Thimbleberries: another wild UP treat. More difficult to pick than wild blueberries. Gisele showed college students a local patch; they generously shared some of their pickings with Voices for Youth clients. One college student used his in a peach thimbleberry pie. Blessed!
Every other week we've been meeting to discuss the book "Simply in Season" at Voices for Youth. The resource is a cookbook that includes reflections, Bible references, factoids, and anecdotes about the meaning and place of food in our lives. It raises our awareness of the people and steps involved in growing, processing, and delivering our food to us. We've discussed hunger -- both undernourishment and overnourishment. We've thought out loud about sustainability and impacts of consuming locally produced foods, as well as consuming seasonal produce. One of our college students regularly shares with us recipes she has tried from the book.
Some of the plants Valeria donated to us are patio tomatoes. Since the Voices for Youth House didn't have any large flower pots, I added that item to the shopping list. But before getting to the store, I took some cardboard to a recyclable drop-off and, right next to that bin of cardboard were... several large flower pots! One man's trash is another man's treasure -- God provides uh-gain! Thank you!
While waiting for the alpaca farm to open (see previous post), we explored the incredible variety of plants at The Garden Place's greenhouse in Norway, MI. They had 50 varieties of tomatoes alone! When Valeria Zanoni (that's her with Noah in the photo above) heard about our project, she generously donated several very healthy plants -- a variety of tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, and squashes. Plus, she provided botanical handouts. Thank you, Valeria! So many good people out there!
Shop U.P.! http://www.thegardenplacemi.com/
Meet Kramer!
We planted lettuce (mixed leaf) in one of VFY's window boxes and filled a couple of other window boxes with basil and nasturiums. We got started clearing a spot to plant pumpkins.
A team member's friend donated slats from miniblinds; we turned those into row markers so we can clearly see what is planted where.
VFW staff provided more paperwork as needed, plus paparazzi services.
June 5 some of us toured the Downtown Marquette Farmers & Artists Market. Questions and observations were awesome. In response to a comment about all the talent and creativity present there, a team member reasoned, "With all this creativity right here, I don't see why we need famous people." Cool. We watched a demonstration of impregnating logs with shitake mushroom spores. We also learned health benefits of and how to preserve and prepare the mushrooms. If you haven't been to the market yet, check it out at the Marquette Commons 9am-2pm.
In February 2010 Lutheran Campus Ministry (LCM) of Northern Michigan University (NMU) received good news from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) national office -- their Campus Ministry Division had just been awarded a grant from the Hunger Awareness Education funds. The approved project is called "Seed Money for a Ground Breaking Proposal".
