Back From Florida

When we got back from Florida, the temperature went up to the 50's for 2 days and all of the snow that accumulated for two months melted. It was amazing. It was like we brought Florida back with us, except the green grass was replaced by brown and it was covered with two months of debris. The day we left for Florida, I got a bunch of PALM apps that I wasn't able to process. When I got back, I got another bunch of PALM apps to process. Welcome back.

I processed the first batch and when I checked  I caught a lot of mistakes that I then had to correct. The second batch I processed had 10 applications without a stamped self addressed envelope for the confirmation letters which I then had to supply. It took from Wednesday when I got back to Saturday to process all the applications and mail out the confirmations. Then Sunday we were hit by 10 inches of snow, more what than the "storm of the century" gave us. Later in the week we got another 4 inches or so. All the snow that had melted was back.

Because I was in Florida I missed the February potluck that kicks off the Garden Resource Program. There is nothing better than getting together with a bunch of enthusiatic gardeners in February when there is no hope of spring. The best  I could do was help out in the seed packing. There are 1700 people who get seeds from the Garden Resource Program. The seeds are brought in bulk and then split into individual  seed packets by volunteers. There are seed packing parties all over the city. Our group packed Kentucky Wonder pole beans into 1400 envelopes. It took over 2 hours and we were all sick of beans by the end. Then it was off to Calendula seeds. One of our group was a middle aged woman who had done the Michigander several times. I got to talk up PALM. We weren't any closer to spring but we were surrounded by seeds and bike riding anyway.

More About Fall

This November has really been warm: it was up in the 60's and sunny again last Saturday. At 3:00 I decided to take a bike ride: down Outer Drive, thru Rouge Park (to check on the new statue) to Dearborn via a bit of Hines Drive and the new bike path. I stopped off at Starbucks at about 4:10. Some things don't change in Fall even if it is in the 60's. It gets dark and early. I got home around 5:20. It wasn't twilight, it was way darker than that. I should have started at 2:00. Thank goodness the traffic was light (no pun intended).

My garden is down to some scraggly Swiss chard and one collard plant with leaves as large as a tennis racket. But this Tuesday was the Garden Resource Program's Fall Potluck and Planning meeting. It was a gathering of gardeners from all over the city at the 4H Center. ( I still can't believe that there's a 4H Center on the near eastside, south of Gratiot at 5710 McClellan Street. Look it up on Google Maps.) Even though winter is ahead of us, it was a large, diverse, enthusiastic group fresh from a great summer of gardens. This season the Garden Resource Program distributed 48,000 packets of seeds and over 200,000 plants to over 850 community, school, and family gardens within Detroit. There were over 3500 adults and 7400 kids involved and they produced and sold over 11 tons of fresh vegetables, all within Detroit. There were 40 workshops ranging from gardening (pest control, composting, seed starting) to cooking (bread making, west African cooking, making garden fresh pizzas) to vegetable preservation (pickling, canning, freezing and dehydrating). The potluck was a mixture of everything in the city: neighborhoods, ages, nationalities. We reviewed what we did the last year to see what we did well and what we could do better. The program grew by 40% this year. Their big question was how they could make it even bigger next year.

The PALM meeting was on Sunday. The sites are coming along well: some of the sites even know what their meals will be. This year most of the sites have pools we can access. The total mileage of the route will be 253 miles (spread over 6 days). We'll be going by lots of lakes (with swimming) and we'll have shade. A tentative route has been laid out and Andy will be getting it out on MapMyRide soon. I'll be getting with the printer about the 2010 application in the next couple of weeks. Summer is here before winter has even started.

Inaugural Day

I live in Detroit. The last presidential election had a special resonance for people in Detroit. Election day was magical. I run before work and decided to run by the school where I vote. The lines were already outside the school and across the lawn almost to the street. This never happens. I decided to take a late lunch and vote in the middle of the afternoon. When I voted there was still a line. I'm generally voter 200. I was voter 577. I drove by the polls just before they closed. They were deserted: everybody had already voted. No one wanted to be left out.

Inauguration Day was another special day. My brother's wife is retired. She has a brother in DC, realized that it meant she had a place to stay, so she went to the inauguration. My neighbor across the street took her daughter out of school and got on a bus so that they could be at the inauguration. Our Community House had an almost impromptu pot luck to watch the inauguration on a big screen. It was a bitterly cold, festive day in Detroit.

It seems fitting that the first Garden Resource pot luck was held on inauguration day: new beginnings. Even though it was bitterly code and it was the night of the inauguration, the pot luck was packed. Last year the number of people in the Garden Resource Program increased by 45%. This year family gardens are going to get 32 packets of seeds and 138 plants for $10. These people are very serious about encouraging locally grown food. They have free classes on composting, gardening, canning, etc and have setup a program to help you sell any extra produce that you have at local farmer's markets. This is literally a grassroots organization.

And the next day I got my Johnny's Seed Catalog. Even though there is 18 inches of snow on the ground and the temperature is in the single digits, I'm excited.

Bike Things in January

Just what can you do involving bikes in January? More to the point, what can I possibly blog about in January when the PALM is going to be June 21 - 27? One thing saving me this week is Adventure Cycling. They send out an email every couple of weeks with little blurbs about biking (and links to the complete stories). Click here to sign up. This issue had stories about two friends who turned their couch into a bike and a Congressman who bikes in Washington DC. (Hey, in January I'm easy to please.)

Another thing I did was to sign up for the West Michigan MS 150. This year it's being held on May 31-June 1. This won't give me much time to get ready. I first did the PALM to get ready for the Mid Michigan MS 150 which is held in the middle of July. Now it looks like it will be the other way around. It's a pledge ride that has 89% of the pledge money collected going to their programs: a good percentage.

What else to do in January? How about a 4-H potluck? There is a 4-H club on McClellan in Detroit. (Check out Mapquest to see where that is: you would be surprised.) The Garden Resource Program sponsored a potluck there to announce their plans for the new year. They weren't able to mail out flyers and only made a few calls. They expected maybe 20-30 people. They got about 70-80. People are ready to garden now. This is a program to promote family and community gardens in Detroit as a source of fresh vegetables. Did you know that there are no grocery chain stores anywhere in Detroit and that for most of the city the nearest grocery outlet is a gas station? That's what the Garden Resource program is trying to address. Click here to see what I'm going to get for $10.