Water Catchment in our School Gardens!

Drought got you down, dirty and dry?  Thanks to funding and support from the North Coast RC&DC, the Noyo Food Forest and MCOE Youth Garden and Talmage Preschool Garden installed rain water catchment systems to help with garden irrigation.   Read the blog and . . . .

Check out their stories on this new video. The MCOE Youth and Talmage Preschool Gardens are at minute  3:43 and the Noyo Food Forest is at minute 6:38.

Coast Garden Leaders On The Rise!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Eighteen Garden Leaders from thirteen gardens along the Mendocino Coast and Willits area gathered to network, learn from each other and build the movement for an accessible, sustainable food system!  The gardeners represented a great diversity of gardeners and communities within Mendocino County

Co-hosted by The Gardens Project of NCO and the Noyo Food Forest on the Coast, the goal of this three year program is to train community gardeners to share, organize, lead, and continue to build the movement for expanding and sustaining spaces for community and school gardens.

The Leadership Program is a component of NCO Community Action successfully receiving a USDA Community Food Projects grant to train community leaders in food production and work to alleviate poverty through re-building our local food system.

The group will meet every six weeks in Fort Bragg with each meeting focused on a different theme such as effective leadership, garden advocacy, market opportunities and growing community. Meetings are co-facilitated by Gardens Project coordinator Miles Gordon, Gardens Project and Noyo Food Forest staff.

This year's cohort represent the following gardens:Stone Soup Family Garden, Senior Kitchen Garden, Fort Bragg Grange Community Garden, Ecology Action Garden at Stanford Inn, Mendocino, Caspar Community Garden , Noyo Come-Unity Garden, Redwood School Rainbow Garden, Dana Grey School Garden, Fort Bragg Middle School Garden, The Learning Garden, Fort Bragg High School, Willits Charter High School Garden, Brookside School Farm, and the Willits Community Garden.

For more information about this year's Leadership Training, contact The Gardens Project or The Noyo Food Forest.

NFF Hiring New Leadership Position

Hello friends of the Food Forest,

This is an exciting time at the Food Forest. School is back in session. We're gearing up for a big expansion of our bed space. We had a blast this last weekend with our Eat Mendocino friends at our Farm-to-Table dinner. We're hosting an ag intern from Mendocino College this semester, as we say good-bye to our hard-working and beloved farm assistant Haley.

On top of all of that, we are now offering a new leadership position in the local food movement. Our Marketing and Development Director will work to sustain Noyo Food Forest's farm-to-school efforts by producing community relationships and financial resources, as well as providing local food advocacy. Read the full job description, and instructions for applying, at our website.

Interviews will be held starting September 16. Please feel free to forward this email to any interested parties.

Best wishes to you all,
The Folks at the Food Forest

Kids Eating Kale!

"Just try it, you'll like it!" When the children in the Fort Bragg Schools were presented with samples of Kale Citrus Salad and Rainbow Slaw in the cafeteria at lunch time, they were open and interested in tasting something new.  Getting children to try new foods can be challenging, but when presented in a positive environment without pressure it can be transformed into a fun activity.  The children who attend The Fort Bragg Unified Schools have been exposed to healthy foods for many years by being involved in the school gardens; being able to taste and harvest the plants right on the spot and experiencing the fresh picked taste.  Research shows that the more often children are exposed to a variety of foods in different ways the more likely they are to try it.
 
The Fort Bragg High School cafeteria staff, together with Gowan Lester and Paige Doyle from the Noyo Food Forest, served up samples of salad to the students as they came in for lunch.  They set the stage with a colorful table adorned with a vase of kale and pictures of children in the garden.  On the wall was a "Meet the Farmer" poster with a photo of Gowan in the Learning Garden greenhouse, once more making the connection from garden to table.  It was delightful to see that almost every student willingly tried the salad and some of the skeptics were quite surprised and came back for seconds.

The other schools did a similar tasting and enjoyed the salads in the following weeks.  With support from the NCO Farm2Fork program, more recipes and taste testings will be happening in local schools in an effort to introduce new and healthier menu items and feature fresh seasonal, local produce.


Kale Citrus Salad Recipe:
For dressing whisk together:
- 1/8 cup orange juice
- 1/8 cup rice vinegar
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp fresh ginger- grated
- 1/2 tsp soy sauce
- 1/8 tsp dry mustard
- pinch of black pepper

For salad toss together:
1/2 pound green cabbage- shredded
1/2 pound Dino kale- shredded
2 cups oranges- cut into pieces
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Coat mixture with dressing

Thanks Gardens Project!

This past November, a big winter storm wiped out the roof of one of the hoop houses at The Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School, a project of the Noyo Food Forest.  NFF is a longtime friend and partner to the Gardens Project (and member of the Gardens Network) and we wanted to see that hoophouse growing fresh greens for the Fort Bragg Unified School District once again.

NFF asked if the Gardens Project could cover the $1,400 bill to fix the roof and add sliding doors to both ends of the structure.  With the Gardens Project support, the “south hoop” is back in action and producing fresh organic greens for school lunch. 

Huge thanks to all of our donors who make these kinds of gifts possible!

Joel Salatin in Person

Joel Salatin, the farmer and author, will give a FREE talk on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7pm in the Multi-Purpose Room at Redwood Elementary School in Fort Bragg.

Gallery Bookshop will be on hand with copies of his new book, Folks, This Ain't Normal, and sales will benefit the Noyo Food Forest. This will be Salatin's only Northern California appearance.

Salatin, hailed by the New York Times as, "Virginia's most multifaceted agrarian since Thomas Jefferson [and] the high priest of the pasture" was profiled in the Academy Award nominated documentary "Food Inc." and the bestselling book The Omnivore's Dilemma.

The Noyo Food Forest is a non-profit organization based in Fort Bragg. Their mission: growing community, one garden at a time.

Doors open at 6pm. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information, call Noyo Food Forest at (707) 964-0218 or www.noyofoodforest.org

NFF'S New Executive Director!

The Noyo Food Forest is delighted to announce that our new Executive Director is Linda Pack. Linda comes with proven leadership skills and expertise in management gained from years of experience in local retail, public service and education.

Linda is well known in the community for her commitment to excellence. She was store Manager of Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino, Dirt Cheap in Fort Bragg, and was Artistic Director of Gloriana Musical Theatre from 1980 to 2000.

"I am proud to find such a dedicated group of people to work with," Linda said, referring to the Noyo Food Forest's Board of Directors, staff, and amazing volunteers. " It is a pleasure to see the fruits of your energy and efforts literally feeding and strengthening our community."

Welcome Linda!

Noyo Food Forest Seeks Executive Director!

We are looking for our new fearless leader!

The Noyo Food Forest has a position open for a new Executive Director to provide dynamic and engaging leadership as the organization grows into its 6th year of operation.

The ideal candidate will be passionate about working from the ground up through grassroots-style community development and enjoy working with people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities in achieving our strategic goals and objectives. He/She will have a proven history of leading organizations and managing programs. The salary for this part-time position is $1,600/month. For a full job description go to www.noyofoodforest.org or call (707) 964-0218.

The application deadline is January 24, 2011 at 5pm. To apply, email a cover letter and resume to Anna Kvinsland, interim Executive Director, at noyofoodforested@gmail.com.

Natural Building in Community Gardens

I recently attended a week long Natural Building Intensive course at Emerald Earth in Boonville. In this course, we learned how to use basic materials such as wood, earth, rock, and straw to build beautiful, safe structures. The methods feel so intuitive, and the work is most often accomplished as a community. Using these techniques, you can build large homes and skyscrapers, but I'm to take what I learned and start small by constructing some structures and garden features in community gardens throughout Mendocino County. We are starting with a small cob greenhouse at the South Ukiah Head Start Preschool garden, a cob bench at the Cleveland Lane Community Garden, and counters and benches to surround the earth oven already constructed at Talmage State Preschool (there is also a cob greenhouse there!). In Willits, Mason has plans to also build a shed in the WISC garden, and in Ft. Bragg at the Learning Garden, Veronica Morales of the Noyo Food Forest plans to build an earth oven.


This is an example of a cob bench at Emerald Earth.

These structures will make the gardens even more functional, beautiful spaces for communities to gather. And the best part is, we're going to build them together, strengthening partnerships with different organization, such as the Solar Living Institute and Head Start Preschools, and building community so that we can then take what we know to share with others. I can't wait! See you out there.

happily yours,

¡Mighty Mujeres!

Ten Mighty Mujeres turned up to lend a hand at Saturday's ¡Spring Garden Blitz! at the Head Start Family Garden. Head Start moms and their little ones, ladies of the Food Forest and a crew of girls and a mom from Fort Bragg 4H spent the afternoon making a new bed, building shelves in the toolshed, weeding, planting, turning compost, mulching and more!

A New Greenhouse!

We are gearing up for the spring at the Head Start Family Garden in Fort Bragg. We are planting seeds in our new greenhouse! It was generously donated by Dave at DIY Greenhouse Kits. If you are on the coast you check out his greenhouses at Simply Succulent on Airport Road just north of Fort Bragg, or on the web at doityourselfgreenhousekits.com. Thanks Dave!!!




We also planted raspberry bushes this month that should be bearing delicious ripe berries when the next school year starts up in August.




More broccoli and lettuce starts went in last week and we are still harvesting kale, chard and herbs.



And of course our favorite garden friends…the worms! This week they came inside for a classroom visit on a rainy day.



We’ll be having a garden work party on March 20th along with all the other Gardens’ Project gardens for the Spring Garden Blitz. Our focus will be digging three more beds and starting a mural on the tool shed. Many thanks to Rossi’s for donating the paint!

Black Tie Boogie Success!

The Noyo Food Forest entertained about 300 guests at the Black Tie Boogie, held at the Redwood Coast Senior Center on February 13th. The Senior Center was transformed into a red, black and silver classy dining room and adjacent jazz lounge, complete with a kids activity room and silent auction. The event had something for everyone and truly brought together people from different generations and pockets of the community.

The Senior Center served 180 meals that featured locally grown and organic food. Everyone was dressed to the nines and enjoyed a beautiful meal by the Senior Center’s Chef and yummy desserts provided by the Montessori del Mar Learning Center.



In the other room the Richard Cooper Trio and Lavender Grace entertained the crowd that mingled at the bar and relaxed at the cocktail tables while sipping local wine and beer. The silent auction was a hit with exciting items generously donated by local businesses and community members. The kids had a great time with activities provided by Sue Magoo and Jenny, Too of the Mendocino Coast Children’s Discovery Mooseum.



Later in the evening the jazz ended and DJ Selector Science played as people young and old boogied down on the dance floor. There was even a special performance by three superstar hula hoopers!

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The Food Forest would like to thank everyone who helped make his event possible! We are so grateful for all of our WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS and all the SUPPORT from our GENEROUS COMMUNITY!

Save the date for the Noyo Food Forest’s next fabulous and fun FREE fundraising festival….
Earthday 2010
Be the Change!
Saturday April 24th
at the Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School.
Live music, food, pedal-powered smoothies, workshops, interactive community art, kids activities and performances, and more!!! For more info or to get involved please contact the NFF office at 964-0218.

Get to know the Noyo Food Forest

The Gardens Project has a rockin’ sister partner on the coast – the Noyo Food Forest (NFF), a group dedicated to growing the local food system in Fort Bragg. In the past 4 years, the NFF has created 5 innovative and unique community-based garden projects on the coast.

The NFF’s main project is The Learning Garden, a Farm-to-Cafeteria program at Fort Bragg High School where organic food is grown on-site by students, staff, and volunteers and served directly in the school cafeteria and snack program. Several exciting expansion projects are also in the works at The Learning Garden: this fall the NFF had a Rainwater Catchment Workshop where they installed a 3,000 gallon water tank to collect rain in the winter; they planted a 30-tree apple orchard with the help of Common Vision and 90 local students; there is a big ol’ strawberry patch in the works, and they eagerly await the arrival of another hoop house to grow more warm weather loving plants! Workdays are every Friday, 1-5. Everyone is welcome! To learn more or get involved, click here

Other gardens include: the Senior Kitchen Garden, growing fresh organic produce for the Redwood Coast Senior Center lunch program; the Head Start Preschool Family Garden, a hybrid school/community garden creating opportunities for students and their families to grow their own fresh produce, with workdays every Thursday from 1-3pm; the Noyo Come-Unity Garden, a traditional community garden where individuals and families rent plots to grow their own fresh produce; and rounding out the quintet is the Grey Whale Garden, which provides a haven for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators and provides a beautiful site to passers-by on HighWay 1!

Casparfest

Join the Noyo Food Forest at Casparfest August 29th and 30th and enyoy the all-day entertainment on the outdoor stage, stewardship workshops, children's tent, green films, crafts, food, fun and friends!

The Noyo Food Forest will be selling plants, baked goods, drinks, and our famous pedal powered smoothies all weekend.

Want to volunteer in the Food Forest booth? Call Kim at 357-1529 or email morgankimberlina@gmail.com.

See casparfest.org for more details.

Zucchini!

Today I harvested 12 pounds of zucchini from the Head Start Family Garden! We are picking peas, lettuce and cherry tomatoes and herbs, too.





With the help of community volunteers from the neighborhood, Head Start families and the Noyo Food Forest Youth Interns, the garden is taking shape and producing food. There are carrots, several kinds of beans, more peas, radishes, potatoes and pumpkins on the way...they'll be ready for the Head Start meals this fall.





A neighborhood volunteer built us gates that will be installed this week and a new donated greenhouse is coming soon.




Each time I work in the garden people walk by headed to football practice in the field, working on the building, or cutting through the field...they are all so happy to see the progress and to have another school garden here in Fort Bragg!

Family Garden Days are every Thursday 2-4pm. Everyone is welcome! Come lend a hand and share in the harvest.

Head Start Families Dig In!

With the help of several Head Start families and Noyo Food Forest volunteers the garden at Fort Bragg Head Start is taking root! We have received generous donations of lumber and other materials to build a small tool shed and frame the beds to line them with hardware cloth...there are so many gophers! Peas, cherry tomatoes, sunflowers, lettuce and green beans are in the ground and more will be planted each week as we finish the beds.



Family Garden Days are every Thursday from 2-4pm this summer. Head Start families and community volunteers of all ages are welcome!



This summer we will be planting and tending food that will be served to the Head Start students in the fall. Produce will also be for volunteers who lend a hand. Join us this Thursday as we create more beds and plant more food!

Lovin' My Community

Five years ago, I drove into the town of Fort Bragg with little more than my weary truck could hold, my sweet dog Kenya, a broken heart and a sprinkle of hope for a better life on the Mendocino Coast. Within days, I found a job, I scored a cabin in the redwoods, and I met incredibly helpful, inspiring, loving people who let me know that I was welcome here.

I quickly found that my passion for positive, meaningful, lasting social change through community agriculture was shared by many people here and within no time I found myself united with several motivated, capable, fun-loving people. We decided on a name and a mission and we became the Noyo Food Forest.

Flash forward to the Earth Day Festival held last month at The Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School. A fabulous gathering of the beautiful people of the Mendocino Coast! At one point during the day, from my viewpoint on stage as the event’s emcee, I welled up with tears at the sight of my community. When I looked out over the crowd, I saw the familiar smiling faces of children, elders, and every age in between celebrating the Cool Blue Planet. Over 1,500 people celebrated with us that day and over 30 local businesses and organizations came together to produce the event for the community. It was a true community event, made possible by the generous donations of 20 business sponsors and the volunteer efforts of 70 local people. Incredible!

As we cleaned up the Garden at the end of the day, I remembered my personal journey from sleeping in my truck on my first night in town, to the first meeting of the five women founders of the Noyo Food Forest in Katrina’s garage, to the digging of beds at The Learning Garden at Earth Day 2007, to this wonderful, sunny day in April 2009. I felt overwhelmed with gratitude for the people of this community, this place I call home, Fort Bragg. I am humbled by your openness to an outsider from Louisiana, your warmth, and your willingness to work hard for a better world. I’m not sure if my story would be possible in any other place.

Thank you, Fort Bragg, for embracing the vision that “Another World Is Possible!” Thank you to all of the individuals, businesses, and organizations that made Earth Day a living example of what we want our world to be like. Thank you to each of you who make this community such a wonderful place to live. And thank you, fellow Noyo Food Foresters, for your commitment to “Being the Change we wish to see in the world.”

Noyo Food Forest. This Week at The Learning Garden.

Howdy folks

Redwood elementary students will be munching on sweet tender carrots today as we made the first harvest from the greenhouse boxes yesterday. Yummy!
The highschoolers have done a great job this week planting three more beds of cucumbers, sowing greens, forking a pea bed, and helping weed as well as caring for their personal beds.Ashton made the first student harvest from his bed last week and also made a new screen for the compost. Yeah Ashton!
Veronica got in the rest of the basil, double dug a new flower bed, and prepped the outside tomato bed.
Today we will start compost tea, plant zucchini,sunflowers, cherry tomatoes and peas, and also get started on some new planter boxes for the greenhouse.
If we are lucky it will rain tonight and tomorrow. For the market today we will have delicious greens, edible flowers, and perhaps a few bouquets.
For the work day on Friday we can plant more flowers, prep a big bed for sweet peas, make compost, and work a little on the dripsystem. Please join us 1-5 nibbling on peas, Sakina

Here's a quick update on upcoming events!!

This Saturday May 9th is the Fort Bragg Mill Site Specific Plan CommunityWorkshop at Dana Gray Elementary School from 9am to noon. This is a very important step in the redevelopment of the millsite and we need FoodForesters to show up and express support for the development of a LocalFood Center on the millsite! Imagine a year-round covered farmers market,greenhouses full of food, a compost/bio-remediation test-site, and aneducation center with workshops, classes, etc. Yes!

Saturday afternoon from 1-5 is a garden workday at the Head Start Gardenright next to Redwood Elementary School. Call Kim for more info, 937-0113.

Monday May 11th is the next NFF community potluck from 5:30 to 7 at theGrey Whale Inn. Join us! Remember to bring your own plates, cups, andforks. I'll be bringing a garlic scape stirfry. Yum!

The Farmers Market is back! Stop by the Noyo Food Forest booth for fresh greens, herbs, and nursery starts. The Fort Bragg market is every Wednesday from 3:30 to 6 at the corner of Spruce and Main Street on the north end of Fort Bragg. Bring your "Certified Noyo Food Forester"membership card for 10% off! Or find out how to become a member yourself!

Okay, thats all folks. Hope to see ya'll around town.
Still stoked from Earth Day,Susan

This Week at the Learning Garden

Hi folks,
Hold on to your hats! It's a good thing we have greenhouses to play inotherwise I'd just have to go home and hide there. This wind sure is frisky.The garden is holding up well, the row covers are intact and shelteringbroccoli and lettuce.
The peas have a good grip n their trellis' and thecarrots are bravely sprouting. The lettuce and spinach planted under cover amonth ago is looking fabulous and will go into the Earth Day salad. It's been a bit quiet this week as the high school is on spring break.
This weeks lettuce and spinach went to the Redwood Coast Senior Center and Piaci's,both great places to have lunch. Today I started organizing the nursery in preparation of the plant sale on the 26th and I noticed we have some broccoli,celery and flowers that are ready to plant.
If you would like to get someplants for your garden please come by the garden this Sunday in the afternoonf or a little 'pre-plant sale'.
The Friday work days have been great fun.I send many thanks to all of you terrific volunteers for all you do and special hurray to Scott for installing new vents in the greenhouse. This Friday we will continue to get ready forEarth Day and also tend to the Food Forest which needs weeding and prepping.
We also have celery to plant, the turnips need thinning, the old brassicas need to go to the compost pile, and we can harvest lettuce, spinach, cilantro, chardand kale. 1:00 -5:00.

cheers Sakina