Workshop on cover crops coming up

Working Cover Crops into Vegetable Production

A discussion-based program for commercial vegetable growers

Tuesday, Nov 29          6:30-8:00 pm

At the CCE Learning Farm

2043B State Highway 68, Canton NY   

Wednesday, Dec 14    6:30-8:00 pm

At the AARCH Building

1745 Main St., Keeseville, NY

Cover crops are a key component to building soil health but many vegetable growers find it difficult to fit them into their crop rotations. This involves long range planning to allow enough space and strategic timing for one crop to follow another.

Growers are invited to join a discussion on timings and choices with Kitty O’Neil, Regional Agronomy Specialist with the Northern NY Ag Program and Amy Ivy, Regional Vegetable Specialist with the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program.  Michael Davis, Manager of the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm will join the discussion in Keeseville. Growers are encouraged to bring questions and share their experiences at these discussions.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information contact Amy Ivy atadi2@cornell.edu or (518)570-5991. Registration is not required but appreciated in case of last minute changes due to weather or other issues.

Sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension with support from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Senate and administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Nature's Storehouse raising money for GardenShare

Starting today, Nature's Storehouse will be asking their customers to support GardenShare during this season of Thanksgiving.  Customers will be invited to make a donation to GardenShare while checking out November 13 - 23 and have the option to add their name to a wall of donors.  When you stop in for healthy food for your Thanksgiving feast, you'll be able to support GardenShare's work to help ensure healthy food for all of our neighbors.

"Many people feel that healthy food is inaccessible. We are inspired by the work that Gardenshare does to help ensure access to healthy food, and we are proud to partner with them in this fundraising effort." Rainbow Crabtree, Co-Owner of Nature's Storehouse.

"All of us at GardenShare appreciate this so much," said Gloria McAdam, executive director of GardenShare.  "Nature's Storehouse customers care about fresh, healthy food and this promotion will give them the opportunity to help everyone in our community have access to locally grown food."

Local businesses want to purchase local food

Local businesses want to purchase more local food, according a recent survey.

CONSERVATIVES CRITIQUE PENDING CHILD NUTRITION BILLS

The House and the Senate might soon consider child nutrition bills that would reauthorize the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (which expired more than a year ago!). Both bills would maintain the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which gives free meals to students regardless of family income (i.e., universal school meals), leave intact (with some minor tweaks) the prescriptive federal school meal standards, and expand welfare and federal food assistance. Should either bill move forward, the conservative Heritage Foundation maintains, many policymakers, including conservatives, would be conceding child nutrition policy to those seeking greater federal control and a larger welfare state. In brief, the Foundation’s basic objection to the Community Eligibility Provision is that it provides free meals to children whose families can afford to pay. School meal standards, it contends, impose strict, one-size-fits-all rules that dictate the specific types and amount of food that schools can serve. And Summer EBT programs are unneeded because SNAP, WIC, and existing summer meal programs are sufficient.  

Source: Heritage Foundation, 11/3/16, Child Nutrition Bill Critique

Americorps volunteer joins GardenShare

All of us at GardenShare are thrilled that we've been approved to add an Americorps volunteer to our team!  And very happy to welcome Brianna Blackburn who just started her year of service this week.

Hi, my name is Brianna Blackburn, I am GardenShare’s first ever AmeriCorps VISTA member serving this upcoming year in the neighborhood! I spent majority of my life growing up in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona and moved to Western New York just in time for high school. I am presently finishing up my degree in Political Science with minors in Law and Business at Clarkson University this December.

Why AmeriCorps you ask? Social and environmental justice have become issues that I am extremely passionate about and AmeriCorps was a great way to start a life of advocacy and activism. I am so excited to be welcomed into the GardenShare team and am especially excited to become a member of the local community! 

One of my favorite activities to do is experiment with new recipes while jamming out to Van Morrison. I also love reading the works of Kurt Vonnegut on my free time. I am also an avid road tripper and back packer, I mostly prefer to rough it and camp out in the elements. I have been to 30 states and my goal is to travel to all 50! My favorite place I have traveled to is the Northwest region of the US, most particularly Mt. Rainier in Washington. I spent last spring on a semester exchange in Hong Kong and back packed through Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and the Philippines. My most recent trip was a solo road trip from NY to Southwest Colorado to see Pearl Jam play! I have been saving up diligently to back pack through Iceland as my next adventure after my year of service!

I am very excited for what the next year has in store for me, and thank you for welcoming me into the community!

Brianna 

NYS Council on Hunger and Food Policy announced

ALBANY — State Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball today announced the members of the New York State Council on Hunger and Food Policy, which has been created to establish a permanent focus on fighting hunger in the state. Chaired by Commissioner Ball, the Council will advise the state on strategies to address hunger needs and expand the availability of fresh, locally grown foods for New Yorkers living in communities with limited access. 

See more here


All of us at GardenShare are happy to announce that our Executive Director is a member of this Council, representing the North Country's interests on these important issues!

Meet GardenShare's new Volunteer Coordinator

GardenShare welcomes a new member of our team this week.  Here's a little more about her!

Name:  Rhonda Rodriguez

Town of residence:  Massena

Role at GardenShare:  Part-time employee (Volunteer Coordinator)

How long? I just joined the organization in November 2016 and am happy to be a part of it!

Why I do what I do:  I was born and raised in the North Country and spent about 10 years away (in Boston and New York City) and then came back North in 1999, so I've had plenty of opportunity to see how poverty and hunger impact not only our area but America as a whole. Something needs to be done to get things in balance, and we can only solve the problem one person at a time. I admire GardenShare's efforts to help people in need access healthy food, fruits and vegetables, while bringing attention to local growers in the process. I am glad to do what I can do help spread that good message.

Role outside of GardenShare:  I am the proud (and often tired!) mom of a very active 9-year-old and I volunteer for community organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of Massena and a local Girl Scout troop.

Hobbies:  I am a certified teacher and I tutor students in my spare time. I enjoy music - when time allows, I sing in a local choir and play flute in a local community band. I am also a hockey fan and probably spend too much time on Facebook than I should!

Most recent accomplishment:  This summer in Albany, I served on a committee established by the New York State Commissioner of Education to help revise the high school Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts

What's the hardest thing you've done or had to learn? That as much as I want to, I am not going to save the world. However, there is profound value in helping one person one day at a time.

Favorite book? My favorite author is a childhood classic - Laura Ingalls Wilder. I've read not only her books but biographies and academic works about her, and it's a goal of mine to see the museum in Mansfield, Missouri that is dedicated to her life and career.

Last read? Arrow's Flight by Mercedes Lackey. It's a family custom to read out loud in the car whenever we're going somewhere, and we are currently working our way through Lackey's multi-volume Valdemar series.

What one word would you use to describe yourself? Brainstormer

Share something about yourself that few people know. I appeared on Jeopardy! many years ago, in one of their college tournaments. My performance was quite dismal, but it was still a lot of fun.

What are you most proud of?  My daughter and her adventurous spirit

If you could trade places with anyone for a week, who would it be?  Why?  Sometimes I wish I could trade places with my daughter, so that I could see and experience the world as she does. Viewing the world with fresh, young eyes, with no understanding of cynicism and sarcasm, would be a really powerful thing.

If you were a superhero, what would your power be?  I have always wished that I could read people's thoughts. I am not terribly adept at interpreting body language and prefer to know directly what's on someone's mind. But the books I am reading with the family right now (the Valdemar series) feature a character who has the psychic ability to read, manipulate, and project EMOTIONS. That ability (used with the appropriate ethics, of course) would be amazing, I think.

What would I find in your refrigerator right now? Not too much, as we're almost due for a trip to the market! Mostly deli meat and cheese, milk and juice and creamer for coffee. Assorted fruits and veggies - usually peppers, cukes, grapes, apples and peaches. We tend to plan out our meals for a week and then buy just enough at the store, rather than having a lot of extra food around.

Anne Frank once said that in spite of everything, she believed people were basically good.  Do you agree or disagree?  Why?  I think that people WANT to be good, but that they fool themselves into allowing behaviors that are not good and rationalize them as good and come up with justifications to absolve themselves of guilt. The  mind is a powerful thing. And what's good for some people is not necessarily good for others.