Food and neighborhood DIY (do-it-yourself) projects go hand in hand for Lisa Bralts, who lives in an east Urbana neighborhood with her family and is surrounded by great neighbors and several gardens, including her own. She’s amazed at the possibilities and practices that exist just underneath the surface here in Central Illinois – you just have to poke around a little. Her blog is at majorprogression.wordpress.com.

Get the full poster (PNG graphic)

The Prairie Sugar Collective exists to: bring all people together through the fruits of their labor; provide members and the community with the experience of producing maple syrup; educate people about the sugaring process and transfer skills between members; provide resources for people interested in all things related to sugaring; and share the flavor of genuine maple syrup.

Not whiskey... syrup!

Our family-style (or neighborhood-style) pancake breakfast was a success! Sunday lived up to its name and we had at least 40 neighbors and friends of neighbors sitting at our improvised banquet table. And Sam’s syrup was a hit! Yeah Maple trees!

Pancake Breakfast!

The neighborhood eats pancakes

Blocksteady is hosting the  Lynn Street Syrup Pancake Potluck party this Sunday May 3, 10 am -12noon in the driveway of 912 S Lynn St.  We will provide pancakes and micro-local syrup, you provide a plate, a snack, and a smile. Details below in the awesome flier designed by Sarah R. and Sam V.

GARAGE & PLANT SALE TO SUPPORT THE HOME BIRTH SAFETY ACT

This two-day garage and plant sale is a fundraiser to help support HB 226 which: “Creates the Home Birth Safety Act. Provides for the licensure of midwives by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Creates the Illinois Midwifery Board. Sets forth provisions concerning qualifications, grounds for disciplinary action, and administrative procedures. Imposes conditions on any rulemaking authority…” and in general gives people greater freedom to have safe births at home if they choose to do so. Come by and get some good deals, pick up some plants for your garden, and support home birthing in Illinois. If you wish to sell plants, want to help
with the sale, or have any other questions call Sarah at 384-0429. Thank you!

NEIGHBORHOOD FARM EMERGES: TAPPING MAPLE TREES IN URBANA
Late this winter, Sam Vandegrift (known as the winepunk on www.smilepolitely.com) and his daughter Mamie tapped several maple trees on Lynn St. and Fairlawn Dr. in Pre-Historic East Urbana. Their efforts created a buzz among the neighbors. Sam and Mamie collected over 100 hundred gallons of sap, which boiled down, after a lot of hard work, to two gallons of maple syrup. Sam is a part of a loose knit, growing group of neighbors that are raising and sharing vegetables together and advocating for a more exciting, mutually beneficial engagement with food and our neighborhoods. Garage & Garden is a part of this growing cooperation and is pleased to host an exhibition documenting (photos by Sarah Ross) the tapping of our neighborhood trees. Sam will give a short talk on Saturday at 2 PM.

WATER WORKSHOP
This workshop is a general introduction to sustainable home water use and awareness. We will discuss greywater, blackwater, rainwater harvesting, composting urinals & urine fertilizer, groundwater, aquifers, municipal code, the inefficiencies and wastefulness of privatized water, and more. Participants will make their own greywater sand filters for
home and apartment use. They will also receive a small booklet that covers the topics of the workshop and
has resources for further water explorations. If you want to attend the water workshop, you must sign
up at the Common Group Food Coop, in Lincoln Square Mall, Urbana. To sign up, stop by the
store or email meagan@commonground.coop. Cost of the workshop is $20 for owners and
$40 for non-owners. Space is limited. Contact the Common Ground for date and time.

What's Growin' On

Or scrappier ones like I made from wood and windows I got out of dumpsters and alleys:

I put mulch and compost around the cold frame to both generate heat and to provide some insulation against colder temperatures. I have plans to make a much hardier system this fall complete with walls insulated with packaging styrofoam.

Here are some more of our cold frames:

Salad greens, collards, kale and mustard greens

And here is an even scrappier design for a planter:

Planter in front of the Harvest House on Washington in Urbana

I really like this design as it suggests a really easy way of making a planter with out the need to have access to a lot of tools or basic wood working skills. It looks as if the wood was found and fitted together to make the planter. It could easily be made into a cold frame by placing windows on top or by stretching clear plastic over it.

Here is what you need to make a basic cold frame:

Window found in alley, wood pulled from a dumpster

I cut the boards with a power saw (a hand held saw works just as well) to the same lengths as the sides of the windows making sure to cut two of the sides a little smaller in relation to the thickness of the other boards.

Assembled frame

I affixed the pieces of wood together with wood glue (which really helps keep the wood together as it will be on, and holding, wet, moist ground) and screws (long nails will work too).

Frame placed, filled with soil

Next, find a location for your cold frame. I put soil in mine after digging up the grass underneath. The soil in our yard is poor. We have not spent the time and effort to get the soil in this spot in good condition for growing healthy plants. You might want to consider putting good top soil into your frame if you have a similar situation.

Carrots planted. Window placed.

The final steps are to plant the cold frame – I put carrots in this one – and water the seeds, finally placing the window on top of the frame

You can see the cold frame in action within just a few minutes; condensation starts to appear on the underside of the window.