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Prescott Food Forest and Gardeners Of Destiny

Prescott Food Forest Continues to Grow with Your Support

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On behalf of our growing team of gardeners, volunteers and students, I want to invite you to join us, too! What are you waiting for? Let’s get growing!

An amazing phenomenon is happening at the Prescott Forest @ B Organic Farm in Chino Valley.

Passionate and inquisitive Quad Cities residents are pitching in to help manage and harvest our growing garden beds and greenhouse.

Each Saturday, there’s a garden project party, which brings together families and individuals that enjoy fellowship, food, music and of course, gardening projects that need to be worked on. This combination has proven successful as each week we have between 10 and 15 volunteers picking fruits and veggies, planting new crops and weeding. The indoor greenhouse has cooled air, so we offer both options to participate.

Another milestone was met when we hosted the first Gardeners Of Destiny Kids Boot Camp where Stephane Leon led a four-day introduction to kids, ages 5-12, and their moms. It was a total success and brought together like-minded moms who know the value of teaching their kids how to grow food. Our goal has always been to teach the next generation this important life skill.

I am proud to announce our next Gardening Course “Autumn Gardening,” including how to plant and care for fall and early winter crops. The class is $99 for eight weeks but we are offering full scholarships (limited) in exchange for 10 hours of volunteer time. This model was very well received in previous courses. Go to prescottfoodforest.com<http://prescottfoodforest.com for more information or to  register. The classes run from 10 a.m. to noon, Aug. 19 to Sept. 23. These classes have sold out so reserve your spot today. Families are welcome too!

One of the great benefits of this program is all the fantastic people that want to help and learn more about gardening.

I’d like to give a big shout out to Doug and April Rich for their help and for sharing our mission. Also Nick and Kim Plancich and their daughter, Shelby, for volunteering and sharing our mission with their family and friends. That’s how this has grown, organically (pardon the pun).

We are seeking schools and clubs to work with to expand our greenhouse capacity and to lead a pumpkin-planting project as a fun competition with prizes and awards. If you would like to have your school or organization participate, call or email me directly.

On behalf of our growing team of gardeners, volunteers and students, I want to invite you to join us, too! What are you waiting for? Let’s get growing! QCBN

By John Murphy

John Murphy is the executive director of Make 100 Healthy Inc., an Arizona 501 c 3 non-profit. He’s also a Prescott-area realtor and can be contacted at John.teammurphy@gmail.com or 928-899-1341.

Food Forest Growing with Volunteers, Sponsors, Programs

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With all the new gardeners and volunteers, we are planning to grow more food than ever before. It is a true blessing,” she said.

The launch of the Prescott Food Forest and Gardeners Of Destiny (GOD) Training Program has been a real success. In fact, the eight-week Winter Greenhouse Gardening Course is sold out and has hosted 30 passionate local residents that want to learn how to grow food.

Located at B Organic Farm, Chino Valley, the program’s first week was on Jan. 21, 2023. While it was literally freezing outside, the greenhouse was a balmy 50 degrees with the help of heaters, provided by my non-profit “Make 100 Healthy Foundation.” This allowed classes to start, regardless of the weather conditions.

The full attendance confirmed that many people want to learn to grow food, to be able to help those less fortunate to receive fresh food, even in the dead of winter. How wonderful! We have attracted many local gardening leaders to join our efforts because of the awareness that was generated from my past articles in QCBN.

Greg Eddolls of www.Foodscape.tips has taken the bull by the horns by volunteering to teach each Saturday. His main business, Tri City Computers, in partnership with Don Gordon’s DLG Recycling, has donated a refurbished 60” Flat Screen Interactive Touch Screen Educational TV and a greenhouse laptop that allows us to use multimedia and videos to reinforce the class subject manner. We are grateful for his generosity in time and resources.

Also, we are so blessed to have seasoned gardeners and passionate people, including Hoss Lambeth and Master Gardeners LeRoy Miller, Joe Rubio, Ann Smeltzer and others who have led the volunteer efforts during the week to allow for a beautiful and productive greenhouse setup. In fact, Hoss has focused on reinforcing the cinderblock raised beds with rebar and drip system redesign. This is hard work that is not for the faint of heart.

LeRoy Miller has brought his lifelong skills as a gardener to lead the ramp-up of the greenhouse to be ready to grow the Food Forest into a lush and productive place for fruits and vegetables to grow in.

Stephane Leon has been brilliant in bringing all the content together to inspire and lead the course for these aspiring gardeners; all of whom have received full scholarships to the eight-week course, thanks to our fundraising efforts and our main sponsors Lamb Cadillac and Pinnacle Bank.

The most exciting aspect of this program is the folks that have attended. We have families, couples and individuals that come each week ready to learn and apply their newfound skills, both at B Organic Farm and in their homes. Each student has committed to giving a minimum of 10 hours of volunteer time at B Organic Farm in return for the scholarship they received.

Ginny Buonaquista, the owner of B Organic Farm, is grateful for the help. “I have pretty much been on my own since COVID hit and it has limited our ability to provide free food to those in need. With all the new gardeners and volunteers, we are planning to grow more food than ever before. It is a true blessing,” she said.

How can you get involved? First, we are always seeking volunteers to help tend to the garden. If you have three or four hours a week to give, we have plenty of work for you to do. We have a volunteer scheduler on our site: prescottfoodforest.com or call us directly at 928-899-1341 for more Information.

What’s next? We are in the process of offering a Spring Garden Growing course, starting in April, and we are working on a summer boot camp program for children and families alike to teach them the skills to be able to grow healthy and nutrient dense fruits and vegetables.

This effort has been a testament to the tenacity and commitment of many local people to give our community the skills and insights on why growing food is so important. Thank you to all who have been a part of this incredible journey, which is just starting to scratch the surface of our full potential. I am humbled by the outpouring of support and encouragement.

Let’s keep growing! QCBN

By John Murphy

John Murphy, Make 100 Healthy/ Realtor.