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NOYO FOOD FOREST NEWS 2009

Eat out for "a change"! On Tuesday, May 25th from 6-9 eat out at The MacCallum House in Mendocino and support the Noyo Food Forest! The Mac House will donate dinner and bar proceeds from the night. Stop by for a drink, have a delicious dinner featuring regional, seasonal, and organic foods, and hang out with your fellow Food Foresters while supporting our educational garden projects. Reservations are recommended. Call 937-0289 to reserve your table today. See you there! Also, the Farmers' Market has begun and we will be there throughout the summer! Visit us at the new location at Franklin Street and Pine from 3-6 where we will be selling fresh organic produce from The Learning Garden, plant starts, and flower bouquets. Check out pictures from our Earth Day Festival on facebook or here!
Join us for the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day! Earth Day 2010: Be the Change! Saturday, April 24th Noon to 6pm The Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School 300 Dana Street, Fort Bragg Click here to see full schedule Featuring live music by: The AfroFunk Experience The Dirt Floor Band The Pollinators Word of Mouth Philip Meshekey and Bluebird Wombyn DJ Facilitator 1 MC Translation Youth and Cultural Performances by Montessori del Mar Children's Ensemble Obsidian Fairy Tribe The Salad Spinners Polaris Dance Troupe Spring Plant Sale featuring organic veggie, herb, and flower starts Compost workshop with Sakina Bush Master Gardeners info cart Corners of the Mouth Culinary Showcase with local chef demos featuring local and seasonal preparations Recycled Fashion Show with the Troupe de Trash Kids' Activities throughout the day with BOOM Drums, the Mendocino Coast Children's Discovery Museum, Music Together, Chris Skyhawk, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mendocino County, Lost Coast Culture Machine, and the Mendocino Coast Children's Fund Locally Grown Food Mendough's Wood Fired Pizzas Pedal Powered Smoothies Live Art with FLOCKworks' Children's Banner Project Student Art Show The Humane Society, Feline Philanthropy, and the National Reptile Foundation with critters who need loving homes. Check out our article on FortBragg.com!
¡SPRING GARDEN BLITZ! We are celebrating the first day of Spring in Fort Bragg's community gardens on Saturday, March 20th from 12-4 This city wide event is an opportunity to dig in at The Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School, The Head Start Family Garden, and The Senior Kitchen Garden at The Redwood Coast Senior Center. Volunteers can help get the gardens growing for spring by preparing new ground, planting seeds and more! The Noyo Food Forest will treat volunteers to a Cowlick's ice cream cone for participating. For more information contact Carrie at 964-0218. The Learning Garden is located at 300 Dana Street, the Head Start Family Garden at the corner of Chestnut and Lincoln Street, and The Senior Kitchen Garden at 490 Harold Street.
Save the Date! We are proud to present Earth Day 2010: Be the Change April 24th from noon to 6pm Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day! We will feature live entertainment by - The Dirt Floor Band - The Polinators - DJ Facilitator 1 - youth performances and more acts to be announced! Other festivities include - Spring Plant Sale featuring Organic vegetable starts - Do-It-Yourself Sustainable Living Workshops - Kids Tent with performers, storytelling, art and games - Locally grown food - Pedal-powered smoothies with the BEANS Nutrition Education Team - Interactive information and more! This event is FREE, all ages, drug and alcohol free! We invite local organizations and businesses to contribute and participate in our 4th annual Earth Day Festival. Confirmed sponsors include The City of Fort Bragg's Promotions Committee and Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority. Contact Susan Lightfoot, executive director, if you, your business or organization would like to participate in this year's event @ 964-0218 or noyofoodforest@riseup.net
The Black Tie Boogie is BACK! On Saturday, Feb. 13th, the day before Valentine's Day, put on your fancy pants, bring your loved ones, and join us at the Redwood Coast Senior Center for a classy evening. Get dressed up and get down! The night will feature: Jazz Lounge with the Richard Cooper Trio with special guest Lavender Grace Sit-down dinner using local and organic ingredients, No host bar all night Silent auction Late night DJ dance party with DJ Selector Science Other entertainment includes bellydancers and LED hulla hoopers. Parents, you deserve a night out, so interactive childcare will be provided (children 3 and up) by MiniMoo, Sue Magoo and Jenny Too from the Mendocino Coast Childrens' Discovery Museum! The night will support both the Noyo Food Forest and the Redwood Coast Senior Center. We hope you can make it!
Give the Gift that Grows! The holiday season is here! It can sometimes be hard thinking of the perfect gift for someone, especially something truly meaningful. Try giving our Holiday Donation Gift Cards this year! Our Gift Cards sponsor the Youth Intern Program in honor of friends and family and make a meaningful gift that blesses the giver, the receiver, and a local non-profit organization. Our Summer Youth Internship Program hires local teenagers to grow fresh nutritious produce for their community while teaching them practical, empowering, lifelong skills. During the past three growing seasons, twenty paid Youth Interns have grown almost two tons of produce for the Fort Bragg community, committing over 1,500 hours during their summer break to help care for The Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School and five other school and community gardens on the Mendocino Coast. Give a teen a job and you feed them for a day. Train a teen to farm and you feed them for a lifetime! Cards are available in four denominations at Harvest Market, Downhome Foods, and Dirt Cheap in Fort Bragg and Twist in Mendocino. All card purchases are tax-deductible and every cent goes towards hiring and training local youth in organic, community based agriculture.
November 13, 2009 We now have an orchard at The Learning Garden! We planted 26 fruit trees in the rain in our newly expanded north field and some in the main garden. We finished planting a few during our workday, for a total of 32 new trees! Most are apple trees and a few are pear trees. We want to give a huge thanks to Common Vision, a crew of Noyo Food Foresters, and the children in the Kudos afterschool program for helping us plant them all. When these kids go to High School, these trees will be bearing fruit for trem! Come check out the orchard and the crops that will be planted in our new field. A great time to come by is Friday from 1-5pm during our workday! The Learning Garden is at 300 Dana Street.
November 13, 2009 Fall is a great time in the garden! Volunteer workdays at The Learning Garden have been going strong, every Friday from 1-5. Come spend some time with us, garden, learn, and take home some fresh produce! Everyone is welcome. Check out this compost pile that we made last week! The Rainwater Catchment Workshop was a great success and we now have a 3,000 gallon tank to collect water this winter. Huge thanks to Bruce Broderick from Being Water for donating his time, materials, and expertise to this project. We are also planning a Hands-on Rain/Greywater Garden Workshop tentatively set for December 5, stay tuned for more details to help plant the first rain garden in Fort Bragg! Another exciting day is this Monday, November 9th from 3:15 to 5:30 when we will plant 30 fruit trees with Common Vision! This event is going to be a blast. Common Vision integrates hip hop, African drumming, street theater and more with lessons in ecology and agroforestry. We need volunteers to help out during the program! Please contact us at 964-0218 if you'd like to help out. We are also looking for financial sponsors for the program, which costs $800, and is a gift to the children of Fort Bragg Unified School District. Your tax deductible donation will literally produce fruit for many years to come!
October 19, 2009 Fall is here! What a great time, we have been loving this weather. We have been transitioning the garden to our fall crops and we look forward to having a lot more greens but will miss the tomatoes! And welcome, rain! Saturday, October 24th we will be having a "Rain is a Resource!" Rainwater Harvesting Workshop here at The Learning Garden from 9-1. It is free but we gladly accept donations, and a delicious garden fresh lunch will be provided! It will be very informative, check out who is helping us lead the workshop and learn more about water conservation systems. Please RSVP if interested. Also on Saturday is the Health and Wellness Festival put on by the Mendocino Coast District Hospital, showcasing the many health programs and services this community has to offer, and celebrating that is now one of the few "healing hospitals" in the country! The Noyo Food Forest will be tabling, come check us out! Come stop by anytime and check out the changes at The Learning Garden, and come to our volunteer workday, every Friday from 1-5 if you haven't yet! We are located at 300 Dana Street, Fort Bragg, CA.
September 11, 2009 It has been an incredible summer full of new developments here at the Noyo Food Forest! We moved into our new office at The Learning Garden and are excited to introduce the newest member of our team, Americorps VISTA Volunteer Carrie Gerard. Carrie came all the way from Florida to work with us and will be focusing on expanding access to the local food system to more people in our community. Welcome Carrie! Our first collaboration with FLOCKworks' Open Door Arts program at Oddfellows' Hall in Mendocino was a great success. Nearly 1,900 visitors from all over the world enjoyed the exhibit, titled "Naturally Inspired," to celebrate the environment and the local groups that are working towards a more sustainable community. Huge thanks to Janet Self, the organizer of the show, and to the 48 participating artists who committed 30% of their sales to the 5 honoree organizations, including the Noyo Food Forest. We are excited to work with FLOCKworks next year to bring art to our annual Earth Day Festival.
August 8, 2009 Local Teens Making a Difference 2009 Summer Youth Intern Crew. Back Row: Alex Williamson, Lee Soria, Sean Blaney, Noyo Food Forest Executive Director Susan Lightfoot, Anthony Steele, Thai Choosuwan. Front Row: Learning Garden Apprentice Veronica Morales, Leanne Brabec, Learning Garden Manager Sakina Bush, Amy Harney, and Kiabeth Renteria.
This summer, the Noyo Food Forest and the Mendocino Private Industry Council teamed up to provide a dynamic group of local teenagers an experience they will most likely never forget. The 2009 Summer Youth Garden Internship Program hired and trained 7 Fort Bragg High School students and graduates in organic, community-based agriculture. The old adage that "many hands make light work" was proven true this summer as the motivated youth dug in at seven of our local community and school gardens. Anthony Steele, Lee Soria, Leanne Brabec, Sean Blaney, Amy Harney, Thai Choosuwan, Kiabeth Renteria and Alex Williamson learned by doing: they planted seeds at The Learning Garden, transplanted seedlings at the Hospitality House, planted cover crops at the Mendocino Community Garden, weeded and cultivated beds at the Dana Grey Garden, built raised beds at the Head Start Family Garden Project, tended beds at the Senior Center Kitchen Garden, harvested garlic at the Grow the Good Garden, and sold fresh, organic produce at the Fort Bragg Farmers Market. Led by Susan Lightfoot, Executive Director of the Noyo Food Forest, and Sakina Bush, Learning Garden Manager, these inspiring teens blessed each garden with their positivity, laughter, and hard work.	They prove to all of us that teenagers, when given the opportunity to work and serve their community, will "be the change we wish to see in the world." The Noyo Food Forest thanks all of the local donors and partner organizations who helped make this program possible, including the Mendocino Private Industry Council's Work Experience Program, the Fort Bragg Grange, Howard Ennes, Theresa Baumeister, Cathy Lightfoot, Woody Heckeroth, and several anonymous donors. There is growing interest among Fort Bragg teens to have a Youth Intern program during the school year. If you or your business would like to sponsor a Youth Intern so that more local youth can participate in this program, please contact the Noyo Food Forest at 964-0218 or send a check made to Noyo Food Forest with "Youth Intern Sponsorship" in the subject line to PO Box 974, Fort Bragg, 95437. The Noyo Food Forest is also seeking a van that could be used to transport the Youth Intern crew around town to the various gardens. All donations are tax-deductible and offer teens an opportunity to make a difference in our community.
Noyo Food Forest's first TV appearance coming soon! July 3, 2009 This past Friday at the Learning Garden, the Supreme Master Television crew filmed a short piece about fresh, organic, local produce with Cherie Soria and Dan Laderman of the Living Light Culinary Institute. Our very own Susan Lightfoot gave a walking harvesting tour of the garden and was able to pitch the benefits of howegrown produce to the world! The piece will be broadcast worldwide in 35 languages. Check out SupremeMasterTV.com for more information about the station.
	June 26, 2009 30 pounds of broccoli! Learning Garden manager Sakina and Intern Veronica show off some of the 30 pounds of broccoli harvested from Noyo Food Forest's Learning Garden this week and brought to the Farmer's Market on Wednesday as well as supplying the Fort Bragg High School cafeteria.
June, 2009 Head Start Families Dig in! With generous donations of lumber and other materials to build a small tool shed and frame the beds, lining them with hardware cloth to keep out gophers, the Headstart Garden at Redwood School is progressing! Peas, cherry tomatoes, sunflowers, lettuce and green beans are in the ground and more will be planted each week as we finish the beds.Family Garden Days are every Thursday from 2-4pm this summer. Head Start families and community volunteers of all ages are welcome! This summer we will be planting and tending food that will be served to the Head Start students in the fall. Produce will also be for volunteers who lend a hand. Join us this Thursday as we create more beds and plant more food!
Fort Bragg students Anthony and Davy potted up Common Vision’s apple trees during a recent volunteer workday at the Learning Garden. The trees will be cared for at The Learning Garden over the summer and then planted on the Mendocino Coast this fall.	May 15, 2009 Common Vision partnership: Noyo Food Forest and Common Vision to plant trees on Mendocino Coast this Fall: If you haven’t heard of Common Vision yet, you’re missing out on some serious inspiration! This grassroots organization has planted over 5,000 fruit trees at schools and community centers across California in the past few years. This fall, Common Vision and the Noyo Food Forest will be planting fruit trees in Fort Bragg to benefit the community and the environment. Please contact us if you’d like to participate in this project. In particular we are looking for planting sites where a number of trees could be planted by community members and children. Contact Susan Lightfoot at (707) 964-0218 or susan@noyofoodforest.org for more information. Check out www.commonvision.org to learn more about the great work of Common Vision.
March, 2009 Partnership with OTEPIC Farmers Without Borders: Noyo Food Forest has linked up with OTEPIC in Kitale, Kenya to sprout new seeds of hope through community-based organic agriculture. In the spring of 2009, members of the Noyo Food Forest collected $3,500 in donations to support the development of a sister Learning Garden in rural Kitale, Kenya by OTEPIC, the Organic Technology Extension and Promotion of Initiative Centre. The land was purchased in February and The Learning Garden in Kitale, Kenya is now under cultivation! Congratulations to OTEPIC and to all of the individual donors and volunteers who have made this international partnership possible. The Noyo Food Forest first linked up with Philip Odhiambo Munyasia, coordinator of OTEPIC, in the summer of 2008 during an intern exchange held at the Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School. World renown farmer John Jeavons sent his GROW BIOINTENSIVE interns over to the Mendocino Coast to have a day of exchange with the Noyo Food Forest’s summer youth interns. Philip was one of the interns at Ecology Action in Willits for one full year to learn the GROW BIOINTENSIVE methods to bring home to his village in Kenya. Immediately upon meeting Philip, we felt an overwhelming desire to support his dream of starting a Learning Garden back home. Less than six months later, Philip and his fellow farmers are now growing nutritious food for the community of Kitale! Its amazing what we can do in solidarity with one another.	OTEPIC members preparing the soil for planting, spring 2009 Check out Philip’s blog
	May 29, 2009 Kids find out they love carrots! "These aren't like other carrots I've had. I didn't know I even liked carrots," said a Fort Bragg student this week after eating a carrot from the Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School.
Examiner Article! May 23, 2009 Noyo Food Forest featured in the San Francisco Examiner! "Fort Bragg a hotbed of conscious creatives and sustainable agriculture activists?" See article.	Susan Lightfoot and NFF veggies
	Earth Day! April 27, 2009 Earth Day 2009: Cool Blue Planet was a total success! Thank you to all who participated and made it the special time it was! And special thanks to all our sponsors! See more ...
The Grey Whale Garden: Two years ago, while at our favorite local pub, Piaci’s, a couple of Noyo Food Foresters met Mike Dawson, owner of the historic Grey Whale Inn in Fort Bragg. Mike was interested in starting a garden at the Inn and asked if we could help. Katrina, our Community Gardens Coordinator, drew up a plan for a spiral garden for the prime location on Main Street. In partnership with Mike and with loads of help from tireless Noyo Food Forester Veronica Morales, the Grey Whale Garden is now in full bloom and has become a lovely attraction in Fort Bragg! The garden is a haven for butterflies, bees, and other important pollinators that we hold so dear. A food forest is now under development and plans for a hoop house are in the works. Thank you, Mike, for offering us this opportunity to share the beauty of organic gardening with the thousands of passers-by on the famous Highway 1!	Stop by the Grey Whale Garden anytime during daylight hours, at the corner of Main and Pine streets in Fort Bragg.

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