Tuesday, November 24, 2009

This is truly inspiring!

Yesterday I found out about a man named Tim Will. It was one of those serendipitous times, where two people at the same day asked me - "Have you heard about this?!" So I started my day by reading about Tim and Farmers Fresh Market. Tim has enabled and inspired over 90 farmers, third of them newcomers to farming, in Rutherford County, NC, to take up small scale sustainable farming (again) and connected the growers to Charlotte restaurants.
Way cool!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Last week was busy!

Last week was busy for STARworks in general - we had 3 groups coming for tours!

Garden was hosting another vermiculture workshop on Friday. This time it was Melanie Lamonds' 4'th grade from Star Elementary. Melanie had a worm bin in her classroom last year, and decided to do it again with this years students. Kids were eager and full of energy, and clearly had fun exploring the garden and worms on a beautiful fall day. They picked eagerly some cherry tomatoes that are still hanging on (IN NOVEMBER!) in our garden, which made me decide to plant more of those yummy fruits for next year.
After learning about worms, and preparing a new bin for them, everybody ran a few laps on our walking trail.

Can't wait for those kids to come back!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

My grandmothers garden

I miss this place. Somehow my heartstrings are tied to this little piece of land, and the buildings on it, even though they are falling apart, and nature is starting to take over...
My grandpa did all the farm-work here by hand or with a horse. I have such fond memories of the days I spent there during my childhood... and I can still smell and taste grandma's cooking!




Friday, November 6, 2009

Annual Gathering...

...is behind us for this year. Every year it gets bigger and better! I am so proud to be a part of our STARworks family! Every year before the big day I relearn what awesome people work around me, as they pick up the pick axes, shovels, wrenches and any other tools I can't even begin to name, climb ladders, dig in, run around, work overtime and on the weekends and generally pitch in where ever a pair of hands is needed - and we get SO MUCH done in a matter of few weeks!
HUGE THANKS to EVERYONE who helped landscape around the deck, and clean out the garden!
You guys rock!
HUGE THANKS to EVERYONE who prepared delicious food to feed our crowd of around 200 people!
And HUGE THANKS to the LOCAL FARMERS, who keep growing the food stuffs in sustainable way in our region, a few samples of what we all got to enjoy at the STARworks Annual Gathering.

Cotton stays in Carolinas

Please take a look at what our good friends at TS Designs are doing in Burlington NC!