Tomato Tastings
Project Grow Tomato Tastings:
This summer, Project Grow hosted two TomatoTastings at the Farmer's Market. The first event, in August, was a continuation of our annual tasting, which was started over ten years ago to educate people about heirloom vegetables, particularly heirloom tomatoes, and to encourage people to include heirlooms in their gardens. The second tasting took place in September, in conjunction with the Homegrown Festival. Both events featured a wide variety of heirloom tomatoes that were grown and generously donated by our gardeners. Visitors who came up to our booth were amazed at the huge selection of tomatoes that varied in size, color, and shape. Some could not believe that a green tomato, such as Aunt Ruby's German Green, could be ripe while still green in color! Many were astonished at how differently they tasted: some were tart, others sweet, many had that "old time tomato flavor" that modern grocery store tomatoes cannot match. A number of guests took notes of their favorites, with plans to grow them next year. They were interested to know that they could purchase our seeds, which we sell each year at the People's Food Coop, and our seedlings, which are available at our Spring Plant Sale each May.
 
 
Whole tomatoes, volunteer Lucas DiGia with cutting them up, a sampling of cut up tomatoes ready to be tasted and volunteers Damaris Suffalko and Royer Held explaining the finer points to new tomato connoisseurs. |
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Annual Membership Meeting
Project Grow's 2010 annual membership meeting will be at 7pm on Thursday October 7th at the Leslie Science Center Nature House. In addition to electing board members (see below) there will be a presentation and discussion of the state of Project Grow. This is a great opportunity to meet board members and make suggestions about your community gardening organization.
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Volunteer of the Month for September
Project Grow depends on our gardeners to carry out events. We could not do what we do without their support. In recognition of their help, we would like to thank the members who volunteered to work at the recent Tomato Tastings. These volunteers came an hour before the start of the events, to help set up the booths and to slice up tomatoes. During the event, visitors were greeted, questions answered, and the tomato slicing maintained. At the end, everything had to be cleaned up and taken down. We are grateful for the help of the following individuals:
August Tomato Tasting
Ashley Amick
Fred Baker
Gerry Chaffers
Royer Held
Dawn Johnston
Kathleen Strand
Damaris Sufulko
Marcella Trautmann
September Tomato Tasting
Fred Baker
Gerry Chaffers
Sevanne Demirjian
Lucas Di Gia
Inge Ferguson
Royer Held
Damaris Sufulko
Marcella Trautmann
The tastings also depend on the generous donations of tomatoes from our gardeners. We would like to thank them at this time for their beautiful, delicious offerings! A few gifts were not identified by donor, so they shall remain unrecognized, but no less appreciated.
August Tomato Tasting
June Escara-Wilkes
Sevanne Demirjian
Royer Held
Justin Johnson
Dawn Johnston
Kirk Jones
Cynthia Rutherford
Damaris Sufulko
Ge Zhang
September Tomato Tasting
June Escara-Wilkes
Inge Ferguson
Royer Held
Cynthia Rutherford
Damaris Sufulko
Marcella Trautmann
If you know any Project Grow volunteer you would like to see recognized as Volunteer of the Month, please send their name and a couple sentences describing why you would like to honor them to info@projectgrowgardens.org . Thanks you for your help and involvement with Project Grow! |
Board Candidate Statements
The Project Grow Board is elected by the membership at the annual meeting. The 2010 Annual Meeting be at the Leslie Science Center Nature House on Thursday October 7th at 7:00pm. If you garden with Project Grow, then you are a voting member of the organization!Four candidates are running for the four open board positions in 2010. Each candidate submitted a statement describing why they wanted to serve on the Project Grow board. Terms are for three years.
Lucas DiGia
I am interested in running for the Project Grow Executive Board. As a board member, I would be interested in helping project grow sustain and expand its membership, mainly within the university community and young professional demographic. This mission would include marketing and interaction with students at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. I am interested in helping the organization sustain its functionality but also expand it's reach into younger demographics in the area.
Kirk Jones
I'd like to serve another term on the Project Grow Board to help provide continuity on many of the
projects that were begun in the last year. Just naming the most important ones, these projects include dealing with the loss of all government funding, a staff reduction, reorganization of board and staff responsibilities, a new web host and an entirely new staff. I continue to believe that Project Grow's 38 year existence and ability to handle all these changes show both the resilience of the organization and the importance of our mission. I hope the membership will allow me to continue to serve on the Project Grow Board of Directors.
Eric Meves
I have been a board member and served as the treasurer for the current year. I would like to continue in this role.
I have gardened with Project Grow almost since it began in the mid-1970's. Over the years, some existing garden sites have closed and new ones opened.
We already have two new site possibilities for the upcoming season that the board and director will be considering developing. I'd like Project Grow to identify additional sites like these. Gardeners seem most interested in sites near their homes. We should identify areas of the city that are underserved by our existing sites, and then explore the possibility of developing new sites in these areas on suitable public and private land.
Ralph Powell I have been a Project Grow Gardener since the early 1980s, initially at County Farm Park when I served several years on the board. My wife and I are currently gardening at Catholic Social Services where I was a site coordinator for two years. I was appointed to the board last year and am applying for election to continue serving on the board.
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