Farmer's Market Week #3

This week we brought our beautiful red chard, swiss chard, kale, carrots, tomatoes, scallions and bush beans; we sold almost everything! Pictured above from L to R: Nitzy, Jovares, customer Vanessa, Antonio, customer Marisol and Lekeisha. Catch us next Wednesday at the Roots in the City Overtown farmer's market from 1-4. Corner of NW 10th Street and 2nd Ave. We should have passion fruit, loquat and the regular goods. 

Baynanza 2010, 1st Annual Bay Lumber for Gardens Clean-up and Harvest

  Captain Steve of the Pelican Island Skipper took us out to Pelican Island where we planned to collect useable drift lumber, and bring it back to the new Little Haiti community garden site. There the beautifully weathered wood could be used to build raised beds, arbors, trellises, benches, shelves, fences, etc. The trip was a great success, bringing in a huge selection of unique and useful building material, that would otherwise have been considered garbage. Next year's effort promises to be exponentially bigger and better. Contact us if you would like to volunteer yourself or your truck! (Mr. Dell and Steve shown in photo, riding out to the island on the Skipper)

Antonio and team collected wood from the coastal rocks and bushes...

...and piled it up in spots around the island, to be carted back to the dock.

Jovares and James haul a cart of wood from the far side of the island

Jovares and Antonio pile wood by the dock, to be sorted and loaded onto the boat

Our new friend Javier helps Claudia bundle up the wood according to size, for easy loading onto the boat

Deck full of wood

We were conveniently able to back the bed of the truck right up to the bow of the boat for a seamless offload.

The Pelican Island Crew

City Year service learning day at TROY photos by Ryan Holloway

Click here 

Roots in the City Farmer's Market, Overtown.

Pablo of the Garden Team mans the TROY tent at the official Roots in the City farmer's market grand opening ceremony Wednesday in Overtown. Pablo was one of four student ambassadors chosen to represent the Gardens of TROY at this prestigious event that featured the mayor and other dignitaries, as well as some of Miami-Dade's finest farmers. Our passion fruit continues to be a big seller, inspiring some of Miami's top chefs and mixologists with its intense tangy goodness.

Farmer's Market

Customer Nadine selects her passion fruit, as garden team member Abrian assists at our first trip to market. The experience was a complete success, prompting our return this week, with another basket of passion fruit (we sold completely out last time), as well as other assorted goodies. Visit us at Roots in the City farmer's market Wednesday from 1-4 pm on the corner of NW 2nd Ave and 10th Street

The tangy, sweet yellow juice, and crunchy black seeds of the passion fruit are a refreshing tropical treat.

Jovaris and Nitzy, harvesting.

Ehh..."What's up doc?"

Press Release

Contact: Ben Thacker                                                          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

786_303_4131

Benjamin.foto@gmail.com           

Website: http://www.gardensoftroy.blogspot.com

1^st Annual Grass is not Green Day Promotes Resourcefulness in Sustainable Urban Food Gardening

TROY Academy and City Year Miami join forces Saturday April 10^th from 9am-3pm, for a day of working, learning and fun. Roughly 60 middle school volunteers will work side by side with TROY garden team students to cover the school’s lawn with natural mulch, eliminating lawn maintenance costs and creating ideal planting and growing conditions for dozens of species of edible and flowering plants.

Grass is not Green aims to educate the public about viable alternatives to ineffective and inefficient landscaping practices, while promoting healthy habits and communities through sustainable food production methods.

With a 12 month growing season in South Florida, regular tree pruning and chipping ensures a constant source of an otherwise costly resource: mulch. Applying mulch regularly to garden beds and around trees has been shown to improve the health and growth rate of plants while discouraging weed growth, reducing irrigation needs and building up quality soil.

By “slam dunking” the schoolyard with a ten inch layer of wood chips donated by County tree crews, TROY’s already productive garden will be able to expand tremendously. Mounds of mulch are ideal locations to plant warm weather ground cover crops like sweet potato, calabaza pumpkin, ginger, oregano and Malabar spinach, as well as tropical favorites like banana, papaya, sugarcane and pineapple.

In addition to shoveling and spreading mulch, volunteers will rotate through a series of workshops like juicing and smoothies, compost bin design and construction, rain barrel water catchments, saving and planting pineapple tops to grow pineapple plants, and cover crop seed setting. DJ Leo of GUDE Vibes will be on hand as well, providing fun family-oriented entertainment.  

TROY Community Academy, located at 3300 NW 27^th Avenue, is an alternative High School for at-risk youth in Miami’s inner city. The garden program, now in its second year, has seen success through horticulture therapy. Students who repeatedly fail in traditional classroom settings are often ideal candidates for the garden team, where they learn to respect and nurture living things, while providing their families with much needed nutrition. 

For additional information please contact Ben Thacker at 786-303-4131, or visit us on the web at http://www.gardensoftroy.blogspot.com