their gardens, the start of summer (finally!), and what will surely be a fruitful 2012 growing season. Grow on, gardeners!

Missed our June volunteer appreciation dinner? Never fear, we'll have another one October 11th. Save the date! 

Farmer Scott's Five Easy Steps for Planting

Luscious spinach, ready for harvest

How many spring crops can you name? Chances are, we planted it at the Seattle Community Farm this spring. In March and April our volunteers planted peas, lettuce, mustard greens, turnips, chard, collards, kale, beets, carrots, green onions, and more!

We've already seen the results of their labor, harvesting bins of spinach and other salad greens for the Rainier Valley Food Bank.

Now that the spring crops are in the ground, we've started the next round of planting - yummy summer crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans.

Since creating healthy soil is an integral part of growing food, we spend a lot of time in the dirt. Here’s how we prepare a bed for planting while building the soil:

1. We top off the compost with organic fertilizer and mix it all into the soil. If the bed still has cover crop leftover from the winter, we turn the soil, burying the cover crop. The buried cover crop then decomposes for a couple weeks, putting nutrients back into the soil. (If we’re in a hurry to plant the bed, we’ll just pull out the cover crop rather than wait for it to decompose.)


2. Next we add compost to improve the soil structure and add nutrients for the plants.


3. We then smooth everything out and use a hoe to make rows.


4. After planting, we frequently cover the bed with a row cover. This fine-mesh fabric keeps the birds out, raises the soil temperature, and retains moisture in the soil.


5. Then we keep the seeds moist while waiting them to pop their leaves out of the soil.

Spring radishes

Advocacy Corner: Support the Let's Grow Act!

Do you like federal food policies that:

• Create incentives for people to use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) to purchase fresh, locally-grown fruits and veggies?
• Encourage connections between preschools and small farms?
• Offer grants for the creation or expansion of community gardens?
• Amend laws to allow farmers of color, women, veterans, tribes and first-generation farmers increased access to USDA funds and other subsidies?
• Provide nutritious food on weekends and holidays for hungry schoolchildren? 

So do we!!!

These fabulous progressive programs are just a few components of the Let's Grow Act, recently introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH). The Let's Grow Act recognizes the potential of community-based agriculture to address hunger and decrease obesity, especially among children, the elderly, and low-income Americans.

We need your support to help move this Bill forward!

Please join Lettuce Link in fighting hunger and building local food economies by asking Seattle's Rep. Jim McDermott to co-sponsor the Let's Grow Act. Click here to send an e-mail or call 206-553-7170.

Here's a sample letter to get you started:

Urban communities deserve access to healthy and affordable food, which can also expand local economies. I urge you to co-sponsor the Let's Grow Act! H.R.4351 introduced by Rep. Fudge (D-OH). Everyone should have access to nutritious and affordable food, and I believe that the Let's Grow Act will improve the lives of people in my community. 

Seattle community leaders have stated their commitment to equitable access to healthy food and a health-centered food system with the Seattle Farm Bill Principles. I believe the Let's Grow Act builds on these principles and I urge you to show your support by becoming a co-sponsor. Thank you for your time and commitment to representing the voices of Washington's 7^th district.

(Not a constituent in Washington's 7^th district? Enter your zipcode to find your Representative here.)

After you call or e-mail, let us know how it went! Leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.  

Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cooking Mamas

Mark Winne


Mark Winne -- community food activist, writer, and trainer -- is coming to Seattle on February 7 and will be giving a lecture at 6pm at the Sunset Hill Club in Ballard. His latest book, Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin’ Mamas challenges us to go beyond eating local food to become part of a larger solution that demands a system that sustains not just our bodies, but also our souls. Books will be available for sale at the event. About:

Despite the rapid growth of an alternative food system – local and sustainable food production, farmers’ markets, the public’s rising food consciousness – we become more dependent everyday on industrial agriculture whose representatives insist that it is the only way to feed a hungry world. In the face of such assertions, we must ask if our dependence on such a system threatens to supplant individual self-reliance. Will personal freedom succumb finally and forever to the dominant voice of authority? Are we at risk of sacrificing our democratic voice to self-appointed governing elites? These are no longer speculative questions suitable only for philosophers, but real-life concerns set squarely on the plate of every eater.

We will be tabling alongside several other food and gardening organizations -- so stop by and say hello! And maybe even pick up a packet of our Marra Farm-grown rainbow chard seeds...

Be our new VISTA Gleaning Coordinator!

Are you passionate about community food security, gleaning, gardening and community building?  Come join the Lettuce Link team through the Rotary First Harvest's Harvest Against Hunger AmeriCorps*VISTA position.

Lettuce Link AmeriCorps*VISTA Gleaning Coordinator
This position will work in collaboration with community groups to expand participation in fruit tree gleaning and growing food for Seattle area food banks and meal programs, working with the Community Fruit Tree Harvest and the P-Patch Giving Gardens. 

Specific responsibilities include volunteer recruitment, community outreach and program coordination. This is a good fit for you if you:

• Have an interest in working with people from a variety of racial, cultural and economic backgrounds. 
• Have worked with volunteer organizations and/or the emergency food system. 
• Are highly organized and self-directed with the ability to speak to groups. 
• Can work independently and collaboratively and juggle many different projects. 
• Are committed to diversity, undoing racism, innovation and community-building. 
• Can work weekends and occasional evenings during the growing season (with time off in exchange). 
• Like to work in an office as well as an outdoor environment, including working in hot or cold conditions, and can lift 30-50 pounds regularly during the harvest. 
• Are comfortable with web-based social networking technology. 

Full job description located here. 

This AmeriCorps*VISTA position is for 12 months, starting January 30, 2012.  Volunteers receive a living stipend, education award at completion of service, student loan deferment, health benefits and childcare assistance.  

The positions are open to applicants until December 23, 2011 (applications reviewed as received). Please both apply online and send your resume and a cover letter that explains your interest and fit for the position to benjamin@firstharvest.org.

Don't forget: Our friends at Homegrown Sustainable Sandwich Shop have created a tasty Seasonal 10 sandwich, Turkey + Red Pepper Relish, and 10% of the proceeds from the sandwich will go to Lettuce Link. Stop by one of their shops in Fremont, Queen Anne, or Capitol Hill this fall for a delicious treat, and thank them for supporting Lettuce Link!

Celebrating Food Day at Marra Farm

Food Day -- sounds like a rough description of many holidays, right? National Food Day was indeed all about eating, but the 2,300 groups participating in this nation-wide day of action were hungry for more than a special meal. Across the United States, organizations working in the fields of nutrition, anti-hunger, garden education, sustainability, farm worker justice, and more held events to spark conversation and action around our food system.

At the Marra Farm giving garden, we welcomed more than 120 young students from Concord International Elementary and Somali Community Services Coalition. Together with our partners from Healthy Foods for South Park, we harvested pumpkins, pressed apples into fresh cider, and helped put the garden to bed for the winter. Some of these students had come down to the farm last spring to plant the very pumpkin plants that they harvested on Food Day, which they had started from seed into their classrooms.

Youth from Somali Community Services meet "Tiny", our friendly tromboncino squash.

One my favorite lessons to learn with new visitors is that everything we eat was once alive. Whether it's a head of lettuce, a cheeseburger, or even a can of soda pop, we can trace everything back to plants. Several visitors felt a little nervous about sampling fresh apple cider because it didn't come in a package, which is a very justified way to feel given the way our food system disconnects all of us from the farms and people that grow the stuff we eat. Marra Farm is a place where we intervene in that system to revive and embrace the relationship between humans and food. Not everyone felt comfortable sampling cider on Food Day, and that's okay. Maybe next time, or next next time ... it's a long process and we're all learning together.

First grind the apples (left), and then press the pulp into cider, and finally take a long, sweet sip (if you dare!).

Thanks to all the students, parents, teachers, and volunteers who joined us on Food Day!

Marra Farm is letting forth a big yawn as winter approaches, but we're not sleeping yet. Please contact us at lettucelink@solid-ground.org if you'd like to help out with our last work parties of the season.

The photogenic Marra Farm Harvest, 10/14

Can you name em all? As always, thanks to superstar volunteer Steve Tracy for the beautiful photos. We'll be harvesting every Friday til the end of November -- come join us! 

Contact Robin at lettucelink@solid-ground.org

Annual Garden Party Fundraiser a Huge Success!

On Saturday, August 6, over 40 friends of Lettuce Link gathered at Farmer Sue McGann’s beautiful home and garden to celebrate the program’s successes and demonstrate their support for the continuing importance of growing and giving. The event raised over $3000 from individual and matching donations, and we are incredibly thankful to everyone who generously contributed!

Tania draws the raffle winners

We are also extremely grateful to the local businesses who contributed in-kind donations which helped to make the evening such a success. Brouwer’s Cafe, Cloud City Coffee, Dahlia Spa, Kitchen N Things, The Massage Sanctuary, Seattle Coffee Works, and Tall Grass Bakery all donated items to the raffle.

Food and drinks were provided by The Calf and Kid Artisan Cheese Shop, Central Co-op, Dry Soda, The Essential Baking Company, Homegrown Sustainable Sandwich Shop, Ken’s Market, Molly Moon’s Ice Cream, Naked City Brewery and Taphouse, PCC Natural Markets (Fremont), Tall Grass Bakery, Trader Joe’s (U. District), Wheatless in Seattle and of course fresh produce from Marra Farm. Many thanks to all of these donors for demonstrating their commitment to community here in Seattle!

Stacy and Farmer Sue

Over the course of the evening, Lettuce Link supporters had the opportunity to marvel at Farmer Sue’s bountiful backyard garden and meet other advocates for a just and sustainable local food system, before hearing from Lettuce Link program manager Michelle Bates-Benetua and Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin.

Raffle winners received fabulous prizes, some donors had a chance to take home delicious Marra Farm honey, and we hope that everyone left with full, happy bellies and renewed enthusiasm for what we can achieve as a community working together. We were certainly inspired by the generosity of our local supporters, and are grateful for the reminder that we couldn’t do it without you!


Check out our new friend and supporter Stacy's blog post about the evening and how she's inspired to start a Giving Garden in her yard!  

Fresh Starts for Denny Apartment Residents

In addition to growing food to donate to food banks (and coordinating with fabulous P-Patch gardeners and individuals around the city who do the same), Lettuce Link also connects families living on lower incomes with fresh, organic produce by providing seeds and starts to help folks grow their own fresh veggies.

Thanks to a dedicated volunteer group at the Wallingford Greenhouse, Lettuce Link has been able to donate plant starts to communities across Seattle. Residents of the Low Income Housing Institute’s sustainably-designed Denny Park Apartments began gardening in a community terrace after receiving starts from Lettuce Link four years ago.

This year, volunteer garden coordinator Rafael Ravenet contacted Lettuce Link about continuing donations, and residents have since added vegetables such as tomatoes, tomatillos, squash, peas, and green onions to their personal and community gardens.

Denny Park gardeners come together on Thursday afternoons to work in their terrace gardens, share food, and build community. On a recent Thursday, apartment residents Bonnie and Victoria showed off their gardens while their sons Brian and Jacob played in the common space. Both boys like to help their mothers with some of the garden work: Brian loves to dig in the soil, while Jacob prefers planting. As Bonnie observes, showing kids how food is grown is one of the many reasons that apartment residents are happy to start their own gardens.

There’s something to learn for everyone: Bonnie, who is excited to be gardening for the first time in her life, exclaims “I never really even saw blueberries grow ‘til here!” while Victoria is experimenting with different types of vegetables, from lettuce to collards.

For the residents of Denny Park, gardening is about even more than education and fun. Many of the apartment residents may not be able to enjoy fresh, local, organic produce on a regular basis because of barriers such as limited income, time, and access. The Denny Park community has seen additional benefits: as Bonnie mentions, growing your own food can often be a better route to nutritious and tasty veggies than going to the grocery store. Jessie, a social worker in the apartments, says residents also recognize that “[food] tastes better because you made it yourself.”

At Denny Park, the combination of the residents’ enthusiasm and hard work and the plant starts provided by Lettuce Link provides an inspiring example of the power of growing and giving. As Ravenet observes, gardening together has created “a transformation” in the apartment residents, as “it has liberated them... [and] enriched their lives.”

Here’s to the power of fresh starts at Denny Park--we’re looking forward to checking back in to see what’s growing later this summer!

The Giving Gardener: Growing for others

Pea starts at Marra Farm

The Lettuce Link has staff started a regular feature on the Solid Ground blog, offering advice about cultivating your own food and growing for others.

Growing food for yourself, for friends, family and especially to donate to strangers is at once an act of kindness and self-indulgent. Yes, self-indulgent, because growing food involves connecting with the senses when so often in our busy, urban lives we live hurried, stressed and detached.  

Click here to read the rest of Michelle's musings on planting peas, dirt under the fingernails, and preparing for spring.  

Raise your fork for food justice with Clean Greens!

Come share food and conversation with our friends and Community Food Project partners at Clean Greens!  This faith-based group from the Central district works to improve access to fresh, affordable, and culturally appropriate produce.  During the growing season, they cultivate land in Duvall, and provide produce through markets, a community kitchen, and CSAs.

Dinner begins at 5:30pm on January 29 at the Garfield Community Center. Brahm Ahmadi of West Oakland's People's Grocery will be giving a keynote. You can buy tickets ($35) here or by calling (206) 524-3114.  See you at the table!

Giving Gardeners: Cyrus Appell and Growing Food, Growing Community

The array of people dedicated to local food systems, gardening, and food access continues to propel Seattle's Year of Urban Agriculture. At Lettuce Link, we're blessed to work with dynamic community volunteers.

In Wallingford, for example, volunteers with Growing Food, Growing Community grow vegetable starts for Lettuce Link to distribute to Seattle's Giving Gardens and food bank clients.

Cyrus Appell, Sue Hartman, and Abby Klingbeil organized Growing Food, Growing Community two years ago after a Sustainable Wallingford meeting. Cyrus hosts the volunteer project at his backyard greenhouse. Come spring, it bursts with green lettuce sprouts, tiny tomatoes that crowd the top shelves, and snap peas hardening off outside the greenhouse doors.

Wallingford Greenhouse

Cyrus gives his time each spring in greenhouse management and plant care along with offering his home to the cause. His commitment to growing and giving stems from years of community involvement around Seattle. "Community grows to support each other," notes Cyrus, "it inspires people to work together in a great diversity of activities." This support provides hundreds of starts for growing and giving efforts in Seattle.

This past season, Lettuce Link was able to request that volunteers grow culturally appropriate types of vegetables for food bank clients. "It was important to have the communication link" notes Cyrus, "we understood what they wanted." Cyrus witnessed first hand the results of growing culturally appropriate seeds through his volunteer work at a free medical clinic in Lake City upstairs from the food bank. "Some of the patients were carrying vegetables that we'd grown the starts for" says Cyrus, "It's exciting to see the end result."

Growing in the greenhouse

In addition to growing plants, the group is growing community, knowledge, and skills. Volunteers come with a range of gardening experience. Through weekly assignments in the greenhouse, they learn about seed starting, transplanting, and plant care. Next season, several volunteers are taking on leadership roles. This will help sustain the project, and allows volunteers to learn more about plant care and management.

In 2010, volunteers from Wallingford donated over 1,500 starts. Cyrus sees the vision growing, "it could be that we have five or six greenhouses scattered around Seattle that would produce for Giving Gardens, teach classes, and facilitate more gardens in Seattle with a strong emphasis on organic growing and community sharing," he muses. Though resources can be tight, its amazing what can be accomplished when volunteers come together.

"With poor economic times, having a local, community based food production resource as well as other cooperative ventures may become a vital component of our community's viability," notes Cyrus. With Growing Food, Growing Community, volunteers are bringing their skills and passion to care for one another and their community.

If you're interested in growing starts for food banks or P-Patch Giving Gardens, we'd love to hear from you: lettucelink@solid-ground.org. Cyrus Appell is also happy to talk about starting a greenhouse project in your neighborhood cyrusappell714@gmail.com

Tomatoes getting ready to go.

-Sadie Beauregard, Lettuce Link