Other Edible Garden Clubs?

[Kate Clark]

I am looking for like-minded gardening folks in the Lake Padden area, to share harvests and tools/equipment.

Are there other neighborhood clubs out there?

[Eric Budzynski]

Hi Kate,

If you do not get any responses from your neighborhood through this, I am sure Chris, who organized the gardening club in York, would let you use the flyer she made up for York to distribute in your area and get one started up! It is a nice looking flyer.

eric

[Chris Wolf]

Hi Kate, Eric is right; I would be very happy to email you the flier I made and stuck to the door of every house in my neighborhood. It totally worked! I put up about 100+ fliers, and about 25 people showed up to my potluck or emailed me with their interest!

I am in California right now, away from my computer, but when I get home I can email you the flier. Do you have Microsoft Publisher? --Chris W

[Kate Clark]

I do, thanks Chris! What kinds of things is your group doing? I live up by Padden where we are sort of in a different growing zone- cooler and shorter season. So I hope our group can network with another group and trade some crops. I am getting six chickens on Friday!

[Chris Wolf]

Hi Kate,

I am so happy you are starting a neighborhood garden group too. Our group does not have a whole lot planned yet, we had one wild and successful potluck, and now people are signing up with the "Group" I created on this site so we can communicate with each other. Hey, I will invite you to be a member of our group just so you can see what people are posting. I highly recommend setting up a Group through this site; it is very helpful.
Basically, we have started giving each other starts and seeds, and helping a few new gardeners set up raised beds or container gardens, loaning tools to each other-- we want to do a lot more of these types of things. We might end up having a monthly potluck and garden tour, or something like that.
I have one friend in Lake Padden area who is a gardener and a super nice guy-- I will send you his email.
--Chris

[Kate Clark]

Thanks I wonder if I know him already...!

[Frank James]

I am working with the Nooksack Indian Tribe and we have a traditional foods grant where were trying to decrease diabetes and other diseases by getting back to the old way of eating and putting in gardens and harvesting wild plants. It is a new grant but one that is exciting for me to be involved with. If anyone is interested let me know. One project is to map the places where wild harvest has taken place over the years for the tribe and try to get folks back to it!

Frank

[Chris Wolf]

Frank, I am so happy to hear you are working on traditional food-growing with the Nooksack tribe. I recently heard Winona LaDuke speak at WWU. I don't know if you were at her talk or not, but it was very inspirational. She does a lot of work helping native tribes (including her own) return to older and healthier ways of eating. You are probably already very familiar with Winona's work, but in case you are not I would highly recommend her.
--Chris

[Kate Clark]

Frank- I work for the Lummi tribe as a grant writer and would like to support a similar effort there if there is interest. I think that's a GREAT idea. In fact, I think there is a lot the elders in particular could teach us about edible wild plants. Let's keep in touch about this!

Kate



Frank James said:

I am working with the Nooksack Indian Tribe and we have a traditional foods grant where were trying to decrease diabetes and other diseases by getting back to the old way of eating and putting in gardens and harvesting wild plants. It is a new grant but one that is exciting for me to be involved with. If anyone is interested let me know. One project is to map the places where wild harvest has taken place over the years for the tribe and try to get folks back to it!

Frank

[Luke Swanson]

I like the idea of a monthly potluck or garden tour... that way people can get ideas from eachother, trade stuff, and keep the lines of communication open.
peace
luke


Chris Wolf said:

Hi Kate,

I am so happy you are starting a neighborhood garden group too. Our group does not have a whole lot planned yet, we had one wild and successful potluck, and now people are signing up with the "Group" I created on this site so we can communicate with each other. Hey, I will invite you to be a member of our group just so you can see what people are posting. I highly recommend setting up a Group through this site; it is very helpful.
Basically, we have started giving each other starts and seeds, and helping a few new gardeners set up raised beds or container gardens, loaning tools to each other-- we want to do a lot more of these types of things. We might end up having a monthly potluck and garden tour, or something like that.
I have one friend in Lake Padden area who is a gardener and a super nice guy-- I will send you his email.
--Chris

[David MacLeod]

Keep in mind that Sustainable Bellingham has a really good Urban Gardening group going. They've done bike tours, potlucks, Seed Exchange, "Getting Gardens Into the Hands of the People," etc.

If any of you are not on the email list to receive the weekly "Sustainable Bellingham Community Newsletter" that I edit, let me know, and I'll add you to the mailing list. The weekly email has listings of sustainability related events going on throughout our area, plus my weekly "Recommended Reading" section. Email me at miles58 at yahoo dot com.

Back to the SB Urban Gardening team. Here's there latest project:

Tuesday Night Work Parties

Work Parties Tuesday Nights - Spend three hours on a Tuesday night starting at six p,m.: The first half will be some helping with yard projects while the others help prepare a meal. The second half will be eating and fellowship. These will be ongoing throughout the summer.

This Tuesday - April 28th: Cordata Community Garden, 6pm. The garden is at the "dead end" of Cordata Parkway, gravel path to your right. The meal will be at 625 Creekbend Lane and served around 7:30pm: the first street west of the 4-way stop at Cordata and Horton. We’ll help prpare blueberry beds, add compost and do some leveling. There should be enough tools at the site. Just bring a friend!

Next Tuesday – May 5th, 6pm: 2501 F Street (and Logan). This is a vacant lot that is being turned into a community garden. Bring shovels, gloves, pitchforks, and a friend. This is a large space with lots of potential and lots of work to do. A delicious meal will be prepared. Work for about ninety minutes, and eat and meet some new people for the remainder.

Let Jeff Westcott know if you want to host one or would like to help out. Bring yourself and a friend and a shovel or pitchfork. Please contact hull3551 at yahoo dot com. For hosting, all that’s required is some work needing to be done at your place, a willingness to meet like-minded people, and a favor that you attend a few of these in the future to keep the momentum building.


http://www.sustainablebellingham.org/events/featured-events/137-tue...

[Kate Clark]

Interesting questions, Dick. After having worked with the tribe for awhile, I think I would be very hesitant to talk about birth control to to this areas native population whose families have been so decimated and their culture so destroyed by an invading culture. It has been a real learning curve for me, to start to understand what happened to the native people and how the relatively recent invasion of the native lands on this coast has impacted them. However, they are a naturally resilient people, and while they have adopted the trappings of modern consumerism with enthusiasm, I believe they would also do just fine without it. I am sure most Lummis would adapt much more easily than most of us white folks!

The wig? Hey, its almost time for the 3rd Annual Big Bellingham Wigout! (may 22) I'm just getting ready...I actually have a purple one for this year...and my co-worker at the tribe thinks I am a nutcase in this regard. I am trying to get him to wear an elvis wig, but I think he'd eat glass before he'd put on a wig. Might just be a guy thing.

I hear you about gold- you can't drink it either. I have heard that a few boxes of nails is a better investment than the stock market!

Dick McManus said:

Do you think the Lummi tribe or any other WA state native American tribe would be interested in starting a sustainable community? Do you think they understand that we need to reduce our population and thereby giving our children a bigger footprint on which to survive?

Oh, what is with the pink hair? Is that a tribe custom now? Just kidding. I could care less. I try to see thru these kinds of things.

I worked in my wetlands today around my condo. I am cutting firewood for my friend and co-worker. I have no place to grow food, but there is a lot of land in the commons or public lands. I would like to invest in farm land. Sort of like an insurance policy given we are headed for hyperinflation and I can't eat gold. Anyway, gold prices bounce around too much for my liking.

Dick-61
Mill Creek, WA