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Root Riot Harambee makes it’s debut on the west side

Seamus Ford — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:30:50 +0000

On Sunday August 15th at 3pm residents of the Austin neighborhood on the west side of Chicago along with the students, faculty and alumni of Douglass Academy Hig School will dedicate Root Riot Harambee. Everyone is invited to join in this celebration, especially for the many young men and women from our community who pursued a shared vision in the face of great skepticism and created something wonderful.

Here is the official press release:

For more information, call Seamus Ford 312-213-7824
Sheree Blakemore (312) 404-3180
www.root-riot.com

Community Garden movement reaches Chicago’s West Side with Sunday dedication

The Austin community will dedicate its newest community garden in a ceremony 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 15, at 500 N. Waller Street in Chicago.

More than 40 urban gardeners from the west side of Chicago and Oak Park joined together as “Root Riot Harambee” for the first time to plant vegetables together, learn about gardening and strengthen their community. The community garden movement has grown across the country as a response to people’s desire to grow their own food, as a way of strengthening neighborhoods, and in response to the economic times. The example was set at the White House early this spring when Michelle Obama helped spur interest in community gardening when she organized a group to plant a garden at the White House.

The Root Riot Harambee garden is a partnership between Root Riot, Youth Guidance, and the students and faculty of Fredrick Douglas Academy High School. The garden connects students, faculty, neighbors, church-goers and gardeners in ways that are both tangible and life changing. One hope is that neighbors know each other, look out for each other and feel safer. The project brings other benefits, such as exercise, healthy food, an educational outdoor experience, and jobs. It also teaches self-reliance, and gives people the vital feeling of taking care of themselves and their neighbors.

Neighbors rent plots for $40 a year, or $100 for three years, on a lot loaned by a local developer. The plots sold out in a couple of weeks and most of the plot owners are first time gardeners. Gardening coaches help to teach the uninitiated how to plant, tend and grow crops. Workshops continue to be held on subjects such as soil health, controlling bugs and weeds without toxic chemicals and even raising chickens. In the past several weeks garners have begun harvesting cucumbers, green beans, Swiss chard, tomatoes and other vegetables.

Growing food is just one part of Root Riot. The recession has put 9 million people out of work, and unemployment has skyrocketed among youth and minorities to levels reminiscent of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Working with community partners, Root Riot and Youth Guidance have helped provide meaningful paid employment to teenagers and young adults. With grants from “Put Illinois to Work”, Youth Guidance and the Douglass Academy students have worked this summer to help build, promote operate the garden. The youths have also raised money, talked to neighbors to recruit more gardeners and discuss the projects with the general public.

Root Riot Harambee has received extensive community support from a variety of sources, including 29th Ward Alderman Deborah Graham, Cook County Commissioner Earlene Collins and US Congressman Danny K. Davis, the Public Works Department of Oak Park and Heartland Alliance.

More information at www.Root-Riot.com

About Root Riot

Root Riot is an open organization dedicated to creating opportunities for people to learn and discover the joys of growing their own food. We are a continually expanding network of community gardens and education resources that raise the “food consciousness” of our local communities and the public at large. Recognizing the impact of the economic and environmental changes that are underway, we work in partnership with local businesses and experts to create hands on opportunities for people to grow their own food in their own communities. Our hope is that by doing so we deepen people’s sense of belonging in their community and strengthen the resilience of our society as a whole.

We place our greatest emphasis on community education and social connection. We bring people together across generations, economics, and ethnicity to work together creates something new. We apply the best practices of community organization and business development to get the job done and teach others how to get the job done.

With two locations as our starting point, we are building growing network of urban gardens as a conduit for sharing, learning, teaching and communication. A second garden is located at 838 W Madison in Oak Park.

Five Ideas for Being an Environmentalist During a Recession

Seamus Ford — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:05:48 +0000

When you can’t afford to shop at Whole Foods anymore is it harder to be environmentally friendly?

If you are asking that question, you may discover that you have gotten into the habit of expressing your environmental values primarily though consumerism. As is the way of American business, marketers have jumped on the green bandwagon. While there is a genuine environmental ethic that has been adopted by business in recent years, the inauthentic “green washing” of some companies is pretty easy to spot. Consider the audacity of a certain car company attempting to associate the phrase “Eco” with an 8 cylinder engine on a passenger vehicle.

While our purchasing choices will remain important forces in causing a sustainable future, they are only a portion of what needs to be addressed. We all must be honest and confront the fact that we will not be able buy our way out of this.

Here are some ideas for deepening your environmental impact while on a budget.

1) Re-purpose as Family Project

There is no shortage of obsolete stuff (Junk) in a typical household. Create a contest with your kids and their friends to come up with the most valuable re-use of a piece of junk in the house. Let them vote and the winner of the contest gets to pick what is for dinner one night.

2) Start a garden or join a community garden

No matter how impractical or inconvenient it may seem to take a whirl at growing your own food, the rewards of learning, health and quality time with your family are profound. No matter what the scale you take on. Do it.

3) Turn your community into a Blue Zone

There are many places in the world where people regularly live to be over 100 years old. Researchers have coined the term Blue Zones to describe these areas. There are a number of common factors in each of these areas of the world that have been studied and put to the test in the town of Albert Lea, MN. The adoption of these virtually zero cost practices has raised the scientifically verifiable life expectancy of people in this town by over three years.

4) Walk to work, use public transportation or work from home

Walking to work can kill two birds with one stone (daily exercise and transportation). Using public transportation allows you to get things done while commuting. Working from home gives you more time with your family.

5) Make the next birthday gift you give with your hands

It may not happen often, but when you get a gift that someone actually made for you, it means something. (Ask any Mother) A gift that is handmade by a friend or family member carries special significance and will always stand out among things that are simply bought.

These are just a few small ideas. When applying creativity to the challenge of being green in a down economy, there is no shortage of options and in the long run it is a lot more satisfying than retail therapy ever was.

Chicken Coop Chronicles

Seamus Ford — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:22:07 +0000

I began asking myself, “How Do you build a chicken coop?”

About 5 months ago I met a lady who has been raising chickens in her backyard. My reaction at first was astonishment. I could not believe it. Like so many people I just assumed that it wasn’t allowed. After all weren’t chicken’s dirty and didn’t you have to have some special knowledge to raise them? Well kinda… but more on that later.

My astonishment soon became curiosity and before long a mild obsession. This woman was so much the suburban mom. I assumed that raising chickens required some sort of pre requisite like years in the 4H or having distant Menonite relatives. Yet at the same time, there was something so logical about it. Chickens are the perfect local food especially in the city.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I knew almost right away that I was going to go through with raising chickens long before I brought it up to my wife. I had to get an education on the topic so that I could respond to all of her potential objections, the biggest being how do you keep chickens when you have two 60lb hunting dogs in the house already. This was of course a real concern because one of them spends hours a day trying to figure out how to ambush any small animal that comes near the yard.

After a great deal of internet research and planning I determined that I could convert an old dog house that I had built into a coop for the chickens and create a fenced in enclosure that would protect them from the dogs and still give them space to walk around. I soon became so excited that I planned out each day what I was going to do.

First was to move the dog house about 3 miles from where I had built it to my current house. I had cleverly built it out of scrap lumber not giving any thought to ever having to move it, so by the time I was done it weighed over 200 pounds. I found a guy on Craigslist who rented himself and his truck for $25 per hour and after lifting it over two 6 foot fences, it was finally in my back yard. From there I began to partially dismantle it in order to prepare it for the birds. After a couple of false starts I came across an old set of kitchen cabinets in the alley that runs behind my house. They were made of cherry plywood and although water damaged, I was able to salvage the doors and the largest cabinet. Using some left over subflooring, I turned the cabinet in to a set of 6 vertical nesting boxes. I used the large doors to create the access pane for retrieving the eggs and cleaning the coop and the smaller door has become the door that the chickens use. I also managed to use an old ironing board that I had found earlier as the ramp for the chickens to get up in the coop. I still needed an enclosure and was able to find a 6 x 12 dog kennel on Craigslist. It took me about an hour to drive to get it, but it turned out to be the perfect size for the space I have next to my garage.

I was now ready to get the chickens. I had met some people who were raising chickens in the Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago and they told me about a place on Fullerton and Austin where they got their birds. They did not remember the name. After some creative Google searching I was able to find “John’s Live Poultry?” It is exactly what it says, a live poultry seller right there on the west side of Chicago. I called to make sure that they had laying hens and was told that they usually got their chickens on Saturday and that if I waited until Sunday, they might not have any left. (They really have become that popular)

I was of course very worried that after I had done so much work to prepare that I would have to wait another week. I couldn’t stand the thought so, even though I was working that Saturday, I arranged to go and pick them up. When I arrived and walked in, I was greeted by a couple of young guys standing behind a counter. In the background was the room where the chickens were processed including the feather plucking centrifuges that are used to separate the birds from their feathers. Over to the right were the cages where the what seemed like all manner of foul are kept waiting to be prepared for slaughter; ducks, quail, turkeys, and of course chickens, none of whom seem to be remotely aware of their fate.

I told them that I was the guy who called and had asked them to keep two laying hens for me to pick up that day. With a smile, one of the young men went into the back and emerged holding two birds by their wings asking his boss how much they were charging that day. In the mean time the other young man had taken a cardboard box and converted it into a quick chicken carrier by cutting holes into the sides and taping the bottom. Then with no more delicacy that throwing clothes down a laundry chute, the birds were stuffed in the box and slid across the counter to me. I handed over $24 and walked out the door. I took the chickens back to the worksite where they became a near constant source of fascination for anyone who was passing by.

I finally brought them home that night and placed them in the new enclosure I had created and sure enough my dog who is a Pointer could barely contain himself. It was as if he was outraged that I would bring these delicious morsels into his yard and but not let him eat them. He whimpered and cried and tried to eat through the chain link fencing of the Dog kennel but in the end he seems to have accepted that he must share the yard with them. None the less, I do not leave him in the yard for any length of time without me.

Since the Chickens have gotten settled and comfortable they are laying an average of 13 eggs per week. My wife and I have had a hard time keeping up with all the eggs so I have begun giving them to my neighbors as an icebreaker and to my surprise it has been an remarkably effective way of connecting with them. Like me, my neighbors have been surprised that you can have chickens and very curious about how I works

It is a very interesting social experiment to invite a perfect stranger into your garden or to see your chickens. Invariably genuine curiosity and wonder washes away their trepidation and people always leave wanted to stay in touch. In that way my chickens have become ambassadors of sustainability in the inner city.

If you are interested, here is a good resource for educating yourself http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/dual.html

Turning Your Dog Into a Good Environmental Citizen

Seamus Ford — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:45:34 +0000

Our dogs and cats are our companions and we naturally want to take care of them. If you are a pet owner you probably give a lot of thought to what you feed your pet. What you probably don’t think about is what happens to the waste they generate once you dispose of it. Most people put dog waste into a plastic bag that is then thrown into the garbage. When it is all added up more than 10 million tons of animal waste goes into landfills each year. Since most of it is wrapped in plastic, it never really biodegrades. This video is about a possible alternative to sending your pet waste to the landfill: A dog waste composter.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Low Carbon Thanksgiving- How Far Did Your Food Travel?

Seamus Ford — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:20:39 +0000

www.localharvest.org

Coming to grips with the end of suburbia

Seamus Ford — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:07:12 +0000

As we enter the age of post peak oil, we have to begin to prepare ourselves for inevitable changes to our lifestyle. This video is a 52 minute version of the documentary “The End of Suburbia”. This is a sobering must watch video. What it predicted at the time it was made several years ago has begun to happen. As the Hopi elders say “We are the ones we have been waiting for”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Re-thinking what you consider to be junk: re-use and re-purpose

Seamus Ford — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:38:33 +0000

The world is filling up with stuff.

Modern industrial society has lost touch with the real value of what it produces. Our wasteful consumption and our disposable attitude toward so much of what we produce and use is going to hurt our children. In spite of the fact that most parents would never eat first and feed their kids what is left over, when it comes to our use of natural resources we are doing just that. As the planet’s population grows and we reach the peak of our oil production capacity along with many other minerals and materials we are robbing our children. We have eaten the best parts of the chicken and we are leaving them with the bone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When you stop and really think about it, it is unsettling. This video invites you to re-think what you consider to be junk. It invites you to let go of the “What will the neighbors think” mindset and re-look at what you use and see if you can give it a second life.

Create a day without electronics each week

Seamus Ford — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:45:05 +0000

There is a widely undiagnosed condition that an increasing number of children are suffering from. We are not talking about obesity or diabetes or other diseases. They may in fact be symptoms of the real disease.

The condition Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD) has become pervasive in modern society. According AC Nielson the average child in the United States spends 6 hours per day watching television or playing video games. This is a 400 percent increase over their parents generation.

The impact of this goes beyond the well notes increase in obesity, diabetes and other diseases related to reduced activity. It doesn’t bode well for the future of the environment. While televisions like animal planet and discovery may provide programing that educates children about the natural world, it cannot replace the power of being out in the natural world.

The most vital activities connected to the perpetuation of the human species take place out in the natural world. It is where are food we eat and the air we breath are produced and recycled. Kids today give little thought to the way that food is produced for them(and most of us as adults). As far as they are concerned, it comes in packages or cans or plastic bottles.

We have an obligation to get kids outdoors. They are the future stewards of the environment. We cannot afford for them to only know it through television programs.

In your weekly routine create a day without electronic devices. Unplug the television and turn off the computer and the game boys. Lock the kids out of the house for 2 hours go on a family hike. Work in your garden. Get your family outside Get your family together.
For resources on battling childhood obesity Click Here.

Here are some other resources for engaging your kids without electronics:

Teaching a child how to ride a bike.

Ideas for having fun with kids

100 Mile Diet: What is healthy for your body may not always be heathly for the planet

Seamus Ford — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 02:57:36 +0000

With the advent of high-end grocery stores, like Whole Foods, many of us have developed exotic tastes in the name of a healthier lifestyle. There is however a hidden cost to many of the exotic healthy products that we purchase.

Have you ever given any thought to how far the food you eat travels? Wether it is your bottled water from Fiji, your banana from Honduras, your Red Snapper from the Gulf of Mexico or your spagetti sauce from Ohio , all of them travel many hundreds or even thousands of miles to get to you.

What is healthy for your body may not always be heathly for the planet. All of the traveling your food does before it gets to you results in more and more pollution entering the atmosphere. Eating locally is not an original idea. In fact it is quite the opposite.

It was not until the last 70 years that food began traveling such great distances. If you ask a grand parent, they may be able to stories about Milk that was delivered by horse cart, or canning vegtables and fruit, or buying eggs that were never refrigerated. Obviously few people have the time to raise their own food, but what if you and your family tried eating a 100 mile diet? It is much easier than you think.

Here are some ideas from a website called the 100 Mile Diet.

1. Start small
We walked smack into a year of strict 100-Mile eating. That was a big, blind leap into the unknown. You can start with a single meal, a 100-Mile day, a one-week commitment. Most people partner up, or do the 100-Mile Diet as a family or group.

2. There are no rules
Make your 100-Mile Diet experiment a challenge. If you’re trying it for a day, consider getting tough: every ingredient in every product has to come from within 100 miles (that was our rule for a year). Over a longer period, escape clauses are nice. Maybe the occasional restaurant meal or dinner at friends’ houses? And what will you do if you travel? Ask some deeper questions, too. If you eat meat, where does the feed for the animals come from? If you’re vegetarian, would you be prepared to eat animal products if no beans or tofu are raised where you live? If you just can’t live without coffee, don’t let it stop you. Wave your magic wand and declare it ‘local.’

3. Surf the internet
There are likely resources specific to your area, from lists of nearby organic farms to community kitchens where people get together to can foods. A great resource for Americans is Local Harvest, where you can find markets, local-food-friendly restaurants, farms, and food delivery programs for every region. Folks in the UK can visit BigBarn

4. Find your farmers’ market
The easiest and most fun step toward eating locally. Make the market a weekly priority for your food shopping. To find yours, search the web, look for listings in local newspapers, or call your area’s tourism office.? Check out our 13 Lucky Farmers? Market Tips for more info.

5. Find your farmers
Most larger cities and many smaller towns have organic food delivery companies, often with direct connections to local farms. Consider joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, in which you support a specific farm by paying a lump sum at the beginning of each growing season and then sharing in that farm’s food products year-round. Most delivery and CSA programs have websites, or try contacting your regional organic certifying body or farmers’ association.

6. Start a garden — even a tiny one
Self-sufficiency feels good, and greens up our cities and towns. We live in a one-bedroom urban apartment but grow vine beans, tomatoes and herbs in pots on our balcony. We also have a 3′x12′ plot in a community garden, which is run by a cooperative community group. Is there one in your neighborhood? If not, remember this: many began as ‘guerrilla gardens’ planted on longtime vacant lots.

7. Plan a winter garden
Winter is a tough time to find local produce, but you might be surprised at what still can grow. Ask your gardening friends or at garden shops, or read through regional seed catalogues. We keep garlic, kale, mustard greens, turnips and cabbage going throughout the winter. Spinach and Swiss chard are other good winter greens. Friends as far north as Whitehorse, Yukon, have extended the growing season with a backyard greenhouse.

8. Buy in bulk and preserve
Buying bulk saves money, and since it is often hard to find local preserves, you may have to do it yourself. Well, throw a party. With a few bottles of local wine and cider, even a small group can make quick work of canning jams, pickles, fruit and tomatoes. We also froze corn, spinach, carrots, basil pesto, beans, brussels sprouts and more. A cornucopia for the winter. Don’t know how to do any of this? Neither did we. Call up your elders before the knowledge is lost, try the local library, or go online with National Center for Home Food Preservation.

9. Join the movement
If you haven’t already, sign up with the 100-Mile Diet Society to receive updates, calls to action, and seasonal toolkits to help you bring your eating closer to home. In the coming months, this website will beg

For more information visit http://100milediet.org/home/