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| Dear Friends,
Happy Strange Spring. What a growing season this is! Cold and wet one day, hot and sunny the next, with winds and storms thrown in for good measure. And we are also learning to farm at a distance and from behind a mask, which means working so much harder to be heard and connected and collectively effective!
And then there is the fear and the uncertainty and the isolation and the cooped up kids and the constant worry about money! We are all so vulnerable. Like seedlings! And we need each other. Like ecosystems!
Our COVID refrain is "We Are All Farmers Now," and that is holding true. We are intensely busy getting ready for our Full Season Plant Sale, the Seed Bombs Workshop we held, organizing for a very different Summer program with young people, and growing food for our Community Supported Agriculture Program! And doing it all at six feet (and zoom) and lots and lots of group texts!
And, we are bigger than we were before, because Chloe and Sharmaine-- both familiar faces to close FRESH watchers-- have joined our staff and are making all the difference alongside Julie, Sean, Frida and Alicia. Growing at the Distance! The FRESH Staff
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| TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Meet New FRESH Staff
Full Season Plant Sale: Online and Curbside
We are All Farmers Now: Growing in the Time of COVID FRESH is so grateful to Sustainable CT Community Match Fund, Chelsea Groton Foundation, Community Foundation of Eastern CT, and you for supporting our front line work!
Seed Bomb Workshop: Video of Zoom is Now Available |
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A Check In With FRESH's Newest Staff |
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FULL SEASON PLANT SALE Online Sale Starts 5/23 with Curbside Pick Up Starting 5/28 |
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Carmen Dulce Lunchbox mix Etiuda
Islander King of the North Cayenne Aji Amarillo Willings Barbados Chiltepin Sungold Supersweet 100 Sweetie Black Cherry
Beefsteak/Supersteak Homestead Paul Robeson Plate de Haiti San Marzano Tomatillo Verde Yellow Crookneck Saffron Prolific
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| "What are all these words?" you ask.
Just a sampling of the varieties of FRESH has grown-- with the support and help of Connecticut College-- for the full season plant sale. The full list, and descriptions and pictures, will be live on our website on 5/23 and all these varieties will be for sale. Once you order, you'll get a time slot the following weekend to come pick up your order. We are able to make special arrangements for people who are home bound and people for whom transportation is a barrier, so reach out by email if you need delivery. |
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| That is Sean, FRESH's Farm and Project manager, at the Connecticut College greenhouse with YOUR future plants. We are so grateful to Eric Vukicevich, the Arboretum staff and the whole Conn College team for their infrastructure, wisdom and partnership! |
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WE ARE ALL FARMERS NOW FRESH's Work to Support Food Security in the COVID Pandemic |
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| With your support (and the IOBY fundraiser with the Sustainable Connecticut Community Match Fund), Chelsea Groton Foundation and the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, FRESH has been able to work directly with New London community members to support their backyard, front porch, window sill gardening.
We have distributed seeds, soil, compost, tools, container gardens, garden boxes and helped community members link up with regional efforts like the boxes built by Firefly Farms. We are working to make gardening "how to" videos and posting them on social media. We also shared the first collards and kale harvest a bunch of our member families.
We are really proud to be able to help people help themselves during this challenging, stressful and isolating time. Here are a few pictures and testimonials that shed light on this area of work. |
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SEED BOMBS: Link to the Zoom Workshop and the Recipe for Making Seed Bombs are now available!
Click on the box below |
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WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
Interested in supporting FRESH with a tax-deductible donation?
Of course you are! Follow this link: http://www.freshnewlondon.org/support-us |
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