Grow Together: Gaining Ground

an arts workshop at the grow together conference

Imagine a packed-to-the-rafters auditorium of 1,000 community gardeners from all five New York City boroughs, of all ages, from dozens of different countries gathered to celebrate another year of growing food, community, and hope.

It was definitely intimidating, but I was excited to share the message that I believe that everyone gathered for the annual NYC GrowTogether conference are the among the planet's climate change heroes.

All across the country, community gardens are popping up everywhere, like those sprouting throughout NYC. To find out about community gardens near you or get your own hands in the dirt, check out the American Community Gardening Association. And if you're in NYC, visit GreenThumb and tell 'em I sent you!

After My Own Heart

Had a fun time this weekend at the Grand Lake Farmers Market near where I grew up in Oakland. Bryant was doing a cooking demo complete with his rendition of KRS-One's Meat. As an added bonus, everyone walked away with this recipe for a watermelon slushee. (I tried it last night and it was delicious!!) Our friends from Sustainable Table stopped by with their bio-diesel bus and its Eat Well Guided Tour of America signs getting attention. Among all the great things they're promoting, they also talked about their "Take Back the Tap" campaign with Food and Water Watch, a cause after my own heart.

This pic is from the pie stop at PIE RANCH from the folks at sustainable table

Our TV Show News...

Check out the new website for The Endless Feast here. If you're in NYC on Sunday June 24, check out the Brooklyn episode on Channel 13.

Village Voice Blog about Our Dinner

Check out the Village Voice food blogger's take on our dinner.

Endless Feast Fiesta at iCi

Last night, more than 100 friends, community members, and family (mom, stepdad, brother!) got together at my neighborhood favorite restaurant, iCi, to celebrate the farm in Red Hook that we showcase in The Endless Feast Brooklyn episode. Lovely, delicious local food was enjoyed by everyone--we even got to sample Six Point Craft Ales brews (featured, along w/ iCi and other local providers in the show), dining alongside the brewmasters themselves. After a dinner which included iCi's not-too-be-missed grits and greens, we gathered in the restaurant's back garden to screen the 22-minute episode. (If you're in NYC, check out the show on June 24 on Channel 13 at 5:30pm.)

from last night---Elizabeth (l) and Ludie (r) from Green Gourmet, mom and me.

Green is the new Black

We just got word that GRUB has won the Nautilus Book Award in the food/cooking/nutrition category!

The Nautilus is a unique book award, recognizing authors and titles that contribute to our society’s awareness and well-being, and that embrace spiritual and ecological values such as compassion, sustainability, simplicity, and global peace.

I LOVE DURHAM

I've had a great time visiting old friends and doing a sprint of grub events at Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, NCSU, and a community event at the totally inspiration SEEDS. (I even got in a viewing of Kid Koala and got to hear singer-songwriter Deblois at a friend's house party). Thanks Raleigh-Chapel Hill-Durham! (To the left, Claudia Horwitz (from Stone Circles) and Lucy Harris (from SEEDS).

After a brief respite across the border, I'm headed to a bunch of cities in April to do a final sprint of outreach and education about local, sustainable, fair food and tying in my talks with all of the great organizing happening around getting those three values embedded in the farm bill. From Brooklyn School of Law (tonight!) to Wesleyan University (in awhile!), I'm really looking forward to meeting folks across the country. Check out the complete list here. I'm including the events in North Carolina below.

Wednesday, April 4th, 7:00-9:00pm
University Lecture, Booksigning & Reception
Center for Environmental Farming Systems
North Carolina State University J.C. Raulston Arboretum
Raleigh, NC

Thursday, April 5th, 12:30-1:30pm
University Lecture & Booksigning
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Michael Hooker Research Center Building South Columbia Steet
Chapel Hill, NC

Thursday, April 5th, 6:00-7:30pm
University Lecture & Booksigning
Duke University
Love Auditorium, Levine Science Research Center 450 Research Drive
Durham, NC

Saturday, April 7th, 2:00-5:30pm
Growing Food, Growing Community, Growing Justice An Afternoon in the SEEDS garden
2pm Get Dirty before Dinner
4pm GRUB Potluck and Public Talk
708 Gilbert Street
Durham, NC

Making Brooklyn Bloom

I got to spend the day today in a glass-domed meeting hall at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for the 25th anniversary "Making Brooklyn Bloom" festival where bloom-goers could choose between workshops like "Making Your Rooftop Bloom: Gardening on the Frontier" and "Canning to Preserve the Harvest" and listen to the brilliant Joan Gussow speak. I was tabling for the Community Food Security Coalition next to a representative from a non-profit protecting street trees in New York. Throughout the day, people stopped by our table and picked up copies of the Coalition's Farm Bill organizing booklet and sign-up sheets to be a citizen pruner, protecting the green that we New Yorkers so appreciate.

Mardi Gras with Bryant, Farmer Brown, and Friends

Celebreate MARDI GRAS with Bryant and friends on February 20th (that's tomorrow!) for a 3-course meal, live brass band, handmade cocktails, art installations, and djs at Farmer Brown's in San Francisco. Partial proceeds go to both a local and New Orleans non-profit. I wish I could be there. It is going to be amazing. There are a few tickets left, so call 415-409-3276 to book your spot. ($20 pre-sale, $25 day of). 5pm-1am.

Dirty Sugar Cookie Swap

Had a lovely time at Bluestockings tonight with the hysterically funny Ayun Halliday. She read from her book Dirty Sugar Cookies and shared tales of woe attempting to craft gingerbread cookies for her kid's school's holiday party.

We asked friends to bring baked treats for a cookie swap--and were delightfully deluged with sugar cookies (of course), lemon bars, brownies and more. My currant scones were slightly prematurely extracted from oven and smooshed in the bag on the F line into the city, but apparently they tasted just fine. --Anna

Met amazingly dynamic and go-getter students at Miami University (in Ohio, that is) who brought me out to speak and shared a delectable dinner after. It was really inspiring to meet undergraduates and graduate students working on important sustainable development initiatives, the importance of which seemed to be brought home by the abnormally balmy weather in December in Ohio. --Anna

Check Out Appetite for Profit in Bookstores Now

Think that announcement from Coke and the Big Drink companies that they’re pulling sugary drinks out of the nation’s was a sign of corporate responsibility or a move of brilliant corporate PR spin? This and many other questions will be answered for you in Michele Simon's insightful new book, Appetite for Profit. Thanks to the New York City Nutrition Education Network Michele and I had a chance to do a reading together. I highly recommend the book and Michele's insightful blog you can find here. --Anna

A Great Weekend in the Great White North

Had an amazing weekend running a two-day workshop at The Marguerite Center, north of Ottawa. The Center (or Centre, as they'd say in Canada) runs educational programs for folks in the community. This was their first on food. After lots of talking about food politics, the impact of our food system on our health, and how we can get involved with making a difference, we all headed into the kitchen where we got lessons in making samosas, curries, and other delicious Indian delicacies. (This is a shot of a few of us mid-samosa folding) --Anna

Bioneers

I just got in on the red eye from the last 14-day marathon leg of the book tour -- Center for a Livable Future, Natural Expo East, Community Food Security Coalition Conference, Pacific Lutheran University, Evergreen College, Fair Trade friend-raiser, UC Berkeley talk, and... Bioneers. These past three days at the 17th annual Bioneers conference, joined by 4,000 people in San Rafael, California and connected to 16 other satellite sites beaming programming to another 8,000 or more people, have been incredible. I'll post highlights soon. For now 'incredible' will have to do; I'm going back to sleep! --Anna

Evergreen is Ever-Greener

I had heard about The Evergreen State College for years. Growing up in Berkeley and Oakland, many friends headed up that way for school, but I had never been until last night. The campus -- burrowed into evergreens -- is certainly true to the school's name and the enthusiasm and community engagement of the students I met was true to the school's rep of being a haven for activists. My talk was co-sponsored by the Environmental Resource Center and Evergreen Political Info Center whose motto (at least on the bottom of one of my event announcements) reads: "If you carrot all, beet the system and squash the state." --Anna

Thanks McNally!

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to the reading at McNally Robinson. Not to play favorites, but I think this bookstore might be mine in NYC. A couple resources I promised I'd post here. --Anna

• justfood.org: find out about how to join a community supported agriculture farm in nyc
• recyclethisnyc.org: don't throw your stuff away, recycle it! join this volunteer-led organization's free-for-all swap-o-rama.
• 4th street food coop: food for people, not for profit.
• the nation's special issue on food