What's Growing On?

Just a little update on one of Greener Partners' projects; our partnership with Willistown Township Parks & Recreation and Historic Sugartown to create an Exploration Garden at the Sugartown Preserve is in full swing! We have 4 weeks of summer camp planned for this summer. 2 weeks of 'Farming Fun Camp' and 2 weeks of 'Fairy Gnome Camp'. It's going to be so much FUN! Today, Amy (our Director of Farming Operations) and I went to the site with the guys who will be erecting our deer fence. YES...one NEEDS a deer fence in these parts. Otherwise there will be no garden. It's literally a salad bar (an organic one!) inside that fence so it has to be perfect. We were outside for about an hour and it just felt so great to be getting all of that sun. It was still a bit too chilly for comfort but the thoughts of gardening and playing in the garden mixed with the fresh air and sun made me so happy! Here are some images I took on my iPhone. I am dreaming up a meditation/yoga spot near the tree. Those black lines you see are the paths between our raspberry patches. A significant part of the garden will be dedicated to soft fruits. Otherwise the garden with be 'free-form' with some rows of vegetables, some patches, some tunnels, and lots of places for the imagination to run free. I know from the picture it's hard to imagine the size of the garden...but pretty much that patch of raspberries is about 1/5 of the total garden!!!!

Equal Night

Did you know that the word 'equinox' literally translates to 'equal night'? Of course here we are on this glorious and possibly FAVORITE day of mine; the Vernal or Spring Equinox. As we here in the Northen Hemisphere prepare for longer, warmer days, the folks below the equator prepare for just the opposite. It's all pretty amazing how our home (yes, Earth) provides us with these seasons that we can always rely on. Today we have 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night and we know we will be getting more sun so it's safe for us to begin to plant seeds and trust that they will be fruitful in their germination and growth in this new season.

There are many traditions of the Vernal Equinox. It is a time of renewal, both in Nature and in the Home. "Spring Cleaning", is more than just a traditional activity, as it removes any negative energy accumulated over the dark winter months and prepares our homes and selves for the positive growing energy of spring and summer.

How do you feel about Spring and its traditions?

Do you think Spring is a time of new beginnings ?

I just love new beginnings and any time I have a good reason for one, I grab it. It's a great time to make new goals for yourself, clean out, clear up, and tell yourself you can live the life you have always dreamed...go get it!!!

P.S. Time to start to fill up on the greens again...more to come!

Chocoholic? Nah, just a big fan...

A good piece of chocolate has about 200 calories. As I enjoy 2 servings pers night and a few more on the weekends, I comsume 3,500 calories of chocolate a week, which equals one pound of weight per week.

Therefore...

In the last 3 1/2 years, I have had chocolate caloric intake of about 180 pounds, and I only weight 125 pounds, so without chocolate, I would have wasted away to nothing about 6 months ago!

I owe my life to chocolate.

HA! That is something I read in a little paper called "The Fish Wrapper" and thought...now that's a novel idea! I love the thought of owing my life to chocolate. And that made me think about how raw chocolate or 'cacao' as it is called amongst the superfood set, is grown, because the rainforest could very well owe it's life to chocolate. You see, cacao is best grown in the rainforest so when we buy it, we are supporting the financial viability (and therefore sustaining life there for it's inhabitants) of the forest 'as is' and not needing to cut it down to make money...pretty smart! Below you will find my top 7 reasons to be stocking up on raw Cacao in the form of nibs, powder, or mixed with organic sugar in a scrumptious organic bar or truffle!

1. Magnesium: Cacao seems to be the #1 source of magnesium of any food. Magnesium balances brain chemistry, builds strong bones, and is associated with more happiness. Magnesium is the most deficient major mineral on the Standard American Diet (SAD).
2. Iron: Cacao contains 314% of the U.S. RDA of iron per 1 ounce (28 gram) serving. Iron is part of the oxygen carrying protein called hemoglobin that keeps our blood healthy.
3. Chromium: Chromium is an important trace mineral that helps balance blood sugar. Nearly 80% of Americans are deficient in this trace mineral.
4. Anandamide: Anandamide (The Bliss Chemical) is an endorphin that the human body naturally produces after exercise. Anandamide has only been found in one plant — Cacao.
5. Antioxidants: Cacao contains the highest concentration of antioxidants of any food in the world. By weight, Cacao has more antioxidants than red wine, blueberries, acai, pomegranates, and goji berries COMBINED.
6. Help to save the rainforest by buying products that can only grown in a healthy and sustainable rainforest system.
7. One word: YUM

find more info and products:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16354380#email
http://www.rawcacao.com/
http://www.sunfood.com/

Night on the town

While the remains of our winter food offerings are leaving me less-than-inspired in the kitchen of late, some creative chefs are finding no shortage of delicious meals sourced from our farm communities in the Delaware Valley. So if, like me, you're wondering how many more meals you can create from the root veggies still hiding in your kitchen- consider making a night out this weekend at one of the many area restaurants who source most of their food locally. If you're not familiar with which eateries in your area might offer local food, click here for tons of great resources. And if you notice that your favorite restaurant isn't on the list, don't hesitate to kindly mention it to the staff on your next visit... The more vocal we are as consumers about what is important to us, the more likely we will be to promote sustainable agriculture in our communities!Have a great weekend all! Personally, I'll be at Standard Tap enjoying delicious local food AND drinks!

Fridays at the Farm

A few years ago, sometime between frightening college dining hall food and the slightly less frightening meals I later fed myself in my own kitchen; I started to really become aware of the food I was eating for the first time. Not that I hadn’t noticed and enjoyed my mom’s famous fajitas, a good burger and fries or my favorite mint chocolate chunk ice cream before. But I started wondering, where did the food I was eating come from? Was it harvested nearby or did it travel to my grocery store from Mexico? Some of it seemed so foreign to what I had seen grown in the ground, that I had to wonder if any of its components had been grown at all. And what difference did that make exactly?
I wasn't alone. Richard Hoffman’s short documentary, Fridays at the Farm, is an insightful snapshot of his journey to answer some of those same questions. I was lucky to see the film for the first time last week, when Richard joined some of our Greener Partners team at a town meeting to discuss plans for our newest venture: a community farm at Skunk Hollow in Radnor. The connection was clear; Fridays at the Farm speaks eloquently to the questions that many of us ask about the food we eat, and, more importantly, inspires us to get involved in the process.
You can see a short clip of the film below. You may recognize the farmer as our own Amy Johnson, who began asking herself these same questions and making her own answers long before I did.



To learn more about Fridays at the Farm, click here.

Just read the following:

The world will lose 8% to 20% of today's food-producing cropland by 2050 as a result of land degradation, urban expansion, and conversion of cropland to biofuels production.

Meanwhile, each day 200,000 more people must be fed by the world's farmers...

Hmmm....I can't really wrap my head around these numbers but seems like a situation that is anything but ideal. More people + less fertile land=disaster as far as I can see. And why would we care about driving around in biofuel vehicles to our well-lit offices and grocery stores (if there's any real food in them at all) if our stomach's are growling?! I like to tell myself that these numbers are based on what has been and is currently happening with the world's (and our nation's) farming, development and consumerism practices. If we can take a major u-turn with our behaviors as consumers perhaps these lands won't be in such bad shape when our population is expanding so greatly. And on that note...our population growth does seem a bit out of hand. I know it's due to people living longer (for variouis reasons...another blog for another time)...but with our food supply dwindling in quality and quantity...well it's a HUGE issue we all need to be cognisant of. Much to think about!

-Julie


Sources:
Nellemann et al., "The Environmental Food Crisis," A UNEP Rapid Response Assessment, 2009

The Organic Center's, "The Scoop"