by Noreen Lucic, Center for Entrepreneurship urban garden intern.
The Social Entrepreneurship program began “implementation internships” last year. The goal of these internships is to take ideas to reality. Our program is now more GLOCAL than ever before! This year, the endeavor has grown to include working with Cleveland non-profits as well as growing our global presence. The Cleveland Urban Gardening effort is being led by Professor Matt Mariola with support from the Center for Entrepreneurship and Lilly. Here is what one of the interns has to say.
My name is Noreen. This summer I’m working with Erika, another College of Wooster student. We are “agricultural interns” for “Green Corps”, an educational program which provides agricultural and marketing education and professional experience for inner-city high school students. Green Corps has six urban farms throughout the Cleveland city limits, each is less than one acre. We use growing models and farm layouts that provide as abundant of a yield as possible since we have so little land. We grow all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and herbs which are sold at farmers markets and, recently, on-site markets. Many Green Corps employees and all the students work exclusively at one farm. I believe that Erika and I are lucky to be able work at all six farms and the farmers markets.
Erika and I behind the Green Corps stand at the Cleveland Clinic Farmer’s Market near the intersection of East 100th Street and Euclid Avenue. Kale, collards, salsa, strawberries, carrots, radishes, turnips, flowers, eggplant, dill, basil, garlic, and lettuce were for sale that day.
The sixth and newest farm, “Buckeye”, is located at East 113th Street and Woodland Avenue. When Erika and I started the season, Buckeye was a shade-less wasteland of asphalt, trash, dirt, and weeds. We helped with the very first steps taken to transform a vacant city lot into a lively and abundant farm. We have been working for six weeks now and it is amazing to watch plants grow so quickly and the radical progress at the Buckeye farm in particular.
Helping build Buckeye from the bottom up has really helped me to appreciate the labor that has gone into all of our other farms. Let’s use lasagna beds for example, because we’ve helped labor over their construction. Green Corps collects food wastes from some local restaurants and brew waste from the Great Lakes Brewery. Food waste is one layer of our lasagna beds. Burlap, leaf humus, topsoil, straw, and worms are also included. In a city, especially an ex-industrial city like Cleveland, farmers don’t have the luxury of planting right in the ground. Farms are often atop asphalt and soil often contains heavy metals and other contaminants. These are the reasons we labor over lasagna beds.
Photo:
Caption: The food waste layer is apparent during construction of the right-most lasagna bed at Buckeye Farm.
For me, as a fourth generation Clevelander, one of the very important parts of this project is the revitalization of otherwise impoverished and blighted neighborhoods. The farms themselves and the local teens’ involvement help to build community. The “Lonnie Burton” farm is located in Cleveland’s “Central Neighborhood” which is comprised mostly of public housing projects. The site of our farm is also the site where some local teenagers were shot and killed a few years back.
Caption: Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) demolishes vacant housing projects across the street from Green Corp’s “Lonnie Burton” farm. Toscano Kale and a variety of non-climbing snap peas are in the foreground.
We’ll see how the rest of the internship pans out. Thus far, it has been physically demanding, educational, and fun.
