Tuesday, March 10, 2009

GCG Urban Intensive Workshop


If you are interested in learning the skills that we are using to transform Boston into a Green City, join us April 25th for our hands-on full day Urban Intensive Growing Workshop. We will be exploring the principles of Urban Sustainability, and will be getting our hands dirty transforming an urban yard over the course of the day. Through discussion, games, and good old fashioned hard work, we will cover:

Site Design, Composting/Worm Composting, Organic Remediation Methods, Micro Farming, Market Gardening, Square Foot Gardening, Micro Livestock, Urban Homesteading, Four Season Harvest, Natural Building, Urban farmer’s treasure hunt

Lunch (Vegan friendly) will be provided

This Workshop will be held in the heart of Jamaica Plain at the HeartBeat Collective house.

$90 payable in advance, $110 at the door

EMAIL US if you are interested in attending...

It Comes from the President's Wife, it MUST be true

Torn from the virtual pages of the NYTimes.

When you have your bounty from the Green City Growers Garden, you will have the opportunity to share with your neighbors, friends, and those less fortunate.

It's all about the food.

WASHINGTON

THE television cameras were rolling, the journalists were scribbling and the first lady, Michelle Obama, was standing in a soup kitchen rhapsodizing about steamed broccoli. And homemade mushroom risotto. And freshly baked apple-carrot muffins.

Mrs. Obama was praising the menu last week at Miriam’s Kitchen, a nonprofit drop-in center serving this city’s homeless. And she seized the moment to urge Americans to provide fresh, unprocessed and locally grown foods to their families and to the neediest in their communities.

“You know, we want to make sure our guests here and across the nation are eating nutritious items,” said Mrs. Obama, who served lunch to several homeless men and women and delivered eight cases of fresh fruit to the soup kitchen, all donated by White House employees.

“Collect some fruits and vegetables; bring by some good healthy food,” she said. “We can provide this kind of healthy food for communities across the country, and we can do it by each of us lending a hand.”

In her first weeks in the White House, Mrs. Obama has emerged as a champion of healthy food and healthy living. She has praised community vegetable gardens, opened up her own kitchen to show off the White House chefs’ prowess with vegetables and told stories about feeding less fattening foods to her daughters.

White House officials say the focus on healthy living will be a significant item on Mrs. Obama’s agenda, which already includes supporting working families and military spouses. As the nation battles an obesity epidemic and a hard-to-break taste for oversweetened and oversalted dishes, her message is clear: Fresh, nutritious foods are not delicacies to be savored by the wealthy, but critical components of the diets of ordinary and struggling families.

Continue reading...

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

EVENT Tonight

Reminder:

Tonight @ 7pm:

Urban Sustainability Series: Growing Container and Urban Plots

Tuesday, 3 March 2009
7:00pm to 9:00pm
6 Eliot st Jamaica Plain

The first is our Urban Sustainability Series, this workshop will explore many options for growing your own food in the city. From container gardening to raised-beds, Gabriel Erde-Cohen of Green City Growers will share basic skills and tips to help you grow the most local food possible - directly from your front yard, porch, or windowsill!

We will explore:
Easy raised bed construction
Site selection for containers, pots and raised beds
Choosing between container gardens and raised-bed gardens
Deciding what plants to grow and where
Come with your questions about growing food in a container and/or small garden setting, and share your insights with fellow JP green-thumbs.