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Outpost News Archive 2009
December 11, 2009 UPDATES ON THE FARM SATURDAY EVENT Saturday December 12th from 10am til 4pm. Rain or Shine. Bring boots if you have them! In case of rain, we will meet in the covered area next to the rice mill (the farm left hand corner once you walk in the gate) Come join us at the 2nd anniversary of the Emile Street Community Farm and Marcella and Joe's 1st anniversary. Come help support food security in our neighborhoods. Imagine being able to walk to, bicycle to or just see food growing outside our windows. We are working on a culture of preparedness, growing our own food, and learning to recognize the wild edibles in our area. Come help us grow this huge effort. Check out his blog at intotheborderlands.blogspot.com We are also a social forum, open to all good ideas. If you have some infornation you want to share, bring a table and your materials. PRESENTATIONS FOR THE DAY We are still confirming things but as of right now our lineup for the day is as follows: Meriweather the Adventurure will be doing a presentation on Foraging and Wild Edibles in Houston. He will present at 11:30 and will be doing a couple of plant walks at 10:30 and 1:30x to show everyone what is growing in the garden. Check out his blog
FOOD
FUNDRAISER FOR THE EVENT We will be having a raffle featuring local art under the covered area. Be sure to buy a few tickets to support the farm and help us buy dirt and seed this spring. UPCOMING EVENT Friday Dec 18th 6-8 PM Last Concert Cafe (1403 Nance) Please join us for our first dinner in the series called "Living Off the Land" showcasing fresh , seasonal food from the Emile Community Farm. These dinners will feature recipes by Marcella Icet, skillfully prepared by the chef at Last Concert. We plan to have these dinners every 3rd Friday of the month at Last Concert Cafe. Joe Nelson Icet, Community Farmer
October 30, 2009 COMMUNITY GREEN FEST DON'T MISS THESE UPCOMING EVENTS! Hello everyone, The Magnolia Park Community Garden is finally getting started! And we need your help! On October 31st, Saturday 8:00 am We will be building 4 to 5 raised garden beds made from stone. A huge delivery truck from Lowes will arrive sometime after 8 am. Basically we have to lay down a protective 4 mil thick plastic material and build stone beds on top of it. Later on we should be getting some mushroom compost from Madisonville. We will have tools, gloves, water and snacks. The water should be turned on Monday and we should be planting next week. We would like to thank the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the United Way for funding this project. If you have any questions contact Esteban @ 713-410-2942
December 12th - Please come help us celebrate two anniversaries and raise a little money for the farm: We are planning on live music, food, vendors and speakers. Yep it's that time again. We need dirt, seed, irrigation supplies and the tractor needs new shoes, so if you have any ideas for a fundraiser, send them our way. By the end of next week, we should have the major details in place. If you have any ideas or are interested in organizing or volunteering for this event, please send us an email. THIS WEEKEND AT EMILE STREET
September 24, 2009 Channel 39 at the Outpost Our segment will be on "Going Green with Yolanda Green"
September 15 , 2009 Thanks for supporting a local food economy in Houston's inner city MARK YOUR CALENDAR: MEDIA: IMPORTANT INFO: FOLLOW US: KPFT "Living Art" program
KPFT BENEFIT: The focus for the October 24 benefit has changed. It has been renamed the Community Green Fest and we will co-host it with KPFT. The event will focus on community building in the inner city. Time is 12 until 6. Dan Phillips from Huntsville will be there as will Charles Washington - a local environmental artist using all recycled materials in his art. The Captain - who teaches emergency preparedness in the area will be holding a presentation also.
THIS WEEKENDS' PROJECTS AND EVENTS: Saturday will be a work day with Shell employees. Sunday will be Rebel Roots End of Summer Dinner 12-2. See the Events page for more details.
FARMERS MARKET UPDATES: We welcome Eloise who did her 1st ever market at T'afia last Saturday and will continue on with her good work. We need help with the Rice Market on Tuesday afternoon/early evening and the 2nd, new Rice Market that will be starting on Saturdays (formerly the Onion Creek market). If you are interested, contact us and we'll give you the details. ONE LAST THING Joe Nelson Icet, Community Farmer
August 25 , 2009 Thanks for supporting a local food economy in Houston's inner city. IMPORTANT INFO: FOLLOW US: KPFT BENEFIT: If you have ideas and would like to showcase them at the event come join us in building a village for the KPFt event. This will be a festival where we are inviting vendors, artists, musicians, families and friends. There will be a casserole contest featuring local restaraunts, music and dancing and various speakers. There will be events for kids, also. UPDATES FROM KPFT BENEFIT MEETING HELD LAST NIGHT: Committees:
THIS WEEKENDS' PROJECTS: This Saturday we will be working with Phil starting at 9am building a deck at the back of Emile near the bee keeping. Right now, we are looking for 4x4's and brick for the deck project this weekend. In the near future we will post needed items on the web site as the these projects take off. We will also be working on the "Take Back The Buck street Expansion" project to clear the weeds. We have plenty of compost to redo the beds and lots of seed to continue the fall planting. Mustard and collards will being planted soon. UPCOMING PROJECTS (SOON!) FARMERS MARKET UPDATES: ONE LAST THING Joe Nelson Icet, Community Farmer
July 8 , 2009 The Emile Street Community Farm is hosting a summer camp with St. John's Bread of Life every Tuesday and Thursday from 9am til 11am for the next four weeks. Thanks to Kelvin and Eurcella for putting the camp together. Contact Marcella if you would like to have a event are function at the farm. Channel 2 aired a interview with Marcella and myself last Sunday morning. The link is here. Kim Davis was the reporter and her show is Beyond the Headlines, airs every Sunday at 500am. Thanks to the Students and Staff from Prarie View A&M and Houston Hope for the good work Saturday June 27th. Also thanks to Organizing for America and everyone else that came out. It was the biggest work event yet with over 200 people coming out to work at the farm. This week starting Thursday we will be focusing on preparing the remaining beds at the Emile location and planting the hot weather greens. Last week Jim and his sons finished the irrigation system at the City Lot on Emile. Tracey and Sedat planted the rest of the tropical vegetables. Estaban and Ruthanne are working with Ken on a grant for a water catchment system using equipment from the Rice Mill. July 4th we had a cook out at the farm. Thanks to Ken and the barbeque pit set up at the farm. Dinners can happen any weekend. We are planning a building workshop with Jay in the up and coming using recycled wood. The plan is to build a yoga deck, tool sheld and more. Donation through paypal are great. Contact Marcella Community Farmer,
June 7 , 2009 Thanks for supporting a local food economy in Houston's inner city. On Sunday June 14th we will be having a work event and open house from 10am at the Emile Community Farm and pot luck dinner in the afternoon starting at 2pm til 6pm. We have been working on the city lot on Emile and our friend Joe has started an art project on the new lot. We have received a good amount of tropical seed from evergreenseed.com and are preparing to plant a great varierty of crops. Marcella has been working on a event to be held Saturday June 27th from 9am til 5pm at the Emile Street Community Farm with Houston's Hope and Prarie View A.M. We will be working with 100 Students from the Unversity. As more information is available we will post it on the web site and future newsletters. From Amanda Tullos of Living Paradigm CDC: We are focusing on building out the Urban Farm Belt in the 5th ward, so we'll be at the Emile farm all weekend starting at 830am on Saturday and 10am on Sunday. We have been staying there 'till 7pm. We have PayPal up on the web site and could use your help to purchase dirt, seed and everything else the farm needs to keep it moving. We are moving closer to having a tool storage area and workshop. We would like to build a deck on the buildings and have Yoga classes and a place to sit elevated above the garden to view. Community Farmer,
May 27 , 2009 On Saturday May 30, Rebel Roots, Houston's very own worker owned and operated food co-op will be holding their first spring urban farm party at the Last Organic Outpost's Emile St. Farm. Our main dishes will consist of Enchiladas, Ceviche, and Curry with Pasta Salad, Coleslaw, Spring Rolls, and Hummus as sides. Your choice of Melon Juice, Strawberry Lemonade, and Mint Water will be served to wash down all that delicious food. As for desert, you will have to decide between sweet, tangy Lemon Bars and smooth, cool Jell-O. Food will be served from 4-7 pm and plates will be $8 with options for seconds, and an A La Cart Menu. As always we prepare cruelty free vegan food and all proceeds aid us in our goal to establish a community space that provides cheap vegan food to all people. Please bring your friends and family to join us at this dazzling agricultural hot spot for a day of food, fun, and farming! See the map for directions on how to arrive at the Emile St. Farm, and if you have any questions/comments for Rebel Roots please contact us at HoustonFoodCoop@gmail.com. See you all there! We will be starting the work event Saturday morning around 8:30am and open house. Big thanks to Monica, Kerry, the Last Concert Cafe and Marcella for all the good help at the fundraiser last Friday night. Lots of good work has been put into clearing beds and planting hot weather crops. H.C. has been the main force behind the City lot expansion on Emile. Marcella has got the city water cleared and we hope to have water this weekend at the new Emile location. Thanks to Mark Bowen for all he is doing to bring everyone together and all the good folk at Urban Harvest. There will be a open discussion on preparedness this Saturday while working at the farm. The senario will be: the power grid collapses, there is no power, food or water. The discussion will be based around: What are we going to do? One last item of interest: Shelley, our Outpost beekeeper is doing a great job with the bees. If you are interested in helping with this project, contact Marcella at 713-444-0067. Thanks for supporting a local urban agriculture and please tell a friend. Community Farmer,
May 7 , 2009 Thanks to everyone helping out at the Emile farm the last couple of weeks. We're off to a slow start on the expansion due to tractor problem. This coming Saturday May 9th we are planning on having a work event/open house at the Emile Street Community Farm from 830am til around 7pm with a break for the Art Car parade. We will be top-dressing the existing beds and building new ones at the Emile Street Expansion. A load of mushroom compost cost about $500, a load of rice hulls is $770, the sand at last delivery is about $17 a yard. We have ordered 2 load of mushroom compost that hopefully will be deliveried by Friday. If you know anyone or any company that would like to donate to the inner city farm project by buying material to aid in the expansion please contact Marclla at 713 444 0067. We will have pay pal up soon on the web site www.lastorganicoutpost.com. This past week our good friend James gave us a weed eater and chainsaw. My family in Old River repaired the dump trailer. Gave it new tires, fixed the hydraulic lift, and repacked the bearings. To have the dump trailerback in service is huge. Also, thanks to Pia and her friend Ben we have a seed rack for starting plants at Live Oak. Ben donated his labor when building the seed rack. We now have a huge assortment of squash seeds that we have been assembling. We have been researching hot weather crops and hope soon to have a great selection with the expansion of new beds. Don't forget that Friday May 22nd we are having a benefit/Town hall meeting from 5 til 9pm at The Last Concert Cafe (1403 Nance) in support of the Urban Farm Belt Project. Please tell a friend. Today Marcella worked with the Open Door Mission planting and making beds. All their help is greatly apprieciated. Alma and Matt have been working on a Raze Maize project at the Buck Street Expansion, planting corn, beans and squash in mounds. We encourage work project where people work on ideas that they come up with. Everything works.
April 19 , 2009 Thanks for supporting a local food economy in the inner city. This past Friday we received the go ahead from the LARA Program to build out the City lot at 702 Emile. Thanks to Monroe for starting the big effort at Emile and fixing the tractor. The Farm-Raising will begin at 10am and go until dark Saturday April 25th, weather premitting. This will be a work event and open house for the Farm. Everyone is invited and please tell a friend. We have the material to begin the project and your generous donations would be appreciated. Shell Corporation will be at the farm on Friday for a work event. Thanks to Shell for all the effort. We will be having a Benefit/Town Hall meeting at Last Concert Cafe (1403 Nance)on May 22th from 4pm till 9pm. More details on this event posted shortly. On all work events please bring water and something to eat. Hats and gloves are good ideas, always. Contact Marcella at 713 444 0067 about tours and work events at the farm.
March 27 , 2009 Thanks for supporting the great effort to build a local food economy in Houston's inner city. Every Saturday from 10am til dark and weather premitting we will be expanding the Emile Street Community Farm toward Buck Street. We will be making new beds and planting the spring crops. This week has already been busy at the farm. We had a group of elementary school children from the Sunnyside Community Center visit on Wednesday afternoon and a parent and children's play group on Thursday am. More visits are scheduled for next week. This week Marcella will do the T'afia market and Corey will add a new market Saturday morning located in the East End next to Bohemeo's on Telephone at Lockwood, in addition to the Discovery Green on Sunday and the Rice Market on Tuesday. If would are interested in working any of the markets, please contact Marcella at 713-444-0067. Chicken Update: We plan to work at Live Oak this Sunday from 10:00 until 2:00 and then move to Emile. Bring a friend and come join us. Sunday morning's we have been planting fruit trees at Live Oak and have built up a orchard of about 76 trees so far. Bring a fruit tree Sunday morning to Live Oak, have coffee and let's continue the build out. Joe Nelson Icet, For school outings, events, and presentations contact:
February 24, 2009 The Emile Street Community Farm is having another work event and open house this weekend Saturday Feb. 28th from 10am til dark. The work event is every Saturday and is a workshop on building a inner city farm. These workshops are hands on classes getting the good job done. This weekend we will be building new beds in the Buck Street expansion. We could use lots of plants to kick off the spring planting. Donations of earthworm castings, epsom salts, molasses, mineral plus, and vegetable bedding plants of every type would greatly be appreciated. This week we received a load of compost and now have material to greatly increase the size Wednesday night from 7pm til 8pm we will be doing a presention on Urban Farming at Notsuoh downtown. Thanks to all the good help from Michelle and Gerry and there work crew gearing up for their wedding on March 20th. Thanks to Jim and his family for the compost that we used in building a new bed where the old okra was pulled up. This weekend we are hoping for a load of sawdust with Joseph's and Willie's good help. While it is a chore to unload the sawdust, it is worth the good effort. We have lots of greens and are doing the Tuesday market at Rice, T'afia on Saturday and Discvovery Green on Sunday. The farm is always open to pick greens on the weekend when we are there. We appreciate the support to continue the expansion and building out of a local international food crop to provide a local seasonal food source year round. The Urban Farm Belt in the 5th ward district is a huge effort to build out a local food security plan in Houston's inner city at a grass root level. Everyone is encouraged to help in this effort. We could use compost material of every size and shape. Nearly everything is compostable. With you participation we will add additional land to the farm and partner with everyone else to build out a local food economy.
February 18, 2009 The Houston Chronicle has done an article by Lisa Gray which is in the Thursday Lifestyle section. Check it out. This weekend we are having a work event at the Emile Street Community Farm and an Open House from 10 unitl dark. Please tell a friend and thanks for supporting a local food economy in Houston's inner city. We are presently working on the Buck Street expansion and hope to get more dirt soon to add to the existing 32 beds we already have growing. Across the street from the 711 Emile gate, there is a lot up for public auction March 2nd that we hope to farm in the near future. This lot is currently being used for dumping. Also at 4610 Gunter, there is a lot that has been cited by the city for high grass. We would like to take stewardship of these lots for creating a 5th Ward Farm Belt. On January 14th, Esteban and myself went before a public session with the mayor and city council. Check out the video of the public session (Joe appears from 14:00 to 28:40). See the Photo Gallery for photos of the major's recent visit to the Emile Street Community Farm. On the 3rd Wednesday of every month, we will be having a meeting to discuss to formation of the Urban Farm Belt, 5th Ward District. This is a growing effort between Urban Harvest, Recipe For Success, Central City Co-op, Texas Together, Pat Greer's Ya Ya Raw Foods, Ken Crimmin's Farmart Industries and the Last Organic Outpost.
February 11, 2009 Emile Street Community Farm is having another Saturday afternoon Dinner featuring the greens from the urban garden. The Dinner will begin around 2 and go till dark on Feb. 14. These dinners are to showcase the big effort we are putting out to build a local food economy in the inner city. Tell a friend and come by and see the inner city farm project. Thanks to Mayor Bill White and staff for coming out and supporting the effort to build a urban agriculture in the inner city. Pictures are up on the website thanks to Perri. Every Saturday from 10am till dark is a work event at the Emile Street Community Farm. We are hoping for a load of compost to continue the expansion to Buck Street. Also, Joseph is working on another load of sawdust that we hope to get soon. If you have been out to the Farm lately and seen the incredible beauty of the sawdust mulch, thank Joseph. I talked to Mark Bowen of Urban Harvest and others about a Farm Belt expanding around the Emile Farm on vacant lots. There are two lots directly across from Emile Farm that have been cited by the city for high grass. What I would like to do is take stewardship of the lots and expand the farm. Mark said that in other part of the country they are calling these areas Agricultural Districts.
We are having a meeting at the Emile Farm next Wednesday Feb. 18th at 4pm with Staff from - Recipe For Success, Mark of Urban Harvest, and Park and Recreation Urban Garden Project's Brett and Dee. This is the perfect time of the year to build out a farming project due to the cool weather. We have a window of opportunity from now till May. Corey and Patrick are doing the Farmers market at Rice University on Tuesday afternoon from 3:30 til 6:30 and Discovery Green Sunday from noon til 4pm. Emile Community Farm is open to the public whenever we are there. Thanks to all who continue to work with us at the Farm, and who spread the word about growing the vision of Houston as a city of plenty. For school visits, weddings, and tours, contact Marcella at 713-444-0067.
February 3, 2009 The Emile Street Community Farm is having a Winter Dinner Feb. 7th from 2pm till dark featuring all the food from the garden. Come and see the big effort going on at your farm in Houston's 5th ward. The Houston Chronicle will be present shooting photos for an upcoming article in the Lifestyle section on Sunday the 8th. update: Come and see what we are doing with the markets and our newest expansion effort. Corey and Patrick are doing the markets at Rice on Tuesday and Discovery Green on Sunday afternoon. We are working to create a market on Saturday afternoon at Emile with participation from the community. If you are interested in helping, please come by or contact Marcella at 713-444-0067. Feb. 14th we will have a Valentine's Dinner at the Farm again featuring the winter greens. Every Saturday is a work event starting at 10am. Please tell a friend about our upcoming events. All Outpost events are opportunities for individuals or organizations to set up and participate in a social forum. No need to call, just show up with a table at one of our events. Thanks for supporting urban argriculture in the Inner City. Joe Nelson Icet, Community Farmer
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Immediate Need - A "teaser" flyer to let people know about the event in general so they can mark it on their calendar. 