Another Successful Workshop

Saturday, we hosted a workshop on soil contamination/testing and procedures.  It was organized and made possible by Judy Einach from NYSAWG with help from the CAO.  Dr. Joe Gardella from UB was here as well as Hannah Shayler and Murray McBride from the Cornell Waste Management Institute and Sharon Bachman from the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Erie County.  We discussed the issues of soil toxicity,  learned of the research being done on this subject by Cornell, and some of the local projects that Dr. Gardella has worked on.  Dr. Gardella has been guiding the soil testing aspects of the farm since last year when we took samples and had them analyzed.  One of the very good outcomes of this workshop was the opportunity we had to talk with these people afterwards about our situation specifically and to procure from Cornell some recommendations for the soil here based on the testing we did last year.  We now have a plan and procedure that we will run by City Hall to get their approval and then get busy.  Because there has been so little research and hard data gathered about growing food on urban soil, Cornell will be continuing to work with us here on our site in addition to their other research farms in other cities around the state in an effort to establish some sort of standard for future urban agricultural projects.

On Tuesday of last week we participated in a panel discussion about urban agriculture with UBGreen.  Grassroots Gardens and MAP were there also.  It was a good discussion on a relevant topic and there was considerable audience participation during the question and answer time.  You can check out their web site http://www.ubgreen.com.  I believe they are also on Facebook.

Joyous Resurrection!  ( I love watching the world come alive again)

Janice