Hello Grow family!

We have been busy busy bees this summer. Early June, we got to host Candace and Faye at Build It Up and take them on garden tours around East Tennessee. We saw a wide variety of gardens and gardeners that are in the program this year. Most importantly, we got to see FOOD GROWING and gardeners excited to harvest the bounties of their hard work. Such an exciting day!

We Have Agricultural Fellows!

Aside from gardening (is there even such a thing??), Appalachian RC&D Council has three young professional fellows from Laos and Myanmar visiting us for a month to learn about agriculture in the U.S. We partnered with the organization YSEALI, (Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative), to bring these ambitious fellows over to shadow our work and learn more about the programs we conduct. Each fellow is an expert in their field in the their home country. It’s been so interesting learning the similarities and differences in agriculture between countries.

So far, they’ve been able to go to all our programming, visit lots of local farms, and explore local resources. Much of what they observe, they want to take back and incorporate into their own communities. It’s such an honor to host such incredible people and be able to spread our practices and knowledge throughout the world.

Build It Up partners with a local alternative school to teach gardening and help them grow their own produce. Part of the fellows’ workload has been going over and helping the kids in the garden. Below are pictures of fellows, Longlao, Kevaly, and Htet Zaw picking fresh produce!

       

Garden Visits Start Next Week!

Every year, we conduct our garden visits for Build It Up in July. Our theory is that it’s the most important time of year to WEED. So even though we don’t require folks to prepare for our visits, most people clean up a bit to impress us. It’s a win-win. This year, I’m excited to bring along our fellows to meet some of our gardeners and see what they’re growing. I hope to get some input from them as well! They will come with me to garden visits until June 16th when they leave to go back home. I hope to have lots of great pictures to include in our next blog post.

Until then, happy gardening!