[RP TownTalk] Master Peace Community Farm Update

[Vinnie Bevivino]

Its been quite some time since we've last given you an update, but boy  
do we have a lot of exciting news!

New Employee!
We're in the final stages of employing a new Education Coordinator at  
the Farm.  This person will be responsible for coordinating the  
community gardeners, teaching gardening and cooking classes open to  
the public in the Farm, coordinating youth education, and conducting  
cooking demonstrations at the nearby Riverdale Farmers Market.   
Because we haven't quite sealed the deal, we'll give more information  
on that in a bit.

New Position!
Because of the new employee, Vinnie Bevivino's position has changed  
from, well, coordinating everything, to managing the Farm's production  
and marketing, and using the Farm as a demonstration to promote urban  
farming throughout Maryland.  This means that more food will be grown  
at the Farm, and other communities that want to start a similar  
project can get the help they need to get growing.

We're Teaching!
Even with snow on the ground, we started our spring teaching this  
week.  We started teaching middle school students from William Wirt  
Middle School during the day in their science classes.  They learned  
about the science of seed germination and then helped us plant lettuce  
and spinach seeds in the high tunnel and chile peppers in containers  
for the greenhouse.  Next week we're starting a program with GEMS  
(Girls Excelling in Math and Science), where middle school girls are  
going to set up an experiment that compares the growth of lettuce in  
and outside of a greenhouse, all culminating in a salad party at the  
end of the year.  Who new that science could taste so good?

Its Spring!
You wouldn't know it from last weekend, but warm weather is here.   
Yesterday was beautiful outside, today is beautiful, and the weekend  
is going to be just amazing.  So, we have some volunteer opportunities  
for those that are just plain sick of winter and want to get outside  
to get dirty.  There's lots of work to be done to get the Farm ready  
for spring.
- I know its short notice, but this Saturday, the 7th from 1 to 4 pm,  
a group of 10 University students are going to be coming to volunteer,  
and you're invited too!
- March 21st from 10am to 3pm is the beginning of our Saturday  
volunteer hours.  This day will be our first 	official opening of the  
Farm, and we're trying to get lots of  people out for that day to help  
get it ready for the	community gardeners and ready to plant for  
market.  Also, we will be handing out community garden plot  
applications that day, so come by and get one.  We already have a  
group of University students coming, we've told lots of middle school  
students, and now we just need you!  It'll be a fun work day together.

Finally, we've been selling lots of produce already this year to  
restaurants.  If you are on campus today, swing by the Maryland Food  
Coop in the Stamp Student Union and ask for some spinach paneer,  
because the spinach is from us.  We've been selling lots of vegetables  
from our high tunnel, which has been growing greens all winter long.   
We will start selling our produce at the Riverdale Park Farmers Market  
starting April 9th.

Thanks for reading, we're very excited about the season, and hope to  
see you out in the Farm soon!

-Vinnie Bevivino and the Master Peace Community Farm Staff
Center for Educational Partnership
62nd and Sheridan Street
Riverdale, Maryland

The Master Peace Community Farm is a project of The Engaged  
University, an organization within Maryland Cooperative Extension.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20090306/67688fdd/attachment-0002.html>