Getting Active at the Downtown Farmers' Market!

Come enjoy the new activity at the Downtown Ypsi Farmers' Market!

Three new things to keep your eyes out for ~ the FM Education Series, Youth selling produce, and Hopeful Herbs spilling forth.

*Growing Hope will be hosting a weekly educational event at the Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ Market. With the hope to bring more fun and information to the Market, Growing Hope Staff will be sharing their knowledge through this FREE educational opportunity.

One education series participant raved about the new information she learned in the Organic Pest Management class stating, “I never knew that planting earlier in the season can trick the pests into leaving your garden alone. I’m excited to try it out!”

Ben Brown, Market Garden Initiative Coordinator, loves to see the excited faces. He said, “its great to see people supporting local growers, learning something new, and out enjoying time with fellow community members.”

DOWNTOWN YPSILANTI FARMERS’ MARKET EDUCATION SERIES SCHEDULE:
No registration is necessary to come to the FREE educational series. Stop by the Farmers’ Market in time for the class, go shopping and learn about a variety of topics by a Growing Hope Gardening expert!
All classes start at 4pm and take place rain or shine.

JUNE 12- Accessible/ Adaptive Gardening
JUNE 19- Building Rainbarrels
JUNE 19- WIC Project Fresh
JUNE 26- Cool Garden Gadgets you can make
JULY 3- Senior Project Fresh
JULY 10- Yoga for Gardeners
JULY 10- WIC Project Fresh
JULY 17- Growing Herbs
JULY 24- Rain Gardening
JULY 31- Cool Garden Gadgets you Can Make
JULY 31- WIC Project Fresh
AUGUST 7- WIC Project Fresh

Check www.growinghope.net for more information on classes for
August through October!

*Growing Hope is proud to announce that Green Thumbs is open for business. Green Thumbs is a garden-based business run by a team of motivated 8th – 10th graders in the Ypsilanti area participating in the Youth Entrepreneur Program. The Roots & Shoots Youth Entrepreneur Program is an after-school and summer experience for youth that combines gardening with leadership and entrepreneurial skill development. During the six-month program, participants learn to create a business plan, grow their product, and then put their plan into action. By selling their harvests at the Ypsilanti Farmers' Markets, students will earn money and learn important concepts such as marketing, hard work and responsibility.

The Green Thumbs Announce: June 26th is the first day of sales! The Green Thumbs will begin selling lettuce, radishes and herbs at the Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ Market Tuesday June 26th from 3:30-6pm. Youth hope to attract customers with homemade signs, music and their carefully crafted marketing pitch. The Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ market is located in the Key Bank Parking Lot on the corner of Michigan Ave. and Hamilton St. in Downtown Ypsilanti.

The Youth Entrepreneur Program engages youth who are ready and enthusiastic to profit from what they will learn about both gardening and business planning. “At Growing Hope, we're committed to investing in young people who are ready to invest in themselves,” Michelle Glowa, Assistant Roots & Shoots Program Coordinator, said. Growing Hope’s Youth Intern Roy Finney has been a Roots & Shoots Youth Entrepreneur Program participant for the last two years. This year, Finney is excited to have taken on leadership in helping to plan and design the program with other Growing Hope Staff.

Interested in supporting the Youth Entrepreneur Program? Come visit the Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ Market and pick up the hippest vegetables and herbs on the block!

Growing Hope is dedicated to helping people improve their lives and communities through gardening. Based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, we work with neighborhoods, schools, community groups, and families to develop and sustain organic community growing spaces; we build on the strengths of individuals and the community to bring the benefits of gardens to all.

*Hopeful Herbs, a social enterprise of Growing Hope, to sell at Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ Market. Hopeful Herbs is a social commercial enterprise initiative of Growing Hope dedicated to creating local models of market gardening to support our community. Growing Hope is producing culinary herbs to sell at the Farmers’ Market and to local stores as a model of what urban growers can produce and earn on small plots. As we teach ourselves and our community how to grow and sell food in the city, we improve our ability to problem solve and address community issues such as improving access to healthy foods, promoting economic development, and reducing social inequalities. Profits from sales of hopeful herbs will be used to fund Growing Hope’s community programs including youth engagement, school and community gardens, and the Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ Market. Hopeful Herbs grows using natural sustainable farming practices to protect and nourish our community.

Beginning July 3rd, Hopeful Herb products will be available for purchase at the Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ Market -- Tuesdays from 2 - 6pm. Farmers’ Market shoppers will find high quality basil, parsley, cilantro and much more spilling forth from the Hopeful Herbs booth. The Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ Market is located in the Key Bank Parking Lot on the corner of Michigan Ave and Hamilton St in Downtown Ypsilanti.

Ben Brown, Market Garden Coordinator, believes “Gardening can provide us with excess. We at Growing Hope wondered if this could provide an opportunity to generate income beyond provisioning for our own tables. To this end, we are in the first stages of exploring a pilot project to look at the productivity of partner gardens and setting up our own market garden model. It is an exciting time for us to look at urban gardens’ potentials for economic benefit to the grower.”

Growing Hope will use this model to develop a training program and informational resources for local gardeners on how to develop, market and sell products raised in urban plots. Several community gardeners have expressed interest in selling. West Middle School Community Garden has already begun selling radishes at market to help fill the gap of early season produce.

Interested in supporting Hopeful Herbs? Come visit the Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ Market and check out the selection of delicious culinary herbs.