Come on down!

Hi all! We hope the winter is treating you well. If you've wanted to volunteer for a while but don't know how to get involved, set some time aside to come on down to our offices. Our new volunteer coordinator, Karen Spangler pictured greenly at left, is holding "office hours" to meet with new volunteers. The times are 10-12 on Wednesday mornings and 3-5 on Thursday afternoons, but she's happy to meet with you at other times if you can't make it then. Give us a call or just stop by at those ties--we included this picture so you'll know whose face to look for! We're always happy to see you.

Worm Review

Here's a picture from our Vermiculture Workshop last Saturday--Kari Blouin, Shelley Czupinski and Gina Czupinski drill holes in a bin to give the worms air and keep the right level of moisture in the mix. We had lots of fun discussing the secret lives of worms and then making our own bins. If you couldn't make it but are interested, check out our previous entry about vermiculture to get some ideas and resources!

Keep your eyes peeled for other news and announcements on our Growing Hope blog, and we'll keep the blog buzzing with our upcoming events and interesting articles.

Family Fun at the Corner Brewery

We Knew It!

Today an article in the New York Times health section confirmed what we thought was just common sense: a new study shows that "vouchers that permit low-income women to shop at a local farmers’ market increase fruit and vegetable consumption in poor families". As the study mentions, increased fruit and vegetable intake can have a powerful effect on the chronic illnesses that affect a largely low-income population.

At the Downtown Ypsilanti Farmer's Market, which Growing Hope manages, Food Stamp participants can use their EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) card to buy fresh fruits and vegetables! Additionally, the market participates in Project Fresh and Project Senior Fresh. We hope you'll come on down and see us at the market starting in May!

Vermiculture Adventures

Vermiculture (growing worms) is an exciting way to improve the soil in your garden while recycling your food wastes. Worm composting bins (known as vermicomposting) are easily adaptable to different sizes of households and types of maintenance. There are several different kinds, from high-tech systems you can order from a catalogue to those you can make yourself at home. In either case, if you treat your worms well and feed them delicious food scraps, they will reward you with their castings. Worm castings are a very concentrated source of nutrients that can increase the productivity of your soil. Once you have a thriving community of happy and full worms, they can process half their weight in food each day . This is not the case with a regular backyard compost pile, which can only incorporate a small amount of kitchen waste before it gets soggy and smelly.

One of our favorite books on vermiculture is "Worms eat My Garbage" by the late, great Michigander Mary Appelhof. Check it out of the library, or swing by the Growing Hope offices to say hello to our worms and read our copy.
We also hope you'll join us for our Worm Bin Workshop on January 26 (a Saturday) from 10:30am to 1pm; it's the first of our ongoing Saturday Classes that will be held throughout the winter and spring.

Yam Fries

Winter is a time to eat yummy root vegetables, and one of my favorite ways to prepare them is to roast them in the oven--simply put them in, set a timer, and take it easy until they're done. An especially great food to make that way is yam fries, or sweet potato fries (What we call yams in the United States are interchangeable with sweet potatoes as they are cooked the same ways).
Vegetables and fruits with bright colors are often packed with nutrients, and sweet potatoes are no exception. You can read about their nutritional information and health benefits on Wikipedia. A yam fries recipe to start from is at The Post-Punk Kitchen website; this cooking site is vegan, but the recipe can be a part of any healthy diet.

Experiment to see how you like them best: cut like potato chips or like french fries, baked or sauteed, and which herbs and spices make your taste buds happy. I made them recently with a delicious dipping sauce of yogurt, a dollop of mayonnaise, and chili powder. Sweet potato & yam fries are a tasty, healthy way to eat fresh veggies in the middle of our Michigan winter.

Reconnect & Strengthen Your Roots!

While the first frosts signal the end of the growing season, the colder temperatures make root vegetables sweeter. This is because the plants, sensing the cold, send more starch to their root systems in preparation for the winter ahead. Much like the plants we cultivate, at Growing Hope we see the winter as the time to strengthen our root system, build up our resources, and reconnect with others. This is especially relevant in the holiday season, when many of us spend much-needed time reconnecting with family and friends.
Thanks to our new Dinner Party Kits, you can strengthen your roots and get resources for ours at the same time! (Click on the picture for a closer look.) We provide for free all the supplies you need to create a potluck or dinner party for your family and friends--you supply the food, we supply creative invitations, placecards, and napkin rings. In the invitation, you ask your guests to please consider donating to Growing Hope the amount that they would have spent going out to dinner. It benefits everyone involved, encouraging you to spend quality time with the important people in your life while raising money together for a good cause. Stop by our offices to pick up your kit today!

Word of 2007

Hi all! As we wrap up the year, we want to make sure we give a great big thank-you and a shout-out on our blog to everyone who's helped us and worked with us this year. You are too numerous and important to be thanked in such as short space, but you know who you are!

Next up, I wanted to note that the word of 2007 as defined by the Oxford American Dictionary is (drumroll, please) ... "Locavore". Us folks at GH are always big on eating locally, but it's nice to be recognized! Last year's word was "carbon-neutral" so perhaps it's the start of a wonderful trend?

For more information on how to practice "locavory" (continuing the word-coining theme), visit any of these websites, or the links on the right side of our blog's page.

The Eat Local Challenge has posts from regional locavores and links to many related resources;
Edible WOW (Wayne, Oakland, Washtenaw) is a new local magazine all about eating locally;
The Sustainable Table's front page has a finder where you type in your zipcode and it helps you find local food producers;
Eat Local Food is a Michigan-based marketing company for local food producers with great links to Michigan food resources.

I hope this is a good start to get you exploring and dreaming though the ground is frosty outside. As always, please comment with any of your own links that you find helpful and/or interesting!