Volunteer AJ B. showed up with enough good wood to build seven greenhouse tables! Frank W. will be putting the tables together this week, allowing us to get several thousand plants up off the floor! 
Thank you, AJ, for making the long drive from Apex to bring Frank the wood.
Today, we were planting again. We’re about 10 flats shy of 10,000 and working fast in teams!
I feel really good about today’s planting of seed saved from last year. Some gardeners asked us to glean their gardens each week for the Pilot Baptist Church free produce stand. When we picked, we saved three kinds of bean and peas, okra, and peppers too old to eat. Now we are using the dried pods and peppers for this year’s plants. We don’t know their exact names, or how “pure” the seed might be, but they will grow and yield edibles.
We also planted from Wyatt-Quarles and Louisburg Southern States’ donated seed packages, which include (today) cucumber, eggplant, acorn squash, cauliflower, and more. We also used donated seed various gardeners had mailed to us, and a bunch of tomatoes and peas donated by Wendy and Mark G. of the Louisburg/Bunn area!
At some point this week, we hope to plant seed for our own garden and greenhouse–we’re planning to grow produce to give away and to eat in our own space. (We ask you to grow and share, and ensure we do the same!)
We also have some special seeds for things like black watermelon, black tomato, tiny tim tomato, jicama, and more which we will sell to raise donations.
Over the course of the past two weeks we have enjoyed planting many things! We’ve found some ways to speed things up, which include:
- having a team putting foundation soil (for under the seed) into trays and then handing the trays to the planters
- laying out 4 trays in a row and planting all of them together with the same thing
- one person planting a whole tray and then handing off to a second who covers the seeds with more soil
We’ve also found some things that slowed us down, but did them anyway. The biggest “time waster” that we decided was important:
- planting several different types of veggies in each 4-pack
We took the time to do this to ensure our gardeners may have a wider variety in their gardens. For example, we have some packs that are part cucumber and part squash. Others are 2, 3, or 4 types of tomatoes so gardeners can have a variety, some for paste, some for eating, and some for cooking or canning. And, some that had both hot and sweet peppers.
We’re having fun, getting dirty, and getting a bit bone weary, and it is worth every minute!
You Americans who are volunteering to garden and share your harvest, I am in awe of you.
I just spoke with a NC gardener, who called to let us know that she had her garden ready, and had built it just to join Grow And Share after hearing us on the radio!
Ma’am, you made my day!!
I love it when I get calls or emails like this, letting us know gardens are being expanded or created just to grow and share based on The Idea we spread — and radio helps us to spread even further!
Thank you, gardeners, for helping your fellow Americans eat — and especially eat healthy food!
Kay W.
Kids putting Inserts into the Trays
Dirt in the Inserts, Full Trays Ready to Plant
Just as an aside, sometimes when you are planting lots and lots, things can get a little monotonous. Below is what happened when one of the helpers at the third workstation (label making) wasn’t concentrating very well on her task.
When You Do Not Concentrate
Don’t see it? All the labels say “Hales Best Tomatoes”, yet the seed packets clearly were for “Hales Best Cantaloupe”!
Trays moved to the fourth workstation had their labels and were about 1/3 full of the soil mix. At this final workstation, seeds were planted and more soil placed over the seeds. Some seeds, mostly small ones, were covered lightly. Larger seeds such as watermelon or pea were covered more heavily.
Plants Ready To Grow
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On teaching kids about food:
Came across this on a member blog on Homegrown.org. Wish all the parents, children, teachers, and students in the US would see this!
The “Grow And Share Team” is raising funds by walking in the Great Human Race 5K. The race takes place March 27, 2010 in Durham, NC.
We’re aiming for at least 50 walkers on our team, and already have some honor students, gardeners, and volunteers signed up! The Grow And Share Team will carry a sign during the 5K, wear matching t-shirts, take photos for our website, and be in a video made by us and by the Great Human Race organizers.
Help us raise funds to be used to expand our educational activities, including year round children and family events on healthy eating, growing food, community building, gardening for quality local food…and, yes, minimizing obesity through better choices.
Get your company’s logo on our 5K team t-shirts! Limited spaces available. Give your corporate gift right now for the Grow And Share Team. Email or call 1.919.269.5414 before March 10th…sooner is better. Minimum suggested donation for companies is $1,000. Only 4 company logos will be placed on the team t-shirts.
In order to donate to the Grow And Share Team, go to our team fundraising page at www.active.com/donate/ghr2010/growandshare. Alternatively, checks may be mailed to Grow And Share, 70 Harrison Street, Zebulon NC 27597. Make checks payable to “VCD/Great Human Race” and be sure to write “Grow And Share” on the check memo line.
Then, join us for the 5K or come for the after-party at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham. We hope to see you March 27th from 8am to 11am and appreciate your support!
Growing your own food helps you and those around you who share your harvest. Benefits are numerous in terms of health, food quality, food safety, carbon footprint lessening, and environmental improvement.
A simple idea, to grow and share, and one we spread the word about every day! Please help us to reach more and more Americans with this idea, and in a couple of generations we can have a healthier population, a healthier Earth, less unsafe bred-for-storage-and-tasteless foods, and hopefully no large polluting factory farms.
Help by joining us! Grow food to share.
And, help us by funding us. If everyone who visits the site donates $5 and a pack of heirloom seeds, we can reach across America in no time! Help us get to more communities sooner. Please, $5 and a pack of seeds… that small gift will make a big difference.
If you can give more, great! We are careful with our funds and take the time to gather donated supplies and use donated media to ensure we stretch every dollar.
Mail your $5 and pack of seeds to:
Grow And Share
70 Harrison St
Zebulon NC 27597
USA!
Baseball Radio Network Aims to Grow More Than Ratings!
Play-by-Play Sports Properties To Team Up With Local Non-Profit on Mudcats Broadcasts
Zebulon, NC, March 1, 2010–
Grow and Share is a unique Zebulon based non-profit organization dedicated to providing healthy fruits and vegetables to U.S. residents through food education and widespread gardening. The organization’s website www.growandshare.org provides assistance to homeowners willing to start or expand their own gardens while pledging to share produce with those in need. This season, Grow and Share will get a big boost from the Carolina Mudcats broadcast booth.
Grow and Share recently attracted the attention of Joe Bourdow and Patrick Kinas who will produce radio and Internet broadcasts this season for the Carolina Mudcats through their Play-by-Play Sports Properties venture on an expanded local network led by the powerful “flagship” radio signal from WDWG 98.5 FM.
“Grow and Share offers a creative approach to combating hunger, a big problem nationwide and here in our local communities,” says Joe Bourdow, Play-by-Play Chairman. Bourdow who recently retired after thirty-one years as President of Valpak, the national direct mail advertising company, wanted to use the baseball broadcasts as a vehicle to help the community in a meaningful and sustaining way.
“I have been involved with fighting hunger over the years through volunteer work Valpak has done with the National Association of Letter Carrier’s Food Drive, the St. Petersburg, Florida Free Clinic Food Bank and other organizations. Grow and Share is a relatively new organization doing impressive and important work and they are doing it just down the street from our ballpark. We have decided to try and help by letting our audience know how they can help grow and share healthy food”, he said.
“We will all be cheering for our local team this spring and summer,” says Kay Whatley, Creative Director for Grow and Share. “We are excited that many of the more than quarter million fans coming out to Five County Stadium this season will be following the team on the radio and the Internet and will hear our message. We think that this new relationship will help us significantly increase our participation, production and distribution of healthy food for those in the communities we both serve, “ Whatley said.
This year the Mudcats will be heard throughout the five county area on radio from 98.5 FM as well as in Raleigh on WDOX 570AM. The broadcasts are also streamed live on the Internet at carolinamudcats.com and on the official website for minor league baseball milb.com. The 2010 Mudcats (AA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds) open on the road at Birmingham April 8th. Home Opener at Five County Stadium is April 14th at 7:15pm.
For more information about Grow and Share, visit www.growandshare.org. For businesses interested in advertising on the Carolina Mudcats Baseball Network and reaching fans throughout the area contact joe.bourdow@mudcatsradio.com or visit the company’s website at mudcatsradio.com.
About Play-by-Play Sports Properties, LLC
Play-by-Play Sports Properties, LLC has been licensed by the Mudcats to broadcast all 140 regular season games as well as the championship series games (if the team qualifies) and is the first such company to license broadcast rights from a minor league team.
About Grow and Share
Grow and Share is an organization dedicated to fighting hunger “from the ground up” tm by growing interest in gardening, local foods, food education and community building through harvest sharing. Grow and Share helps communities help themselves.
CONTACT:
Joe Bourdow
800.667.9807
joe.bourdow@mudcatsradio.com
Kay Whatley
919.269.5414
Grow And Share’s February 2010 issue of our newsletter, The Garden’s Edge, has been released today. Issue Two is available on our newsletter website, http://www.thegardensedge.org.
Each issue contains information on our activities, as well as tips and information for gardeners. This “Issue Two” focuses on our children’s educational activities, teaching about growing food and sharing it. It also includes a call for volunteers, and information on the April garden plant giveaways.
Get your company’s logo on our 5K team t-shirts! Limited spaces available.
T-shirts will be printed in mid-March, so time is short. Give your corporate gift to Grow And Share now for our ”Grow And Share Team” in the March 27th “Great Human Race”. GIVE $ and GET your logo on a big group! Email or call 1.919.269.5414 before March 10th…sooner is better. Minimum suggested donation for companies is $1,000. Only 4 company logos will be placed on the team t-shirts.
Team is estimated to be 50+ walkers. We will carry a sign during the race, wear the t-shirts, take photos for our website, and be in video made by us and by the Great Human Race organizers. Get big visibility for your community support, in return for reasonable dollars…which will be used to expand our educational activities (children and family events to encourage healthy eating, healthy food sharing to fight hunger, gardening for quality local food…and, yes, minimizing obesity.).