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Welcome to AUA's Spring Newsletter!
Dear friend,
Spring is here, and we have a lot to tell you about! In addition to reporting on a super productive Winter and early Spring filled with events and projects, we're also excited to share what's in store for AUA's most bountiful growing season yet.
In this edition of AUA's E-Newsletter you'll find:
Huge thanks to all of the wonderful Connections Working Group members and other volunteers for contributing to this e-newsletter!
Happy growing,
Billy Burdett
AUA Director
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AUA Spring Gathering: Promoting Cross-Cultural Pollination
Saturday, April 18, 12:30-3:30PM
Kilbourn Park Fieldhouse, 3501 N. Kilbourn Ave.
AUA is proud to host a showing of the documentary Tierralismo as part of the Good Earth Film Tour. Join us in welcoming award-winning filmmaker Alejandro Ramirez and Isis Salcines, co-founder of one of Cuba’s most successful organic farms, Organopónico Vivero Alamar. The film screening will be followed by a dynamic conversation between our Cuban guests and leaders of garden networks from across Chicago, including representatives from Enlace (Little Village), Garfield Park Garden Network, Greater Englewood Gardening Association, KAM Isaiah Israel (Hyde Park), North Lawndale Greening Committee, and Peterson Garden Project (North Side).
The day will be packed with other fun ways to connect with fellow supporters of urban agriculture:
- Community Slideshow: Show off your garden or farm to Chicago! Send 1-3 photos to info@auachicago.org by April 16th and prepare a 1-2 sentence explanation to share with the audience
- Volunteer: Be part of the team that makes the event possible. Please email us at program@auachicago.org if you can help out!
- Potluck: We will have a potluck lunch, so please bring an item to share.
- Tours: Join us on a guided tours of Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse & Garden.
The event is free and open to the public. If you are on Facebook, RSVP here for the latest updates. Invite your friends too!
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The Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project is LIVE!
Along with fellow project leaders from NeighborSpace and DePaul University's Steans Center, we at AUA are thrilled to announce that the Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project (CUAMP) is now publicly viewable and editable. Featuring an interactive map and directory with links to detailed profiles of everything from small residential gardens to commercial urban farms, CUAMP aims to provide the public with the clearest, most comprehensive picture of urban agriculture in the Chicago area to date.
 With this tool, consumers and food outlets can easily connect with producers in their area, families and individuals can find nearby community gardens and farm stands, and the information that is gathered through the project can be used to learn about and better advocate for Chicago’s growing urban agriculture movement.
IS YOUR GARDEN OR FARM ON THE MAP? You can search for it here, and view its profile by double clicking on the garden or farm name.
If it's not on the map, or the information listed for it is not accurate or complete*, we're counting on you to fix that! Adding or editing a growing site's profile is quick and easy; all you need to do is register here by providing your name and email address, click on "Add Growing Site" or "Edit Growing Site" on the directory/search page, and fill out a brief survey about your garden or farm.
In the coming months, we will be expanding the CUAMP questionnaire in order to collect more detailed information about each garden and farm in the Chicago area. By gathering data about employment, populations served, what is being grown, and much more, the potential benefits of this project are practically endless. Please keep an eye out for announcements about the expanded questionnaire!
To join the effort (we are always looking for help with IT/programming, ground truthing, and spreading the word), or if you encounter any problems using the site, please contact Billy Burdett at director@auachicago.org.
*Please note that even if your garden or farm's public profile shows accurate information, it may not be complete. The best way to make sure the profile is complete is by selecting it on the directory/search page (make sure you're registered and signed in first!) and clicking on "Edit Growing Site". This will enable you to fill out any blank fields in the survey.
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Project Profile: The Academy for Global Citizenship
By: Kathlee Freeman
The Academy for Global Citizenship (AGC), a charter school on Chicago’s southwest side, currently enrolls 400 students in kindergarten through 7th grade. Beginning in 2008, AGC has been designated as a National Green Ribbon School and a “Healthier US School” by the USDA for their creative approach to education.
What makes AGC so different? For one, on a visit to AGC you may run across Daisy, Rosie, and Bluebell, three egg-laying hens who call the school home. You will pass the mounted wind turbine, which provides students a chance to see this clean and renewable energy source up close, and a walk through the classrooms reveals vermicompost bins.
AGC believes that experiential education, like taking care of animals, is the best way for students to learn about the world around them. It is a key component of their mission to “develop mindful leaders who take action both now and in the future to positively impact their communities and the world beyond.”
AGC’s gardens are an opportunity to teach students responsibility, patience, and where their food comes from. AGC involves students throughout the entire process. They are responsible for cleaning chicken coops, collecting eggs, and making sure the hens are well-fed. This is meant to encourage empathy and an understanding of human-nature connections. In addition, every year, students, along with staff members and local farmers, map out a garden where students take part in the planting, maintaining, and harvesting. AGC also houses a native garden, where students can learn about native Illinois plants, and an “unplanted” garden box, where students can explore the soil by digging without the fear of damaging any plants. Due to Chicago’s relatively short growing season, AGC, with help from the community in the form of financial contributions and local labor, built a greenhouse to allow additional growing time.
Since the importance of sustainability is central to the education that young people receive at AGC, students are also responsible for separating waste for on-site compost bins and the recycling dumpster. Students learn about soil health, and the importance of recycling through this hands-on experience. The school’s rain barrels provide another chance to connect to local and global environmental issues, such as water conservation.
The approach seems to be working. AGC is outperforming district standardized state test scores by more than 5 percentage points and outperformed the nearest public school by 32 percentage points in reading, 37 percentage points in math and 19 percentage points in science.
AGC believes this model can be replicated. Their Sustainable Schools Handbook is available and has been used by schools around the world to learn how to implement the same types of strategies in their classrooms. If you are involved with a school make sure to check it out for some tips!
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The Sweet Smell of Compost
By: Susan Ask, director, animalia project
 The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has declared 2015 as the International Year of Soils. In its honor, AUA will be bringing you soil-related resources throughout the year. Check out this article about how to incorporate compost into your soil.
When the forsythia burst into bright yellow fireworks, I know it’s time to start gardening. Spring is a great time to start using compost in the garden.
Compost is an excellent soil amendment for building healthy soil. Anyone interested in healthy, economical, or do-it-yourself landscapes should explore the easy benefits of using compost. Compost will help replenish and rejuvenate the soil in your lawn and garden. Like commercial fertilizer, compost contains nutrients that feed the soil and help all of your plants, but compost has other benefits too.
Organic matter in compost helps the soil hold on to water, nutrients, and air – the building blocks of a healthy plant community. Worms and other good bugs thrive in compost, to the benefit of your garden. Microbes in the compost can also help suppress plant disease. In addition, compost improves soil condition, helping to loosen clay soil while helping sandy soil hold on to nutrients and water.
Compost also contains the three big soil nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – along with essential micronutrients. The nutrients are released slowly, unlike synthetic fertilizers which tend to be fast-release. Fast-release fertilizers can cause a quick green-up, but the nutrients aren’t available for long-term health. Fast-release fertilizers can cause significant water pollution when the nutrients wash away with rainwater and irrigation runoff. Compost has also a smaller carbon footprint than such synthetic fertilizers.
Whether you make it at home, or buy it in bags or bulk, here’s how to keep your soil in good shape with compost:
- On new garden beds and new turf: Dig or rototill in 1-3 inches of compost when you’re making new beds or planting new lawns on bare soil in the spring and fall.
- In garden beds: Add up to 3 inches of compost to your vegetable or flower garden before you plant new plants. You can also ‘side dress’ with compost by adding a bit of compost near existing plants that have been in the ground for a month or two. Some gardeners and professional landscapers recommend putting some compost in the freshly-dug holes when transplanting. There isn’t much research on the effect and some people are concerned that the roots won’t grow out of this crumbly-textured ‘teacup’. If you decide to use this technique, aim for a mix of 25% compost and 75% soil when you fill in the hole around your new plant.
- As mulch: Spread a layer of compost 1-3 inches thick around trees and shrubs. Don’t pile up the compost around the trunk; instead, spread the compost in an even layer to avoid creating a ‘volcano’ looking pile of compost. You can cover the compost with woodchips if you prefer the look of woodchips.
- On existing lawns: With a rake, spread a thin layer of compost (1/4 inch is good, but up to 1/2 inch is fine) onto grass to enhance nutrient supply, increase aeration and water holding capacity, and promote the development of beneficial soil organisms. It’s best to do this in the spring and fall. Ideally, this should be done after core aerating the lawn.
- For houseplants: Use a mix of 25% compost and 75% peat-free potting soil to help houseplants hold water, nutrients and air. Houseplants lead a tough life, being confined to a pot, so you’ll want to give them a boost with some compost or compost tea every year.
Give your garden and lawn a fresh start this spring with compost! Then, give the soil another compost treat in the fall, when plants are storing nutrients and preparing for another long Chicago winter.
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Help AUA Make a Difference!
Become a Member and Donate Today!
 Becoming a member of AUA is free and easy! Signing up shows us and the world that you support AUA's Mission & Vision, which gives our coalition greater influence as we advocate for good urban agriculture policy (read the articles below for some examples!).
Can't remember if you've already signed up as a member? Have new contact information? Play it safe and simply click here to fill out a few boxes – no need to worry about being counted twice! Remember, membership is separate from being subscribed to our Google Group or this E-Newsletter.
 While membership is free, sustained financial support for AUA’s work is essential, so please take a moment donate today. Whether it’s helping to fund website maintenance, printed materials, event costs, payroll expenses for AUA's staff, or a new Civic Engagement Coordinator position that AUA hopes to add soon, your donation will go a long way towards increasing AUA’s impact. And for evidence of all the great work we do, this newsletter is a pretty good place to start! Plus, donations of $30 or more come with some great benefits – click here to learn more! |
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Frosty Farms Photo Contest Winner!
Things are thawing in Chicago and we have a winner of the #AUAFrostyPhoto Contest. Congratulations to Michael Lintel who sent in the winning photo! The image features the contrast between summer and winter on his back porch garden.
Thank you to the Chicago Honey Co-op for donating the prize of 2 12-ounce jars of honey!
Follow us at @AUAChicago for our latest tweets!
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AUA at Local Food Lobby Day
The Illinois Stewardship Alliance (ISA) organized Local Food Lobby Day on March 25 to make sure the voice of the local food movement is heard in Springfield. One of AUA’s key areas of work is advocating for policy that ultimately supports urban agriculture, so we were enthusiastic about joining the effort.
Many of the local food policies currently being debated in Springfield are relevant in the Chicago area. Modernizing the law governing co-ops, increasing funds for matching SNAP dollars at farmers markets, protecting seed libraries, and loosening regulation on cottage food industries were all on the docket.
On Lobby Day, AUA staff and members joined concerned citizens from across the state to put democracy in action. We worked in teams to inform each state representative and senator in the legislature about local food issues as we scurried about the Capitol building to meet lawmakers in offices, hallways, and elevators. It was an empowering experience to be face-to-face with our decisionmakers and make our concerns heard. As a result of Local Food Day, 3-4 co-sponsors were added to bills concerning cottage foods, seed libraries, farmers market incentives for SNAP users, and co-op reforms. This is considered quite a success!
If you are inspired to be a champion for policies that support urban agriculture, there are a few steps you can take. First, mark your calendar for our next Advocacy Working Group meeting on April 21 from 5-6:30 PM at the Openlands conference room at 25 E. Washington, or contact Advocacy Co-Chair Martha Boyd at martha@learngrowconnect.org.
You can also help by contacting your State Representatives about these issues. Click here to find out who your rep is, then call or write in asking them to support HB2847 (Protecting Seed Libraries), HB 2486 (Cottage Food), and HB3830 (Co-op Refoms). |
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The Latest from the AUA Blog: No Weeds In Our Yards
By: Rachel Schipull
Weeds? Or native plants? Is the City's current "Weed Ordinance" too broad or are those enforcing it uninformed? It may be a combination of both. Click here to read the full article on the AUA blog.
Please see our blog guidelines and contact us at info@auachicago.org if you are interested in contributing an article.
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Good Food Festival Recap
We were very happy to have a large presence at March's Good Food Festival, reprising our role in coordinating micro workshops for the Good Food Commons, promoting our network and announcing a new Urban Farmer of the Year program for 2016 (more about this in the coming months) at the Opening Symposium, introducing Chicago's good food community to the Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project, co-organizing the Festival's first "Farm Hack Sharing Session", serving on the Policy Conference and Production Track committees, and handing out information at our exhibitor table. Huge thanks to all of the volunteers – you did a great job representing our ever-expanding coalition!
It  was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! Our DIY self-watering planter display, which included instructions for visitors to take home, was a big hit at our exhibitor booth. We also had the Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project website on display, and met a ton of lovely people from the Chicago area engaged in a wide range of exciting projects. We're delighted to count them as new AUA members.
 We were also especially pleased with how the Good Food Commons turned out this year. In previous years, the Commons' micro workshop stations were spread throughout the Festival's main hallway, which sometimes caused bottlenecks, but this year they had their own dedicated space, resulting in the most well-attended (and easy-to-navigate) Commons yet. In addition the 30 amazing micro workshops in growing, composting, and preserving that AUA organized, AUA Steering Committee Co-Chair and Chicago Chicken Enthusiasts leader Martha Boyd led the way in pulling together 10 excellent livestock micro workshops for the Raise Your Own station at the last minute. Huge thanks to her, and to all of the wonderful workshop presenters! And a special shoutout to the Chicago Botanic Garden's Windy City Harvest program, which provided 8 presenters for the Grow Your Own and Preserve It stations. See the full list of workshops and presenters here.
 A day before the Commons, AUA was engaged in many other Fest ival activities, including its first "Food Hack Sharing Session", which we co-organized with the Angelic Organics Learning Center ( AUA's fiscal sponsor), Upper Midwest CRAFT Farmer Alliance, The Land Connection, and the Central Illinois Sustainable Farming Network. In addition to featuring great farmer-made innovations such as an ultra-efficient vacuum seeder and a chicken tractor made of salvaged materials, the session invited attendees to ask questions and share their own ideas for DIY farming tool innovations. It was a very inspiring hour!
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Love at First Sight: The 3rd Annual Urban Livestock Expo
By: Christine Johnson
On Valentine's Day, over 180 Chicagoans gathered together to show their love for animals. Working in collaboration with Angelic Organics Learning Center and Chicagoland Chicken Enthusiasts, AUA invited urban livestock owners and urban livestock dreamers to come together so they could teach and learn how to have success with raising animals within the Windy City.
With the nostalgia of squeaky linoleum floors and metal lockers framing the scene at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, attendees gathered with notebooks in hand for a morning of rotating classroom sessions about the animate additions to farming: livestock. On this Valentine’s Day, instead of drawing hearts around their crushes’ names, participants drew hearts around the animal topics presented during the 20-minute classroom Q&A’s, including: honeybees and their history, herding goats in the city, the joys and qualms of ducks, quails and chickens, a native pollinator talk by a dad and daughter duo, raising rabbits, and many more.
In the main hall, familiar faces for urban ag enthusiasts greeted you with resources and information. Christy Webber Farm & Garden, Belmont Seed & Feed, Chicago Honey Co-op, Chicago Chicken Enthusiasts, and Home to Roost had representatives on hand to counsel attendees on where to get supplies and how to troubleshoot issues that may arise caring for livestock in the city. Thanks to Stivers Coffee, the tunes were pumping and everyone was kept well-caffeinated.
The event brought together local growers, new families, and students to mingle together with chickens, guinea pigs, and baby goats while contemplating the future of a shared existence in urban life. Advocates for Urban Agriculture thanks all who volunteered, attended and presented at the event, and we look forward to hearing about AUA members' new livestock endeavors!
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Working Group Updates
Resources Working Group
The last three months have mostly been dedicated to getting the Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project ready for its soft launch at the Good Food Festival (read more about it here), but the Resources Working Group has also continued its work on building AUA's Resource Guide and Blog.
AUA’s Urban Agriculture Resource Guide aims to consolidate Chicago’s urban agricultural tools and information into a logical user-friendly guide. We've been holding open work meetings at which participants take on one or more Resource Guide section (e.g. aquaponics, composting, crop plan templates) to coordinate. These stellar volunteers have been contacting experts in their respective fields and doing research of their own to collect and organize how-tos, videos, material source lists, links, and much more. If you enjoy researching or have extensive knowledge on a certain urban ag topic, we would love to have you join the fun! You can contact us ;at info@auachicago.org, or keep an eye out for the next work party on our Calendar and Google Group.
Our website's blog continues to accept contributions from AUA's membership and the broader urban ag community, and so far the response has been great! If you're interested in contributing, take a quick look at our blog guidelines and get in touch with us at info@auachicago.org.
Check AUA's Calendar and Google Group for upcoming Resources Working Group meetings (we'll be meeting soon to develop our annual work plan), and join the Resource Google Group if interested in joining the effort!
Connections Working Group
Just like the weather, things are really starting to warm up with the Connections Working Group! We organized a large chunk of the urban agriculture programming at the wonderful and amazing Good Food Festival, held March 19-21, 2015. Read all about it here. Also in March, AUA was able to participate at CCGA’s 3rd Annual Gathering. CCGA is a coalition devoted to promoting community gardens and gardeners in Chicago.
Currently, we are getting ready for our Spring Gathering: Promoting Cross-Cultural Connections. Please join us on April 18, 12:30pm, for this great event at Kilbourn Park Fieldhouse. More details here. Anyone interested in volunteering on behalf of AUA on April 18, please contact Jessica at program@auachicago.org.
We are also very excited about AUA’s summer fundraising event, which we began planning a few weeks ago. Keep an eye out for announcements in the coming weeks!
Looking forward, the Connections Working Group monthly meeting will be on April 15th (today!), 4-6pm, located at Free Range Office (2141 W North Ave). Please join us as we make progress in planning our summer event, and coordinate new events, such as urban garden tours, and participating at local farmers markets during summer 2015. Please join the Connections Google Group if you cannot make this meeting, but would still like to participate! Enjoy the sun, and hope to see you all at an upcoming event soon!
Advocacy Working Group
So much happening with Advocacy! For detailed updates on some of our work, see the weed ordinance, Local Food Lobby Day, and Urban Livestock Expo articles above. In addition to all of that...
To accompany our work to recommend language for a revised Weeds/Plantings ordinance, AUA’s Advocacy working group aims to promote ecological growing and reduce reliance on pesticides with Biodiversity Walks and Talks in urban gardens and farms. SAVE DATES for field days with expert interpreters of bug and plant interactions in several Chicago-area gardens and farms:
- Sunday, June 28 (shortly after National Pollinator Week)
- Saturday, August 22 (in honor of National Honeybee Day)
The April run-off elections ended with something resembling decisions in all wards of Chicago about who will lead them during the next aldermanic cycle. Several graduate students from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy are helping to launch the UA Ambassadors, a project to connect AUA members in each ward of the city as urban agriculture interpreters and advocates with their alderman and ward staff. If you want to help design the process and prepare others, and/or you would like to be the designated Ambassador/s in your wards, contact Martha Boyd or Hanna Kite. Advocacy continues to collaborate with the Mayor's office, the Illinois Environmental Council, the Chicago Food Policy Action Council, and others to reform the City's compost regulations. It will finally allow community gardens and urban farms to accept food scraps and other organic waste for composting from offsite. It will also make it less costly to establish and maintain local composting facilities. We'll have ordinance language to share soon, and hope to have enough time to get member feedback on it before it's introduced to City Council!
If you're interested in getting involved with the Advocacy Working Group, you are invited to join the discussion here. You are also encouraged to come to Advocacy Working Group meetings, which are generally held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month from 5 to 6:30pm (meetings are also always posted to AUA's calendar and Google Group). April's meeting will take place on Tuesday the 21st.
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