30 New Tiny Staff Members

Over the weekend we welcomed our newest little workers that should be trained up and ready to get to work by the summer. Our 10 year old neighbor Albrian helped us give them all names. So, with a little drumroll, help us welcome: Tia, Jai, Ciyonte, Jaylynn, Simone, Chantrice, Asia, Fercandy, Darnisha, Jasmine, Colette, Lajanae, Lajanique, Ariana #2, Grapefruit, Pina Colada, Yellow Dragon, Fruitcake, Ms. Cuddles, Blanch, Eileen, Kathy, Catrice, Crewmana Green, Michelle Pemberton, Marjiqua, Marquelle, Angel, Jeralyn, and Cherry. (all names are subject to change upon proof of prior pseudonym, gender change, and/or notice of copyright infringement)

Yellow Dragon Close-up

Awaiting Remodel of the New Home

Roosters Add Final Touches for Chicken Home Make-over

Welcome to Your New Home!

Enjoy Your Stay!!

Second Hoop House Goes Up!

Maximizing Space in Hoop House #1, 50sq feet of more room!

Larry and Nathaniel re-built the shelves so the plants can get as much sun as possible.

We also re-arranged the water barrels to make them aisles.

Hoop House #2/Patches process:

Bending the metal poles to fit the outline of Hoop House #2/Patches.

First Weeks of January Images

Here is a collection of images from what we have been working on this week!

Cabbage coming along nicely.

Rainbow Chard looking colorful.

Building a new soil sifter that proved to be very efficient.

Students from University of Montana visit for the week.

Derek and Jerimiah sifting soil

Carrots at St. Mary's where we have been working on some extra land given to us.

Meow-Mix!

Promo for "You Are God" with footage from OSBG!

You Are God - Promo from You Are God on Vimeo.

Holiday Holidays! A quick update on our progress

Whew! We made it through the fall filled with challenging but rewarding experiences for the afterschool folks, the Job1 and Cornerstone Ministries folks and our staff and interns. Finally, we are on break. Tis the night before Christmas and nothing is stirring except a few mice, the cats, the dogs, the chickens and us.
Here are some pictures of our progress and some more pictures of exciting things to come in the new year!

Our fall tomatoes are finally ripening up.

We have several varieties from yellow teardrops to celebrities.

And our hoophouse tomatoes are really taking off too! They seem to be growing about an inch a day. We hope to have tomatoes in year round production and available to market throughout 2012.

And seems like it never ends. We've already got about 2,000 starts seeded out of a total of 10,000 we will have ready for spring planting.

Our prickly pear love being in the hoophouse as do the green garlic in the background.

But one hoophouse isn't enough so we've started building another large hoophouse to replace our old ones. We are looking forward to an even better 2012 and wish you all the same!

some pics from this week

Allen unloading coffee grounds

Cherry and Angel cleaned up the neighborhood

Fresh puts the finishing touches on the fence

Lawrence giving direction

Jeremiah and Derrick doing sprouts

Tomatoes in the big hoophouse

Stringing up the tomatoes in the hoophouse

Keeping the hoophouse warm with compost

A Parting Gift

Hello All,
  My six month internship with Our School at Blair Grocery is coming to a close. Fortunately, I'll be taking all the skills, relationships, and knowledge I've built over the months with me as I head back to California. OSBG consistently does a terrific job at exposing young people to the realities of New Orleans and the opportunities presented by food security projects. I feel lucky to have had this opportunity and I look forward to working with OSBG in the future as I continue work in community food security and youth empowerment. As a parting gift, I've compiled a list of the articles, projects and videos that have stimulated my learning in these past months. I'll keep adding to them in the weeks to come, and you should feel free to do the same.
Simply click the link and explore the resources available.
Food Regime Resource Guide

Best wishes in your relationships and pursuits,
Rio
RioEScharf@gmail.com

P.S. this artwork is by Oakland activist and printmaker, Favianna Rodriguez. Check out more of her profound and poetic work at www.Favianna.com.