Declare Your Food Independence this July 4th!

July 4th is indeed a wonderful day to declare one's food independence by sourcing our holiday feasts as locally as possible, and with thanks to Kitchen Garden International, we also have a wonderful campaign to make July 4 an official local food holiday. 

Declare Your Food Independence this July 4th! is a great online (Facebook) campaign that allows you to identify your locally sourced holiday feast on a group map, and sign a petition requesting that "all of our country's first families [of the 50 states and U.S. territories] lead by example by sourcing their July 4th meals as locally, deliciously, and sustainably as possible...."  Their goal is 10,000 signatures, and I was #6,188, so sign up today to ensure the first families hear our message!

As the campaign notes, "every day can be Food Independence Day if you make efforts to source your meals locally and grown some of your own food."  True indeed, and yet it is a special pleasure to do it for this holiday, during this bountiful time of year.  My local feast (either self-grown or purchased from local farmers markets) will include Red, White and Blue Potato Salad, Disappearing Zucchini Pasta, Garlic Scape Pesto and a zippy cucumber salad, probably with the last of my spring salad greens as well.  What will be in yours?



Chevy Chase Girl Scouts Link Gardens to the Homeless

The Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Chevy Chase is an active member of our new Congregational Community Garden Network, and they are using their energy to help feed those most in need.

This past April, Blessed Sacrament's fourth grade Girl Scouts dedicated their April meeting to building container gardens out of plastic buckets for Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place (CCHFP) group homes.

As Blessed Sacrament's Community Garden Coordinator Lisa Greenberg describes in this delightful short article (page 3) the Scouts, using instructions from the UM Extension Service (a link provided on a past MVG update!), set to work with a drill, industrial scissors, plastic buckets, gallon milk jugs, and dirt to build 9 container gardens for the formerly homeless clients of CCHFP.  The group is committed to service projects, but apparently this was among the most popular.  (Hey - sharing food is fun!)

Thank you, Girl Scout Troop 3622, and thanks to parents and volunteers who helped make it happen!  You can be sure there are some hungry people who will be thinking of you for weeks to come as well, every time they have a fresh tomato or salad....



MVG Featured on WTOP News!

Summer is garden time, and it seems it's also the time for news stories about gardens - and in particular about citizen efforts to overturn our county's public school system ban on vegetable gardens.

For the second time in two weeks, MVG and the story of the ban on school vegetable gardens made it into mainstream local news.  This time it was WTOP News (the top radio news station in the region). which ran with the story yesterday.  It played on the air a few times that day; click here to read the associated website article, and to read about the story on WTOP reporter Kate Ryan's blog, "On Assignment," click here.

As it turns out, Ms. Ryan worked on a farm in upstate New York a few years back, was delighted to be in a food garden again.  (She was particularly taken with the mustard greens!) She is also looking for a plot where she can grow some food herself.

MVG is happy to help her with that effort, and we're delighted that she and WTOP were able to report on our effort to give food growing opportunities to our county's school kids.  MVG and the Master Gardeners are currently planning for our meeting with MCPS officials later this month, and we're looking forward to real progress toward our goal.  Keep reading this column for the latest udpates!

Unicorn - The Other White Meat?

As many of us prepare to fire up a grill this July 4th weekend (local, non-CAFO meat only, please!), consider the plight of the National Pork Board. 

Already taking a beating from last year's swine flu (oops, I mean H1N1), and facing declining profits, the National Pork Board is now taking heat for sending a  "cease-and-desist" letter to the Virginia-based ThinkGeek Web site.  Their crime?  As reported in the Washington Post, it was an April fools prank advertising canned Unicorn.

As NPB's lawyers explained, "We are writing you in connection with your activities at the Web site www.thinkgeek.com, wherein you have been marketing a product called 'Radiant Farms Canned Unicorn Meat' using the slogan 'Unicorn -- the new white meat.'"

The president of ThinkGeek's parent company responded: "It was never our intention to cause a national crisis and misguide American citizens regarding the differences between the pig and the unicorn.  In fact, ThinkGeek's canned unicorn meat is sparkly...."

You'd think the lawyers at the NPB would have better things to do, but apparently their trademark slogan "The Other White Meat" is rather important to them.  As recently as 2007, they had sent a similar cease and desist letter to a breastfeeding website selling T-shirts for "The Other White Milk." 

Purveyors of white foods, beware!



Stephen Colbert Helps Out Farmworkers - Thursday, July 8

Comedy superstar Stephen Colbert, of The Colbert Report, offers another bit of food-related comedy - but with a serious point.

On Thursday, July 8, Colbert will air a segment on his new joint campaign with the United Farmerworkers Union entitled "Take Our Jobs."  This campaign is long overdue for the masses of unemployed Americans who like to complain about immigrants taking their jobs because, as this post on Grist notes, "what American doesn't want a back-breaking, hot, dangerous job with no health benefits, paid vacation, or even a living wage? (Federal overtime provisions don't apply to farmworkers, nor do minimum-wage laws.)"

The bottom line here is to spark a more realistic discussion on immigration, since three quarters of all people working in agriculture were born outside the U.S.  Such widespread exploitation of undocumented workers is absolutely fundamental to our current cheap food system, and no reform of our food system can take place without immigration reform. 

Something to think about the next time you're tempted to buy a 99 cent hamburger, or a cheap bag of spinach from California....

Trading Cards to Promote Locally Grown Food

Here, as reported in The Packer, (and picked up by our friends at The Growing Edge), is another great idea to promote local foods - trading cards.

According to the article, "In an effort to combine emphasis on eating healthy in schools with the urge to buy local, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets is now offering produce trading cards online, available to print at home. The trading cards feature nine fruits and vegetables grown in New York, with full-color drawings... on the front and facts about the product on the back. Each card includes a catchy slogan, such as 'Nosh on Squash' and 'Gobble Grapes.'"

According to Jessica Zeihm, director of communications for the state agriculture department, "Demand for these has gone crazy.... It was one of those deals, a crazy idea one day when we were thinking of things to do for Farm to School."

Here's to crazy ideas!

That's it for this week, everybody! Please help support Montgomery Victory Gardens - click here to make a 100% tax-deductible contribution online!

And don't forget to send us your feedback and ideas for stories or local food events we can promote, by emailing us at info@montgomeryvictorygardens.org.