By Projects Assistant | Growing Power Chicago
Happy New Year!
We hope you had a safe and healthy holiday season.
Even though winter is upon us, Growing Power is still hard at work at Iron Street Urban Farm.
Intensive Leadership Facilitator Training held at Iron Street
December 7-9th, 2012: Growing Power Chicago and the Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative (GFJI) held its second annual "Dismantling Racism through the Food System" Intensive Leadership Facilitator Training (ILFT) at Iron Street Urban Farm. The event sold out with over 80 community activists from across the country and beyond who came to Chicago to engage in this 3-day training and dialogue intended for participants to facilitate anti-racist food justice trainings in their own regions/communities.
The Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative (GFJI), hosted by Growing Power, Inc. is a comprehensive network that views dismantling racism as a core principal that brings together social change agents from diverse sectors working to bring about new, healthy and sustainable food systems and supporting and building multicultural leadership in impoverished communities throughout the world. To learn more and find ways to get involved, please visit www.growingfoodandjustice.org
Growing Power's Youth Program Holiday Gift Basket Series
This holiday season, 25 Growing Power youth corps members dedicated much time and effort to create a series of beautiful gift baskets for the holiday season. The baskets included lips balms and candles made and designed by the teens using beeswax from Iron Street's rooftop apiary! In addition, youth made herbal teas and dried herb mixes from produce grown on site. Not only did the experience teach the teens how to create and sell their own products, the sales from the baskets went towards providing a supplemental stipend for each teen's participation in the program. Be on the lookout for what we have in store for you in Spring 2013!!
Upcoming Events
Inner Ecology to Co-Host Midwest Farmer Training Workshop in East Asian Herb Cultivation, February 1-2 2013
Eco-Vision Sustainable Learning Center (Lake Geneva, WI), FamilyFarmed.org, Growing Power, and The Land Connection have joined Chicago’s own Inner EcologyTM to host a two-day workshop at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum on February 1 & 2, 2013 for Midwestern growers interested in diversifying their businesses with specialty crops.
The workshop, titled Pioneers in Ecological Medicine (PEM), will introduce growers to the basic strategies of producing domestic East Asian medicinal herbs. Topics include: selecting zone- appropriate crops, applying propagation strategies, assessing and managing risks, developing production plans, calculating production costs, implementing quality controls, marketing, and understanding legal and regulatory issues. It will be followed on Sunday, February 3rd by a benefit event open to the public.
Noted herb farming experts Jean Giblette of High Falls Gardens in New York and Peg Schafer of Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm in California will facilitate the workshop. With three decades of combined domestic herb-farming experience, Giblette and Schafer believe that sustainable production of East Asian herbs in the U.S. has the potential to benefit both local producers and practitioners.
For more information or to register for the workshop, visit innerecology.com/PEM.
Saturday Farm Stand, Tours, and Volunteer Opportunities
The Iron Street Farm Stand will continue to provide you with fresh veggies throughout the Winter every Saturday from 9am- 3pm. Come get your locally grown produce and stay for a tour or to volunteer. Even in the cold, we still need your help!
Tours and Volunteer opportunities are available year round at Iron Street.
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