Cuyahoga County

Ohio Victory Gardens – Let’s Grow Ohio

Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Department of Agriculture are partnering to encourage people to plant a fall victory garden. Dubbed Ohio Victory Gardens – Let’s Grow Ohio, the statewide project will be piloted in five Ohio counties this fall: Lucas, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Clark, and Franklin.  The project will include educational programs targeted to fall vegetable gardening throughout Ohio and distribution of free seeds in the five pilot counties.

In addition, they are establishing a u.osu.edu/ohiovictorygardens website to gather together  numerous resources around the state focused on vegetable gardening. They are in need of any resources that either you or your county have created (videos, fact sheets, etc.) as well as those you use regularly for vegetable gardening and preservation, etc. See the following list for resource categories:

  • Pots and Plots (soils, planning the garden, season extension, container gardens)
  • Insects!Diseases!Critters! OH My! (pest management information)
  • Buzz about Pollinators (information about pollinators)
  • Seeds – Come and Get Them (seed distribution information, pilot testing in six counties in August and all counties in spring)
  • Donating Your Victory (food pantries, food banks, etc.)
  • Cook ‘N Can It! (What to do with your Victory (preservation, recipes, other)
  • Show off the Good, The Bad & The Ugly (people submit photos)

Please contact Associate Professor, Pamela Bennett if you would like to add to the resource list. Follow this link to learn more.

Five Questions About Race

Do you want to improve your racial awareness but don’t know where to start? Join Cuyahoga County 4-H Extension Professionals Imani Scruggs and Rob Isner in this weekly series. Imani and Rob discuss in a non-formal, non-judgmental space a variety of topics on each other’s respective races that they (and possibly you) have always been curious about. They will post weekly videos so you can watch the conversation. Follow Cuyahoga County Extension on social media to add to the dialogue. Follow this link to view Episode 1 and Episode 2. 

Sourced from: Cuyahoga County Extension

Food Security & Healthy Communities: What’s Happening in Ohio

Last month, CURA hosted organizations from the Cleveland area and from the Dayton and Cincinnati areas. The panelists included:

  1. Marc White one of the co-Founders and Farm Operations Manager from Rid-All Green Partnership, a local non-profit from the Kinsman Neighborhood located in Cleveland, Ohio. Rid-All Green Partnership is a urban farm that helps educate people living in the area about growing local, healthy food.
  2. Michaela Oldfield, Director of Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council, Green Umbrella Regional Sustainability Alliance. Green Umbrella Regional Sustainability Alliance serves as the backbone organization for collective and collaborative impact on creating resilient, sustainable region solutions for all.
  3. Nicole Wasmuth, AmeriCorps VISTA and Registered Nurse of Hall Hunger Initiative in Dayton Ohio. Hall Hunger Initiative works with the Dayton, Ohio community partners to create a sustainable and just food system in the Miami Valley area of Ohio.
  4. Alan Wight faculty at Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the University of Cincinnati.

The event kicked off with presentations by each of the panelists showing the audience what their organizations do for their local communities and how they support food security:

  • Rid-All Green Partnership in the Cleveland, OH area bring education and training to the Kinsman community about urban farming and healthy food habits. They have several green houses, hood houses, and an aquaponics fishery on site.
  • Green Umbrella in the Cincinnati area, works within a 10 county area to be the convener of collaboration on food policy and environmental change. Their current projects include: healthy soils, farm to school, healthy eating and healthcare, and zero food to landfills.
  • Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the University of Cincinnati presentation was on the food mapping efforts they are involved in, in the Cincinnati community. The maps integrate the beauty of art with the sophistication of geographic science to help people in the Cincinnati community understand where they can find local urban farms and edible food.
  • The Hall Hunger Initiative in the Dayton, OH area showed the link between the health system and food system in American and ways to improve upon it.

Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: CURA

Cuyahoga County Urban Tree Canopy

Cuyahoga County tree canopy assessment update details lossesCuyahoga County’s newest urban tree canopy assessment, released last month, shows the Clifton Park neighborhood has suffered one of the highest levels of tree losses in the county over the past decade. Clifton Park is a snapshot of what tree advocates are calling an emergency for climate resilience, natural habitat, property values, and human health. Lakewood topped all 59 Cuyahoga communities with an 18.5% loss in its tree canopy, according to the assessment, which analyzes data gathered in 2017 to determine rates of change since an earlier report based on 2011 data.

Follow this link to learn more.

Follow this link to access the Urban Tree Canopy Viewer.

Sourced from: Cleveland.com

Cleveland’s Urban Farmer Networking Event

Urban Ag Networking Event FlyerJoin Cuyahoga County Farm Bureau to spend time with vendors and community partners, an urban farmer panel, an educational presentation, and facilitated networking activities. Come as you are, arrive when you can.

The event will be located on the second floor, Fairhill Partners Building in Cleveland.

No cost to attend.

RSVP to Maggie Rivera at Rivera.482@osu.edu

Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from:
Cuyahoga County Extension
& Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation

Fresh Fest Cleveland: An Urban Farm, Music, Arts & Culture Festival in the Urban Agriculture Innovation Zone

The mission of Fresh Fest Cleveland is to celebrate the arts and urban agriculture, promote health and wellness, showcase fresh and local food, all while breaking down the barriers of this unified and fertile neighborhood and emphasizing cultural unity. Fresh Fest will be hosted on one of the largest and most popular urban farms in Cleveland – Rid-All Farm and Otter Park which occupy 26.5 acres of previously vacant and re-purposed land in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood. The event will take place on Saturday, September 7, 2019 from 12 – 9 p.m. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced From: Cuyahoga County Extension

How the Last Fire on the Cuyahoga River Kick-Started the Clean Water Movement

Many American rust belt cities have risen high, fallen hard, and come back to life – and a case could be made that none rose so high nor fell quite so far as Cleveland, Ohio. The fortune of this city on the shore of Lake Erie has ebbed and flowed in tandem with its iconic river, the Cuyahoga, whose journey to the lake takes it through the city’s heart. Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: Cities Speak

 

Summer Sprout: Cleveland’s Community Gardening Program

The Summer Sprout Program, a partnership between OSU Extension and the City of Cleveland, hosted the annual Garden Leader Kick-Off on April 6, 2019. At the event, representatives from each garden were invited to gather, network, review the previous season, and prepare for the upcoming season. Garden leaders received seed packs, signed city land licenses, and secured water hydrant permits. The event was led by OSU Extension staff with the assistance of Master Gardener Volunteers. They estimated there were 200 community gardeners in attendance from 108 of the gardens in the program. Summer Sprout was able to distribute 30 raspberry plants and 72 fruit trees throughout the participating gardens.
Follow this link to learn more about the Summer Sprout Program.

Sourced from: The Ohio State University