Grow it Green looking for interns willing to get their hands dirty

Grow it Green Morristown is seeking two reliable, hands-on, urban farm interns to assist with the cultivation and teaching opportunities at the Urban Farm at Lafayette. They will be responsible for helping to manage the farm for food production and education and helping to coordinate the distribution of farm products to Grow it Green Morristown’s various constituencies.

The cultivated area of the farm is approximately one-half acre. All farm practices follow organic recommendations and emphasize overall sustainability, although the farm is not certified organic.

Beyond being a farm, The Urban Farm at Lafayette is an educational center for the community and the 4,700 children of the Morris School District, making this internship job opportunity distinct from many typical farm jobs. The interns will play an important role assisting with educational projects involving the farm. This will require self-confidence and a professional attitude, as well as being able to deal with diverse groups. The interns must be able to work with groups of youth and adults. They will report to the farm manager and the urban farm organizer.

Interns should desire to learn more about gardening and production of food, as well as have a desire to work with children and the public. Grow it Green is a community-oriented nonprofit, and interns will be expected to help with programs and classes at the garden. Occasionally, the interns will work at the Community Garden on Early Street.

The garden is located on school district property, and interns will be working with district schoolchildren, so applicants must be able to pass a criminal background check and submit to fingerprinting.

Duties will include:

Hands-on physical labor

1. Basic care, feeding and tending of a large-scale vegetable garden, including shoveling, weeding and watering. Ability to use the tools to complete these tasks, such as pruners, wheelbarrows, hoses, etc., required.
2. Must be able to lift heavy loads (such as soil, compost, rocks, etc.)
3. Must be ready to paint, help build raised beds, trellis and do general garden tidying up.
4. You will get dirty.
5. Must be comfortable using a gas-operated mower and weed whacker.

A mature, positive attitude

1. Dependable, organized, flexible and have a sense of humor.
2. Must be a self-starter and work with little supervision – many times the intern may be the only person working at the garden.
3. Can be flexible due to weather constraints (i.e., heavy rain one day may change the work schedule).
4. Must be personable, like working with all kinds of people including children and our diverse community members.
5. Able to work as a member of a team.
6. Have a strong work ethic and the ability to work independently, with minimal oversight.
7. Have excellent communication skills.

Other items that are important to both the intern and the farm

1. Some office work will be required.
2. Work can sometimes be off-site, such as at community garden locations or school classrooms.
3. Spanish speaking is a plus.
4. Flexibility with work assignments due to weather or other variables.
5. Must have own transportation. (NJ Transit train station is located within one mile of the Urban Farm.)

Job Schedule

This is a seasonal position. Work is available from mid-April through late October. The work is part-time at 25 hours a week. During June-August, the intern must be willing to work one Saturday each weekend.

This position is an outdoor job and requires the ability to work in a variety of weather conditions, including very hot and humid weather. On days where outdoor work is impossible, interns may be asked to participate in office-related work or reschedule a workday. The workday begins at 8:30 am and ends at 4:30 p.m., with an hour break for lunch. The position pays $12/hr. The lunch hour is unpaid. No housing is provided.

 

As Grow it Green will consider multiple applicants to cover our needs, applicants are asked to clearly state the dates they are available to start and end the internship.

Applicants should e-mail a resume, the names and contact information of three references and a cover letter describing their relevant experience to Samantha Rothmansam at growitgreenmorristown.org my March 1.

 

Grow It Green pitches second community garden to Morristown council

Grow It Green Morristown on Tuesday asked for town permission to create a community garden in the Second Ward, on a sliver of municipal land near the New Jersey Transit train trestle on Martin Luther King Avenue.

“The whole idea of having a garden there is to foster more community for that area, and to get more people to participate in that area,” Grow It Green co-founder Myra Bowie McCready said after addressing the town council.

She said there is a 46-person waiting list for plots at the Early Street community garden, which opened in 2009. Grow It Green also operates a teaching garden, the Urban Farm at Lafayette.

“We need more space for gardeners,” said Myra. The triangular Martin Luther King property at the entrance to Patriot’s Path, near Lake Pocahontas, is easily accessible by pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and train commuters, she asserted.

The only note of skepticism was voiced by Second Ward Councilwoman Raline Smith-Reid, who suggested local residents should be surveyed to see if they want a garden. She also raised concerns about the garden becoming an eyesore in winter when nothing is growing there.

“Is this what the community wants?” asked Raline, acknowledging she had conversations with Grow It Green’s founders about the project last summer.

While she supports Grow It Green, Councilwoman Alison Deeb, the council’s only Republican, expressed surprise about discovering the item on Tuesday’s agenda and backed the survey idea.

But Council President Michelle Dupree Harris said the project has been in the works for nearly a year and is endorsed by the Morris County Parks Commission, local clergy and the Neighborhood House.

“I would like to see this move forward,” she told Myra. “You’ve done your homework.”

“It’s a positive thing, a great way to bring the community together,” said Mayor Tim Dougherty.

READ A LIVEBLOG FROM THE MEETING

Grow It Green, a nonprofit,  seeks an ordinance granting a two-year lease of the property. It also will need the town’s help to tap into the municipal water system.  The organization has raised about $14,000 that can be used for the project, said co-founder Samantha Rothman. Grow It Green wants to to erect 28 raised garden beds on about one-fifth of an acre.

The garden could open in May, with town approvals, Myra said.

Gardeners would pay $45 a year, including a $10 deposit that would be refunded if their plots were cleaned up at year’s end. Myra said the fee would be waived for those who could not afford it. Plots would be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, she said, unless officials come up with another recommendation.

Properties on Budd and Franklin streets were considered as well, Myra told the council. But the Martin Luther King location has the best access, she said. During Tropical Storm Irene the Whippany River flooded the nearby Cauldwell Playground, but the proposed garden spot was spared, said Samantha.

Grow It Green also hopes to expand the Early Street community garden and add gardens in the future, Myra said.

New York City has 600 community gardens, according to Councilwoman Rebecca Feldman, a fan of Grow It Green.

Town resident Douglas Vorolieff took exception to Raline’s aesthetic concerns and Alison’s mention of a possible dog park. Fresh, locally grown vegetables matter more to him.

“I don’t have a dog,” Douglas told the council. “But I do have a bike. And I like to eat.”

READ MORE ABOUT GROW IT GREEN

 

 

 

 

News from Farmer Shaun, head gardener at Morristown’s Urban Farm at Lafayette

By Farmer Shaun

The growing season isn’t over yet and after a cold and snowy start, it finally looks like fall weather. So how is your garden doing? Did you forgot about those carrots you planted late in the summer? Go check on them, they are still growing. I bet they aren’t that big though.

At the farm we have a bunch carrots that did not grow very tall, but there is no reason to pull them out of the ground. We have covered them with about one inch of fallen leaves. Come spring the kids at the Lafayette Learning Center will enjoy a really early fresh carrot snack.

So, if you want a fresh carrot snack too, go check your garden to see if you have any carrots still growing. It is not too late; take fallen leaves and lightly cover the carrots. You want to be able to see some of the green of the plant, but not all of the plant.

Once we reach 60 degrees during the day in the spring, uncover those carrots. They will bounce right up and be the best tasting carrot you have ever had. I know the kids are going to love them!

While you’re out at the garden with that bag of leaves, do you have empty space in the garden plot? If so, you could direct seed spinach and lettuce seeds now for next spring!

Here you go, direct seed both lettuce and spinach, like you would in the spring, and cover them with a 2-inch layer of leaves. This will protect the seeds from the harsh winter and help them germinate early in the spring.

Once it stops dropping below 45 degrees at night in the spring remove the leaves. You will get a harvest in no time and certainly be enjoying those fresh veggies earlier in the spring than anyone else.

‘Farmer Shaun’ Ananko is the head gardener for Grow It Green Morristown’s Urban Farm at Lafayette. Grow It Green Morristown has been honored by Gov. Christie with an environmental excellence award for promoting a healthy and sustainable community.

READ MORE ABOUT GROW IT GREEN MORRISTOWN

Charities bask in afterglow of Morristown’s Gran Fondo

Marty Epstein had no idea what he was getting into when he decided to create New Jersey’s first Gran Fondo cycling weekend.

“It’s amazing how fast we spent money on this event. Bills kept rolling in and rolling in,” Marty said Wednesday at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park. “In hindsight, it was a huge leap of faith on my part. Somehow, we pulled it off.”

The owner of Marty’s Reliable Cycle in Morristown pulled it off in spite of a tropical storm that blew back the whole thing by three long weeks.

Eight hundred riders still came to Morristown on Sept. 18. They did rides of 43-, 63- and 103 miles that got rave reviews. And Marty eked out sufficient proceeds to give $5,000 apiece on Wednesday to Homeless Solutions Inc., Grow It Green Morristown and The Seeing Eye Inc.

Please click icon below for captions

“This will keep us in some dog food,” said Seeing Eye President Jim Kutsch, who biked in the Gran Fondo as part of a tandem team.

Carolle Huber of Grow It Green said the Gran Fondo gift would be seed money for a new community garden in Morristown. Homeless Solutions will put its cash toward an affordable housing project on Martin Luther King Avenue.

“Gran Fondo” means “big ride” in Italian. Marty read a magazine article about the popularity of these events in Europe and was inspired to start one in the Garden State. Wednesday’s presentation included the premiere of a lively Gran Fondo NJ video produced by Bill Ivie of Clinton.

The video should help Marty and his event partner, Bill Ruddick of Backyard Bike Tours, to woo more corporate sponsors for next year’s Gran Fondo, scheduled for Sept. 9, 2012, in Morristown.

Marty is hoping for better behavior by Mother Nature. The three-week postponement after Tropical Storm Irene “was like a black hole,” he said.

Ultimately, he believes he prevailed in promoting New Jersey as a cyclist’s paradise, which is good for the community and for his business.

“When you work really hard on something and have a commitment to something and want to see it succeed, it will happen,” Marty said. “I don’t believe totally in luck. You create your own luck.”

READ MORE ABOUT THE GRAN FONDO

Hello from Grow It Green Morristown!

Editor’s note: We are thrilled to welcome Grow It Green Morristown to the MorristownGreen.com family! Grow It Green is a fantastic community resource, and we look forward to learning tips for healthy living from the experts there.

Grow It Green Morristown is a non-profit organization here in Morristown. It was begun three years ago in an effort to affect positive change in town. We thought that by bringing people together to grow food, we could also grow community. Grow It Green runs the Early Street Community Garden, a traditional Community Garden, and also The Urban Farm at Lafayette, a half-acre garden behind the Lafayette Learning Center on Hazel Street.

The Urban Farm is a unique model. Working on land owned by the Morris School District, this garden showcases the transformation of an underutilized former school yard into a living classroom for the approximately 4,700 children of the Morris School District, as well as our local community.  Additionally, much of the produced from the garden gets donated to the Interfaith Food Pantry, and more recently to Morristown High School for its salad bar.

In launching this garden, it was our hope that in creating a place of beauty and learning in the heart of this community, people from across Morristown and the Township would come together — people who might otherwise never have the opportunity to meet one another — to share in the experience of learning the art and science of growing food.

Education is a big part of our mission, so this begins a continuing series of articles on what is happening in our gardens, both to inform the community, and also so you can work along with our growing season, in your garden at home. We will keep you up to date with what we are doing, starting, planting out, and fighting, all in a non-invasive, organic way.

We hold classes and events at both our gardens. All are free and open to the public. Please see our website www.growitgreenmorristown for more information, and check back here often to see what is happening in the gardens in your town.

Our second annual Fundraiser is coming up Sunday September 25th.  Dining outside at the Urban Farm, eating pizza with ingredients from the garden, while enjoying music and dancing.  What could be more fun.  For tickets and more information please go to our web site.

What’s a Gran Fondo? Pretty soon, a Morristown garden

Gran Fondo is Italian for “big ride,” and that is what’s coming to Morristown on Sept. 17-18.

But after hundreds of bicyclists complete their long loops through the New Jersey countryside, Gran Fondo will assume another meaning in town.

Grow It Green Morristown is planning its third community garden: The “Gran Fondo Community Garden,” said Samantha Rothman, co-founder of Grow It Green.

The name is a way of thanking Marty Epstein of Marty’s Reliable Cycle for organizing the state’s first Gran Fondo cycling weekend–and for choosing Grow It Green as a beneficiary, along with The Seeing Eye and Homeless Solutions Inc.

“He has a real commitment to sustainability and the environment,” Samantha said.

Please click icon below for captions

She declined to disclose the location of the new garden, explaining that the property deal has not been completed. Plans call for an operation next year similar to the community garden on Early Street, where individuals tend their own plots. The place will be decorated with bicycle art, Samantha said.

“We like doing this stuff, and we like promoting things that are sustainable,” added Myra Bowie McCready, another Grow It Green founder. The nonprofit group also runs a teaching garden at the Lafayette Learning Center.

The Gran Fondo NJ will feature timed hill climbs and rides of 43-, 63- and 103-miles that start and end at the Hyatt Morristown.

A leisurely bike tour of the Grow It Green gardens will include stops at the backyard garden of Macculloch Hall and at 14 Maple Ave., where the Dodge Foundation has a rooftop garden. Leading that ride, on the morning of Sept. 17, will be John Hankin, Samantha’s husband. He intends to do the 103-mile ride the next morning.

Our Fourth Annual MorristownGreen.com Film (& Music!) Festival, set for Sept. 17 at Pioneer Park at Headquarters Plaza, Morristown, also aims to give visiting cyclists a flavor of Morristown’s community spirit.

Marty Epstein got the idea for the Gran Fondo NJ from a bicycling magazine, where he read about the popularity of European gran fondos spreading to New York, Philadelphia and San Diego.

So far, 650 cyclists have registered and Marty anticipates the number will approach 1,000–not bad for a new event.

He has lined up sponsors and landed a $9,000 grant from the state Office of Travel and Tourism. By selecting Grow It Green as one of the Gran Fondo’s beneficiaries, he is making a statement:

“I think Grow It Green Morristown is emblematic of sustainability. They’re really bringing community to the community…it’s exactly what we needed.

“They’re teaching people to appreciate real food,” Marty continued. “And they just did it. They wanted to do it, and they just did it.  We need these spontaneous sparks of inspiration in town.”

READ MORE ABOUT THE GRAN FONDO

REGISTER FOR THE GRAN FONDO

A night of B movies…no, make that Bee movies, Feb. 3 at the Bickford in Morris Township

Honeybees evoke spring, and that image is so powerful right now that Thursday’s free screening of  Vanishing of the Bees has been moved to the Bickford Theatre to accommodate the crowd.

The presentation by Grow It Green Morristown had been scheduled for the Dodge Foundation. But the RSVP response dictated a larger venue.

Showtime is 6:30 pm, at 6 Normandy Heights Road in Morris Township. Here’s a trailer from the documentary, about honeybees as our canaries-in-the-coal mine for environmental health.

Grow It Green also will offer a free “Introduction to Natural Bee Keeping” on Feb. 1o at the Dodge Foundation, at 14 Maple Ave. in Morristown. Grow It Green’s Farmer Tammy Toad Ryan will give the demonstration.

And if this talk really grabs you, you might want to apply to become Grow It Green’s full-time farm manager. You must like kids, bugs and weather, and be able to lift 50 pounds with your bare hands, according to the job description.

Tammy will be staying on, but with other duties, say the Grow It Green folks.

Think spring: Movie, class for prospective beekeepers from Grow It Green Morristown

With a winter storm warning in effect for Tuesday and Wednesday, reminders of spring are comforting. Grow It Green Morristown will be offering a pair of free events along those lines, if you can shovel out in February.

Vanishing of the Bees, a movie about the mysterious disappearance of honeybees worldwide, will be screened on Feb. 3 at 6:30 pm in the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation training room, at 14 Maple Ave. in Morristown. What are the ramifications of vanishing bees, and what can be done about this?  Here’s a taste of the film:

From Grow It Green beekeeper Tammy Toad Ryan:

Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives.

Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables.

Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.

Tammy says seating is limited to 35 people, so pre-registration is requested. For more information or to register, please visit www.growitgreenmorristown.org or email info AT growitgreenmorristown DOT org

On Feb. 10, Grow It Green offers an Introduction to Natural Bee Keeping, same time, same location. Tammy will teach an introductory class covering equipment, hive facts, where to obtain bees and gear, how to house the insects and how to define organic/biodynamic beekeeping.

Solstice celebration in Morristown: Burn the past, embrace the light

It was actually pretty civilized.

No ritual sacrifices. No Harry Potter spells.

The most far-out aspect of Tuesday’s Solstice Celebration in Morristown’s Community Garden might have been the sight of a couple dozen people doing yoga under a full moon that I swear had icicles hanging from it.

Lanterns were distributed, symbolizing the gradual return of longer days after the shortest one of the year. Bad thoughts from 2010 were scribbled on scraps of paper and tossed into a bonfire.

“The light reminds us of renewal and spring and life and new things, new life in our garden,” Julie Cohen told the Solsticers. “Think about 2011 and what you want to bring back into your life.”

She said some other stuff, but my pen froze.

Hot cider and some chocolaty treats from Andrea Lekberg of the Artist Baker brought happiness to the Grow It Green Morristown event.

On a scale of 1 to 10, however, this holiday rates a five.

You don’t have to visit any malls or buy any gifts. That’s good.

But the music is lacking.

Merry Solstice: A different kind of holiday party in Morristown tonight

It’s that time of year. Time to gather with loved ones, take stock of another year, and celebrate a Merry…Solstice?

Yes, it’s the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. A 7 pm party at the Early Street Community Garden will mark the occasion with a family-friendly 90-minute event that will include some delicious snacks, a moon salutation or two, and some reflections about the year that has been.

“To me, it’s really a celebration of the light coming back,” said Carolle Huber of Grow It Green Morristown, the nonprofit that created the garden.

“Even though we’re heading into the cold winter right now, we can look forward to the light coming back–and gardening next year.”

Carolle called the Winter Solstice “a time to remember and appreciate a year that is ending, releasing all that was negative and setting a new intention for the new year.”

There will be “moon salutations” from a Yogi — after Bike Morristown’s shortest ride of the year. It commences at Marty’s Reliable Cycle at 6:55 pm and rolls downhill to the Community Garden.

(While you’re at Marty’s, check out his award-winning Christmas decorations.)

You might even meet a witch–of the Good Witch variety from the Wizard of Oz.

Farmer Tammy Toad Ryan defines a witch as “a woman who cares for the land and her community.

“My people are from the British Isles and like all indigenous cultures, had a spiritual as well as physical relationship to the land,” she writes.

“Being a witch is seeing the sacred in all and it is a rich and beautifully challenging path which I came upon when I began my study of herbal medicine 13 years ago.”

Next Page »