Tompkins Weekly 4-6-15

By Sara L. Knobel

Groton is Growing – join us in expanding our healthy food options/education! Find us on Facebook @ Growing Groton or ask to join our email group. We are a dedicated group of people with a committed community.

There is a real need for fresh food in Groton and we are working towards reducing this need as much as possible with the following:

– Communal/Community Garden

– Healthy Tuesdays program

– Subsidized CSA (community supported agriculture) Shares

– Market Boxes for Limited Income Households

– Teen Sustainable Agriculture Series

– Educational classes at the Library

– Groton Farmers Market

– Groton Food Providers Pantry

Our communal/community garden is located across from the Groton Central School District on Village property with full support from both the school and the Village. We now boast a garden shed built by Science teacher Chad Devoe’s students – yes that’s right – students built the garden shed. We have a water retention system build by Boy Scout Jason Jenks to earn his Eagle Scout. Our locust board raised beds are cut and ready to be assembled this year so we will have 21 raised beds. We are all getting antsy to get planting – plans to add blueberries this year to increase our sustainability – oh pear trees too – we already have apple trees.

The Healthy Tuesdays program runs every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Library. Buried Treasure organic farm stops after the Ithaca Farmers Market and drops off fresh produce to give away for free. In addition this will be our second year as a Neighborhood Food Hub for Friendship Donation Network (FDN) where we receive a huge portion of our food to give away and take any food donations from local gardeners and farmers. Have extra produce in your garden or CSA, donate it to a food hub – there are eight hubs throughout Tompkins County including one in Groton. This program is free and open to all.

Buried Treasure, an organic farm in Groton will offer Subsidized CSA (community supported agriculture) Shares for the second year. This program is supported by CCE’s Health Food for All (HFA). A qualifying low income family can purchase a share from Buried Treasure (or other participating farm) and only has to pay half the cost of the share – this can amount to under $15 a week for a huge box of fresh picked produce – a remarkable deal. We had three families take advantage of this fabulous deal last year and this year Buried Treasure is offering even more shares.  This is a wonderful opportunity to receive organic produce at a great price – go to http://www.healthyfoodforall.org/ to sign up or get more information.

Market Boxes for Limited Income Households coming this year for the first time from Rocky Acres Community Farm. This is a brand new program and Groton is thrilled to be a part – the farmer will ask the participants what they want and will then grow that, giving the families what they want most. More details coming soon.

Groton Teen Sustainable Agriculture Series coming this summer at the Tapped Earth Farm in Freeville. This is just for teens. It will be three days where they will learn about raising chickens; greenhouse growing; farm carpentry; green architecture; cooking/heating with wood; growing fruit, veggies, flowers; real world skills; and ending with a 100% locally sourced lunch. This will be a wonderful opportunity for our teens to get hands on experience. Each day will end with time for reflection.

This summer the Groton Public Library will host a series for cooking classes on at least one Tuesday a month during our Healthy Tuesdays program. Each class will use a recipe from the “Good and Cheap – eat well on $4/day” by Leanne Brown. This cookbook will be available to limited income households for free as long as we have copies. The recipes will be easy, healthy, and inexpensive to make – and oh so yummy (I speak from experience).

The Village has the Groton Farmers Market located right by the senior housing. The market runs on Tuesdays from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. starting early July and running until mid-September.

The Groton Food Providers is our local food pantry and is open on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month and one Tuesday a month the mobile food truck is there. The Groton Food Providers is located at 102 McKinley Avenue. For more information, call 898-5263.

For more information on any of the anything mentioned – email Sara at director@grotonpubliclibrary.org or call 898-5055. Don’t’ forget to find us on Facebook at Growing Groton or ask to be added to our email group.

“Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A) unfamiliar B) unpronounceable C) more than five in number or that include D) high-fructose corn syrup”
― Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

Sara L. Knobel is library manager at the Groton Public Library.