WWGFD*
* What Would Grandma Fanny Do?
It's my mantra. Today, made chicken soup in pressure cooker. Made apple crisp with leftover apples getting mushy. Wearing my super comfortable (but not so fashionable) Mephisto sandals around the house. To make it complete, I would email some articles (Grandma would physically clip them out of the newspaper and mail them) and program my VCR to tape political programming. Alas, there is a distinction there. Programming the DVR is *much* easier that programming the VCR (Grandma was the only person in our family who had figured it out), and I have no interest in political shows. In fact, they make me want to throw things. Oh, and Grandma would also work on her plants, watering and transplanting.
Grandma would *always* visit KS for the High Holidays, so this time of year I spend a lot of time thinking about her.
It's been awhile since I posted. Grandma Fanny was a faithful correspondent, typing up letters on her old-fashioned typewriter. I should strive to emulate her in that fashion as well.
*From the department of TMI: Re: sad Lol-cat with hairballs in previous post. Had a tummy ache. Figured it was hairballs (aka code for IBS flare up). Eventually, it got better. (Fennel tea is an amazing remedy for GI ick).
*Have had amazing garden related experiences these last few weeks. Volunteered at Kansas City Community Gardens Fall festival, which was extremely enjoyable. They put me at the "Bugs & Butterflies" booth (which was more like an all purpose critter booth) where I got to play with worm friends, introduced kids to toads and a tree frog (Friederich & Ludwig), a praying mantis named Zelda and a garden spider named, of course, "Charlotte." The critters belonged to one of the curators at the garden, and she helped me talk to kids and answer questions.
*Mitzvah Garden KC (which is the real name, though I've been calling in the KC Mitzvah Garden all summer long) News:
We've started harvesting sweet potatoes, some of those things are enormous!
We've held a few Mobile Markets at area synagogues, generating a substantial amount of $ to use towards supplies for next year. This is especially good (surprising?) because of our unusual pricing model of "Give what you can, take what you like" (based on the public television membership model of "Give us X dollars and we'll send you this mug/umbrella/whatever!") I think this is more in tune with our general mission of giving food away for free and/or labor in the garden.
Actually, the demand was beyond our expectations, as many congregations asked us to come back. Unfortunately, we don't have the manpower (womanpower? humanpower?) to run the mobile markets, which are extremely labor intensive (harvest, prep, shlep, schmooze, pack up, schlep back.) Next year, I think we should plan out days for the markets in advance, so we have plenty of lead time to advertise. Though I was able to get ad out there for our first advertised market at KI. Please note the shameless self promotion
Also of interest: Jewish Chronicle profile on Eric Korsten, the man who supplied the wonderful beehives at the Mitzvah Garden. He's trying to get beehives out to as many congregations as possible in KC, esp. since colony collapse disorder has decimated many honeybee populations.
I was actually at the talk (to nursery school students) because I was invited by Morah Sherrill (nursery school teacher and food pantry coordinator), which was awesome. The Yachad Food Pantry/Simcha Box program is a major beneficiary of our produce.
Mitzvah Garden has also drafted me as the volunteer part-time grant writer for the garden (i.e. when you give away food for free, you have to ask someone else to give you money to run the program.) Starting to research grants and try my grant writing skills. If you have grant writing skills and would like to offer constructive advice for getting started, I'm ready to hear it!
I went to Tractor Supply Co. farm store and found an awesome pair of rubber boots for the garden. The sneakers I've been wearing have been getting seriously stuck in the mud and the shoelaces keep coming untied. I also lost my clip-on sunglasses at the garden, which I was about to give up on as a sacrifice for the land. However, one of my colleagues recovered them, for which I was grateful. Yesterday, I managed to lose them again. I called all the places I could think of that I had visited yesterday, but no dice. My hope is that they are in my car somewhere and will turn up. I really like those sunglasses
:(
It's my mantra. Today, made chicken soup in pressure cooker. Made apple crisp with leftover apples getting mushy. Wearing my super comfortable (but not so fashionable) Mephisto sandals around the house. To make it complete, I would email some articles (Grandma would physically clip them out of the newspaper and mail them) and program my VCR to tape political programming. Alas, there is a distinction there. Programming the DVR is *much* easier that programming the VCR (Grandma was the only person in our family who had figured it out), and I have no interest in political shows. In fact, they make me want to throw things. Oh, and Grandma would also work on her plants, watering and transplanting.
Grandma would *always* visit KS for the High Holidays, so this time of year I spend a lot of time thinking about her.
It's been awhile since I posted. Grandma Fanny was a faithful correspondent, typing up letters on her old-fashioned typewriter. I should strive to emulate her in that fashion as well.
*From the department of TMI: Re: sad Lol-cat with hairballs in previous post. Had a tummy ache. Figured it was hairballs (aka code for IBS flare up). Eventually, it got better. (Fennel tea is an amazing remedy for GI ick).
*Have had amazing garden related experiences these last few weeks. Volunteered at Kansas City Community Gardens Fall festival, which was extremely enjoyable. They put me at the "Bugs & Butterflies" booth (which was more like an all purpose critter booth) where I got to play with worm friends, introduced kids to toads and a tree frog (Friederich & Ludwig), a praying mantis named Zelda and a garden spider named, of course, "Charlotte." The critters belonged to one of the curators at the garden, and she helped me talk to kids and answer questions.
*Mitzvah Garden KC (which is the real name, though I've been calling in the KC Mitzvah Garden all summer long) News:
We've started harvesting sweet potatoes, some of those things are enormous!
We've held a few Mobile Markets at area synagogues, generating a substantial amount of $ to use towards supplies for next year. This is especially good (surprising?) because of our unusual pricing model of "Give what you can, take what you like" (based on the public television membership model of "Give us X dollars and we'll send you this mug/umbrella/whatever!") I think this is more in tune with our general mission of giving food away for free and/or labor in the garden.
Actually, the demand was beyond our expectations, as many congregations asked us to come back. Unfortunately, we don't have the manpower (womanpower? humanpower?) to run the mobile markets, which are extremely labor intensive (harvest, prep, shlep, schmooze, pack up, schlep back.) Next year, I think we should plan out days for the markets in advance, so we have plenty of lead time to advertise. Though I was able to get ad out there for our first advertised market at KI. Please note the shameless self promotion
Also of interest: Jewish Chronicle profile on Eric Korsten, the man who supplied the wonderful beehives at the Mitzvah Garden. He's trying to get beehives out to as many congregations as possible in KC, esp. since colony collapse disorder has decimated many honeybee populations.
I was actually at the talk (to nursery school students) because I was invited by Morah Sherrill (nursery school teacher and food pantry coordinator), which was awesome. The Yachad Food Pantry/Simcha Box program is a major beneficiary of our produce.
Mitzvah Garden has also drafted me as the volunteer part-time grant writer for the garden (i.e. when you give away food for free, you have to ask someone else to give you money to run the program.) Starting to research grants and try my grant writing skills. If you have grant writing skills and would like to offer constructive advice for getting started, I'm ready to hear it!
I went to Tractor Supply Co. farm store and found an awesome pair of rubber boots for the garden. The sneakers I've been wearing have been getting seriously stuck in the mud and the shoelaces keep coming untied. I also lost my clip-on sunglasses at the garden, which I was about to give up on as a sacrifice for the land. However, one of my colleagues recovered them, for which I was grateful. Yesterday, I managed to lose them again. I called all the places I could think of that I had visited yesterday, but no dice. My hope is that they are in my car somewhere and will turn up. I really like those sunglasses
:(