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Greetings!
It's hard to believe it's August already. As the summer winds down, our community gardens are yielding a wonderful bounty, providing fruits and vegetables for those who might not otherwise have access. We have had lots of exciting work happening thanks to countless volunteer hours. And, soon, we will bid adieu to our garden interns. What a wonderful season of growing and learning in the gardens!
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 Omaha Community Gardens
- Our community gardens played host to several neighborhood night-outs this summer including Sacred Heart, Living Hope/Pearl Pantry, Park East Neighborhood, Kids Can! and Metropolitan Community Church. These events included food, face painting, firetrucks, games, and give-aways. A good time was had by all!
- The Park East Neighborhood Association is sponsoring "Wednesdays in the Park" weekly in August and September. Different organizations will host food and activities every Wednesday at Park East Park on 548 South 26th Ave from 5-7pm. The Big Garden will provide food and activities at the first event, August 11th. Join us!
- In the month of June, the Big Garden began its annual educational
classes. Our interns spent several hours each week in fun classes with youth at multiple garden sites including
Ruth Solomon Center, Camp
Fire, Clair United Methodist Church, Wesley House, Girls Inc, and Kids
Can!. The kids are taught the basics of gardening and healthy eating, and they participate in gardening, craft activities and art projects, and cooking demonstrations. This component of the Big Garden programming continues to be a
favorite for the interns as well as the kids!
- Throughout the summer, mission teams from Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri, and Nebraska have helped in the gardens. In addition to weeding, mission teams built compost bins at Clair Memorial United Methodist Church, Christ Child North, and Living Hope/Pearl Pantry. They also built a new flower bed at Christ Child North, painted rain barrels at Habitat ReStore and Metro Community Church, outlined the beds at Living Hope/Pearl Pantry, planted an entirely new
Benson Garden, and weeded and mulched at Camp Fire USA. Whew! This gives them the skills and the knowledge about the benefits of community gardens that they can implement in their home communities! We appreciate their hard work.
- One of the most inspiring things this summer was the planting of a new community garden Benson Apartments on 51st & NW Radial Highway. In cooperation with Lutheran Refugee Services, we helped facilitate this garden on a trash-ridden empty lot directly behind the apartments. Residents of these apartments are refugees primarily of Bhutanese, Bhurmese, and Karen descent. A community member sign-up day was held in June, and twelve
families signed up to garden here! Despite language barriers, a deep pride in agriculture is apparent. Our interns and volunteers have learned a great deal at this site, including how to cultivate ginger and other Asian food staples!
- In July, the women in the Sazzy Senior group at Christ Child North enjoyed "Spa Day" with our garden interns. And in early August, the interns provided a spa day for the girls at Girls Inc. At both events, participants enjoyed facial masks, exfoliants, and moisturizers made fresh from from garden ingredients!
- This summer, the Habitat ReStore donated 8 large planters to the Big
Garden. In turn, we used them to facilitate the beginning of a
container garden at King Science Middle School. What a cool example of
community partnering and creative thinking!
- We tilled at Norris Middle School and hope to partner with them next summer
in creating a garden for their summer program!
- Some of our gardens have had structural improvements this summer. Sacred Heart and Living Hope/Pearl Pantry had patios added, and the garden at Clair United Methodist Church has a new sidewalk and water source!
 New patio at Sacred Heart garden - Our six garden interns: Aaron French, Megan Horton, Diane Ferry, Matt Freeman, Annie
Ashby, and Anna French celebrated the closing of their summer with the "See How We've Grown" event at First United Methodist Church on July 28. They creatively presented what they have experienced over the summer while sharing freshly-made foods from the garden! It was a great gathering of our community garden partners! The interns will officially conclude their summer work with the Big Garden at the end of August.
Mike Freeman, who interned with us last summer, has been a part of our summer staff this year. Mike has worked on special projects
documenting the garden and its progress this summer. Many of the photos above were taken by Mike's skilled hand. We appreciate his work and wish him well in his journey!
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Rural Community Gardens
This spring, the Big Garden welcomed its first rural gardens in Pawnee City, Plattsmouth, Ashland, and Fremont. Some of these gardens have yielded produce in this, their first planting season. Others, while not reaping the rewards, have sown the seeds for successful gardens next spring. The Big Garden celebrates the second year of community gardens in Falls City and Auburn.
- Auburn - A member of the United Methodist Church loaned his empty city lot
for use by individual families to have their own garden beds. Outside
of town is a one-acre garden, which is gardened by
volunteers for the farmer's market, for local schools, and for the food
pantry. Auburn planted about 180 cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower
using
only captured rainwater. They have also grown onions, spinach, peas, beans,
beets, potatoes, radishes & okra! What a bounty! In addition, they plan to start 9 more beds in the fall! Auburn will hold it's 2nd annual Community Garden Celebration on Sunday August 29th at Peru State College. Read below for full details!
   
- Pawnee City - The Pawnee City Administrative Board voted
in favor of the community garden, and Pawnee Village (low income
apartments) agreed to designate of some of their land for the community garden. However, due to weather challenges, the garden did not get off the ground as they had hoped. They have laid the groundwork and are working toward a fall ground prep, with plans for a large garden in the spring.
- Falls City -
This garden is a joint venture with two
other churches. Food goes to the
churches and to local facilities for the elderly.
In addition, Falls City has delivered four truckloads of fresh-picked sweetcorn throughout the summer, to be distributed to food pantries and low-income residents in Omaha! This has been greatly appreciated, as pantries rarely get fresh produce. The recipients are very grateful. It's also been a good project for mission teams from United Methodist Ministries to help unload and bag the corn.
 Members of St. Luke UMC in Omaha unloading the Falls City corn delivery as part of their mission experience. - Plattsmouth -
This is an ecumenical project between Hosanna Lutheran Church, which
has a wonderful plot of land, and the First United Methodist Church. The veggies are in raised beds while pumpkins and melons are growing on a compost-enriched old parking lot! They planted tomatoes, pumpkins, eggplants, sunflowers, beans, peppers, cucumbers, and lots of miscellaneous melons! They've had night visits by rabbits, turkeys, or deer (they're not sure which), and the gardeners have had to come up with creative solutions to that problem! The produce is available to food pantries, to church
members, and for use at the community food meal site. Just this past week, they installed a foundation for a garden shed, which a member of the Cass County jail work release program will help to install. This garden is a wild success with an amazing amount of creativity and enthusiasm behind it! Check out the before and after pics!
 Before  After - Ashland - This is another
ecumenical project, between the United Methodist Church and the American
Lutheran Church. Due to excessive rains this summer, this garden was flooded out. The gardeners are, however, enthusiastically making plans for next spring.
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Fremont - This is another joint community garden project with Fremont
Calvary sharing their land and Fremont First United Methodist providing the gardeners--a neat combination! The produce goes to congregants,
volunteers, community members, and to food pantries.
The garden has flourished, with tomatoes in abundance and sunflowers stretching to the sky. There has been lots of community involvement, and they have a neat sign in both Spanish & English!
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 Auburn to host its 2nd Annual Community Garden Celebration
The Auburn Community
Garden Celebration will again celebrate the growing season with, "Fresh
& Local-2010" on Sunday, August 29th. This year the event will be
held at the Live Oak Room at Peru State College. The menu features
foods from Lord's Acre and the Nebraska Food Cooperative, prepared by sous-chef, Matt Fowler.
A fun addition to this year's celebration
will be an "Iron Chef Auburn" competition. We are currently asking
local 'celebrities' to compete as 'chefs' for this coveted title. Just
like the Food Network show, the four contestants will be preparing a
meal featuring ingredients we provide.
The evening will begin with a
social hour from 6-7. Dinner will be served at 7pm and the Iron Chef
competition will begin at 8. Tickets will be sold for $15.00 per
person. For ticket information, please contact Teresa at 274-3329.
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12 Reasons for Visiting a Farmers' Market
The University of Nebraska at Lincoln's Extension Office created a great list of reasons to support our farmers' markets! Click here to check it out, and be sure to share it with friends!
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New Website Coming Soon!
We are very excited to announce that Rebel Interactive is designing a new and improved website for the Big Garden. We plan to launch it by September, so be sure to check back for it!
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 August is Buy Fresh, Buy Local, Fair
Trade Month!
This is an initiative of the Nebraska
Conference of the United Methodist Church. Click here for more
information about how you can participate!
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| Volunteers Needed!
Fall is upon us, and we need groups to help put our gardens to bed for the season. If your group is interested in volunteering on a Saturday during September or October, please contact Lisa or Jaimee at 402.898.9862 or e-mail info@bigmuddyumc.org.
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New Big Garden Video
The Big Garden has a new video, thanks to The Rev. Dan Flanagan, Superintendent of the Missouri River District! He visited several gardens including those in Fremont and Auburn, and created a great video based on his experiences. Thanks! Click here to view the video.
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