Our home-place for both a teaching garden and a market garden, for the 2008 Summer Art-Farm programs is nearby the big, ole' barns on the former State Hospital grounds. We share this space with a group of 22 other families and friends who are learning the ways of tending an organic garden and growing their food.
Our goals and guiding mission are permaculture based—caring for the Earth, it's people and giving something back. We began our gardens in April, with tilling and soil ammending and have spent the past month and half, cultivating the soil, building beds, planting seeds and transplanting seedlings. A BIG part of our Art-Farm garden caretaking is in getting water into our garden beds. For a wonderful account and short radio piece on our efforts, go to www.radioanyway.org and listen to the final story for the June 28th episode, by Lou Blouin with our apprentice Esprit sharing her thoughts on irrigation practices, and the need to learn about growing our food locally.
This week was the first for taking some of our produce to market. Lou, Esprit and Casey gathered spinach, arugula and a few herbs and went off to the Farmers Market on Saturday morning and sold our first $15.00 worth of fresh, organic produce. Below is a snapshot of Casey and Esprit at their first market gig….
Here's what we're growing in our 8 garden plots in the Community Gardens: A variety of cut flowers, yukon gold, russet and red potatoes, swiss chard, arugula, spinach, mustard and japanese greens, genovese and sweet basil, green and yellow bell peppers, white and purple eggplant, heirloom tomatoes, carrots, salad mix–gourmet and spicy greens, hakurei turnips, green curley kale, cherry tomatoes, pole beans, onions, leeks, cucumbers, butternut squash, zucchini, sweet corn, amaranth, pumpkins, sunflowers, and a fine selection of herbs: chamomile, fennel, chives, sage, marjoram, summer savory.
Our Art-Farmers are a wonderful combination of mentors, apprentices and interns: Esprit, Casey, Rohan, Shelby, MacKenzie, Chris, Molly, Carmen, Lou, Conor, Dede and Penny. And, we are looking forward to working with a younger crowd of Beehive-Art-Farmers when the camps begin later in July. (There is still space to register in the camps, and some scholarships also. Contact us for more info.)
Some of our partners and supporters of the Art-Farm and Market Garden programs are: Michigan Land Use Institute, The City of TC for a donation of leaf mold compost, and wonderful horse manure from Steve Buse's friend and truck-loads of leaves from Matt Miller, Rolling Centuries Farm and Nels Veliquette for the donations of the two water tanks, The Agri-Science Program at TBAISD, Meadowlark Farm, Children's House Montessori ( WOW! Thank you Cymbre Foster), McGoughs' Feed Store, Ace Hardware, Oryana, and much sweat and additional garden goods and seeds from Lou, Penny, Dede, Conor, Marcello, Diane, Gaia and Char. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and more thanks to come!!
Items we are still in need of: 30 Tomato cages, a roll of 48" Welded wire fencing, and 100 feet of Remay…..
Look for updates and reports from the team of Art-Farmers here throughout the summer and into the fall harvest season.
Share This
What is O'k C.S.A.????? It's another made-up idea—by the person formerly known as Penny, the Little Artshram Executive Directress, who is also a full-time artist, illustrator, caricaturist and aspiring graphic novelist…And is taking on the new "pen" name of O'k.
Community Supported Articulture--get it? ARTiculture….A C.S.A., for an Art-Farmer!
The idea (thank you for fine-tuning it Gary Howe), has been percolating for a spell and finally wah-lah—it appeared in O'k's minds-eye after a fat pie-porch party on a recent full-moon…Here's the official invite for you to attend and consider joining…..
You are invited to a Fat Pie Social and O'k Art-Sale with lively, local music…
I'm inviting folks to buy a share in my O'k C.S.A.
(That's Community Supported Articulture),
SO, save the date, July 18th, and invite your friends….
I'm looking to sell 100 shares at $100, and there are half shares too, of some more than O'k Art to 100 good and deserving folks, on a yearly basis.
This year's crop of monthly and bi-monthly art, will include:
- A selection of O'k art for sale at the Fat Pie Social…including never before seen: Eye-Yi cartoons, and, Dog, Pig, Chicken and Squirrel paintings
- A "Year of….Calendar", this year's featured creature is: The Shaggy Cow
- A graphic novel on the making and research of the Year of the Shaggy Cow calendar
- A six-pack of Shaggy Cow greeting cards and valentines (with cow-related love messages)
- and, various Articulture Social gatherings and helping to create a not-quite underground scene in Northwest Michigan.
Friday, July 18th, 7 to 10ish PM
Bring forks and plates, and if you
have an inkling to make a pie to share,
go ahead…the more the merrier!
Fat Pie + Art = Good
at
The Blue House
311 1/2 Maple St., Traverse City, MI 49684
for further information/directions/epic cartoon stories, contact O'k at:
penny.ok.art@gmail.com
Share This
This lovely swallowtail kept me company while planting a bed of cabbage and dill in the Art-Farm teaching garden….
Little Artshram's Fourth Annual
Summer Art-Farm Beehive Camp
at the Community Gardens in Traverse City!
THANKS TO the ART-OFF event, hosted at Right Brain Brewery,
and sponsored by many, on June 14th
we are able to reduce our camp fees to $99.00 and offer scholarships to kids in need!
Please note also, that registration is now open for the following weeks:
July 21-25
August 4-8
August 11-15
Girls OUTLOUD! Art-Farm Camp
August 18-22
(Download the registration form here–2 pages):
summer-art-farm-beehive-page-1.pdf
saf-beehive-page-2-1.pdf
Children and youth, ages 6 and older have the opportunity to experience the magical blend of gardening, art, music and learning a deeper appreciation for the natural world. The Art-Farm Camps take place at the Community Gardens near the historic barns. This year we are partnering with the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) to begin developing an Art-Farm Youth Entrepreneurial Market Garden, and also, with the TC Primitive Skills Core Group to expand our Wandering in the Woods Nature Awareness program. It's going to be a great summer!
The Art-Farm programs follow the Permaculture practice of carefully studying natural patterns, cycles and diversities. The focus areas are: food, water, shelter and community. The curriculum is a blend of art and music-making, organic gardening, natural building projects, nature awareness and primitive skills.
At the Community Gardens, Art-Farm Campers will tend and help grow a variety of vegetables, flowers and herbs in a teaching garden plot and assist the interns and mentor in the Youth Entrepreneurial Market Gardens as they work towards growing food to take to various markets. Each week we will create puppets or masks, story-tell, sing and perform a puppet teach-in at a special family-picnic at the Community Gardens. We will learn about "forest gardening", play wilderness awareness games, learn about trees and wild plants that grow in the Munson Woods, and practice primitive skills like fox-walking and learning bird language. Other projects include, painting, cartooning and nature sketching, and garbage art and natural-found instrument making.
Each weekly camp accommodates 25 children/youth, ages 6 and older with a staff of two-three adult leaders and two Art-Farm Apprentices.
The Art-Farm Day Camps are offered, Monday through Friday, 10-3 PM
Beehive Camps (1st-6th grade, 6 years and older)
July 21-25
August 4-8
August 11-15
Girls OUTLOUD! Art-Farm Camp
August 18-22
Art-Farm Apprentice(13 years and older) and Teacher Training:
This week! June 16-20th, 2008 (M-F 10-3PM)
Mark your calendars for our end of summer and second annual
Art-Farm and Traverse City Harvest Festival, Saturday, Sept. 20th!
For more information about the Beehive Camp, Art-Farm Apprentice or Art-Farm Intern Program contact: 231-510-3491 or penny@littleartshram.org
visit us at: www.littleartshram.org
We are a registered 501.c3 organization, and you are invited to "sponsor" a camper!
Share This
Come and join us to watch local artists create a work of art right in front of your eyes in less than 3 hours. Audience members will have the opportunity to vote and decide which artist will be walking out the door at the end of the night with a cash prize. The best part about this entire night is that you will be supporting the local art community. Money raised during the nights festivities will be donated to Little Artshram for scholarships for the Summer Art-Farm Camps. $10 will get you in the door and the first drink in your hand. Please note this is an event for folks who are 21 years and older.
Doors Open at 6:45 pm.
If you are an artist and would like to enter the competition click here.
Where: Above Right Brain Brewery in the Warehouse District downtown Traverse City, MI
When: Saturday June 14th from 7pm-10:30pm
Share This
Summer-time in TC is a time for kids, teens and young people to come together making art and music, learning about growing food, and wandering in the woods! Register now for our Summer Art Farm Camps and Apprentice Program…HOW? You can download information here….and you may also call us at 231-510-3491:
The Beehive Art-Farm Camps are for kids 6 years and older, Monday through Friday, from 10-3PM, beginning the week of June 23rd through the end of August (7 Weeks to choose from)….
summer-art-farm-beehive-page-1.pdf
saf-beehive-page-2-1.pdf
Even though the registration deadline has passed, we are still accepting applications for the Apprentice Program, for teens 13 years old to young adults, with a week of training coming up—June 16th-20th…
apprentice-registration-1.pdf
AND, what's happening at the Traverse City Community Gardens? There are still 3 garden plots available–it's not too late to get some seeds and plants in the ground! Stop by the gardens or give us a call: 231-510-3491.
We are working with a great group of folks and wonderful families TRANSFORMING this growing space into beautiful, blooming glowing space….working together, waiting for the frost to pass (It's only the end of May….aarrrggghhh) AND looking forward to sharing some fun times with the Little A Art-Farm families with potlucks and puppet shows this summer….
Here's a series of photos taken of Community Gardner Alex doing some necessary work on our cistern which we use to collect water from the rooftop of our Art-Farm Workshop space, Bldg. #221….
     
You can see from the looks of the gooky algae from the previous year what a job this was. Thanks Alex–and Charlene and Elsie too! The cistern is clean and we're back to catching water off the roof!
Share This
May 17th Skill-Share and Workshops —
A Creative Leap From Community Gardening To Wandering In The Woods
TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN May 17, 2008 – Start a friction fire or set up a medicine chest just using nature during a one-day series of shared skills and permaculture workshops. Learn primitive skills and "how-tos", gaining a deeper understanding of our connection to our garden soil, plants, animals, structures, people – even fairies.
When: Saturday, May 17th from 9:00 am to dusk, rain or shine
Who: Open to the public, events for both adults and children. (Kids bring an adult friend, please.)
Where: Traverse City Community Gardens area, left then back by the Barns, on the old State Hospital grounds. AND (in case of bad weather) some workshops will take place at: The Artcenter of Traverse City, 720 S. Elmwood and Eleventh Street.
Cost: Adults $5.00 donation per workshop, kids(under 12) free.
Bring: Water, food, walking shoes and sunscreen.
For More Info On Specific Workshops and Times: See registration pdf below, or call 231-510-3491.
Workshops include "rewilding" primitive skills like fire starting, water filtering, rock boiling, solar stills and debris hut making. Also permaculture puppet theater, gardening for "squares", fairy finding and fairy art, compost building and compost tea, seed bombs, nature journaling, living spice racks, nature's medicine chest, a frog walk, the wonderful world of soil, a plant swap followed by a potluck dinner and music-making at the Community Gardens.
Here's the description of the FROG WALK, by Steve Lagerquist:
"Did you know frogs and toads use muscles attached to their eyes to help them swallow their prey, or that they have to push, not suck, air into their lungs in order to breath? Find out what kind of frogs and toads we have here in T.C. And learn more fun anuran facts on the frog walk."
Sponsored By:
The Little Artshram
The Traverse City Primitive Skills Core Group
The Herbal Alliance of Northern Michigan
Traverse City Community Gardeners
with the support of the Eco-Learning Center and Rolling Centuries Farms
For additional information, contact Penny Krebiehl
231-510-3491
Media Contact: Amy Daniels-Moehle
231-275-2524
Peacefuldreamers@cs.com
Download the Skill-Share registration form and the poster:
may-skill-share-registration.pdf
may17_ss_poster.pdf
Share This
Here they are…registration and info. for both our Art-Farm Apprentice Program–for youth 13 years and older:
apprentice-registration-12.pdf
And for children 6 -12 years the Summer Art-Farm Beehive Camp registration:
summer-art-farm-beehive-page-1.pdf
saf-beehive-page-2-1.pdf
Share This
Saturday May 17th, Skill Share:
A Creative Leap from Community Gardening
to Wandering in the Woods
Traverse City, Michigan
The focus areas of this skill-share are: Food, Water,
Shelter and Community, with an invitation to expand our creative minds
through an introduction of Permaculture's basic and ancient wisdom.
This one-day of workshops will integrate the topics of: Permi-Arts through storytelling and music-making;
Building a Community Garden or growing your food in your backyard;
Wandering in the Woods–fine-tuning our Nature Awareness and Primitive Skills;
and, to offer simple ways to become more self-reliant and earth-friendly.
WHERE: The TC Community Gardens and Art-Farm Workshop,
and the nearby Munson Woods, in Traverse City, Michigan
TIME: 9:00 AM until dusk,
This is an all-day affair!
SO, bring a sack lunch and something to drink, and a dish to share for the evening potluck.
(P.S. ZERO-Trash please. Pack it in, Pack it out)
COST: $5.00 donation per workshop, thanks!
PLEASE, R.S.V.P. by REGISTERING for the workshops of your choice.
Download a registration form here:
may-skill-share-registration.pdf
Sponsored by: Little Artshram, The TC Primitive Skills Core Group,
The Herbal Alliance of Northern Michigan & Community Garden friends…
For more information:
penny@littleartshram.org
231-510-3491
Here's the mighty wonderful schedule so far…..
9AM-introduction, on-going all day, Permi-Puppet Theater
A family-friendly basic hands-on workshop of Permiculture's ethics and principles. Pull your puppet troupe together, and join in on a day-long, mini-design Puppet and Mask theater project. Permi-Puppet Theater performances will be presented during our evening potluck and music gathering.
9:30-introduction, on-going all day, Rewilding
Edible plants including a salad mix and teas…Water demonstration of improvised filtering techniques. Also rock boiling, the solar still, the transpiration bag, and more….Debris hut shelter, and other examples…..Friction fire demonstration/workshop.
10-11 AM Gardening for “Squares” with Lou Blouin
This workshop will teach you basic intensive gardening techniques that allow you to grow way more vegetables in less space with less watering and weeding. Through an understanding of soil conditioning, efficient garden planning, and techniques like mulching you’ll learn how to grow a compact backyard garden that’s more productive than you ever thought possible.
10-11 AM Fairy Finding Fundamentals with Nadia & Sonja Daniels Moehle( & David and Amy)
(Re)learn to walk in nature from a child or fairy's perspective. Create outdoors works of art that disappear into nature. We'll walk and collect and create. Equipment needs: Imagination.
12 Noon demo, on-going Seed Bomb-makin'
Definition: (noun) Tidy packages composed of seeds mixed with dense, fertile compost, wrapped in a protective coating of mineral-rich clay.
1-2 PM Compost Building and Compost Tea
Always wanted to learn compost? Let Bev Howes help you start your free soil-building system and brew up some tasty tea.
2-3 PM Nature Journaling
Learn a simple book-binding technique with recycled and natural found objects, with a "how-to" cartoon/illustrate as you record and practice the careful study of observing natural patterns.
2-3 PM Family Herbal with by Kathy Bartell
Nature teaches us that plants, animals and people all depend on each other and that all things in nature work together. An herb plant is commonly known as a useful plant for flavoring, tea or medicine. This workshop is focused on herbs and understanding the interdependence and responsibility that they provide. We’ll make a Living Spice Rack & Natures' Medicine Chest.
3-4 PM The Wonderful World of Soil
with Kirk Waterstripe
4-5 PM Frog Walk
with Steve Lagerquist
4-6 PM Plant Swap
Sponsored by the Herbal Alliance of Northern Michigan. Bring a plant, take a plant….Bring two plants, take two plants….Seed and seedling sharing also.
6 PM until ? Potluck with Puppet Shows and Music-making afterwards!
Share This
Grass Roots: Herbal Healing for Everyone with Herbalists: Joyce Wardwell and Jim McDonald
April 19th at the Traverse District Library, 9 AM to 4 PM
Pre-registration required $35-50 sliding scale.
Joyce Wardwell is an herbalist of 35 years, teacher, storyteller, writer and promoter of the power of self-care. Her eclectic background encompasses Western, Chinese, Native Armenian and kitchen knowledge and she makes herbalism understandable and simple. For man years Wardwell published the herbal newsletter called "Herbal Voices", and is the author of "The Herbal Remedy Book: Simple Recipes for Tinctures, Teas, Salves, Tonics, and Syrups" .
Jim McDonald, lives in Michigan, and offers a perspective of herbalism that blends western folk and indigenous views of healing with the vitalist traditions of 19th century western herbalism. He has offered classes throughout the Great Lakes bioregion and nationally, hosts the website: www.herbcraft.org, and is currently writing "A Great Lakes Herbal". Jim is a community herbalist, a manic wild crafter and medicine maker, and has been an ardent student of the most learned teachers of herb craft….the plants themselves.
Sponsored by the Herbal Alliance of Northern Michigan
For printable registration form contact frognoise@centurytel.net or pick one up at the Traverse Area District Library.
Earth Day Tree Walk guided by Bruce Holland-Moritz aka The GreenMan
Saturday, April 19th, 4:30 to 6:30 pm
The Earth Day Tree Walk is being offered as a basic appreciation and learning identification methods, as well as understanding some of the edible, medicinal, and ecological importance of the trees that are our neighbors in our Northern Michigan home-place.
Meet at the ArtCenter of TC, and we'll wander around Bldg. #50 grounds learning about the unusual trees collected and planted by Dr. Munson, and then, for those who wish to take a heftier hike, we will head back on the Munson Trails to consider native trees in the natural areas.
This is a free event, welcoming all ages. Donations will be gratefully accepted, and go towards the Earth Day Parade.
Please RSVP at the number below, or by emailing: penny@littleartshram.org
For more information on the Earth Day Tree Walk:
231-510-3491
Share This
|
|
