Here’s great news from our friends at City Fruit. 

Happy May Day!

This line is from Annie Dillard’s For the Time Being:   “In his last will and testament, Rabbi Yehudah Hechasid, an . . ethicist of the twelfth century, left numbered precepts for sensible and holy living:   #45. Don’t cut down a fruit-bearing tree.”  It’s good to know that for a thousand years, at least, caring for community resources has been considered sensible and holy.

Classes and Events.     Go to our calendar for a complete listing of fruit-related events. Two important ones:

May 6:    Susan Goodwin Jewelry show. Beloved artist and former Seattleite Susan Goodwin will return to Seattle with her jewelry. Those who know her are waiting in line already.  Susan is donating a generous portion of her sales to City Fruit, so we urge you to be good to yourself (and us) and check out the show:  Sunday, May 6, 11 am – 4 pm, Eileen Fisher’s in University Village. (Invitation is attached below.)

May 14:  Urban Forest Symposium.  The 2012 symposium will address the concerns of cities, non-profits and educational groups who steward the urban forest. 9 am – 4 pm at the Center for Urban Horticulture.  Learn more here .

Fruit tree tip of the month:  Don Ricks predicts that the codling moth will begin flying the second week of May.  He’s recommending a new approach (in addition to foot sox)):  synthetic pheremones that disrupt the mating activity of males and reduce reproductive capability (e.g., worms).  Read more here.

Community orchards:  There’s lots going on in the community orchard department. Dozens of stewards are active in nine City parks, most recently plotting fruit trees using GIS.  These data will be used to create digital maps to document each tree in each orchard. Just in time too:  Barb Burrill reported that her stewards have discovered yet another previously buried fruit tree on the Burke-Gilman Trail.  And while we’re on the subject:  thanks to the eight  PopCap Games volunteers who braved strong March rains to spruce up the fruit trees on the Trail

For those who prefer stories to data, Central Area resident and gardener Lori Kane responded to my plea (“I’m hoping we can find a way to document all this work”) by volunteering to spend time helping Seattle orchard stewards tell their stories.  Lori’s day job/title happens to be Community Story Wrangler and her first initiative is an all-photo Tumblr site. It’s great fun.  Register at http://seattleorchardstewards.tumblr.com/  and check out the new orchard at the Rainier Beach Learning Garden.  If you would like to post photos of your community orchard, email Lori at lori@collectiveself.com .

Thanks to a grant from United Way of King County via the RaVE project, we are partnering with community gardens up and down the Rainier Valley.  The Seattle Community Farm (Lettuce Link/Dept of Neighborhoods), the Rainier Beach Learning Garden (Seattle Tilth), the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden,  the S. Brandon & Wilson Ave S. community garden, and the All Saints Episcopal Church garden and Full Life Care garden (both Just Garden projects) will all plant new fruit trees and/or berry bushes. Volunteers to create Spring into Bed gardens/orchards at All Saints and Full Life Care are needed on May 12; email info@cityfruit.org if you’re interested.

ACTrees Grant.  And finally . . . City Fruit, partnering with the Beacon Food Forest, received a grant from the Alliance for Community Trees and the USDA People’s Garden Project to develop the initial orchard component of the food forest.  We’re in the midst of ordering fruit and nut trees and berry bushes and planning a series of community workshops on fruit tree care.

Have a great May and remember — GiveBIG on May 2.

Gail

Last week the RaVE team had an opportunity to present at United Way’s Hunger Action Forum.  The goal was to look at how hunger is being addressed in our community and to come up with innovative new ways to tackle this ongoing problem. 

Here is the presentation the team gave:  United Way Presentation.  The first part is a skit that presented how a mom took some steps to wards switching from fast food, potato chips and frozen pizza to cooking up fresh local produce.  The second part was on the grow, share, eat parts of the program.

Greetings friends and neighbors,

We have a special announcement about the coming RaVE community dinner.  Evening Magazine will be coming out to film us for an upcoming show. This is going to be a great opportunity to show Seattle, and beyond, what we are doing in our community. I hope to see you all there.

This community dinner is part of Rainier Valley Eats! (RaVE!) – a project in the Rainier Valley to connect our community through growing, sharing, and eating fresh food together. Find out how you can get involved and benefit from our collaborations and collective power. 
 
Friday February 17, 5:30-6:30pm
Rainier Community Center
4600 38th Ave S,
Seattle, Wa 98118
 
This month’s theme is “Healthy Soul Food” in honor of Black History month.  There is a rich history to the roots of soul food and this will be reflected in our meal:

• Gumbo
• Cornbread
• Greens
• Cabbage salad
• Black Eyed Peas salad
• Sweet potato pie
• and MORE………

Cooking starts at 3:00pm and we welcome anyone who wants to get down in the kitchen. We will have 20 positions that need to be filled and ‘Good Food Bags’ will be provided for free to those who help out in the kitchen, containing many of the produce items off the menu.

In order to manage the amount of people that we are now getting at these events, I NEED TO KNOW WHO IS COMING TO HELP COOK!! Please give me a quick response to let me know if you plan to come help with the cooking and set up. Please spread the word to family, friends, and anyone in the Rainier Valley you know would appreciate breaking bread with good people.
 
I look forward to seeing everyone,
Leika Suzumura, Leika.Suzumura@seattletilth.org
Community Kitchen Program Manager

By Julie Bryan P-Patch Community Gardening Program, Community Gardening Coordinator

Many seed packages encourage you to sow your seeds indoors a few weeks before the last frost date.  Depending on which frost chart you choose to follow, in 2012, the last frost date is between  March 10 and April 6.  Either extreme you might choose, and we are in the sweet spot for beginning to sow indoor plant starts. For example, I want to  grow annual fennel, Foeniculum vulgare this year.  I have chosen Fennel-Florence, Foeniculum vulgare var azoricum organic seed.  The  seed package instructions tell me to “Start seed indoors 4-6 weeks before the last frost, or sow directly once the soil has reached 65*F. Fennel tastes best when grown in moderate weather; extreme hot or cold temperatures, or soil that’s too dry, tend to make the plants tough.”  You might be ahead of me, if not, its time to set up your lights and heating coils, seedling trays, and soil mixes. If you do and start your fennel indoors you can harvest your first sowing much earlier than sowing directly outdoors.  

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Cathy Tuttle, Diana Vergis-Vinh, Becca Fong, Katie Pencke, Syreeta Bernal, Leika Suzumura, Angie Wood, Nora Peters, Kathryn Buckley, Natalie Thomson

On January 25^th and 26^th a group of healthy food system advocates from Public Health’s Rainier Valley Eats! team, Seattle Tilth, the University of Washington, United Way and the City of Seattle went up to Vancouver to learn about their community food programs. 

Solefood Farms

We visited Fresh Choice Kitchens, learned about DECK, (the Downtown Eastside Community Kitchen Project) and the Farmer’s Market Nutrition Coupon Project, visited the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, Solefood Farms, Save-On Meats, The Grandview Woodland Food Connection and met with the co-director of the Vancouver Food Policy Council.

One of the participants summed it up nicely when she said:  “I think the most lasting overall impression the trip made on me was the positive, optimistic attitude of all of the food system advocates/change makers we met and how they conveyed the momentum they had and positive thoughts about the future.  The goal of taking care of your neighbor and responsibility for one another is something that just made me feel warm and fuzzy.”

By Nikki Lewis, Seattle Tilth Intern

It’s been nine weeks of group cooking. The Ethiopiean and Eritrean seniors have been creating delicious and imaginative recipes together in the kitchen and building their team work – take a look at the tasty results!

On the menu last week at the Yesler Community Center: a delectable brown rice dish with sautéed onions, garlic, and coconut, hearty lentil stew aka Ethiopian wat, and much to our delight, authentic injera, a spongy sourdough flat bread.

This group is now cooking with little guidance, as they have developed their own technique to prepare healthy whole foods as a team, each person taking an active role in cultivating a one-of-a-kind recipe each week. We are pleased to witness the wonderful development of this cooking community, and hope this program will serve as a model for future community meal programs in the region!