WORKDAYS, EVENTS, FUND-RAISING, PROJECTS & latest news:
THE FIRST GARDEN CLEAN-UP/PERK-UP OF THE SEASON: SATURDAY, MARCH 30TH WAS A GREAT SUCCESS, THANKS TO VOLUNTEERS WHO BRAVED THE CHILLY WEATHER AND HELPED WAKE SLEEPING FAIRIES AND CROCUSES!
CSA: THERE'S STILL TIME TOSIGN-UP FOR CSA! EMAIL US AT projectharmonycsa@aol.com OR haja216@aol.com FOR A MEMBERSHIP FORM. DISTRIBUTION EVERY THURSDAY JUNE THROUGH OCTOBER. GET READY FOR SOME AWESOME SPRING GREENS, BABY LEEKS, SPRING GARLIC AND MUCH MORE FROM CLAUDIO'S WONDERFUL ORGANIC FARM! ALSO, ORGANIC EGGS, CHEESES, GRASS-FED MEATS, LOCALLY-GROWN(AND MILLED) GRAINS, FLOURS AND MUCH MUCH MORE ALL AVAILABLE ALA CARTE.
On Friday, April 19th, we welcomed twenty-plus 7-year olds, with their tutors and chaperones, from "America Reads." The children loved racing through the garden paths, smelling the fragrant spring flowers, finding snails, watching the fish, and planting their own cucumber and pumpkin seeds in the recycled cups they'd brought with them They were reminded to set the cups in a dish and water from the bottom so their plants will grow strong roots. Here's hoping everyone found a sunny windowsil for their seedling!
On Saturday, April 20th, over twent-five New York Cares volunteers joined us to help upgrade street tree beds, install tree guards, spruce up the garden and much more! The volunteers loaded up heaps of debris from the vacant lot behind the JD Wilson Garden and Sanitation stood by to haul it all off!
It was a gorgeous day--much accomplished! Hats off to Rod Keenan who is heading up the street tree project. Big thanks, as well, to all who helped decorate the new tree guards, and special thanks to the Citizens Committee of NYC for granting Project Harmony $1000.00 for the guards, plants and soil amendments. Huge kudos also to the New York Cares teams, especially Kate Kinsey, Lauren Rothschild, Karl Kaiser, Katherine Kienitz, Juanita Padilla and all the rest!
Now we're getting the vertical garden together and will get a load of plants in on Saturday, May 11th--wholesale from Grow NYC. Anyone who would like to come out to plant, please do!
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DECEMBER, 2012--JANUARY, 2013
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
The Garden is sleeping, mostly, but our feral cat-keepers come in every day to tend to the ferals and make sure everything is peaceful & harmonious. Workdays will be here soon. The Project Harmony/Kitchentable SPRING/SUMMER CSA will start up again before you know it! We're grateful our CSA farmer, Claudio Gonzalez had an abundant harvest this past year, so many of us were able to enjoy awonderful array of winter vegetables through January: turnps, kale, bok choi, potatoes, apples, collards, parsnips carrots, celery root, winter squash and more--delicious! Our big Open House on December 15th was a well-attended, joyful event. We invite the new year with new energy and new ideas--yours are welcome!
More updates and news from the past year coming soon, as we await a rehaul of our web site! In the meantime, we want to give a shout-out to Marouh Hussein, who for two years was our "lead intern" and in 2012 became our summer "project manager." Marouh will be graduating from Stony Brook this May.
We're hoping she will be able to spend the summer with us again--but the new grad's plans depend on many variables at this point, so we'll have to wait and see. We are looking for an additional intern, however. If you know an energetic, urban garden and environmentally conscious college student who would love a versatile outdoor summer experience, let us know.
Thanks to Penny Barton and "Select Equities Foundation" for gifting the Feral Cat program so the kitties will have plenty food, medicine, and other necessities this winter.
A huge thanks to Terry Gumula-Drach for generously gifting the garden with some desperately- needed funds!
Last fall--2012--Project Harmony and the William B. Harris Gardeners received a "Garden Heroes" award from the Green Guerillas for organizing the "Harlem Green" garden tour every year. Let's keep up the good work!
Our 2012 Family and Youth Environmental Workshop series was a great success. Big thanks to the Citizens Committee of NYC for helping out with funding. Thanks also to our bee-keepers, Victor and Veronica Matos who gave us a great hands-on(more or less)workshop on "everything about bees." And huge thanks to Luis Lopez, who never lets us down--his hiking "tour" of Inwood Park's "wild wayside" was almost as exciting as the farm trips!
We welcome any and all fund-raising ideas.
Also, anyone who would like to help out with pruning, please get in touch--212.662.2878. WE REALLY NEED TO PRUNE SOME MORE BEFORE SPRING BULBS POP OUT(that's now, January, February, early March, weather permitting).
2011 News
Big thanks to much-needed donations that came in for Claudio, whose fields were fairly devastated by Irene's floods; we collected over $1500.00 for Gonzalez Farms--still a drop in the bucket compared to what he needs, but our CSA is to be commended for raising that generous gift!
THE VERTICAL GARDEN: We'd love to expand and improve upon our vertical garden. If you would like to assist, be involved/do some vertical gardening, please contact us! If you have access to milk crates even better! Let's grow some awesome greens, herbs and edible flowers!
HUGE THANKS: To Marouh Hussein, a Stoneybrook Environmental Studies major and our our phenomenal summer intern who we gratefully welcomed back for her second year with us. We were happy that Marouh was also able to gig with Claudio at Columbia U's Farmer's Market every Sunday! Marouh, what can we say: you're the best!!! Thanks, too, to Zorina, a Stoney grad & former intern, who couldn't be with us every day, but whose help was so appreciated those times she was able to be with us!
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NOVEMBER 2011:
Big thanks to Tara Fignaro and her crew, as well as Michael's New York Cares team for helping to get all the bulbs planted and putting the garden to rest--we couldn't do it without you!!!
October, 2011
The Halloween Party--
had to be postponed a day, but it turned out to be a blast anyway. We were fortunate the big snow storm didn't crash any trees and not even any branches to speak of. We delighted in games, gift bags, and
(yum!) roasted marshmellows--what a treat!
September, 2011:
The weather is beautifully fallish as the garden turns into gorgeous fall colors; happily, we can still cook-out and gather here for CSA, R& R, etc.
August, 2011:
The Women's Correctional Association had a great fund-raising Saturday: a fish fry with all the fixin's,
lots of special speakers, wonderful vendors with everything from delectible cakes and pastries to extraordinary hand-made jewelry. There were games and raffles-what an inspiring and fun day!!
Workday - Saturday- July 23rd, 2011: 10am-2pm with NYCares
Kids' afternoon: Wednesday, July 26th--help decorate our new tree guards & have some home-made ice cream!!!
Teen Environment Workshop Series-- Call 212. 662. 2878 for info!
HARLEM GREEN--A Tour of Harlem Gardens,Saturday, July 30th; 10am-4pm.Raindate: Sunday, July 31st.
Harlem Green 2011: A Tour of Central/West Harlem Community Gardens
Harlem Community Gardens are pleased to announce that “HARLEM GREEN,” the 6th Annual Harlem Community Gardens Tour, will take place on Saturday, July 30th 10AM-4PM(Raindate: Sunday, July 31st). The Tour will begin with a breakfast in the Joseph Daniel Wilson Community Garden at 219 West 122ndStreet, and the last stop will be at the William A. Harris Garden on 153rd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, where Tourists will experience a home-style traditional Harlem Barbecue. The Harlem gardens, all managed by community volunteers, are among New York City’s most extraordinary and best–kept secrets. Tourists will discover an enormous variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers as well as ponds, gazebos, grape vines and fruit trees, rain-water harvesting & soaker hose systems, solar energized equipment, innovative composting methods, vertical gardens and more. The gardens are host to people of all ages. Some are shade gardens where folks can come to relax or cook a meal. The gardens run programs for toddlers, young mothers, youths and seniors; there are tutoring programs, environmental studies workshops, art and music events for teens and the community at large, as well as canning and preserving (including food fermentation) workshops. Some gardens also host Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSA).
For more information call 212.662. 2878
This Tour is being made possible by Greenthumb(Parks and Recreation of NYC);The Green Guerillas; NYCCGC(NYC Community Garden Coalition); The Willim H. Harris Gardeners; Project Harmony, Inc.
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Spring/Summer CSA: The Kitchentable/Project Harmony CSA for the 2011 season is going tremendously well! Here at the JD Wilson site we have 36 members--and well over 20 memb ers pick up at Papo's Garden on East 119th.
Our CSA now has at least 60 members altogether (119th Street and 122nd)
. "Our" farmer, Claudio Gonzalez, delivers fresh produce to our two sites--the JD Wilson Garden on W. 122nd between 7th & 8th Aves. and Papo's Garden in East Harlem--219 East 119th between 2nd
& 3rd Aves.
The produce, all organically grown is fresh
& beautiful.
Pick Up Dates:
Every THURSDAY, June 2nd – Oct 27th
Pick Up Time:
5:00 – 7:30pm
Locations:
Joseph Daniel Wilson Memorial Garden
West 122nd Street (b/w 7th & 8th Avenues)
Papo’s Garden
5:00-7:00pm
East 119th Street (b/w 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
We accept food stamps, check/money order, and credit card (via PayPal).
~ FOR INFO CALL 212.662.2878 OR EMAIL info@kitchentablenyc.org
NEW YORK CARES "HANDS ON NEW YORK! DAY" in the garden, Saturday, April 16th, WAS A GREAT SUCCESS. PICTURES
SOON. We also want to than Tara Fignar and her group of volunteers for their amazing helping hands! And Luis and Nico who helped put up the mulberry netting! Also, we once again have Marouh (full-time) with us as our Lead Summer Intern. Zorina, who graduated from Stonybrook--and is job-hunting--will also be with us a couple days a week. Marouh is also working the Farmers' Market with Claudio, our CSA farmer! And we'll soon be busy producing our Harlem Harvest™ preserves/salsas, etc.
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NEW RULES FOR COMMUNITY GARDENS CITY-WIDE PUBLISHED ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH, 2010. This is a sort of victory, although we are still looking forward to working on legislation which will protect gardens permanently. On February 19th, 2011, the New York City Communit Garden Coalition held a Town Hall Meeting in order to gauge gardener concerns and ideas with regard to permanency. There are several options now under consideration. For complete information on this and for other garden news, please go to www.nyccgc.org.
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Volunteers Welcome!
We always need volunteers for specific tasks: watering, picking up trash in front of the garden, routine gardening maintenance, "topping the pond" & pond care, etc.
If you have some time and would like to volunteer, please call us @ 212.662.2878!
