7pm at the Roosevelt Recreation Center
1221 W. 36th Street
Baltimore, MD 21211
they have been kind enough to give us a few minutes to talk about the BFF project, what it means for Hampden, and our kickstarter fundraiser! If anyone wants to come out to support us, we would like to have a good presence there.

We will be having our regular weekly organizing meeting after the HCC meeting, as long as it doesn’t go on too late. Two for one meetings!

We will be working at the warehouse today, prepping the floor in the event hall and hopefully painting it too! If anyone would like to come out and lend a hand, please call Don at 443-740-8183, or just stop by!

Many thanks go out to the Maryland Conservation Corps and Americorps for volunteering at the Free Farm yesterday! We put a nice dent in the big job of bushwhacking and cleaning behind our warehouse, soon we will be ready to start building the chicken coop!
Yesterday was quite nostalgic for me personally. The chilly air, the hill, chopping through vines to unearth piles of garbage, was really quite similar to the first day I came to volunteer at Ash Street. If anyone is interested in helping to finish the job behind the warehouse, I could use some hands. Give me a call at 443-740-8183

-Don

There will be a free rain barrel workshop on Tuesday November 30th at 6 pm at the Patterson Park Public Charter School at 27 N. Lakewood Ave. I plan on attending, as I would like some hands on experience before we put together our own rainwater system. Also, you get a free rain barrel! They have a capacity for the class, though so let me know if you want to go SOON.

-don

BFF organizing meeting tonight at the Warehouse, 8pm. 3510 Ash Street

Once again we thank all of the volunteers that helped organize, repair, and paint the large room of the warehouse this weekend!

First I would like to thank everyone who helped last week cleaning up the garden and painting the front of the warehouse!

This Saturday we will be working inside the warehouse cleaning and painting the large room in preparation for building the event hall! We will be there from 10am to the evening. If you are interested in helping out, give me a call at 443-740-8183, or just stop by!

We are currently nominated for Cole Roofing’s Green Roof Giveaway! One non-profit will receive a green roof valued at a maximum of $30,000.

Please click here to vote for us. Make sure to click “log in” at the bottom of the page and login through Facebook before clicking on “vote for this non-profit.” You can vote once a day!

Thank you for your continued support!

Our weekly meeting is at 8pm at the Sustainability Center (the warehouse).

Topics to include

Kickstarter fundraiser status
Cole Roofing Green Roof Contest
Sub-leasing
Building new rooms
Backyard projects
New Volunteers!
Homebrewing
Parks and People Grant
Workshop Schedule

Feel free to list any topics you would like to talk about tonight here.

If you would like to attend the meeting, please contact Don at 443-740-8183

Today, while taking a break from preparing our warehouse for painting, I sat looking at what was formerly a patch of basil. I remember, earlier in the year, when we thought about removing these basil plants because they had gone to seed. What we discovered, however, was that there was a thriving community of insects enjoying these plants: butterflies, bees, praying mantis, ladybugs… Though they may not have been useful to us anymore, our basil plants were certainly still being used by many little creatures, which led to our decision not to destroy the basil.

I remember, also, a day in October when there was a very large spider spinning its web directly in the path that leads up our hill. I spent at least ten minutes with my face inches away from this spider, watching him do his work(I’m sure I must have looked insane to passersby, staring intently at what appeared to be nothing). Later, I watched as several people almost collided with his web before realizing that there was a giant spider sitting directly in their path. I don’t know what happened to that spider; I can only assume that its web was destroyed by some inattentive visitor, but while it was there I did enjoy its presence.

My favorite of the insects that inhabited our garden this year were the butterflies. I remember the first butterflies to appear: the small, white, relatively uninteresting ones(incidentally, these are also the butterflies which seem to be lingering longer than the others). Then, slowly, more colorful varieties began to appear. By mid-summer, every day I spent at the garden I came across a new variety of butterfly, and I’m sure that Billy began to grow annoyed with my constant exclamation of, “LOOK AT THAT BUTTERFLY!”

At this point the butterflies have virtually vanished, aside from those ubiquitous white varieties, but I’m looking forward to next summer’s influx of new creatures.

Although I was not thinking of this when we started the garden on Ash St., I now realize that one of the many benefits to gardening is the amount of life it attracts to an area. Even today, when winter is threatening to take over and most of the life is draining from gardens in the area, several bees crossed my path at the Ash St. Garden and a ladybug landed on my hand to hang out for a while.

This unexpected benefit is one of my favorite aspects of spending so much of my time working with the Baltimore Free Farm.

-Allison

From the website..

Baltimore has long been plagued with the problem of vacant lots scattered across the city. These lots are often areas of epidemic crime and drug use, but now there is new hope with greenspace programs being officially established and sanctioned in the city. The greenspace programs, such as the Duncan Street Miracle Garden, provide lush and ornate gardens in place of vacant run-down city lots. Baltimore now allows groups to purchase city owned land for urban agriculture projects, which in-turn transform vacant lots into assets for the communities. Join us for a lively discussion on the potential that these greenspace programs will provide for the communities of Baltimore. For more on green spaces in Baltimore, click here to read Farm City by Heather Dewar in Urbanite Magazine.

You can listen to the podcast here
http://steinershow.org/steinershow/radio/the-marc-steiner-show/november-4-2010-segment-1

I called in and told them about the BFF and our fundraiser, he said he would put it on his website!