The garden is coming on!

What began as a trickle of ripe fresh vegetables is growing into a tidal wave of great garden goodies! Just now you have radishes, cilantro, lettuces, bok choy, carrots, some cherry tomatoes, a few potatoes, a few cooking pumpkins, and many veggies right on the cusp of being ready to pick.

If you want to make the most of the garden, pop by twice a week or so.  Almost always something new is “coming on” and you’ll be able to give your taste buds a fresh delight.

Speaking of taste, there is absolutely nothing that matches the taste of freshly picked, sun-warmed, vine-ripened radishes, peas, carrots, etc. When you come to pick your produce, it’s ok to rinse a carrot off and eat it as you go. It’ll take you back to your childhood, or at least to mine, where my grandpa grew the best peas and carrots in the world!

So come and get ‘em, veggies galore.

Remember you can fit a lot into a $5, $10, or $20 sack. And if you are a Victory Garden Plot leasee, you have the run of the whole place. Enjoy!!

Memories

Ok, I confess, the title was just to get your attention. It would take a little longer than a blog to talk about that one. But on a more specific note. I’ve been talking with folks involved in Common Ground (CG): refugees, volunteer staff, occasional volunteers, customers, people in the community near CG. It seems that being involved in a large or small way with CG brings more meaning into each life, but not always the same meaning. Amazing! The richness of this experience is vast.

So I have an idea. What if those of you reading this take a moment to leave a comment sharing what your involvement with CG had meant to you? We’d love to hear from you. It enriches us all to see how each of us is impacted by a garden plot and a community initiative to make a difference for those are beginning again in our country.

Encouragement for those commenting. You don’t have to be a writer to comment. In fact you don’t even have to use capital letters or punctuation (altho periods really help!). Just share a sentence or two from your heart.  You’ll need to sign in with a name (first name is fine) and your email. Don’t worry, the email is never made public and we won’t share it with anyone. It simply helps us avoid spam.  We do reserve the right to remove in appropriate content.

To get us started I’ll post the first comment.

  I went produce shopping this week. (What was I thinking? I could have stopped by Common Ground!) The prices didn’t really shock me since I’m kind of like the ol’ frog in hot water…I’ve gotten used to them. But as I began to tally the costs, it dawned on me what a great deal the Common Ground “Buy by the Bag” option is!

For example: I was shopping at a lower cost grocery store. But here’s a list of what went into my grocery bag:

1 avocado                                          $1.50

1 head red leaf lettuce                     $1.25 (it’s in season)

4 tomatoes (on the vine)                $2.00

2 cucumbers                                    $1.00

1 pkg snow peas                              $2.50

  TOTAL                                         $8.25

Now, if I’d just come by Common Ground I could have bought a $5.00 bag and fit in garden fresh peas,  bok choy, lettuce, carrots, and radishes (might have had to smush a little to fit the radishes in)! All straight from the garden. And that’s just the $5.00 bag. The $20.00 bag (the size of the large, plastic grocery bags) would have fed my family for a week!  And the flavors of veggies from a store and from the garden cannot bear comparison.

From now on our family is going fresh, from Common Ground. And, we eat with a happy heart knowing the money we spent is practically “recycled” since proceeds go to training refugees for job readiness.

All things considered, I don’t know of a better deal anywhere. Come on down, buy a bag and start filling it.

We’re open:

Mon and Wed.  9 – 6pm
Tues, Thurs, and Fri 9 – 3 pm

It’s amazing what a dedicated group of volunteers and a generous company like Home Depot can accomplish in three short work days!! Not only did Home Depot donate tools and materials to help us build and work on the Common Ground farm. They build two sturdy, movable buildings to allow secure storage, a place to work with plants, and even do some training!

It’s difficult to find words to express our thanks for all you’ve done, Milwaukee + Nampa Home Depot. The best we can do is give you our heartfelt thanks and assure you that you are making a difference in the lives of many refugees as well as our own volunteer staff and those who enjoy Common Ground produce! You’re the greatest!

Thanks Home Depot!

Buy a Bag–Pick Your Produce!

Buy a bag from a CG team member, onsite at the farm (4750 S. Surprise Way), or at Eastwind on Sunday AMs.

$5, $10, or $20 for a bag of farm fresh, organic produce.  You pick the size you want + load it up during the week.

If you want assistance harvesting, come  Monday or Wednesday from 9am – 6pm (swing by on your way home from work!) or Tues / Thurs / Friday from 9am to 3pm.

Get what you want, when you want it, and support Common Ground’s experiential job-training program for the refugee community!

Join us tonight (Tuesday, June 30th) at the Idaho Fry Company, a Common Ground partner.

Eat great fries + drink good beer (or shakes or both) = support Common Ground’s experiential job-training program for the refugee community.

A portion of the proceeds from this evening come back to The Momentum Group to support the Common Ground program.

Meet the CG crew this evening as well….

Thanks for all you do to support the refugee community!

Have you ever noticed that you learn more from your mistakes than from when you “get it right?”  Why is that?

It seems when we get something right, we take it for granted, ignore, it doesn’t sink in…we simply don’t own it. But, when we have to puzzle over a problem. We take it apart, put it back together…it doesn’t work. We try again…and finally, hooray! It works!! We own it! The process learning involved taking things apart and putting them back together so that our mind understands not that something works but how it works.

Growing Common Ground is a lot like that. Looking back over the past six months, we have had great leadership, great adivors, amazing volunteers, and beautiful refugee trainees who have become friends. AND we have learned a lot. We have learned by trial and error. Sometimes by error and trial. We learned by others sharing the things they’ve learned in the school of hard knocks. And some things have just come together beautifully.

And in the process, we have begun to form a community. A community of people focused on one main goal, providing economic independence for those who have the least among us. And we have seen many folks experience satisfaction in personal goals like green living, and giving back, finding new friendships.

I wonder, if we had been given a mold to pour us into and it had not required that we work through the rough and tumble of a new enterprise…and a new movement…would we have enjoyed the journey so much? Would we have formed friendships born out of the need to figure out how to get water to plants when the spigot didn’t work, or out of the need to revise a curriculum for each and every class, or simply out of leaning on each other ’cause we were just plain tired. If we had been handed Common Ground fully formed…would we have learned? Would we have grown? Would we appreciate each other and the refugees we serve? I wonder.

Personally, I’m glad we’re not done yet. We still have a lot to learn. We still have a lot of growing to do. Sounds like fun to me!

Trainees

Recently, someone asked my why I would spend my time working with refugees when so many US citizens are out of work. The question was an honest question and as I probed a little further I realized my friend had a few misconceptions that are probably pretty common.

The first assumption my friend made was that refugees has come to this country by illegal means. This is a common misunderstanding. Refugees are invited to the our country by the US government. The rules for qualifying for such an invitation are very stringent. Refugees have nowhere else to go and have often spent years in refugee camps, unable to return to their home land due to ongoing strife or persecution.

The second misunderstanding was that the refugees are in the goverment’s care, so why should we, in the private sector put our efforts into their well-being? Besides my initial response, that anyone in need is my neighbor, it’s important to understand that refugees are expected to get on their feet and become self-sustaining in a very short period of time (usually eight months, sometimes less). After that, governemnt aid ends, and they must fend for themselves.

The third misunderstanding was the idea that refugees have come to this country wanting a ‘hand out.” This is not true. I believe they come to this country hoping for a “hand up.” And that is an entirely different matter. They simply want a little help getting their feet under them and a chance to establish a home in a community in their new country.

Finally, I got the feeling that my friend was worried that if we helped refugees find work, this would take work away from our “own” people. Call me idealistic, but I believe that there is still plenty to go around. Perhaps not plenty of jobs right now, but plenty of the American spirit, the spirit that said, if I work hard and I help others, together we can build something great. I believe that if we give, whether to our own citizens in need, or our newest immigrants, we will begin to open wide the doors to build something great, not just for our refugee friends, but for America.

Well, that was a little soap-box. Would love to hear your comments. SF

Were you planning to lease a Victory Garden plot, but never got around to it? Don’t worry. There are still plots available. All you need to do to place your order for a plot is click on the Victory Garden order box and choose the type of plot you would like to lease.

Please note that plots have already been planted, so some customer plots are no longer available. To refresh your memory of what the plots offers, here is the remaining option.

Our Remaining Community Victory Garden Option:

The Victory Garden – $250.00

Farm fresh flavors for everyone! Includes: a slicing and a cherry tomato, green beans, a hot pepper and a mini bell, eggplant, variety of lettuces, snow peas, summer squash, chard, carrots, radishes, potatoes, a lemon and a slicing cucumber, melon, chives, basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, nasturtiums, marigolds, and a sunflower (or two!).

Space is limited so Victory Garden leased plots are available on a first come-first served basis. You can sign up here or contact Justin Cooley at justidaho@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Training

The Common Ground garden is a visible representation of the work of Common Ground, but the Common Ground training program entails much more than helping refugees understand how to work on the farm, or to offer home services, or to work in restaurants.

Common Ground uses these and other settings to teach job skills that can be used in a variety of jobs and situations. For example, we work on customer service skills. Whether they are learning to answer the phone and write down a “take out” order or are learning to accurately determine what a home owner is needing done around the house, the most important thing our trainees learn in these role plays is how to provide cheerful, respectful, helpful customer service.

Some job attitudes are engrained in every facet of training – be on time, take responsibility, be proactive, be accurate, be respectful and helpful, call in when unable to get to work (or class), listen to directions and ask questions. Most of the things we teach can be applied throughout the marketplace.  We are not preparing gardens, or housekeeper, or waitresses, we are working to prepare qualified, well-rounded workers who would be a benefit to any company in as many areas of the job market as possible.