From left, Chris Wayne, Heather Rubi and Olivia Blanchflower prepared chickens they had killed a few minutes earlier. Photo by Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

A Weekend at Farm Camp, With Lessons in the Earthy Side of Food

By Liz Leyden
New York Times
June 11, 2010

Excerpt:

GREENWICH, N.Y. — Outside the kill room at the Garden of Spices, a band of little boys played by a parked truck. Between giggles, they kept a curious eye on the open room. Inside, a half-dozen visitors surrounded their father, Ben Shaw, as he grasped a chicken.

Mr. Shaw spoke slowly: Grab both feet and turn the chicken upside down. Get control of the wings. Stretch the neck tight and taut the skin to help the cut. Then, he swiftly slit the chicken’s neck. The visitors watched — serious, silent, some pale and grim as blood sprayed the wall below. It would be their turn next.

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Portland Garden Makeover. Photo from Fiskars. See larger image here.

Support for over 115 community groups since 2002

Communities and neighborhoods around the world have been re-thinking their surroundings in recent years. With a shifting economy, a growing awareness of the importance of healthy foods, and an increasing appreciation for beautiful common spaces, neighbors are becoming neighborly again, banding together to shape their small slice of earth through community gardens.

With that in mind, Fiskars® is sowing the seeds of community togetherness with the return of its philanthropic initiative, Project Orange Thumb®. The program, which has awarded nearly $1 million in contributions and supported over 115 community groups since 2002, is comprised of two major elements – an annual gift of cash and garden tools awarded to applicants from across North America, and three spectacular garden makeovers.

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Gardeners begin work at 8am. Photo by Michael Levenston.

Orange shirts descend upon Commercial & 8th in Vancouver to green city lot

Two vacant City of Vancouver-owned lots at the intersection of East 8th Avenue and Commercial Drive in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood will become a source of community pride today as Fiskars’ Project Orange Thumb transforms the barren patch of soil into a beautiful and productive neighborhood garden ­ in a single day.

Fiskars, a leading manufacturer of garden tools, joined forces with Canadian Tire and the City of Vancouver to coordinate, plan and execute the community gardening event. More than 70 volunteers will participate in the day’s events of wheel barrowing dirt, building frames for raised beds, laying soil, planting and mulching. The garden will be a combination of edibles ­ fruits and vegetables ­ as well as decorative perennials like sage, daylilies, coreopsis, and flowering trees donated by Canadian Tire.

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