After a strong start, participation has settled into a strong core of active members with some earlier folks leaving and being replaced with new members. We have added a young family to our group and I am excited to have younger parents involved. I have learned to reach out to community members to help with classes; in May we hosted our “Heart Healthy Cooking” class and welcomed Vicki Boggs with our local UK Extension Office to teach our group. The food was delicious, and Vicki shared a wealth of information with everyone! Thankfully, Vicki will also be leading our June class about food preservation! Participants are particularly excited for this class, and I anticipate a large turn out.
Thanks to help from Jason Brashear and JC at the Pine Mountain Settlement School site, we were able to get fertilizer delivered to our location and distributed to everyone that attended our May meeting.
As of our May meeting, some folks were still waiting for ground to be tilled. Larry assured them he would be out that week. We were gifted a generous donation of insect netting by Mark Walden, which was distributed during our April meeting. Participants were overjoyed! Everyone joined in to unroll, measure, cut, and distribute the netting. It was a true team effort and further reflects the warmth of our people and our program.
Participants also received heirloom tomato plants that had been donated to Northfork Local Food. One of my goals is to develop a seed library for our site, and I have asked all participants to save seeds. Along with heirloom plants, participants received tomato and pepper plants from Rudolph’s Greenhouse. At our June meeting, everyone will have the choice between a canning kit or a food dehydrator as part of our lesson of food preservation. In July, we will begin farm visits, and I am excited to see how our group has implemented their learning and resources! We have certainly become source of knowledge and support for each other, and I look forward to growing together!