August News
August is the peak season for local growers. With abundant produce available at local markets it is also the perfect time to celebrate last week’s National Farmers’ Market Week. Farmers’ markets are an essential part of a vibrant and thriving local food system and rain or shine, we hope you had the opportunity to support Maine farmers, makers, and ranchers at a local farmers’ market.
Cultivating Community is proud to be a part of making healthy, local food more accessible by accepting SNAP/EBT at all eight of our farmstands and matching SNAP and WIC sales dollar for dollar; a 50% discount. Find a farmers market near you, or shop at one of our farm stands.
This month, we are highlighting our new farm stand at The Opportunity Alliance. Visit Ahmed and Halema Abukar and their family every Wednesday at The Opportunity Alliance parking lot, 190 Lancaster St., Portland from 12-4 pm.
Ahmed graduated from our New American Sustainable Agriculture Project and has been growing with us at the Packard Littlefield Farm in Lisbon, ME for eight years. Stop by and bring home farm-fresh veggies including hard-to-find culturally important crops like roselle leaf, amaranth, and African eggplant.
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Youth Growers at Work and Play
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Youth Growers Internship Session 1 concluded with a field trip to Willard Beach. It was a gorgeous day and our students played soccer, ate pasta salad and watermelon, swam, took photos, and laughed together.
Leading up to our celebratory last day, the Youth Growers delivered vegetables to approximately 60 families each week, maintained two large community gardens, cooked elaborate lunches together, learned about Food Justice, practiced their language skills, completed garden and nutrition-based workshops, did group challenges, played games, and made many new friends. Our youth staff was impressed with this group of young people, who exuded confidence, motivation, and joy.
We are now in our second week of Session 2. So far the Youth Growers have enjoyed growing, harvesting, cooking, and sharing lettuce, chard, kale, zucchini, sour cherries, raspberries, and more from the Boyd St. urban farm.
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This spring and summer have been exceptionally wet, which is not great for many of our favorite crops. Slugs and snails have had ideal damp conditions so far this season, and we are seeing the evidence around our gardens and farms. What to do? This new slugs and snails fact sheet, by MOFGA Organic Production Specialist Mariam Taleb, summarizes typical best organic management practices. |
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Community Garden Sponsorships
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In partnership with the City of Portland and garden volunteers, Portland’s Community Gardens provide growing space to over 450 families at 11 gardens across the city, and are an invaluable contribution to community food security and wellbeing.
To help support Cultivating Community’s management and maintenance of the Community Gardens, we are launching our first-ever Community Garden Sponsorship campaign. The gardens are truly a community effort and labor of love. Benefits of sponsorship include a 2023/24 sponsor window/digital decal, stickers, online appreciation, volunteer and garden tour opportunities, and more! Join us!
Sponsorship Levels
Seed $500 – Sprout $1,000 – Vine $2,000 – Root $5,000+
In-kind sponsorships and donations of garden materials are also welcome.
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For more information about sponsorships or the community gardens, please email info@cultivatingcommunity.org or call 207-761-GROW.
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Enjoy a free dinner, meet your neighbors, have fun making art and listening to live music, and pick out a kids’ book from the Book Fairy!
Wayside, Cultivating Community, The Locker Project, and many more invite you to the last Pop-Up Picnic of the year at our Boyd Street Community Garden. Bring a blanket and explore the garden!
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Summer in the School Gardens
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Looking for a fun outdoor activity with little ones? The summer months in Maine are one of the most beautiful times in school gardens. All of the seeds and seedlings students planted at the end of May and the beginning of June are now flourishing with an abundance of fruits and flowers. With the vibrant fragrances, an array of colors, and diverse tastes, now is the time to get out and explore the gardens.
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Make a nature bracelet!
Grab a piece of tape, place it around your wrist (sticky side up), and head on out to collect using your 5 senses. As you collect objects, make sure to practice mindful harvesting and only take what you need. Instead of taking a whole flower for your bracelet, take just one petal, leaving the rest of the flower for our pollinator friends.
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As Robin Wall Kimmerer says in her book Braiding Sweetgrass: “Take only that which is given. Never take more than half. Leave some for others. Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.â€
Happy harvesting and we look forward to seeing you back at school in a few weeks!
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Join the Falmouth Land Trust and Cultivating Community for Barn Fest, a family-friendly fundraiser to save the 100-year-old barn at Hurricane Valley Farm. It’s sure to be a great event!
Date: Sunday, Sept 17th from 3-7 pm (rain or shine)
Location: Hurricane Valley Farm in Falmouth
- Enjoy live music by Back Woods Road
- Hop on the horse-drawn hay wagon and tour the farm
- Visit the iconic white barn and sample farm-grown treats
- Join in on fun activities and crafts
- Try food from local food trucks
- Make a donation at the event to receive a special Thank You gift
- Relax by the bonfire and make s’mores
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Meet Our Board of Directors
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 We are thrilled to introduce you to our newest board member, James DeBiasi. Jimmy is the Executive Director of the Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets (MFFM), where he works statewide with farmers and community partners to support and strengthen Maine farmers and access to locally-grown food.
Originally from Massachusetts, Jimmy moved to Maine in 2017 to begin his work with MFFM. He has dedicated his career to community food security, spending time as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Missouri and a volunteer organizer and fundraiser for a social services organization in Portland, Oregon. He now lives in Freeport with his wife, where they have a large garden.
Jimmy is excited to support Cultivating Community during this new phase of the organization and grow his community in the greater Portland area.
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