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	<title>Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good &#187; Sol Food Mobile Farm</title>
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		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 88-97: California</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/11/12/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-88-97-california/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/11/12/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-88-97-california/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bay Area]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Berkeley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[California]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Full Belly Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Golden Gate National Recreation Area]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grow a Greener World]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hoes Down Harvest Celebration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muir Woods]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pacific Ocean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PBS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Redwood National Park]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slide Ranch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tenderloin People's Garden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Urban Adamah]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=26387</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>It is truly exciting for the Sol Food Crew to finally be driving down the West Coast! We had been planning this trip for so long, and the West Coast felt so far away, but now we are finally here! In order to truly take in the Pacific Ocean and its rocky coast, we drove [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/11/12/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-88-97-california/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 88-97: California</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It is truly exciting for the Sol Food Crew to finally be driving down the West Coast! We had been planning this trip for so long, and the West Coast felt so far away, but now we are finally here! In order to truly take in the Pacific Ocean and its rocky coast, we drove down Route 1. The twisting road and craggy coastline made for a beautiful drive (with some nerve-wracking turns)! On our trip down to San Francisco, we stopped in Redwood National Park and hiked amongst the ancient redwood trees. The sheer magnitude of the redwoods completely blew us away.</p>
<div id="attachment_26391" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/11/12/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-88-97-california/eliza-walking-around-in-the-pacific-ocean/" rel="attachment wp-att-26391"><img class="size-full wp-image-26391" title="eliza walking around in the pacific ocean" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/eliza-walking-around-in-the-pacific-ocean.jpeg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Eliza at the Pacific Ocean</p></div>
<p>Our first farm visit in California was to <a href="http://www.slideranch.org/" target="_blank">Slide Ranch</a>. This ranch is a unique working farm in both its approach to education and in its physical setting. The ranch is perched on the coastal cliffs of the Pacific Ocean and shares borders with Muir Woods and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This location makes the farm part of the National Park system and provides the public with an open space to explore the ocean, forest and farmland ecosystems. While visiting Slide Ranch, we watched a chicken slaughter, milked goats, and prepped their garden for the winter.</p>
<p>That weekend, we drove to <a href="http://www.fullbellyfarm.com/" target="_blank">Full Belly Farm</a> for the “Hoes Down Harvest Celebration”. The festival hosted hundreds of people and was jam packed with activities. We brought the bus into the heart of the festival and volunteered on Saturday night at one of the many food tents. We enjoyed live music, farming workshops, great food and a night camping under the stars in the Full Belly Farm walnut grove.</p>
<p>After the festival, we drove into Berkley and explored the Bay Area. We all loved the San Francisco/Berkeley area! While in Berkeley, we visited <a href="http://urbanadamah.org/" target="_blank">Urban Adamah</a>, a Jewish farm. The UA farm sits on an acre of land and is busting at the seams with healthy produce! Rae, the farm manager, gave us a wonderful tour of their operation which includes raised pallet beds, a huge vermicomposting site, herb spirals, bees, a cobb oven, an outdoor kitchen and two large greenhouses. During our visit to Urban Adamah, we harvested boxes of tomatoes, collards, mustard greens, beans and squash. All of the harvested produce is given away for free to families who are in need. Urban Adamah is also partnered with an organization called Urban Worm. They are a large-scale vermicomposting business that sells worms and worm castings. We were lucky enough to receive a donation of 2,000 worms for our new worm bin.</p>
<div id="attachment_26389" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/11/12/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-88-97-california/urban-adamah/" rel="attachment wp-att-26389"><img class="size-full wp-image-26389" title="Urban Adamah" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Urban-Adamah.jpeg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Urban Adamah</p></div>
<p>On Saturday, we gave tours in downtown Berkeley’s Farmer’s Market. It was a beautiful day to be giving tours, and we all received surprise visits from old friends. Later in the week, the Sol Food crew worked in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco and helped out building new beds in the <a href="http://www.tndc.org/our-services/community-garden/" target="_blank">Tenderloin People’s Garden</a>. This was the most urban garden we have worked on, because it was literally in the middle of a bustling downtown center! The Tenderloin People’s Garden is a thriving farm that provides free produce for residents of the area.</p>
<div id="attachment_26390" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/11/12/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-88-97-california/new-vegetable-beds-at-the-tenderloin-district2/" rel="attachment wp-att-26390"><img class="size-full wp-image-26390" title="new vegetable beds at the tenderloin district2" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/new-vegetable-beds-at-the-tenderloin-district2.jpeg" alt="" width="500" height="373" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">New vegetable beds at the Tenderloin District</p></div>
<p>We all had a wonderful time in the Bay Area of California, and were sad to leave. Our final stop in California was in El Segundo. We stayed with Theresa Loe, our good friend and PBS producer from “<a href="http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/" target="_blank">Growing a Greener World</a>.&#8221; Through Theresa’s connections, we were able to visit every school in El Segundo! On our first day, we visited an Engineering and Environmental Science class at the local high school. Later that day, we gave tours to several middle school science classes. On our second day in El Segundo, we visited the Eeementary school and gave tours to the entire school! It was fantastic to talk to such bright and interested students. We received so many smart questions from all of the students we worked with. It was refreshing to be working in schools again, because we all love teaching kids. We had a wonderful time in El Segundo and were highly appreciative of Theresa’s hospitality.</p>
<div id="attachment_26392" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/11/12/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-88-97-california/a-school-group-in-el-segundo/" rel="attachment wp-att-26392"><img class="size-full wp-image-26392" title="a school group in El Segundo" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/a-school-group-in-El-Segundo.jpeg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">A school group in El Segundo</p></div>
<p>After months of driving west, we are finally driving back east. In the next week, we will be driving through the southwest, headed for Austin, TX!</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/11/12/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-88-97-california/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 88-97: California</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 61-80: Montana, Idaho, and Washington</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-61-80-montana-idaho-and-washington/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-61-80-montana-idaho-and-washington/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Sep 2012 11:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[For Kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bozeman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bozeman Food Co-op]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cascade Mountain Range]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deer Lodge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dunn Creek Campground]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Glacier National Park]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Growing a Greener World]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Idaho]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lettuce Links]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Montana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PBS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seattle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seattle Tilth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spokane]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yellowstone National Park]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=25989</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>The Sol Food Mobile Farm crew is half-way in their nationwide journey! Guess where they are now? Take a look at some of the organizations at which they have stopped across the U.S. here. Traveling Across the West After leaving Yellowstone National Park, our bus headed to Bozeman, Montana for a much needed restock.  We [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-61-80-montana-idaho-and-washington/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 61-80: Montana, Idaho, and Washington</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><em>The Sol Food Mobile Farm crew is half-way in their nationwide journey! Guess where they are now? Take a look at some of the organizations at which they have stopped across the U.S. <a href="http://www.solfoodmobilefarm.org/?page_id=224" target="_blank">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Traveling Across the West</strong></span></p>
<p>After leaving Yellowstone National Park, our bus headed to Bozeman, Montana for a much needed restock.  We had an awesome time in Yellowstone, but we were running low on waste vegetable oil, needed groceries, and were in dire need of an oil change. This week has been our first taste of cold weather on this trip, and so we have tried to do everything necessary to keep our vehicle running smoothly.  While we were in town we changed the 8 quarts of oil that is needed to make our bus get down the road.  Ellen led the way getting black and oily as three months worth of travel drained out of the oil pan in a black stream.  It was really exciting to cruise around with beautiful new oil and another 5,000 miles to go.</p>
<div id="attachment_25991" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25991" title="Ellen changing oil" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ellen-changing-oil.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="373" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Ellen changing oil</p></div>
<p>Before heading out of town we also stopped in (for the second visit) at the <a title="Community Co-op" href="https://www.bozo.coop/" target="_blank">Bozeman Food Co-op</a>.  It was by far the coolest co-op we have visited on this trip.  For anyone who finds themselves in the Bozeman area, it is worth a long, thorough visit.  Check it out it!</p>
<div id="attachment_25992" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25992" title="Bozeman Community Food Co-op" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Bozeman-Community-Food-Co-op.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Bozeman Community Food Co-op</p></div>
<p>We also met a wonderful family in the co-op who had operated waste vegetable oil vehicles in the past and were thrilled about our bus being in the area.  We were able to get some great tips from them on where to fill up grease nearby.  We took their suggestions to heart and later that day, found ourselves crouched in the parking lots of Taco Bell and Arby’s parking lots sucking up beautiful waste oil for our bus engine.</p>
<div id="attachment_25993" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-61-80-montana-idaho-and-washington/bus-hood-open/" rel="attachment wp-att-25993"><img class="size-full wp-image-25993" title="Bus Hood open" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Bus-Hood-open.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="373" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Bus Hood open</p></div>
<p>Now we are on the way north to meet Clay Bordley, Eliza’s dad, in Deer Lodge for another week of exploring.  We are so pumped to see Clay and spend some quality time as a group in Glacier National Park.  We are also excited to get another chunk of time to relax and enjoy our bus vacation time before jumping into farm visits in the Seattle area.  Until then, cheers!</p>
<div id="attachment_25997" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-61-80-montana-idaho-and-washington/1-5/" rel="attachment wp-att-25997"><img class="size-full wp-image-25997" title="Sol Food Mobile Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/1.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="492" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">The crew</p></div>
<p>********</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Glacier National Park</strong></span></p>
<p>Hello from Highway 90 in Washington State.  The Sol Food bus is currently in route from Spokane to Seattle; driving through the arid farmland east of the Cascade Mountain Range.  This, week we are celebrating the halfway point of our cross-country journey! Although we still have many weeks to go, we are excited to have made it as far as we have on waste vegetable oil and to have seen so many incredible urban agriculture projects.  As an added bonus we have spent the last two weeks in the Midwest area of the country visiting the Badlands, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.  We decided that on our two week journey from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Seattle, Washington we should try and squeeze in an informal “vacation” of sorts.  Our past week was spent in Glacier National Park in northern Montana around Lake McDonald.  Our week their was absolutely amazing, with beautiful mountain views, huge river crossings and lots of time hiking, biking and relaxing.  Check out some of our favorite shots!</p>
<div id="attachment_25994" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-61-80-montana-idaho-and-washington/an-tenwicgtb_qt0sq4mgsrirh7g9-5khzhm2_ymapy1-1024x764/" rel="attachment wp-att-25994"><img class="size-full wp-image-25994" title="Glacier National Park" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/AN-tEnWiCGTB_qt0SQ4mGsrirh7G9-5KHZHm2_YMaPY1-1024x764.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="373" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Glacier National Park</p></div>
<p>We even got to meet up with Eliza’s dad, Clay Bordley, who flew into Montana to meet up with the crew for a week.  We were lucky enough to spend some quality time with Clay, hiking, catching up on old times, hiking and of course going through the daily chores of bus life.  Clay even got to drive the Sol Food bus from Glacier National Park to Dunn Creek Campground in northern Idaho.  That night as we filled up water and cooked dinner we realized that the county we were in shared a border with Montana, Idaho and Canada!  It is a surreal moment when we realize how far we have traveled in only 3 short months.</p>
<div id="attachment_25995" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 410px"><a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-61-80-montana-idaho-and-washington/bji850bdv490zsxatqt_s2qpe6lymgi-k9lufh68vya/" rel="attachment wp-att-25995"><img class=" wp-image-25995 " title="Logan Pass" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/bjI850bDv490ZSXatQt_s2QpE6lYmgI-K9LuFh68vyA.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="535" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Logan Pass</p></div>
<p>For those who have never been to that area of the country before, it is worth the trip.  We drove past countless fruit farms, saw tons of wildlife (Mountain Goats, Bald Eagles, and Big Horned Sheep) and enjoyed incredible scenery all week.   Glacier is one of the most spectacular areas of the United States that we have ever experienced.</p>
<p>We are now heading into a week of garden work in the greater Seattle, WA area with a handful of different organizations. Some of our upcoming partners will be with <a href="http://www.solid-ground.org/programs/nutrition/lettuce/pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">Lettuce Links</a> and <a href="http://seattletilth.org/" target="_blank">Seattle Tilth</a>! We are also filming for the third time with the PBS television series “<a href="http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/" target="_blank">Growing a Greener World</a>.”  The TV show will be featuring our 2012 Sol Food Tour on an episode of theirs this December.  Our crew feels especially honored to be hosted by such a great show and to have gained some wonderful friends in the process.   The crew will be meeting us again this week to film sections of garden builds, expositions and shots of life on the bus.  Our last film day was in June when we first started our bus tour in Asheville, North Carolina.  After this coming week in Seattle, we will be spending five days in Portland, Oregon and then heading south to Eugene, OR and northern California.  We are looking forward to many more adventures to come so stay tuned!</p>
<div id="attachment_25996" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-61-80-montana-idaho-and-washington/gopr0589-1024x768/" rel="attachment wp-att-25996"><img class="size-full wp-image-25996" title="Sol Food Mobile Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/GOPR0589-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">The crew</p></div>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-61-80-montana-idaho-and-washington/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 61-80: Montana, Idaho, and Washington</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 56-60: Wisconsin, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/04/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-56-60-wisconsin-montana-south-dakota/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/04/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-56-60-wisconsin-montana-south-dakota/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[For Kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Badlands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Badlands National Park]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bozeman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Buffalo National Grasslands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chicago]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chris Allen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Duke University]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Glacier National Park]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Growing Power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Growing Power Headquarters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Illinois]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lake Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Local Food Symposium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[milwaukee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Montana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mount Rushmore National Monument]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shared Table Symposium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Dakota]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taco Bell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UNC-Chapel Hill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Windcaves National Park]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wisconsin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wyoming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yellowstone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yellowstone National Park]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=25836</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>The Sol Food bus has made it all the way from Illinois to Montana in the last two weeks!  We have been traveling hours every day in order to fit in as many great teaching and learning opportunities as we can on our way to our series of workshops on the west coast.  Currently we are parked [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/04/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-56-60-wisconsin-montana-south-dakota/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 56-60: Wisconsin, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Sol Food bus has made it all the way from Illinois to Montana in the last two weeks!  We have been traveling hours every day in order to fit in as many great teaching and learning opportunities as we can on our way to our series of workshops on the west coast.  Currently we are parked in Bozeman, Montana after spending a week in Yellowstone National Park, parks in South Dakota and the great city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  We have also had to make a fair amount of grease pick-ups recently from local restaurants.  Why grease pickups you may ask?  Since we travel so extensively in our mobile greenhouse, we try to operate as sustainably as possible, while still covering hundreds of miles each week between different farms and gardens.  To do this in a more environmentally friendly manner, we run our school bus engine on waste vegetable oil that we collect from restaurant grease traps.  Even though we have been traveling through smaller towns out west, we have found our fair share of waste oil at Taco Bells and other greasy spoons!  It has been a great practice in reuse for us and those we collect “waste” from routinely.</p>
<div id="attachment_25911" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 383px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25911" title="grease 2" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/grease-2.jpg" alt="" width="373" height="500" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Grease</p></div>
<p>Once we picked up a good amount of veggie oil, we were able to travel willingly without the need for large amounts of diesel fuel.  After leaving Chicago, we chugged northwest to Milwaukee, Illinois.  There, we visited the <a href="http://www.growingpower.org/headquarters.htm" target="_blank">Growing Power Headquarters</a>, an extensive vegetable farm in the downtown area. Will Allen, the founder and executive director of GP, was brought to our attention when he made a visit to Durham last winter to attend the <a href="http://sharedtablessymp.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Local Food Symposium</a> hosted at Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill.  Since attending his lecture at Duke, we have made it a point to visit his innovative operation in Milwaukee. We were not let down!  The Growing Power Headquarters is located in the heart of the city and has an array of enormous greenhouses, wind row composting fields and aquaponic systems. Will has worked tirelessly over the years to come up with unique and efficient systems for urban farming, wind-row composting, hoop house construction and large scale aquaponic systems.  Growing Power now operates urban farms across the United Seas and internationally. For anyone interested in intensive, small-scale farming in an urban setting, the Growing Power Headquarters offers educational tours everyday of the week and online resources.  For anyone interested in intensive growing within greenhouses or in aquaponics, Growing Power is a great place to get your feet wet.  We learned a ton on their tour and can’t wait to spread that knowledge along our route.</p>
<div id="attachment_25912" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 383px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25912" title="milwaukee" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/milwaukee.jpg" alt="" width="373" height="500" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Milwaukee</p></div>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After our weekend in Milwaukee we headed west to the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/badl/index.htm" target="_blank">Badlands National Park</a>, the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/wica/index.htm" target="_blank">Windcaves National Park</a>, and <a href="http://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm" target="_blank">Mount Rushmore National Monument</a>. We spent four days seeing the canyons of the Badlands, camping, touring the underground systems of the Wind Caves and climbing the bus to Mount Rushmore.  It was an incredibly scenic and eye-opening week of exploring areas of our country that we had never visited and getting a breath of fresh air outside of the city centers where we have spent so much time.  We then spent another five days in Yellowstone National Park seeing geysers, hot springs, rocky peaks and steep valleys that makes that area of Montana so famous.  We are now gearing up to visit Glacier National Park this week before we jump into another month of work along the west coast.</span></span></p>
<div id="attachment_25910" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 383px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25910" title="old faithful" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/old-faithful.jpg" alt="" width="373" height="500" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Old Faithful</p></div>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The Badlands is a rare stretch of rock formations found outside of Wall, South Dakota.  As you approach the park from Highway 90 you watch hundreds of miles of corn fields turn into lush hills of the Buffalo National Grasslands.  Shortly after the scenery change you are met with a sudden formation of orange and red rock jutting out of the surrounding plains in long, spiny cliff faces.  We spent three full days in the park, hiking through the canyons and enjoying some much needed fresh air.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">From the Badlands, we continued west into the Windcaves National Park.  The Windcaves is appropriately name given its elaborate underground cave system which can produce wind gusts up to seventy miles per hour.  We took an amazing cave tour which sent us over sixteen stories underground.  There we got to view unique “box work”, “popcorn” and “frosting” mineral formations only found in the Wind Caves National Park.  We wrapped up our visit to South Dakota with a white-knuckle drive up the steep slopes of Mount Rushmore to see the famous National Monument.</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p><img class="aligncenter  wp-image-25884" title="The Badlands South Dakota" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/IMG_0737-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="491" height="369" /></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Our next series of bus workshops and expos will be in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. There we will be volunteering with a variety of different community groups- assisting on urban gardens and farms and teaching nutrition lessons from the bus classroom.  Until then, cheers!</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/09/04/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-56-60-wisconsin-montana-south-dakota/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 56-60: Wisconsin, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 53-54: Illinois</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/30/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-53-54-illinois/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/30/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-53-54-illinois/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[For Kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Art Institute of Chicaog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chicago]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chicago Corner Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Illinois]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Logan Square Farmers Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ReBuilding Exchange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Bean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Christopher House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=25829</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Our Sol Food bus recently left the great city of Chicago, Illinois and we are now continuing our trek west across the Great Plains.  During our time in the Windy City, we met some wonderful new friends, saw amazing sites around the city and enjoyed great local food.  We want to especially thank the community members with [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/30/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-53-54-illinois/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 53-54: Illinois</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Our Sol Food bus recently left the great city of Chicago, Illinois and we are now continuing our trek west across the Great Plains.  During our time in the Windy City, we met some wonderful new friends, saw amazing sites around the city and enjoyed great local food.  We want to especially thank the community members with the <a href="http://altgeldsawyer.cornerfarmchicago.com/" target="_blank">Chicago Corner Farm</a> who gave us a place to call home for a week- baking us cookies, providing us with showers and food and showering us with hospitality.  We feel confident that we will make it back to the great people and gardens we grew to know in this special area.</span></p>
<div id="attachment_25831" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25831" title="The Bean in Millennium Park" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/The-Bean-in-Millinium-Park.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /><p class="wp-caption-text">The Bean in Millennium Park</p></div>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">During our time in Chicago, we parked the bus at the <a href="http://www.rebuildingexchange.org/" target="_blank">ReBuilding Exchange</a> on 2160 N. Ashland Avenue. The Exchange houses reclaimed building materials for aspiring carpenters, artists, gardeners and anyone else interested in reusing found materials for projects.  From there were we able to branch out around the city on bikes to explore the lake front, the Loop and other nearby neighborhoods. On our designated “day off” we ate lunch downtown, visited the Bean and saw some amazing art at the <a href="http://www.artic.edu/" target="_blank">Art Institute of Chicago</a>. Our schedule quickly filled up however and the rest of the week was spent in gardens, schools and markets around Logan Square.</span></p>
<div id="attachment_25830" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25830" title="Altgeld Sawyer Corner Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Altgeld-Sawyer-Corner-Farm.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Altgeld Sawyer Corner Farm</p></div>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Our two most visited garden sites were hosted by an organization called the Chicago Corner Farm.  This active group of community members was spearheaded by Brie and Margaret, two wonderful women living around the Corner Farm sites.  The two plots they manage with the neighborhood are on the corner of Altgeld and Sawyer Street and on the corner of Kimbell and Medill (thus the fitting name “Corner Farm”). We spent two days at each site helping to construct a fence, turn over new garden beds, plant veggie starts from our greenhouse and harvest produce for the local food pantry.  We also had the opportunity of providing Expos to the elementary school next door to the garden.  <a href="http://www.christopherhouse.org/" target="_blank">The Christopher House</a> children were able to join us on the bus for some fall planting, a “Parts of the Plant” activity and tours of the bus.  In total about forty kids came and worked with us on the bus and the local news station even came out to cover the afternoon. </span></p>
<div id="attachment_25834" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25834" title="Ellen working with students from the Christopher House" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Ellen-working-with-students-from-the-Christopher-House.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Ellen working with students from the Christopher House</p></div>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">We also spent time that week at the <a href="http://www.logansquarefarmersmarket.org/" target="_blank">Logan Square Farmers Market</a>. We were lucky to secure a good spot at a busy Saturday and had a flood of people on bus for tours all morning. We met extremely kind and knowledgeable community members who seemed very engaged in the local garden movement going on in Chicago.  We finished out that great week with a night at The Hideout music venue, where they have “veggie bingo” each week during the summer.  This particular evening was a fundraising night for the Chicago Corner Farm so we were able to say our goodbyes and thanks before leaving the next day.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Our next stop is Milwaukee, WI and then onto some site seeing through South Dakota before weaving our way to Seattle, Washington. Until then, thank you again to all of our family and friends who have supported us thus far and we are looking forward to this upcoming section of our route west!</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/30/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-53-54-illinois/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 53-54: Illinois</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 43-52: Michigan</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/22/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-43-52-michigan/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/22/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-43-52-michigan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:24:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[For Kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Detroit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Earthworks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Earthworks Urban Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food Justice Fridays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[More Food Community Garden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wayne State University]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=25802</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Hello from the Sol Food Bus! We have just completed garden work and outreach in the Detroit, Michigan area and have dubbed this week of travel as our favorite city stop thus far! It was an incredible five days filled with new friends, hard work and knowledge shared.  We are so grateful to everyone in [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/22/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-43-52-michigan/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 43-52: Michigan</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span>Hello from the Sol Food Bus! We have just completed garden work and outreach in the Detroit, Michigan area and have dubbed this week of travel as our favorite city stop thus far! It was an incredible five days filled with new friends, hard work and knowledge shared.  We are so grateful to everyone in Detroit who showed us amazing hospitality and we miss you all already as we travel down the road.</span></p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25804" title="Earthworks" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Photo-Aug-03-8-38-55-AM-1024x764.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="373" /></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Our bus rolled into Detroit to find its first stop at an urban farming organization called <a href="http://www.cskdetroit.org/EWG/" target="_blank">Earthworks</a> in southwest Detroit.  The stop consisted of working on one of many Earthworks urban farms and touring their neighborhood network of community gardens.  The Earthworks farm we worked with was linked with the local Food Pantry and was impressive on every level of production. Earthworks trains tons of community members each year through their rigorous nine month farmer training program and their two year long internship.  We spent the day with a wonderful group of community interns and farm students who showed us the ropes of their operation.  We toured their hoop houses, shifted compost, prepared new sections of soil and planted a round of early fall crops.  It was an awesome day spent with wonderful people!</span></p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25806" title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Summer-2012-549.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Following our time in southern Detroit, we moved into the center and northern corners of the city.  We met a huge community of local food advocates and policy makers at the monthly “<a href="http://detroitevolution.com/2012/04/food-justice-fridays-free-community-dinner/" target="_blank">Food Justice Fridays</a>” gathering that we attended early in the week.  The evening of food and speeches was hosted in a local community center near Wayne State University and gathered over sixty people.  The dinner was prepared by local food organizations in the neighborhood and was delicious from start to finish- with fresh hibiscus iced tea, homemade pesto and garden salad and watermelon for dessert!  It was a treat to be a part of such an inspiring community event and we hope to return to Detroit one day for that very reason.</span></p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25805" title="More Food Community Garden" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/DSC_0023.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The highlight of our experience in Detroit however was our garden work with the More Food Community Garden in northern Detroit.  Founded and maintained by Gene and Shela, two wonderful neighbors to the plot, the More Food Community Garden is a testament to what dedicated individuals can do with hard work and determination.  Upon our arrival it was clear to us immediately that this garden had a lot to offer- with fruit and veggies hanging heavy on their vines and direct summer sun shining across every beautiful row!  Gene and Shela have arranged with the city of Detroit to have the space dedicated as a community farm and they work tirelessly to keep it so.  We assisted during our time there with repairing their rain water collection system, laying drip tape and building signs and a farm stand table.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">With the collaboration of our team, Gene, Shela and Velma, a neighbor to the garden, we were able to accomplish a lot of work in only three days. The garden is now looking as sharp as ever and we are so blessed to have gained three new friends in the Detroit area from that wonderful week.  Now our travels take us further west into Ann Arbor, Michigan for a few days and then into Chicago for a week.  More updates to come!</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/22/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-43-52-michigan/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 43-52: Michigan</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 36-42: Vermont and New York</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/09/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-36-42-vermont-and-new-york/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/09/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-36-42-vermont-and-new-york/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:26:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[For Kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Adirondack Mountain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alexandria Bay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buffalo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Burlington]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Certificate in Sustainable Building and Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Detroit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Detroit Re-Use]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Durham]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Johnson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lake Champlain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Net+Positive]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Niagora Falls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saint Lawrence River]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scrap Exchange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sustainable Building and Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thousand Island District]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vermont]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Warren]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Willow Crossing Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yestermorrow Design/Build School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zoar Canyon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=25729</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Howdy from Highway 90 West as our bus chugs its way to Detroit, Michigan. We have had a wonderful week in Vermont and New York; visiting old friends and learning from some amazing farmers, artists and teacher along the way.  Our last update was from the beautiful state of Vermont where we spent time in [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/09/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-36-42-vermont-and-new-york/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 36-42: Vermont and New York</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_25735" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25735" title="zoar canyon" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/zoar-canyon.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Zoar Canyon</p></div>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Howdy from Highway 90 West as our bus chugs its way to Detroit, Michigan. We have had a wonderful week in Vermont and New York; visiting old friends and learning from some amazing farmers, artists and teacher along the way.  Our last update was from the beautiful state of Vermont where we spent time in the towns of Johnson, Warren and Burlington.  Hands down the highlight of our time there in the Green Mountain state was Reid’s practicum presentation at Willow Crossing Farm!</span></p>
<div id="attachment_25734" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25734" title="river canyon" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/river-canyon.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /><p class="wp-caption-text">River Canyon</p></div>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Over the last year Reid has been completing his certificate in Sustainable Building and Design from<a href="http://www.yestermorrow.org/" target="_blank"> Yestermorrow Design/Build School</a>. His experience and expertise has been a huge asset to our national tour and gardening program.  After five months of classes at Yestermorrow last year and nine months of work with the Sol Food bus, Reid was become <strong>one of only nine students to graduate with this degree from Yestermorrow</strong>.  Before departing for Burlington, VT our bus crew and over thirty visiting farmers, neighbors and professors were able to sit in on Reid’s project presentation.  The evening began with a beautiful dinner, tours of the Sol Food bus and a presentation of the bus design process in the Willow Crossing yurt.  Everyone was blown away by Reid’s work and we made some great friends and connection through the process! Keith Morris, the owner of the farm and the founder of Prospect Rock Permaculture was both a wonderful host and an amazing mentor to us all. Many thanks to Keith and his family for their generosity and donations!</span></span></p>
<div id="attachment_25730" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 342px"><img class=" wp-image-25730" title="yestermorrow" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/yestermorrow.jpg" alt="" width="332" height="501" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Reid&#8217;s presentation at Yestermorrow</p></div>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">At the end of that week we made our way west across the state and into Burlington, VT.  For those who have never visited this amazing city, it is worth the visit!  Upon arrival in downtown you are greeted with the view of beautiful Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountain range of northeastern New York.  There is a great lake front park, wonderful restraints serving local foods and a huge array of farms in the Intervale district downtown.  We unfortunately missed the Burlington farmers market by two days but we met some great food advocates and got in a day of exploring in the city.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Our next stop was in Alexandria Bay, New York right on the Canadian line.  There we visited our friend Richard Bell, from Durham, and stayed with his family on an island in the Saint Lawrence River.  Our three days in the Thousand Island District was our first vacation in six weeks of life and work on the road.  We were able to enjoy hot showers, home-cooked meals and real beds for the first time in quite awhile.  It gave us all the energy we needed as we continued south to Buffalo, NY.</span></p>
<p><img class="aligncenter  wp-image-25733" title="Alexandria Bay, NY" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alexandria-Bay-NY1.bmp" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Buffalo, we got the chance to tour <a href="http://thefoundrybuffalo.org/" target="_blank">The Foundry</a> and visit an amazing urban homestead.  The Foundry is much like the <a href="http://www.scrapexchange.org/" target="_blank">Scrap Exchange</a> in Durham with its intense focus on creativity using recycled and found materials (hence its name).  The Foundry is located in a densely populated area in central Buffalo and is located in a large warehouse.  The warehouse is now being converted into classroom and studio space for local artisans and community members.  Inside you can find lumber and reclaimed materials stacked ceiling high.  There are workshop rooms filled with communal carpentry equipment, a theatre space, rooms for local craft design and a roof top growing hops for home brewing.  Next door is there newly developed community garden using everything from old tires to bike spokes to support their flourishing summer vegetables.  One the adjacent lot is a homestead owned by friend Andrea and Megan that offers community workshops in sustainable home renovations, backyard gardening, cob oven building, composting and other funky projects.  </span></span></p>
<div id="attachment_25731" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25731" title="niagra" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/niagra.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="297" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Niagara Falls</p></div>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The whole space is truly inspiring and our hats are off to Andrea, Megan, Michael and all the folks with Detroit Re-Use and Net+Positive for their hard work and ingenuity.  Our final stops before this day of travel was to Detroit were to the Zoar Canyon and Niagara Falls in northern New York. two incredible places of natural wonder! Our trip so far has been so filled with adventure and wonderful that we can only expect that and more from our upcoming time in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Chicago.  </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Until next time, cheers from the Sol Food bus crew!</span></p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/08/09/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-36-42-vermont-and-new-york/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 36-42: Vermont and New York</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 25-35: New England</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/26/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-25-35-new-england/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/26/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-25-35-new-england/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jul 2012 11:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[For Kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barbara Damrosch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Belfast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Burlington]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Connecticut]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eliot Coleman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Four Season Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Green Mountain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Harborside]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Johnson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Maine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Moose Creek]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Hampshire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Haven]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Jersey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prospect Rock Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sustainable Food Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trenton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vermont]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Warren]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Watertown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yale University]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yestermorrow Design Build School]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=25593</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Greetings from New England!  Here on the Sol Food bus, we are enjoying beautiful, cool northern weather as we travel between farms and discover new areas of our country.  Since we left our garden build in Philadelphia we have spent time in Trenton, NJ; New Haven, CT; Belfast and Harborside, ME; Moose Creek, NH; Johnson [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/26/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-25-35-new-england/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 25-35: New England</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Greetings from New England!  Here on the Sol Food bus, we are enjoying beautiful, cool northern weather as we travel between farms and discover new areas of our country.  Since we left our garden build in Philadelphia we have spent time in Trenton, NJ; New Haven, CT; Belfast and Harborside, ME; Moose Creek, NH; Johnson and Warren, VT. Traveling in the bus has been wonderful but slow as we chug up mountain roads in our huge mobile greenhouse.  We have learned so much from all of the farmers we have meet here in New England, and we hope to bring that fresh knowledge to our garden we work with in Detroit and Chicago.  We have also been busy planning out our farmers market visits in Cleveland and Buffalo for the next leg of our trip.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25596" title="Sol Food Mobile Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/NE2.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></p>
<p>Huge highlights for us in this area of the country has been visiting the Yale University student farm (part of their <a href="http://www.yale.edu/sustainablefood/" target="_blank">Sustainable Food Project</a>) in New Haven, Connecticut and visiting the <a href="http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/" target="_blank">Four Season Farm</a> in Harborside, Maine.  We later learned that these two farms are distantly connected through a man name Eliot Coleman who is a farming hero for us, along with his wife Barbara Damrosch (author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Primer-Barbara-Damrosch/dp/0894803166" target="_blank">The Garden Primer</a>), who run the Four Season Farm and helped design the plans for the Yale Farm almost a decade ago.  Both farms are incredible and we met wonderful farmers and interns at both locations.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25597" title="Sol Food Mobile Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/NE3.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></p>
<p>Our time at the Four Season farm was a beautiful one!  We rolled into Harborside, Maine late one afternoon and enjoyed the land so much that we stayed until the following afternoon. Eliot and Barbara are both famous for their innovative farming methods and farming publications. We spent time there touring the farm, weeding flower beds with the interns and eating delicious meals thanks to all of the donated fresh vegetables we received.  We also enjoyed bike rides around the coast of the island and swims in the nearby coves.  Many thanks to the hospitality and knowledge shares we received at Four Season Farm!  We hope to return one day soon.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25598" title="Sol Food Mobile Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/NE.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></p>
<p>Now we are weaving the bus around Mount Washington and through the valleys of the Green Mountain range of Vermont.  We have spent time at <a href="http://prospectrockpermaculture.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Prospect Rock Farm</a> in Johnson, VT and are currently visiting the <a href="http://www.yestermorrow.org/" target="_blank">Yestermorrow Design Build School</a> here in Warren.  Our next stop will be at a farmers market in Burlington and then onto Watertown, New York.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/26/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-25-35-new-england/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 25-35: New England</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 18-25: Pennsylvania</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-18-25-pennsylvania/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-18-25-pennsylvania/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[For Kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Green Grows]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Green Grows Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kensington]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Little Berlin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pennsylvania]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philadelphia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Viking Mill]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=25586</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Here at Sol Food Mobile Farm, we have just completed our last major garden build on the east coast in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! Our next garden build will be in Chicago.  For our five days in Philly, our bus was parked on an empty lot in the neighborhood of Kensington (2009 East York Street to be [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-18-25-pennsylvania/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 18-25: Pennsylvania</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25590" title="Sol Food Mobile Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/philly-garden-4.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></p>
<p>Here at Sol Food Mobile Farm, we have just completed our last major garden build on the east coast in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! Our next garden build will be in Chicago.  For our five days in Philly, our bus was parked on an empty lot in the neighborhood of Kensington (2009 East York Street to be exact) in north Philly.  The area was a densely populated few blocks of row houses and a large building across the street known as <a href="http://www.vikingmill.com/" target="_blank">Viking Mill</a>.  The Mill has been spruced up and fixed over the years to house the Little Berlin Art Collective community, a now hip area for local artists in the area.  <a href="http://littleberlin.org/" target="_blank">Little Berlin</a> has developed an ambitious two year site plan for the abandon lot across the street, known locally as the “Fairgrounds”, and we were lucky enough to be a small kickstarter on this project.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25588" title="Sol Food Mobile Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Philly-garden.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /><br />
Throughout the week, the weather managed to cooperate, although summer temperatures we still high and we were able to get a lot done in just a short amount of time.  With the help of artists from Little Berlin and tons of helpful neighbors from the area we raised eight garden beds in only four days, along with a hand built park bench and a rainwater collection structure.  Angela, the site director was able to acquire three large rain barrels from the city and our team built a raised platform to house them.  The structure was completed with a<br />
pitched roof to allow the rain barrels to gravity feed the garden with hoses and to collect water from the gutters.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25587" title="Sol Food Mobile Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Philly-garden-2.jpg" alt="" width="498" height="332" /><br />
The garden beds were each constructed out of lumber donated from Little Berlin that had been previously used on a play set for “Charlotte’s Web”.  The wood was a beautiful, rough hewn Poplar wood and it made the perfect raised beds, each measuring eight feet long by four feet wide.  Every bed was painted, mulch was placed around the garden perimeter and a huge herb spiral was constructed in the center of the radial bed design.</p>
<p>The kids from the neighborhood were a huge help in the garden all week long and we could not have done the project without them!  We finished off the week’s workshop by sharing Zomppa curriculum points about different culinary herbs and visiting a local urban farm called “<a href="http://www.greensgrow.org/farm/index.php" target="_blank">Green Grows</a>.”  There the kids got to pick out herbs and flowers for their new garden and see, in person, the possibilities of a well established urban garden.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25589" title="Sol Food Mobile Farm" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/philly-garden-3.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /><br />
Thank you to all of the wonderful friends and families that we met in Kensington and a special “cheers” to Angela and all of the artists at Little Berlin.  Now we are off to New England to tour some wonderful farms and hopefully eat some local seafood!</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/24/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-18-25-pennsylvania/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 18-25: Pennsylvania</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 16-17: Maryland</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/11/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-16-17-maryland/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/11/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-16-17-maryland/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[For Kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exeter Garden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jewish Museum of Maryland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kayam Farms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Visionary Art Museum]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=25387</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Cheers from the bus crew! We are here in Baltimore finishing up a great week of work here in the city. For the past six days, we have been introduced to the community at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, have volunteered at Kayam Farms, visited the Visionary Art Museum, and helped develop a local community [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/11/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-16-17-maryland/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 16-17: Maryland</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Cheers from the bus crew! We are here in Baltimore finishing up a great week of work here in the city. For the past six days, we have been introduced to the community at the <a href="http://www.jhsm.org/" target="_blank">Jewish Museum of Maryland</a>, have volunteered at <a href="http://www.kayamfarm.org/" target="_blank">Kayam Farms</a>, visited the <a href="http://www.avam.org/" target="_blank">Visionary Art Museum</a>, and helped develop a local community garden. Specifically over the last few days we have spent time getting to know Hasdai and Leighann, the garden directors and visionaries for Exeter Gardens. They are wonderful people, and we were lucky enough to be involved in such a cool and innovative urban garden site.</p>
<div id="attachment_25412" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25412" title="Kayam gathering" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Kayam-gathering.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Kayam gathering</p></div>
<p><a href="http://exetergardens.net/about/" target="_blank">Exeter Garden</a> is located in a densely populated neighborhood on Exeter Street near the Inner Harbor and Little Italy areas of downtown Baltimore. The site is accessible to a variety of surrounding neighborhoods and community members. Throughout our work at Exeter Gardens, we were able to work with local teens from the neighborhood and brainstorm with them to create both a funky art space and a fruitful vegetable garden. Throughout our workday, we painted a mural on the sidewalks of the site, we built raised garden beds out of recycled palettes and we transplanted vegetable starts from our bus garden. It has been a rewarding and fulfilling last few days and we are sad to be leaving the<br />
Baltimore area this weekend. On Sunday, July 8, we are off to Philadelphia for another week of urban garden builds. Stay tuned!</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25413" title="cutting" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/cutting.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/11/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-16-17-maryland/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 16-17: Maryland</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 11-15: Maryland</title>
		<link>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/10/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-11-15-maryland/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/10/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-11-15-maryland/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:00:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sol Food</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[For Kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kids & Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sol Food Mobile Farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Baltimore]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exeter Garden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jewish Museum of Maryland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kayam Farms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Maryland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pearlstone Retreat Center]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Visionary Art Museum]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zomppa.com/?p=25385</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Greetings from Baltimore, MD! Summer weather is in full tilt here and we are having a great (and extremely hot) trip so far. We have met wonderful people, had incredible food, seen inspiring agriculture projects and gotten our hands dirty in the garden all week. So far during our tour we have traveled from the [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/10/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-11-15-maryland/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 11-15: Maryland</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Greetings from Baltimore, MD! Summer weather is in full tilt here and we are having a great (and extremely hot) trip so far. We have met wonderful people, had incredible food, seen inspiring agriculture projects and gotten our hands dirty in the garden all week. So far during our tour we have traveled from the fertile valleys of western North Carolina (Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Long Branch and the Green River Preserve) to the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia to the sunny harbors of the Mid-Atlantic. Here in Baltimore we have worked with the <a href="http://www.jhsm.org/" target="_blank">Jewish Museum of Maryland</a> and <a href="http://www.kayamfarm.org/" target="_blank">Kayam Farms</a> so far. It has been an awesome week here in the city and we are looking forward to a few more days here in the Inner Harbor.</p>
<div id="attachment_25410" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px"><img class="size-full wp-image-25410" title="Kayam Greenhouse" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Kayam-Greenhouse.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Kayam Greenhouse</p></div>
<p>For the past few days, we have worked out of a “home base”, where we have parked the bus each day and become connected with the surrounding neighborhood. This “home base” for us has been The Jewish Museum of Maryland (on the corner of Watson and Lloyd Street, near the Inner Harbor and Little Italy). The first night of our stay the Museum invited us to a “meet and greet” event, to both welcome us into the neighborhood and also as part of their celebration of Shabat (the end of the Jewish Sabbath day). A large group gathered that evening for songs and food, followed by a proper southern “Hodown” or musical jam session of banjo, harmonica and guitar music. The tunes were accompanied by multiple friends and neighbors playing spoons, pots, pans, jars and plastic cups! The whole evening made us feel right at home at the Museum and Synagogue. It was a blast!</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-25409" title="hopscotch" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/hopsctoch.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></p>
<p>The following day was also packed with new faces and experiences. The museum hosted a “Community Day” event for us that allowed for both a bus Expo and a tour of the historic Synagogue complex next door. The whole day rooted us in the community and history of the surrounding city blocks. We met tons of local residents during our bus tours and everyone was really excited about our projects in town. Talks were given by our crew about: vermacomposting (the process of composting with worms), alternative fuels, designing home gardens and planting in greenhouse environments. This week alone we have been able to harvest tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs from our bus greenhouse! It was great to have those tangible products of growth to show off at our event. Inside the museum that day we also helped with a butter-making workshop and a jam-making workshop (using fresh<br />
strawberries and blueberries). It was a great day of both growing and eating!</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter  wp-image-25408" title="Exeter garden sign" src="http://www.zomppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Exeter-garden-sign.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="328" /></p>
<p>Following the Community Day on Sunday, we had an entire week to look forward to of meeting neighbors, working in the garden and sprucing up the bus. At the beginning of this week we explored the city and located building materials for the <a href="http://exetergardens.net/about/" target="_blank">Exeter Garden</a> site in our neighborhood. We were also able to visit the <a href="http://www.avam.org/" target="_blank">Visionary Art Museum</a> along the Baltimore Harbor. The Visionary hosts exhibits of contemporary artists who use recycled, reclaimed and found objects in a variety of their pieces. It was an inspiring visit and gave us a lot of great ideas for future outdoor designs. Later in the week, we spent a full day at Kayam Farm at the <a href="http://www.pearlstonecenter.org/" target="_blank">Pearlstone Retreat Center</a>. The plot is a five acre teaching farm at the north end of Baltimore County.</p>
<p>As a Jewish farm, interns and staff members alike spend time during the day farming and studying Jewish farming methods, based in the Torah. It was an eye opening experience for our crew to see agriculture through a new historical lens- one based in both sustainability and religious heritage. As a fully organic farm, Kayam has a lot to offer and even more to teach! We spent the morning weeding and harvesting spring veggies and spent the afternoon touring visitors thought the bus. The Kayam Farm folks were gracious enough to teach us how to grind our own wheat flour, how to organically control a variety of pests and bless us with bags of freshly picked veggies and herbs for our own kitchen.</p>
<p>We hope to stay in touch with many of the friends we have made here in the Jewish community of Baltimore.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.zomppa.com/2012/07/10/sol-food-mobile-farm-days-11-15-maryland/">Sol Food Mobile Farm Days 11-15: Maryland</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.zomppa.com">Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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