Community Food and Garden Network

Minutes from May 10 meeting hosted by Braeburn Court

            What a wonderful meeting!  Thank you to everyone who made it.  Our next meeting is scheduled for June 14th at Frank Allis Elementarty.  Would anyone be interested in volunteering to write up the minutes for that meeting?

We also found a wonderful supply of veggie and flower starts given graciously by Oak Hill Correctional Facility.  If you need any for your program please contact me, Ashleigh, by email growedibleflowers@... or by phone 246-4730 ext. 238.

Program Updates

Seed to Supper Program- Susan Boldt reported that the Seed to Supper Program was a little behind this year but will have plants and seeds coming soon.  The program will focus more on the response and feedback aspect of creating taste memories for future generations.

St. Mary’s assisted living home is going to start a healing garden.  They happen to be within walking distance to Chavez Elementary School so there is a lot of potential for intergenerational gardening activities.

Community Action Coalition-Community Gardens has had a tremendous response for raised beds at Community Garden sites around town.  May 1^st Gammon garden built 4 raised beds, May 8^th Quann garden built 3 beds with plans for at least one more.  Sheboygan garden plans on building at least 4 beds on May 22.  St. Paul is building one bed that can be made wheelchair accessible for a group from Goodwill Employment Services.  We are still doing recruiting and planning for additional gardens and raised beds.

4-H through UW-Extension wants to make more connections with CLC schools and community gardens.  They would like to have more of a focus on urban agriculture by pairing up with existing garden programs.  Lisa Johnson and Mary McCarty are the women in charge of this program.

Focuscorp has detailed plans for this years accessible on site garden.  They have started making wheelchair paths.  Their plans to turn the bus into a mobile green house got a boost when it was discovered that it was a diesel bus and could possibly be run on French fry grease.  If anyone is interested in taking part of this project Focuscorp would love to hear from you.  Contact Catherine Murray or Ben Dorn.

Other items being discussed

 The city just passed the 4 chicken limit for home use within Madison City limits!!  If you are interested in finding out about chickens there is tons of information on the internet or you can contact Catherine Murray for specifics. 

The Food For Thought Festival in September is coming up and CFGN talked about what role we could have in the festival.

One idea was to hold an info fair/training for anyone interested in working with children/youth, seniors or people with disabilities and gardens.  This event could be on the Monday to kick off Food For Thought Festival week.

Another idea was to have a demonstration bed building workshop at the fair.  People could come up and do some drilling and learn about the benefits of gardening. 

Catherine Boldt has food grade 5 gallon buckets available for anyone that wants them.  She also did some research and found that a galvanized metal water trough that is 2 ft. by 8 ft. for $56 at Farm and Fleet. 

Grassroots Leadership College is accepting coach and emerging leader applications for the fall semester.  This is an excellent program that teaches how to plan a meeting, form an agenda, work with power structures, fundraise and much more.  They will be having an informational meeting Thursday May 10 at Christ Presbyterian Church in the 1000 Block of E. Gorham.  Or you can email Amy at coordinator@...

Garden Tips

4^th of July is usually when Rhubarb becomes inedible.

If you have ant problems in your garden you can get rid of them by pouring boiling water over the nest than follow if up with vinegar.  This should scare them off for good.

Since the meeting ran longer than 1 hour.  I propose that we have the next one for 1 ˝ hours from 3:30-5:00.  The next meeting will be held at Frank Allis Elementary School and is being hosted by Julie Fitzpatrick. 

In attendance were

Catherine Boldt             gardener/ art teacher                 boldtor@...

Mary McCarty              UW-Ext./ VISTA                      mary.mccarty@...

Ben Dorn                      Focuscorp Inc.                          focuscorp1@...

Catherine Murray            “            “                                 “                   “

Shawn Eisele                Children’s garden at Bridge Lake Point Wanona Neighborhood Center 

                                                                                    shawneisele@...

Susan Boldt                   Seed to Supper                          kboldt@...

Julia Weaver                 PromiseKids children garden      thejweaver@...

Duward Brown             Goodwill Support Employment    dbrown.goodwill@tdsnet

Stephanie Zabler           Braeburn Court                         Stephanie.zabler@...

Rick Brooks                  UW Health Promotion Project    rbrooks@...

Ginger Ganser               United Cerebral Palsy                gingerg@...

Ashleigh Ross               Community Action Coalition       growedibleflowers@...