Small Potatoes Gleaning Project
Recovering Local Surplus Produce for Hungry People in Whatcom County
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Spring news from our new garden!

Our orientation and potluck was well attended and a nice way for garden participants to meet us and get to know each other. Each brings to the garden their own unique gardening techniques and favorite vegetables from many cultures. A wide selection of free seeds was available to the gardeners to get them started on their gardening journey. The seeds were generously provided through donations from Territorial Seed Company, Seeds of change, and Celt's Garden. Afterward, the participants headed over to the garden to choose their own garden beds. Instead of numbers, veggies names like Walla Walla and kohlrabi were used to identify each bed. A chilly spring breeze was blowing and everyone left with visions of warmer days ahead filled with growing.

Construction of the garden shed is nearly complete! In the spirit of keeping it "green" we are using recycled building materials and installing a living roof. The shed was engineered by Celt Shira and Lila McGrew. Materials have been donated by Ferndale Ready Mix, Western Concrete Pumping, RE-Store, Morse Steel, Ferndale True Value, Graite Construction and Concrete, Planit Construction, Northstar, and Del's Farm and Garden.

Construction of the food bank garden was completed with the help of Windward High and other volunteers. Spinach and beets are in the ground and peas, beans, cabbages, and lettuce mixes are in the greenhouse waiting to be planted out in the garden. A video of the work party, and Alcoa work party, can be seen at http://ferndalecommunitygarden.blogspot.com/2008/04/spring.html

A "name the garden" contest took place in seven of Ferndale's Elementary schools, along with garden participants. Prizes were donated by Hollywood Video, Cost Cutter, Chihuahua's, International Athletics, Ferndale True Value, Cenex of Ferndale, and Las Cazuelas.
The winning name chosen is Friendship Community Garden! Ferndale's Friendship Community Garden in the press

If you'd like to garden, volunteer, donate or sponsor, please contact Andrea Traner at almaness@yahoo.com or 360.384.0570


WELCOME TO OUR COMMUNITY GARDEN PROGRAM
 
After many years of providing tons of nutritious local produce to the hungry and in the spirit of moving low income participants towards self-reliance, Small Potatoes Gleaning Project has started a community garden. Ready to grow beginning Spring 2008!
 
SPGP Community Garden Mission:
The Small Potatoes Community Garden is committed to nourishing and empowering people without access to their own land to grow food sustainably.
 
 
The community garden is a 10,000 square foot parcel located in Ferndale’s Pioneer Park.  The garden is divided into thirds: one-third for individuals, one-third for the Ferndale Food Bank, and the remaining third for a children’s garden. There are 18 garden beds available for individual or family use.  In strong support of an environmental ethic, the community garden is organic gardening only.
 
 
We are beginning outreach in the Ferndale Community to assign the 18, 4’x16’
individual and family plots. They will be available on a sliding fee scale for $10-20 per season, (plus a $10.00 refundable cleanup deposit.)  Any interested persons, please contact Andrea Traner: almaness@yahoo.com
 

Please follow links below for more information and a list of garden rules.

Community Garden Information
Community Garden Rules

 

Community Participation

 
Windward High has partnered up with the garden and is managing the Food Bank section during the school year. They will be building up the hard-scape of the garden in February and will be doing everything from planning appropriate seasonal foods to grow, starting them either by direct seeding or for summer transplants, to harvesting the bounty and delivering it to the Ferndale Food Bank!
 
The Ferndale Boys and Girls Club will be using the children’s garden during their summer gardening program.
 
A garden is born!
1-‘Photo of breaking ground’

3-October 12, Alcoa employees came out to the garden and moved 60 yards of topsoil into the raised beds, spread burlap bags as weed barrier, covered paths with wood chips and sowed a winter cover crop of fava beans, cereal rye, and Australian field peas.

2-October 6, Karlos built 18 approx 70 square foot raised garden beds

4-On Wed, Nov 7, Windward High students came out for their Make a Difference Day to finish off some paths and prepare a bed and plant garlic for the food bank.

 

 
        
  Community Garden Project Goals

  • Restore justice to land practices by providing land to those who would otherwise not have an opportunity to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for their family through gardening due to lack of land.
  • Locally produce fresh vegetables for the clients of the Ferndale Food Bank.
  • Bring the garden into the classroom and children out into the garden to learn about where their food comes from while integrating food and agricultural knowledge with standard science, social studies, and math curricula.
  • Create a cultural demonstration garden with the help of participants that teaches climate appropriate farming techniques and translates knowledge and skills from home countries to farming in the Pacific Northwest.  The availability of traditional foods positively impacts the health of immigrant communities by providing healthy foods that these communities are familiar with and know how to prepare.
  • Create systems that promote networking and education: the sharing of gardening techniques and food preparation.
  • Through the heartfelt work of preparing land, growing and harvesting food, participants are afforded an opportunity to recognize the important role that farmers and farm workers have in creating and maintaining strong, sustainable, local food systems while contributing to the overall health of the community:  dignify the act of growing food.
  • Organic only farming encourages an awareness of environmental stewardship and maintains the health of the land for future generations.
  • Community gardens help to set the tone for future community greening/open space projects.  Land use decisions play an important role in shaping the pattern of community development.
  • Highlight the value of volunteerism.
  • Have fun!

Please support our generous donors and sponsors: 

Community Food Co-op
Alcoa, Ferndale
Van Boven Gravel
Les Schwab, Ferndale
Applied Digital Imaging
Growsource
Oso Lumber, Ferndale
Motorweld
Rude’s Auto Repair
Conoco Philips
 
Schira Consulting
 
Evergreen Engineering& Design

Punch Woods Endowment Fund
Campaign for Human Development (Rice Bowl Grant)
Cenex, Ferndale
Haggen, Ferndale
Sawarne Lumber
Re-Store (Promise of donated recycled materials to build storage shed)
Territorial Seed Company (seed donations)
 
Many THANKS to the following:
HEARTFELT and HUGE “Thank-you” to Karlos Traner (bed construction); Barbara and Mel (on call childcare), the Ferndale City Council; Jerry Landcastle; Ferndale Public Works (Paul, Jim, etc for all the wood chips); Ferndale Community Network; Walter Haugen (reference extraordinaire); Maria Stewart (re-mineralizing our garden one bed at a time); Nate Seright; Peter Kaynor; Windward High Students (superb volunteers, excellent garlic planters); Lloyd Zimermann; Roger (many trips to Tony’s coffee for burlap bags); Peggy (our community garden documentarian); Madi (food bank garden student coordinator); Jodie Read, Jennifer Durkin, Kristi Thiessen, Mike Oliver, Jim Larson, Dan Timmer, Jim Manthey, Ann Wiegand, Haley Lowy, Pat Flaherty, Tia Daulph, Margaret Southerland, and Bob Ewing from Alcoa who came in and got the job DONE!!; B.J. (THE plower); Rich McDonald (lots of start up info from Seattle P-Patch); Sue McGann (our tour guide at Marra Farm); Tracy Wilking (Washington Food Coalition).
    
 

April 30, 2008
New name encourages community bonds in gardening
by Christopher Huber Record-Journal reporter Story tools

The Ferndale community garden recently got its official name -- Friendship Community Garden. Since the beginning of April, students from four Ferndale elementary schools cast ballots with proposed names for the two-month-old garden from which community leaders and gardeners voted on the final name.

Short sprouts of various herbs, fruits, flowers and vegetables are finally starting to emerge from their moist beds of soil at the two-month-old Ferndale community garden at Pioneer Park. After months of constructing garden beds and organizing partnerships between schools and organizations in Ferndale, the recently opened community garden finally has an official name -- Friendship Community Garden.
Read in depth article:http://www.ferndalerecordjournal.com/index.php?goto=2008-04-30%2006:54:09

HUGS Program

Families with a limited income often don't consume enough fresh fruits and vegetables. Through donating unmarketable crops you can help feed people in your local community in need.

Attention home gardeners!!!! Too much, too big, too small, funny looking?? Participate in our new HUGS program.

Small Potatoes Gleaning Project assists home gardeners in distributing their excess fruit and vegetables through the Home and Urban Garden Surplus (HUGS) program.

Gardeners can call to make arrangements for a team of volunteers to come and glean for them, or to obtain information about the locations and delivery hours of food banks and meals programs in their area. If you are overwhelmed with abundance from your garden, we can help you share your HUGS with hungry people in our community. We do our best to provide quality produce to those who otherwise don't have access to fresh, nourishing food. Before calling, ask yourself if it's food you would eat. Please do not ask us to harvest overripe, or insect ridden fruit.

For more information, contact:
Rio Thomas
HUGS Coordinator
(Home and Urban Garden Surplus)
360-966-2533
E-mail: hugs@gleaningproject.org
Subject: HUGS Program

New Volunteer Opportunity

Help to grow food at the new 'Food Bank Farm' !!!!

Volunteers are ALWAYS needed to weed. Other tasks include sowing seeds, bed preparation, and maintenance such as weed eating and greenhouse work. And as always, when it's time for harvest and delivery to the Bellingham Food Bank, volunteers are needed.

For more information on volunteering on the Food Bank Farm call 738-0690 or email beemon@comcast.net

"The root cause of hunger isn't a scarcity of food or land; it's a scarcity of democracy."

Francis Moore Lappe'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

glean@openaccess.org