Come Visit US

ReTreeUS is happy to join Wolfe's Neck Farm in inviting you to their Fall Festival this Saturday, October 13th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Join ReTreeUS co-founder Richard Hodges at Wolfe's Neck for many fall festivities, including fun at the ReTreeUS booth!

Co-founder Richard Hodges shows off native plum tree saplings last spring.

 
Stay tuned for more details, but we will likely have seed-planting, tree grafting, and more hands-on fun with trees and plants. Hope to see you there!

Happy Apple Trees

In preparation for the colder months, in appreciation of our sponsors (especially Coast of Maine, FedCo and Adams County Nursery, and in honor of Johnny Appleseed's birthday yesterday...I gave our nursery some extra love today.

Our apples, cherries, peaches and plums were happy this summer to be weeded by my brother, who was here for our wedding and meanwhile earned the title of a legendary, extraordinary, ReTreeUS volunteer. He opened up extra space and made sure the trees were receiving adequate sun and water.

Today, I cleared more clover from the trees he didn't have time to weed, added compost to those he had weeded, and put up more fabric to deter deer from hopping over our nursery fence. (Challenges like fencing seem more and more worth the risk for hungry deer in the winter months, and I suspect that time will be here before we know it.)

You'll see the fabric on our deer fence in the background of this photo from our wedding day.

The fabric surrounding our nursery provides a creative and chemical-free warning to deer who might not otherwise notice that the height of our fence is (just barely) too high for them to jump over. Which helps us out because saplings are a fawn's favorite treat.

We have sort of taken a Johnny Appleseed approach to the deer problem by planting hundreds of trees outside our fence. Hopefully, the deer will have enough crab apples outside the nursery that they won't be tempted by our larger, grafted trees inside.


It is appropriate, on this celebration of good old Johnny's birthday, that FedCo and Adams County Nursery have renewed their support for ReTreeUS by donating more large and healthy fruit trees to be planted in this year's orchards. Many thanks to those loyal businesses, as well as our new sponsor: Coast of Maine! Not only do we have plenty of trees for the school year, but we also now have more quality, organic compost to give last year's trees a boost.

In addition, BuildASign.com has sent off our educational signage, which we plan to install in last year's participating schools this fall.

We look forward to visiting those 1,000 students who helped us plants trees at their schools last year, and to meeting 1,000 more students this school year! We couldn't do it without our sponsors, our donors, our volunteers...which includes many of you who read our blog! Thank you for your support, and for helping us grow a healthier planet.

Fallready?

For those of us working and volunteering with ReTreeUS, the brightly colored trees and cooler temperatures of autumn really came by surprise. Is it that time already?

Turns out, it really is!

...Time for visiting our four school orchards from last year, and installing our signs which will not only thank those who donated to our Kickstarter campaign, but will also teach students about some of most the basic reasons we plant fruit trees at all.

Here are a couple of designs we plan to use for one sign, which will be personalized for each participating school, acknowledging students, staff and special sponsors, etc. in the space provided:

Thanks to our sign sponsor, BuildASign.com, and Kickstarter donors, we will also install information about the history of apples in Maine (where all our schools are located at this time), pollination, and discerning a wormy or diseased apple, for example, from a few harmless spots.

Daniel Feller, whose blog can be found at www.takingontheyear.blogspot.com, constructed benches for each school where students can sit and observe or enjoy the serenity of the space they helped create.

Meanwhile, four new schools are on board to receive orchards this school year, and many more are on the wait list for future years! We are thankful (but not surprised) that many schools see the value of producing food locally and educating their students about environmental values.

With the support of our scholastic partners, volunteers, sponsors and members, ReTreeUS is fallready to dive into a second exciting school year!

Fruit Shack, Baby

This summer was a whirlwind of harvests, floral bursts and celebrations! With the invaluable help of our intern, Shelley Hodges, as well as other friends, volunteers, and family, ReTreeUS co-founders sold dozens of sunflower bouquets from our Fruit Shack, nurtured 1,000 fruit trees throughout the summer, and finished the season with a wedding on the ReTreeUS farm!

Our ReTreeUS farm stand sign, handcrafted by friend and volunteer Daniel Feller. 

Our Fruit Shack farm stand represents our mission to create greater access to locally-grown, chemical-free produce to families of all income-levels. This is just one project of ReTreeUS, which also installs educational orchards and leads educational programming in schools.

Now, we begin the new school year and look forward to fall with a new set of schools on the docket to receive educational orchards, and a plan for enhancing our existing school orchards and programs.

Co-founder Richard Hodges waters kale and amaranth.

Co-founder Moriah Salter brings in a bundle of sunflowers to sell for donations and revenue at our farm stand in Durham, Maine.

If you or someone you know is interested in receiving an educational orchard at a New England school, visit www.retreeus.org to apply for our 2013-14 roster. (We have already filled all available slots for 2012-13!) Many thanks to our sponsors for making these orchards and programs possible.

The Wisdom of Weeds

Weeding the garden bed is one of the best things I do for myself--inside and out. Our intern, Shelley, has been doing most of this lately, but when I get to do it, I am always reminded of the wisdom I've learned from earth and its communities (even the weeds). You know, things like the importance of focusing on a task to keep our monkey minds quiet.

Co-founder Moriah Salter helps as intern Shelley Hodges completes her strawberry project.

Or the fact that weeds you want (we call those fruits and vegetables) are often the easiest ones to pull out of the ground. The roots of those vigorous grasses and vines you don't want are often the hardest to extract. (That is, of course, why they're so vigorous.) Isn't it that way with our issues sometimes? We often work hard to get rid of our problems, but the really vigorous ones--the hardest lessons and those we need to learn most--keep coming back over and over until we really find the roots.

In addition, it seems the more we weed, the more we realize what else needs to be weeded. This is kind of like life. At least in my case, it seems the more I look to see what challenges I need to face, or am facing, the more I notice other ways to improve myself as well. Of course, this could be overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. Weeding our garden beds--and our minds--is like opening everything up to get a clearer picture of what needs to be done. And the good stuff we leave growing, well, it grows taller and more vibrantly than ever before.

Kale and amaranth at the ReTreeUS farm.

During this summer of closing out a year of grants, writing new grants for next year, working numerous jobs and preparing for our wedding, I have decided that we wouldn't have been able to see much of anything but weeds without our intern, Shelley.

But the weeds have wisdom, and so do the creeks and the sky, that reminds me to take it all in stride. We had such an immensely successful first year of educational programming, orchard installation, planting 1,000 trees, and reaching thousands of families...that waiting until fall to open our farm stand is okay.

Our first sunflowers of the season.

The sunflowers and the kale will be ready...when we are. They are growing beautifully and will be ready in September, when we plan to open our farm stand and make last preparations for our 2012-2013 participating schools. On the queue so far are Wiscasset Middle School, Brownfield/Denmark School, and others in the Durham and Portland areas who are still in the process of completing applications. 

We have loved watching our support grow along with our fields! We are excited to be hearing already from new schools interested in receiving orchards in 2013-2014. And we are happy to welcome new members to the ReTreeUS team and to our green house campaign. Through www.crowdrise.org/retreeus, we have already raised 13 percent of our goal to install a green house and provide kale and other highly nutritious foods to families throughout the winter.

Thank you for supporting communities, good nutrition, ecologically-friendly farming, education and  a greater connection to the earth! Join us here.

*For more information on the many benefits of plants, visit www.weedsofwisdom.com.

Smelling the Goodness

It was about a month ago that I sprained my ankle--just as we were gearing up for summer growing, planting final grape vines and trees at our orchards, and opening our farm stand. I spent a little time wondering why that had to happen to me, right now.

But before long, it became clear that it's much easier to enjoy the beauty around me and all the goodness of our farm and nursery...when I'm moving at a very slow pace. I am able to step out of my usual go-mode and notice that each day seems greener than yesterday, each tree grows in leaves, height and personality each day.

Now, it would be easy for me to feel guilty after an entire month of doing...not very much...except that I am blessed not only with garden goodness, but also the goodness of friends!



Butterflies love Shelley--and so does ReTreeUS!

Thankfully, around the same time I sprained my ankle, Richard and I began working with his sister Shelley to create an internship position for her here on the farm. The fact that she has a passion for our mission, experience and a master's degree in the field, as well as an extra willingness to help (being family) has made her the perfect addition to our program this summer.



She weeds, waters, plants, helps with fundraising, planning, development, and grantwriting while Richard and I are either working at other jobs or I am resting my sore ankle. She is self-motivated, thorough, and always exceeds our expectations. We wouldn't have been able to make this summer happen without her!

Shelley's work not only helps us build our program and get the job done, but also paves the way for many more schools and their students, families, communities, and trees who will benefit from her dedication this summer. A thousand thank you's from this year's thousand trees and thousand students! And a thousand thank you's from me, for helping me stop and smell the roses...or the farm goodness.

Apis Apex? We Couldn't Be Without Bees

ReTreeUS co-founders Richard Hodges and Moriah Salter have used the expression, "We couldn't be without bees" with thousands of students to illustrate the importance of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) to human food production.

As our research continues and we design the educational signage for our orchards, as we watch our trees and produce grow this spring...the magnitude of that statement becomes clearer. Along with their importance, we should also be well-aware of their peril. The recent loss of bees, writes Dr. Tammy Horn in a NY Times article, is "attributed to a combination of factors: Colony Collapse Disorder, mites, deforestation and industrial agriculture."

You may notice that at least the latter two of the factors Dr. Horn lists are entirely human-related.

But this blog was never meant to be a guilt-trip.

Humans are at least as capable of creating positive change as they have been of cutting down trees or industrializing the food system. The mission of ReTreeUS is to help children, families, and communities understand what they can do.

Next week, we will open our farm stand, which not only supports chemical-free food production (good for humans and bees), but also provides produce and literature to families who wouldn't otherwise have access to those assets.

Information about local food, bees, and growing the plants we provide will be available at the farm stand door, with more information on our website: www.retreeus.org. 

Our farm stand is open to the public and utilizes a donation-based honor's system. We believe that ethics and generosity are as important to human existence as bees...and that is saying quite a lot, considering how we feel about the mellifera species.

We will list a suggested price for our fruit trees, strawberry plants, squashes, kale, turnips, beets, and so forth, based on what it takes to grow those nutritious items organically. Those who can pay full price will help fund good food for those who can pay only a quarter, or a dime.

Even those who live far away and can't visit our farm stand help, too. They help by becoming members of our program or by making a one-time donation. They plant a tree. They grow their own food, and teach children to do the same. Every dollar you give, tree you plant, and child you inspire helps ensure that this is neither the apex for bees, nor humans.

Together, we can grow a healthier planet indeed.

Recipe for Success

Our farm stand sign, which Dan created in addition to the orchard benches he promised.

I fumbled through our nearly-empty cabinets, searching for the ingredients to some miraculous meal that would show Dan, our loyal friend and volunteer*, how much we appreciated his work here.

It was his last day, and he had completed four benches--with no power tools--at least three ReTreeUS signs, and a couple of bridges that will help us cross over marshy wetlands to access our fields.

The orchard benches and a ReTreeUS sign, all finished and coasted with earth-friendly tung oil.

He spent his evenings designing tomorrow's projects, and was up getting started before breakfast each day. His work was not only functional, but creative, sustainable, and thoughtful, too. He took care with all the details: finding what would have been waste materials, putting them together to last, smoothing out the edges, using finishing products that are beautiful and completely non-toxic to create these educational, inspiring works of art.

The materials--salvaged from waste palates.

He worked with diligence and passion, not only because he loves wood-working, but also because he appreciates our mission. He wanted to be a part of this project to educate kids about the environment, and provide good food to those kids and their families. Now, he and his finished products are inextricable facets of the ReTreeUS program.

Dan coats his benches, and shows the progression of each functional art piece from unfinished to finished.

A bridge for our fields!

Our fields and his benches.

Richard and the rest of the "crew."

To thank him, we had...let's see...garlic, kale, cheese, a box of pasta...milk....olive oil...and slowly, I pieced together a meal from the mish-mash of ingredients I found.

Instead of pesto (because we had no basil), I call it besto--a delicious pasta topping I wish I'd added to our recipe book before sending it to Kickstarter backers. Now, here it is for all of you:

***

Besto

...when you haven't gone grocery shopping in a while, but you need a nutritiously delicious meal that says, "I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart." Or, when you just want to find another way to utilize kale.

Serves two people who work regular days, and one who just worked a week of construction, approx. 24/7

You'll need a few leaves of kale (chopped), 3-4 cloves of peeled garlic (depending on how much you like garlic), 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, black pepper, 1/2 cup mozzarella, 1/2 cup milk, dash of dry basil (or fresh, if you have it), a food processor (or a good knife and a lot of patience), plus enough pasta to make 4 servings. Keep on hand: extra oil and some cornstarch, just in case.

Boil water and add the pasta to cook.

In a separate pot on the stove, heat mozzarella, milk and basil on medium-low, stirring frequently until the mixture comes together in a stretchy, yummy sauce. (If it's simply not happening for you, you can add a tiny dash of cornstarch.)

Meanwhile, combine the kale, garlic, olive oil, and cheddar in a food processor. (You might need more oil, if the processor isn't chopping easily or finely enough.) Mix until the ingredients are finely chopped and saucy. (Like pesto, but besto...)

Drain the pasta and put it back its own pot. Pour almost all of the mozzarella sauce and mix to coat the pasta. (Leave the rest of the sauce for later.)

Serve the coated pasta in a bowl, and top with the remaining cheese sauce and a few spoonfuls of besto. Add some black pepper, and give it to that person you're so grateful for. Enjoy the meal together, and know you're eating one of the most nutritious, easiest to grow, vegetables out there.

***

After we ate, we thanked Dan again and said goodbye. We looked back at the work he had done and thought about how, even though that last-minute recipe was delicious...volunteers are our recipe for success.


*I call Dan a volunteer, even though we had agreed to purchase some of his benches for our orchards (thanks to our Kickstarter donors). He became a volunteer when he ventured well beyond the call of duty.

Bright Backers, New Benches

I'm writing from the kitchen of our tree nursery site while our friend, Dan, works diligently to complete a nice, wooden sign for the ReTreeUS farm stand. It's 7 a.m.

I am feeling a little guilty for not being able to help--it's a big job but not one I have been trained well on--but more than that, I am feeling immensely grateful. When I thank him, Dan says, "It feels good to be doing the things you probably don't have time to do."

Dan, dog, and bench.

We may not have time, but that doesn't make what he's doing any less important. We need his signs...and his benches for our orchards.

His benches, which were generously funded by our Kickstarter backers, will serve not only as a respite for students where they can deeply enjoy and connect with their trees, but also as exhibits on reusing precious materials, sustainable production, and creative art. The wood he uses is mostly trash from construction sites, and the time he puts into them is his greatest expense.

We sent off rewards to those helping to fund our signs and exhibits this week. We hope our backers will plant their seeds, try our recipes, and wear their shirts with pride as our volunteers do.

Dan will receive his t-shirt today, and we might take some time to dye it with some red onion skins or turmeric, or some other fine herb we have to brighten his threads naturally.

More pictures of his benches to come!

Coming to Fruition

The sun went down, the peepers started peeping, the moon rose high...and we were still planting. The rain fell, the wind blew, and the temperature dropped...we were still planting. The kids left their classrooms to join in the fun...and there we were, still planting.

In the last three weeks, ReTreeUS staff, volunteers, participating school teachers, students, and friends have planted 350 trees, 30 of which went into our four educational school orchards, and the rest of which are aspiring to be planted in schools and serving communities in years to come.

Co-founder Moriah Salter talks to a shoveling child as Program Manager Richard Hodges leads another group.

Digging holes for the apple trees at Merriconeag Waldorf.

Everyone helped! Even the youngest students dug and planted.

The energy, enthusiasm, and excellent attitudes of all who helped plant--even on the cold and rainy days--was appreciated, impressive, and necessary to the success of this year's installations. Many thanks to all who donated time, money, sweat, and good thoughts!

Educational programs, which are also a big part of the ReTreeUS mission, have begun as well! Every early childhood, 1st and 2nd grade, 3rd through 5th grade, and high school student helping plant trees last week received a lesson on the importance of local agriculture to the earth and its human communities.

Cricket Hunt and Mast Landing students spent time before, during and after their orchard installations learning about the history of apples in Maine, the importance and functions of pollinators, and more.

The signage which was funded by our Kickstarter backers will be installed in our orchards over the next couple of months, facilitating the process of exploring and learning in the orchard for teachers, students, and parents. We are grateful to all of those businesses and individuals who helped make these and future programs possible.

More photos to come!

Busy as Bees

When we looked toward spring in the middle of winter, we envisioned the upcoming events coming together step-by-step. As the bees emerge to pollinate flowers, we thought, we should be on...step number three.

Here's what we meant by steps:

Step 1: Recruit volunteers.

Step 2: Put up a deer fence.

Step 3: Get the trees.

Step 4: Plant the trees.

Step 5: Give out shirts and other rewards to our Kickstarter campaign donors. (Our dog likes to model in her spare time.)

Step 6: Fix up the farm stand.

Step 7: Sow cover crop and vegetable seeds.

But now that spring is here, it seems that all the steps are happening at the same time.

As the photos above--and the brevity of this entry--reveal, the past couple of weeks have been chock-full of preparations! We are busy as bees.

Next week marks the continuation of our educational programs at our first four participating schools, as well as the installation of all four orchards. Stay tuned for pictures and news on those momentous events!

One Done and Many Begun

Let there be no pause before we send our immense gratitude to all of the donors on Kickstarter.com this spring! We are happy to report that our goal was reached last Friday, thanks to many donations of all sizes. We worked together, and we did it! Thank you for helping us reach 1,000 students this year through educational exhibits that will remain in their orchards for many more years--and many more students--to come.

A list of the generous donors who made this campaign a success! 

So, now that our campaign is done, many more projects have begun!

Yesterday, we broke ground on our nursery and planted the first row of trees to be installed in future school orchards. Today, the planting continues!

We will finish much of the preparation for our nursery, as well as for our farm stand, during Maine's upcoming April Vacation Week. The next week promptly marks the beginning of our educational programming with this year's participating schools, and April 26-27 are our orchard installation days!

Many thanks to Adams County Nursery for enabling us begin our first round of school orchards with mature and beautiful trees; to Skillins Greenhouses for the compost, mulch and other soil amendments which will make it possible to grow our own fruit trees for future schools; to NGA and Home Depot for the essential fencing and other materials which will create a sustainable nursery, farm stand and orchard program for children and families; to Votenet Solutions and their clients, funding the planting of hundreds of trees this year and in years to come; to Fertil USA for making our trees easy to plant at home for gardeners supporting our program; to Two Epic Designs for providing rewards to our Kickstarter donors and helping us spread the word about our program through organic cotton T's; to FedCo and MOFGA for advice and supplies; to Johnny's Seeds and High Mowing Seeds for your donations; to Build-A-Sign and Dan Feller, making beautiful and educational signage accessible in our orchards; and to all of our individual donors who help fund the programs of ReTreeUS!

You can follow the number of trees and school orchards we install by checking out the tree count on the right side of the blog screen. Get ready to see some trees!

Health and the Home Depot

Apple growers who take health into account--the health of the soil, of the trees, of the fruit that we eat, of our families, and of our communities--are the ones leading us all to better answers. 

-Michael Phillips, author of A Guide for the Organic Orchardist 

...and so it was with that same idea and same sort of enthusiasm that Richard and I went to Home Depot yesterday. Gift card (from our National Gardening Association grant), list, and camera in hand, we entered the handy world yesterday morning and came out with almost everything left on our list!

The camera unfortunately failed in the first five minutes, so we couldn't take pictures of this exciting and useful adventure through towering aisles of endless fine tools.

Fortunately though, the trip was a huge success! We were able to mark almost everything we need to start our orchards, nursery, and farm stand off the list: wire fencing for school orchards and our nursery, soaker hoses, a lock box for donations at the farm stand...the list goes on.

Approaching the check-out counter was my favorite step! The cashiers were excited to have a part in our project, and we all watched the numbers carefully as the total price approached $500.

Thank you, Home Depot and the NGA! We are relieved to have all the items ready, and now look forward to sharing all of this goodness with students and families in our programs! Our donation-based farm stand will open in the next couple of weeks, and all of the 2012 orchards will be installed by the end of April!

We're not only taking into account--but also making our utmost priority--the health of our soil, trees, food, families and communities. Join us today!