Captured moments in August

Here are a couple of photos that my father took while spending time on the farm in August. Check out some more of his work here

A Modern Day "Barn" Raising Event

The Flint River Farm passive solar, mobile hoop house was constructed over the weekend of May 14th, 2011! A very committed group of us set up a camper, built a fire pit and camped out on Beach Street for the weekend to watch over everything while we constructed our 30 X 48 hoop house on tracks. Our continually burning fire warmed our soggy clothes and achy hands, we endured the storm of the century! Just last weekend we were able to take advantage of the beautiful Saturday to cover the house in plastic and finish the wind braces. All we have left before tilling and bed prepping is to install the door, vents and roll up sides. Drive by to check it out, it's visible if you're driving south on Beach Street just as you pass over the highway. What an incredible sight! This hoop house will enable us to grow delicious tomatoes and other warm season crops. Tomatoes love it hot! In the fall, we can start cool season crops like salad mix, spinach, pac choi and chard outside, and move the hoop house to cover these crops once we rip our tomatoes in October. This way we won't have to wait until we rip our tomatoes to start our cold season plants.

We have had quite a wet Spring so far. The paths between beds are flooded and our soil is saturated. We managed to plant chard, pac choi, collards, kale and cabbage transplants. We are using onion sets as rodent control, so we've planted beds of onions between the greens. We seeded beets and carrots which have started to come up, but after a torrential downpour, many of these were washed away. Carrots take a pretty long time to germinate, so we'll have to get started on more seeding soon. This past week we seeded baby spinach, easter egg and deliciously spicy black radishes, hakurei turnips and salad mix. On a sunny day we got the chance to get in to weed the asparagus fronds, which stand about 4 feet now and gracefully blow in the wind. We won't be harvesting these until next year, and it'll be a very light harvest. It's been really interesting investing in the future by planting perennials. It's a very tangible and emotional commitment to this place, the planting of blackberries and asparagus and medicinal and culinary herbs.

We have a beautiful beginning herb bed, with chamomile, anise, horseradish, horehound, lavender, spearmint, catnip, oregano, thyme, chives and more. Over the years we will spend a lot of time cultivating this plot for drying, salve making, teas and fresh bunching.



Flint River Farm has its first bee hive on Beach Street! We constructed our hive in Jim Withers' of Withers Mountain Honey workshop. We ordered bees from Turtlebee Farms and I stored them in my spare bedroom until we were ready to install them. 10,000 bees in a three pound package! We installed them by replacing three of the empty frames with frames with some honey and comb, and by pouring about 3/4 of the bees into the hive while leaving the rest of the package inside the hive until the next day. We also took out the queen cage and placed it between two frames, to let the workers eat their way in to her while learning her scent and helping to feed her. The next day we went in to remove the carrying cage and the queen cage. I made a sugar water mixture with a 1:! ratio for the hive top feeder, because we installed them in the Spring before a lot of flowers are in bloom. About 10 days later we checked to see if we could find the queen, or an indication of her, which could be eggs, or larvae. I didn't see either, so we called in the expert, Jim! He came down, we found the queen, marked her with white paint and also saw little larvae, which is a really good sign. About a week after that, in the still of the night after the bees all returned to the hive, we closed it up and transported them out to Beach Street in the back of my car. just last week we added the second deep box, after inspecting to see if seven of the frames were filled in comb. They are now happily collecting pollen, the different colors of which make up the comb, a beautiful mosaic of rainbow hexagons.

Check out this video about urban beekeeping in Hong Kong. I love his connection between beekeeping and the social and physical human environment. Watching bees while being incredibly deliberate and slow is catharsis.

We are very excited for our CSA this year. We will be doing a newsletter with recipes to be included in the CSA share. We'll be getting off to a slow start, because of how wet the ground is. The weather all over the midwest region, as well as the southern states is preventing farmers from tilling and planting, which will have national effects as the season progresses. For the first week, which is still to be determined, we are anticipating delicious beautiful radishes, salad mix, baby spinach, pac choi and some other surprise goodies.

We'll make sure to keep the updates coming,

-Joanna

when the sun rises, i go to work. when the sun goes down, i take my rest. i dig the well from which i drink. i farm the soil which yields my food. i share creation. kings can do no more.
*Chinese proverb

2011 Classes and Community Supported Agriculture

Roxanne and I will be offering these classes over the coming months. Once we have exact dates we'll post those here as well as on the Edible Flint calendar.


-tapping and id'ing trees for maple syrup (late february, early march depending on weather)
-starting your backyard garden (early spring)
-mushroom production (spring)
-processing maple syrup (march, april)
-planting by the signs and other garden folklore (may)
-foraging for wild edibles (late june)
-natural medicine with medicinal and utilitarian plants (july)
-everything about seeds: from saving to starting (fall)
-everything about growing garlic (october)


These are days we thought would be a good hands on leaning experience for volunteers at the farm. We will be doing these activities no matter what, and would love to have people come out to help.

-establishing a perennial food plot (spring)
-setting up a drip system for irrigation (late spring)
-diy rainwater harvesting (july)
-hoop house build (early spring)

We are also offering 16 week shares for our Community Supported Agriculture program starting in June. We will be posting more information on what you can expect to receive as a member weekly, types of payment, pickup locations and volunteer opportunities.

Peace and good food,

Joanna

Looking back over summer '10, Flint, MI

I spent the holiday season back in New York with my parents, which gave me time to get distance and perspective on this past year, and to get excited about moving forward with Flint River Farm in 2011. This month we'll be presenting to the Land Bank board for the opportunity to secure a lease with an option to purchase for the lots on Beach Street. This will enable us to increase local, residential land ownership, to have security in the resources like time and money and infrastructure that we put into the land, to create a permanent and intentional space for urban agriculture, to contribute to the city by paying business taxes, to make our neighborhood more permanent, safer, cleaner, to increase visibility, to work with and sell directly to neighbors, as well as lots more.

We are also in the process of researching and reaching out to professionals about raising hoop houses in the city. Currently, the Michigan Building Code exempts agriculture buildings from needing a building permit under the Construction Code Limited Exemption For Agricultural Buidings ("building permit is not required for a building incidental to the use for agricultural purposes of the land on which the building is located if it is not used in the business of retail trade), but not necessarily exempting them from zoning. In researching city of Flint zoning ordinances, A-1 Principle Permitted Use claims that "...Customary agricultural uses including noncommercial nurseries and greenhouses, but expressly excluding the keeping of farm animals."

The problem is that while nursery is defined as "a structure or use where live trees, shrubs, or plants are grown, tended, or stored and offered for retail sale, including products used for gardening or landscaping, but not including a structure or use principally for the sale of fruits, vegetables or Christmas trees," Greenhouse is not defined.




In the coming weeks make sure to check back for posts on custom printed t-shirts to advocate for hoop houses in Flint, fermentation journals (yes, saurkraut, kimchi, beer and yogurt), as well as information on participating in a buying club for bulk foods (flour, sugar, dairy, meat, olive oil, onions/garlic, salt).

First Ever Flint Growers Co-operative!

Here is the press release for the Edible Flint growers co-operative first market day at the Flint Farmers Market:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Joanna Lehrman
Flint River Farms, Edible Flint Co-op
(917)617-4239
Email: joanna.lehrman@gmail.com

City-Grown Food Co-op opens at Flint Farmers Market

Flint, Mi, July 9, 2010 -- Starting Saturday, July 17, 2010 and continuing every Saturday throughout the summer, customers at the Flint Farmers’ Market will be able to purchase vegetables, herbs, and fruits grown right in the heart of the City of Flint and Beecher. The Farmers’ Market stall will be run by the Edible Flint Co-op, a collaboration of nearly 20 urban growers, dedicated to improving Flint residents’ access to fresh and healthy food.

And there’s a bonus: As Edible Flint Co-op growers raise food, they are also adding value to local property and helping improve the overall health of residents.
“This is one of the most important things we can do to support growers who want to increase production or supplement their income, and to support local residents by providing easy access to wholesome food,” said Joanna Lehrman, a grower and co-operative planning-group member. “We can grow incredibly diverse and exciting produce here in Flint. The co-operative enables us to support each other by sharing in the risk and increasing the quantity of products we have available to those who shop at the Farmers’ Market.”

The Edible Flint Co-op is part of Edible Flint, A Growing Network, a group of local residents, growers, and organizations that provide technical assistance and seek to better coordinate resources for local growers. Edible Flint members also connect growers to buyers for their produce - including local restaurants and farmers’ markets.

Edible Flint’s mission is “…to support local residents in growing and accessing fresh, healthy food in order to reconnect with the land and each other.”

“Having a table supported by local growers is exciting,” said Dick Ramsdell, manager of the Flint Farmers’ Market. “The market is busier this summer than ever before. Vacant land in Flint created a negative image in people’s minds, and now this land is growing healthy food!”

The stall at the Flint Farmers’s Market , 420 E. Boulevard Dr. Flint, MI 48503, will be open during regular market hours, 8:00am to 5:00pm, beginning Saturday, July 17.
Members of Edible Flint and growers will be on hand share recipes and to answer questions about where food is being grown by members of the co-operative. For more information about the Edible Flint Co-operative contact Joanna Lehrman, Flint River Farms, Edible Flint Co-op at (917)617-4239. Or e-mail her at joanna.lehrman@gmail.com

10 Tips on getting, and not getting a grant: Part 1

Swartz Creek from Aldrich Park


1. Make sure you have an organizational home and affiliations. This brings you credibility.

2. Use the format that the foundation requires for letters of inquiry and the full proposal.

3. Have a sustainability plan. Foundations want to know they won't have to support you forever.

4. Cultivate your partnerships and be able to describe in detail what these entail.

5. Be flexible with your plan. Business plans change and evolve.

6. Know what kinds of projects the foundation funds, what the organization objectives are and what its mission is, and how your project fits into this.

7. Be true to your own mission and objective and be able to coherently communicate these.

8. Be clear about what money requested will be used for.

9. Be resourceful. What donations can you obtain, what in-kind contributions do you have access to, what costs can be cut, what do you absolutely need?

10. Diversify your requests. Do not rely on one foundation or funding source. Foundations also want to know that there are others that are willing to invest in your project.



Transplants are growing, tomatoes are tomato'ey, May rains have come, we have begun our search for manure and a way to load and transport and have opened up the entrance to Aldrich Park. I've been taking some nice long walks in Aldrich, identifying weeds, introducing Mason the dog to groundhogs and coming up with plans for a campsite and pond where the sinkhole is.






Some plans for this summer on Aldrich are brushhogging, contouring and leveling and redistributing leaves (anyone know of any contractors who might be willing to donate some time to the project in Flint?), hooking up electricity, setting up a (battery powered, solar powered?) irrigation system out of Swartz Creek, planning for a driveway (concrete, asphalt), and cleaning up the entranceway.



Thanks for checkin' back in. Oh, and you might want to check out The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird for summer reading.


Aldrich Park from Court Street

Edible Flint goes to Detroit, eats at Slow's BBQ and much more...

Happy Solstice! I've been told that Michigan is a tease, and we DID in fact get snow on the first day of Spring, but we have long days and harvest moons ahead of us. That and tilling, seeding, weeding, heirloom tomato salads, swimming in the river, hot soil, basil and arugula pesto, roasted eggplant... all the joys of summer to come. But first, back to business.



In an effort to learn as much as possible about how to grow Edible Flint and be the most effective organization we can be, a few of us jumped in a van and headed down to the Greening of Detroit to speak with Ashley Atkinson about the Grown in Detroit cooperative label, soil testing procedures and methods of evaluation for programs. Edible Flint is a collaboration of organizations and individuals coming together to provide resources and support to increase access and availability of healthy, local food in the city of Flint. Twyla and I are new to the collaborative, and are exploring our roles in the group by attending strategic planning meetings and events such as our recent trip to Detroit. We are looking to develop a growers cooperative this year in Flint, which will provide a market outlet for small growers within the city. The Grown in Detroit cooperative has some really interesting and unique characteristics that we would like to explore for our Edible Flint brand. First is that anyone can sell through the cooperative, there are no minimum amounts and no time commitments for participation. Grown in Detroit holds a table at Eastern Market every week, and allows growers to bring products for sale as long as the group democratically decides the quality is good. Training for harvest and post-harvest handling is offered through the Greening, if growers are interested. Individual growers are not highlighted through the label, but a section of the table at Eastern Market is reserved to support young entrepreneurs wanting to expand their business.

In evaluating the effectiveness of Greening programs, data is collected and analyzed at MSU to draw connections between programs and fruit and vegetable consumption in Detroit. Some of this data is collected from surveys handed out to home and community gardeners. Gardeners weigh all that they harvest and consume and report back at the end of the season. This evaluation is so important for outreach and communication to bring funding to the kinds of work we are doing, so that we can continue to do it.



In other news, Roxanne and I are finishing up the maple syrup season by boiling down our sap in tubs on an open fire in her backyard. Twyla, Roxanne, Stephen and I tapped 48 trees on Land Bank land in Flint Town in the end of February, when days were sunny and nights were below freezing. (As it turned out, when days started warming up, the ice on the ground around the trees melted, and turned into a 2 foot deep stream- next time...we'll be prepared with waders and bathing suits). Because of our schedules, we were unable to empty the buckets as frequently as we should have and we stored the full buckets in a root cellar, where the temperature was probably just under 40 degrees, a bit high for sap storage. Erin came by to boil the first round of sap with us, and we had a delicious local venison and salmon dinner that night over the fire, and she finished it off in her house on the burner. Roxanne had found a bath tub that we hooked up with a welded pipe for syrup emptying and we built a firepit with concrete blocks to hold up the tub. Well, the tub was stolen and we had to readjust the firepit, but you know what? Against all odds, we boiled down that sap (allow many many hours) and drank it while it was still warm, and it was quite possibly the most delicious liquid I have ever tasted in my entire life. So many instructions and rules and things that went wrong, and yet, it came out perfectly.






*photo credits to Stephen, thanks for the awesome snapshots

Here are some updates on Aldrich Park and Flint River Farm: In order to get into the park with a vehicle, we needed to remove the berm from the entrance on Ann Arbor street. Roxanne and I went out there with the tractor and front end loader and spent a good couple of hours removing dirt, concrete and rocks from the entrance. Two days later we returned to start brushhogging the site to do the initial weed flush, and it had been replaced! Like groundhog day, no joke. Twyla and I realized this probably could have been prevented had we prepared a sign explaining what we were doing, who we are and how to contact us. We're having a sign made, and in the meantime, we'll wait on removing the berm.

We sent in samples from the Land Bank lots to be tested for lead, and are waiting to hear back about that. We'll be seeding summer crops early April, and have finally finished constructing the germination chamber with lights and fixtures after five hours at Home Depot. It's gorgeous. We also have a meeting at Hurley Hospital to talk about selling some food in their lobby. It's strange preparing to sell and marketing produce we don't even have started in trays yet.

There's much more to tell, and I'm working on drafting that up now. But until then, as Chris Bedford says,

Food and Peace.