We're celebrating 10 years!!

Roots & Wings celebrates 10 years in 2021~ ! We celebrate our Kitchen Garden - a group that gardens together each Saturday morning and donates hundreds of pounds of fresh produce to the Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry each summer, our active CSA with FABLE: From Farm to Table, and our labyrinth now reconceived as a spiral of healing herbs. 

Over the years we have hosted film series and book groups, roundtable discussions with local farmers and suburban chicken owners and bee keepers, Rivertowns Permaculture - a certification class, bread and soap and sauce making classes, gardening and composting workshops, potlucks, presentations by a Native elder, a local young woman who walks to draw attention to environmental issues, gardeners who are creating stops on the pollinator pathway and so much more. 

Our vision is to live more sustainable and full lives through connection with one another and the earth. 

COLLABORATORS WANTED for these teams:

• CSA outreach
• Social media 
• Programming (organizing workshops, garden tours, films ... )
• Food coop envisioning
• Herbal gardening / creating remedies

Sign up for our emails, follow us on Instagram and Facebook, or send us a note: info@RivertownsCommunityGardens.com

Thank you for your interest!

Thank you to all who tuned in to Gabriela Munoz' presentation Fire Cider, Fungi, Fruits & Ferments. We apologize for the technical difficulties ...

Below are some of the recipes and resources shared that evening. 

Let's talk about ways to support our health and immune systems

Your health is in your hands! Learn simple natural approaches to support your health and immune system so you are in your best shape for the fall and winter seasons. 

Fire Cider, Fungi, Fruits & Ferments

Simple, natural approaches to support your health and immune system

• A conversation with clinical herbalist Gabriela Munoz

• Thursday, November 5th via Zoom, free

• JOIN ZOOM MEETING | Meeting ID: 848 4518 3840 | Passcode: 588278

Gabriela Munoz, a Dobbs Ferry resident and member of Roots & Wings steering committee, is a clinical herbalist with certification from the ArborVitae School of Traditional Herbalism. 

She is also trained as a chemist and soil scientist, with degrees from University of Buenos Aires and University of Wisconsin. This background opened her eyes to what she describes as an empowering view of health. 

"Most traditional and alternative approaches focus on life-sustaining practices that can actually improve our health and better equip us to cope with disease. When we take care of our bodies, we are less prone to getting sick, whether by germs or other causes. It's all about a harmonious relationship with the world around us.

The one-hour program offers simple steps you can take to improve your overall health and resiliency through lifestyle choices including your activities and routines, sleep patterns and emotional landscape. Gabriela will also share recipes for foods and herbal preparations we can make at home that are allies in supporting our health, such as broths, syrups, vinegars, infusions and fermented foods.

“Every day we have the opportunity to make better choices to improve our health and vitality,” said Gabriela. “Our bodies always strive for health and have an amazing capability to heal if we work with nature and nourish and care for ourselves.”

If you have questions, please send them to info@rivertownscommunitygardens.com

The Need to Grow - Friday, September 25

 Please bring a blanket and join us to watch "The Need to Grow" on Friday, September 25, at 7 

PM behind South Church!  

The film is a story of real-world heroes—an 8-year old Girl Scout, a regenerative urban farmer, and a visionary inventor— and the challenges they face as they fight to heal our broken food system and regenerate the planet’s soils. MORE

 

• A socially-distanced event  25 attendees
• RSVP to Nicole Jones: creativelyjones@gmail.com
• includes small fire bowl - bring marshmallows : ) 
• Rain date Saturday, September 26

This screening is hosted by Roots & Wings and SouthChurch.

We hope to see you there! 

 

 

Fall Native Plant Bulk Purchase - orders due Sept 23

The spring bulk purchase went very well. We had 38 people participate in the purchasing, distribution, and planting of over 3000 native plants and cultivars!  And there is still one more delivery of Aster Heath 'Snow Flurry' expected to arrive in late September.  All-in-all, the plugs we received were high-quality some of which are already blooming, including the first year Butterfly Milkweeds!

During the numerous pickups and pleasant interactions, many of the spring participants expressed interest in purchasing additional plugs for the fall season. Here's the short list of hardy northeast perennials wanted so for this fall:

Latin Name	Common Name 'Requested Cultivar'
Perennials
Achillea millefolium	Common Yarrow
Adiantum pedatum	Maindenhair Fern
Allium cernuum	Nodding onion
Anaphalis margaritacea	Pearly Everlasting
Anemone virginiana	Tall thimbleweed
Asclepias incarnata	Rose milkweed
Aureolaria virginica	Downy Yellow False Foxglove
Echinacea purpurea	Purple Conflower 'White Swan'
Eurybia divaricata	White Wood Aster
Heurechera Americana	American alumroot
Hydrastis canadensis	GoldenSeal
Liatris spicata	Dense blazing star
Lobelia siphilitica	Blue cardinal flower
Muhlenbergia capillaris	Hairawn Muhly
Pycnanthemum muticum	Blunt Mountainmint
Scutellaria incana	Hoary Skullcap
Solidago caesia	Blue-stemmed Goldenrod
Symphyotrichum cordifolium	Blue Wood Asters
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium	Aromatic Aster
Viola	Any Native

If you are interested, email me which variety of native plants you want, regardless whether it's on the list above or not, and how many plugs you want.  I need to hear from you before September 23!  If so, I will do my best to fulfill all requests where we have a critical mass. Though we try to source regionally, we are able to use a few mid-western nurseries to get those out-of-stock and hard-to-find plugs when needed. The average purchase cost per plug was around $2, which included initial purchase, shipping, supplies, fees, and NYS taxes.

Mickey

 

Local Food Insecurity Conversation on May 18

What a powerful conversation! 

Guest speakers from Roots & Wings Kitchen Garden and CSA, the Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry, Spring Community Partners and Sustainable Dobbs shared their work as we looked ways to collaborate for a common goal. 

Native Perennials Conversation with Peter Strom

Get a little guidance on figuring out what native perennials are right for you!

Below is a Zoom chat with horticulturist Peter Strom, owner of Strom Horticulture LLC and known for his work at the O'Hara Nature Center in Irvington. He spoke about the plants on native plant plugs bulk buy that is being organized (see list below - more info in blog), what experience he has had growing them and answered specific questions.

I'll purchase a flat of 50 or more plugs once there's a critical mass of committed gardeners for each variety.  In a few cases, potted plant purchases may become a smarter choice for specific varieties, TBD. Shipments will most likely occur between early-May and mid-July to coincide with plant maturity and availability from the wholesaler. For preliminary cost references, Asclepias Tuberosa (Butterfly Milkweed) is around ~$1.40/plug where as Mertensia Virginica (Virginia bluebells) is around $4.40/plug, not including shipping.

With respect to logistics and social distancing: if we do place an order, I strongly prefer repayment through PAYPAL or VEMNO with cash/check only as a last resort. Plug pickups will be left on our walkway within a prearranged 30-minute window with 30-minute buffers between each pickup, no exceptions. Thank you for your understanding.

What's next?  Email me your variety and quantity commitments as well as any questions you have. Hurry though, I would like to place our first order May 5th!  I will follow up with additional communications with order, shipment, and repayment details as folks sign-up.

Best,

Mickey