Goodbye for a month, but we will be back!

As the fall semester comes to a close, all of us at Food Justice Alliance are studiously ace-ing our finals : ) Please excuse the scarcity of posts in the last few days and the rest of this week! While this final exam buildup makes the winter break that much sweeter, some of the Food Justice members are taking a different path. Instead of chillin at home with mom and dad, we are doing something called WWOOF. For those of you unfamiliar with the acronym, it stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms...or Willing Workers On Organic Farms. Either way, through WWOOF, you can travel to any country in the world and work for your stay on an organic farm. The idea is to learn and spread knowledge of organic farming because it transcends cultural differences. We all need to eat and most of what we eat has origins in the ground, thus, connecting everyone on this very basic level.
Erin McCluskey and I are going to Panama for the winter break to work on a farm that focuses on organic permaculture. Permaculture is an ancient practice of farming in harmony with nature that is making a comeback these days. Ellie Smith will be WWOOFing in Puerto Rico on a GW Alternative Winter Break Program.
WWOOFing is an excellent affordable way to travel as it is just airfare that you are responsible for. In addition, you get to learn about organic farming and connect with a family or community anywhere in the world. Stay tuned to hear about our experiences and see photos of our trips!

Enter: Hand

Peter Krsko, of Albus Cavus Mural Painters, chose the GroW Community Garden as a host to a sculpture of a hand as a part of the Give Me a Vote Campaign. Check out the campaign here and thanks Albus Cavus for thinking of us!

Shout out to Leticia Banful for being an awesome volunteer and baring the cold with us too!

Hoopmania on K st

Food Justice, Progressive Student Union, and Epsilon Sigma Alpha all came out to the Farm at Walker Jones on Sunday to help build hoop houses for the baby spinach plants.

Farmer John bending the hoops.

Staking the hoops with rebar.

Laying the cloth over the hoops. This cloth is really thin, but sturdy. It's the warm weather version of the plastic vinyl that common hoop houses use.

All of our hard work.

A project that would have taken John a day took him under 2 hours with our help! Thank you to all the volunteers that came out!

Monster Beet

This beet, as a tiny seed, was planted on March 4, 2010 and was just left it to it's own devices for 8 months and this is what became of it. Unfortunately, it had somewhat of an identity crisis and thought it may have been a radish...looks like a beet, but tastes like a radish.

MicroFarm on First and K NW

Several omens have led me to this farm in the past few months. First, a photographer from GW mentioned it to me to find. It has been on my go-to-visit list in my planner since August. Next-- I saw a video clip about this farm on CNN.com. Then--I went on a bike tour of gardens in elementary school grounds in DC, a stop on the tour was here. I arrived and immediately recognized it from the video clip. The tour wasn't more than a cursory glance which made it even more imperative that I come back again. This morning, I grabbed Erin, fellow food justice member and just...kind of..showed up at this said MicroFarm, hoping to be put to work by creator and farmer, John Cochran.
Lucky for us, John welcomed our help and we tended the collards patch together. As we picked off harlequin beetles, some neighborhood kids came to join us, watering, weeding, and asking endless intuitive questions.

John started this farm in July and donates the majority of the harvest to DC Central Kitchen. (Sounds like another urban agriculture project I know..) Students from Walker Jones Elementary School and residents from the neighborhood all come out volunteer on the farm. The photo above is of John, KK, and Erin all tending the massive collards patch. Also growing on the farm is kale, swiss chard, turnips, carrots, sunflowers, herbs, figs, and other fall vegetables. To learn more about the Farm at Walker Jones, go to John's blog, http://wjfarm.wordpress.com/

Epic Building Day

This past Saturday day, some pretty amazing volunteers came out. GW's Epsilon Sigma Alpha Community Service Sorority lent a hand building our new perennial herb circle out of recycled bricks and bunch of brand new cold frames.

Thank you so much ESA!

Out with Summer in with Fall

This weekend a bunch of volunteers came to the garden to help transition from Summer crop to Fall. We pulled out all of our dying cucumber plants to make way for hearty greens and radish.



We also pulled the seeds from one of our marigold blooms to sprinkle around the bed. Marigolds are a great natural pesticide too.



Also, our pumpkin and squash plants are coming in small, but strong!


The muralists who are going to be painting a mural on the white wall behind the garden came to volunteers and get to know FJA members. They helped us plant seeds in trays and transplant coneflowers. Thank you Albus Cavus muralists, can't wait to see the wonderful work you will be doing in our garden!

Garden Volunteers

In-coming freshman participating in the Community Building Community Program volunteered in the garden last week.

They helped weed, harvest, and rip out plants to make room for our fall crops. All of the students were incredibly helpful and enthusiastic, it was a pleasure for Melissa and I to host and work with them. 

We had lots to give to Miriam's Kitchen

Check out these beautiful juicy tomatoes!

Garden Volunteers

The Office of Summer Session is continuing to send us wonderful volunteers every Friday morning. Here we have Andrea and Danielle. Andrea's favorite summer dish is Caprese Salad and Danielle's is fried chicken. 

Andrea and Danielle helped weed, pick vegetables, and water the beds. 

Our tomatoes are finally ready!

And of course there were a MILLION cucumbers

Fellow FJA member Sarah helped out picking the tedious and enormous lemon basil plant.

Most exciting though is the good news that the peppers and eggplant are ready to be picked!

Garden Volunteers

Last Friday Yvonne and Alicia from the office of Summer Sessions came to help out in the garden. 

They harvested cumbers, beets, kale, mint, parsley, and basil. We had a great time engaging with people walking down the street who stopped to admire our eggplant and they were very enthusiastic about the future plans for the garden. 

For fun I asked Yvonne and Alicia what their favorite summer food or dish is. Yvonne said she loves cucumber salad, I hope the folks at Miriam's Kitchen love cucumber salad because they certainly get a lot of cucumbers donated from the GroW Garden. Alicia's favorite summer meal is fried chicken and green beans.

Our Harvest