Bo
unty of Heart’s Delight: Veggielution’s Annual Fundraiser Dinner
Saturday, September 11, 2010, at 6 p.m.
Join Veggielution Community Farm for a dazzlingly fresh three-course feast of local produce and wine, sourced and prepared by gifted San Jose native Chef Joseph Gaudet.
This sumptuous, healthy, and eco-friendly dinner will benefit Veggielution’s youth program, which not only helps feed the community but also teaches high school students about teamwork, the environment, social justice, cooking, and leadership.
Your evening of fine dining and elegant entertainment will begin with a reception and appetizers at Emma Prusch Park—a chance to visit Veggielution’s farm in style and learn about this jewel of Silicon Valley’s farming roots. Dinner will be served nearby in San Jose. Dress is farm casual.
Starts with appetizers and a tour at the Veggielution Farm, and continues at a dinner venue TBD in San Jose, CA. Tickets are $100 each.
In conjunction with the dinner, we are trying to raise $25,000 by the night of our dinner (including ticket sales). The survival of our programs depends on your support! Even if you can’t attend, a donation of any amount will help. Donations can be made on the ticket sales page. Thanks!
Now Accepting Applications
We are now accepting applications for one full time and one quarter time AmeriCorps position through the Silicon Valley HealthCorps.
Our Members can expect to be fully integrated into the Veggielution team, where we emphasize open communication, innovation, and taking personal responsibility for your own success. We are looking for self-motivated people who are ready to become a major part of our farm community. Click here to read more and apply.
End of First VeggieYouth Summer
After 6 wonderful weeks of work, learning and lots of fun, the first VeggieYouth Summer Program ended July 31st. They closed their time at the farm with a little bit of quiet time, fun farm olympics and a celebration lunch on Saturday, which was from food harvested and cooked by the youth.
Seventeen youth came out for 20 hours a week each, putting in hundred of man (and woman!) hours of work on the farm. They were all trained in specific farm skills to build confidence and knowledge and then allowed to work independently as the summer progressed. In addition to lots of farm work, the youth had the opportunity to learn about cooking, nutrition, the food system and sustainability. Also, they took three field trips, visiting farms in both Holister and Pescadero and cooking for over 150 people at a soup kitchen.
The completion of the summer youth program is an important part in Veggielution’s mission to incorporate and harness the power of youth. They also brought an energetic and fun atmosphere to the farm. Their dedication, hard work and love for Veggielution is clear to those of us on the farm consistently. They have taken ownership of their work, coming early and staying late to put in a little extra work. For those present, they have been a truly inspiring and energizing group of young people to work with and we hope to continue to see them on the farm!
Come Support us at the Downtown San Jose Farmer’s Market
Veggielution fans now have the option of shopping for our fresh produce at the San Jose Downtown Farmer’s Market! The market takes place on Fridays from 10am-2pm in San Pedro Square, at San Pedro and Santa Clara Streets in downtown San Jose. The farmer’s market is a much needed source of revenue for the farm, so we can continue to buy tools, seeds and other supplies. Help support the farm by buying fresh basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, peppers, chiles, and a bunch of other great herbs and vegetables each week. Special thanks to the Pacific Coast Farmer’s Market Association (PCFMA) for facilitating our involvement at the market.
Saying Goodbye to Zan
Suzanne, or Zan, as you all may know her, has been working as a quarter time Americorp member with Veggielution since last November. She was our first outreach coordinator and did a wonderful job of leading the charge. Thanks largely to the work of Zan, we now offer monthly free gardening workshops to community members. On top of that, she worked with Somos MayFair to organize Operation Frontline classes, which teach cooking lessons for healthy meals on a budget. She also helped organize family day, as well as the Outreach Committee. Besides these larger projects, she put in countless hours in meetings, speaking in classesa and tabling at events. On top of this, she has been a kind and caring friend and staff member at Veggielution. These are only the things we can enumerate; she has put in countless hours and her contributions will leave a lasting mark at Veggielution.
Zan is leaving us to start graduate school at San Francisco State in August, where she will be earning her masters in Anthropology. She is still around as a volunteer, so be sure to wish her well if you see her. Thanks for all of your wonderful contributions, Zan, and we will miss you dearly!
New Chocolate Tractor
Awhile back we got an e-mail from Leanne Hicks, an employee at the Blommer Chocolate factory in Union City, saying that they would like to donate their used tractor. Last week we had it towed to the farm, complete with a complementary box of their high quality chocolate bars (which was quickly devoured by a hungry youth program and staff!). With a value of around $4,000, (plus another $20 for the chocolate) this tractor from Blommer Chocolate is one of the single largest donations we have yet received. Our greatest thanks to Blommer Chocolate!
Before beginning use, likely in the fall or spring, their is some standard maintenance and equipment it will need. Once up and running, this machine will greatly increase our ability to grow quality produce for distribution in the community. However, this will not decrease our integration of hand labor by volunteers- one of the things that makes the Veggielution truly unique. We strongly believe in our mission to educate volunteers about sustainable agriculture, and will continue to use our volunteer energy for every aspect of farm work possible. But from now on, we will have the option of letting our tractor do the heavy work while volunteers complete other valuable farm tasks.
If you would like to donate money to purchase tractor implements or your skilled labor to help maintain the machine, please e-mail mark@veggielution.org
Volunteer of the Month: Leslie Chang
We seem to have a pattern developing at Veggielution: an unassuming college student comes out, is interested in gaining farming knowledge, and ends up working so much he or she might as well be a staff member. Sean Jones and Will Chen have both trekked this path, and now short in the footsteps is our summer intern Leslie Chang
Leslie will be entering her junior year at Standford, where she is studying Earth Systems. She came out to Veggielution on an alternative spring break that led students around the bay area learning about agriculture. She was intrigued and decided to apply for an internship. Upon starting her internship, she has been putting in over 24 hours a week on the farm!
She has been working with volunteers, leading youth on Tuesday, helping with harvesting and selling at the farmers market and also working independently. Like many, she has found the social and educational environment a big draw. “I like the friendly atmosphere and having the opportunity to learn about growing things”. Thanks for all the hard work, Leslie!
State of the Farm Address
July has been a great month at the farm. Our land is all planted and is now producing at full speed. We can barely keep up with the summer squash and cucumber harvest, and folks have been snacking on ears of our sweet corn for a couple of weeks now. The tomatoes are producing more every day, the taro leaves are 2-feet-long, our Michoacan corn is 10-feet-tall, the flower and herb garden is full of color and fragrance, and our flock of chickens are getting big and fat. For the next few months, we will be harvesting hundreds of pounds of food each week, and every member of the farm community is reaping the delicious benefits.
A normal day here at Veggielution involves a parade of groups and individuals. On a typical Tuesday, we have volunteers harvesting and watering in the morning, a cooking and nutrition class with neighborhood residents, and visiting youth groups from the Children’s Discovery Museum and MACLA helping us with a variety of chores. Staff, interns and members of our youth program have been hard at work facilitating volunteers, maintaining our crops and making improvements to our worm bins, greenhouse, signage and other aspects of the farm.
For the past three years, the harvest season has been the time to reflect and be amazed at the power of what we have created as a group. This abundance of food is an important symbol for how much good can be accomplished when people work together to affect positive change in their community. So for now, we’re enjoying the full glory of our garden. But before you know it, the time for change begins again. Even though we’re in midsummer, we on the farm crew are anxiously preparing for fall planting. That’s when all the brassicas, leafy greans, garlic and other cold weather crops will be going back into the ground.
Veggie of the Month
Tomatoes
This is probably the vegetable of the month that you’ve been waiting for all year. But first, I want to get the whole, “You know, tomatoes aren’t really a vegetable. They’re a fruit,” out of the way. Unlike, “vegetable,” the word “fruit” has a specific botanical meaning, which is the part of the plant that carries the seeds. So, yes, tomatoes are fruits, but so is almost everything else we harvest in the summer, from green beans to eggplant to sweet corn. But I don’t see people picking up a pea pod and saying, “You know, peas are really a fruit..”Be Our Fan on Facebook!
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