Nourish and Peterborough Community Garden Network staff member, Jill Bishop shares information about our Urban Seed Saving Garden and our Nature’s Path Gardens for Good Competition.
Thanks to Fiskar’s Project Orange Thumb support, we are able to plant an Urban Grain Seed Garden in the heart of downtown. There generous donation of wonderful Fiskar’s tools and Canadian Tire gift cards will help the garden grow and flourish.
Just a few of some of the amazing Fiskar’s tools we have received to help our garden grow!
In the past few weeks we have planted hundreds of seeds of Purple Barley, Arab Blue Barley, Utrecht Blue Wheat, Red Fife Wheat, Blue Tinged Ethiopian Wheat, Black Quinoa, Multi-Hued Quinoa, and just for fun a few Turkey Craw climbing beans, Purple Flowering Fava Beans, Black Krim tomatoes, Burgandy Okra and Speckled Lettuce. Many are already sprouting and we are excited to watch them grow.
The purpose of this project is simple: To plant unique heirloom (grain and other) crop varieties in the heart of the city in order to harvest seeds and teach people that they too can grow their own grains and seeds in urban and small spaces. We will be hosting workshops throughout the summer, and come harvest will be milling and sampling some flours made from the grains. All seeds will be donated to our Community Seed Library and will be replanted in community and other gardens throughout Peterborough City and County in the years to come.
This garden is part of a larger project which seeks to plant heirloom grains and other crop varieties in community gardens, backyard gardens and organic farms to increase the quality and quantity of locally adapted heirloom seeds in the region. Look for these gardens around town to see seeds growing in action! We will be hosting a Seed Garden Tour and hands-on learning day in the Fall.
For now, however, Nourish is excited to let you know that we have just entered the Nature’s Path Gardens for Good Competition. You can help us win $15,000 to expand our Urban Agriculture Programming, and implement our enGRAINing Food Security Project.
Saving Seeds, Cultivating Leaders, enGRAINing Food Security:
Funding from Nature’s Path will help us take existing projects to the next level, and truly enGRAIN Food Security in our community. We will not only improve soil quality in urban gardens, produce a multiplied stock of high quality locally adapted seeds, and provide a versatile food crop that has long-term storage capacity, but will also provide incredible opportunities for knowledge sharing, training and skill development. Now that we have planted these grain seed gardens, the capacity to deeply enGRAIN food security within our community exists. Nourish helps connect the dots in our community. With this funding, community members will be able to engage deeply with the entire life cycle of these grains from planting, to production, to consumption. They will take part in hands-on training, have access to equipment and opportunities to share knowledge, and as a result will gain confidence and connections, and work together to improve personal and community food security.
How can you support this work? It’s easy. You simply need to vote for us DAILY on Facebook until July 6, 2015. The link is here: http://wshe.es/X7dXiSy5
Thank you so much for your support!
