Author Archives: Frank Cetera

MENTION: Greater Syracuse Land Bank Newsletter November 2021

December 30, 2021

Read the full profile by visiting the newsletter online at https://mailchi.mp/038993670a1a/january-newsletter-5128333?e=[UNIQID]

MENTION: Scaling up Agroforestry North American Conference 2021

FOOD FORESTS – BUILDING EDIBLE COMMUNITY LANDSCAPES –
Gary Wyatt University of Minnesota Extension – Recognizes our quality educational and interpretive signage at the Rahma Edible Food Forest Garden during this year’s conference

Tour of the Rahma Food Forest Garden with Frank Cetera

May 31, 2021

Many of you were instrumental in the design, development, and management of Rahma Food Forest Garden over the years, come out for a tour to see how things stand. And learn how you can help with the next phase of development as we work to stabilize the understory beneath our canopy.

https://www.facebook.com/events/764065274091605

If you can, become a supporting member at www.patreon.com/alchemicalnursery

Harvest Announcements Now Available via SMS Text Messaging

March 18, 2021

Scan this QR Code with your Smart Phone to sign up for our garden site harvest notifications through the growing seasons!

VIRTUAL MISO MAKING FUNDRAISER EVENT

January 25, 2021

Friday, February 26th, 2021 at 6 pm – 7:30 pm

Joint fundraiser for The Alchemical Nursery Project (ANP) and the Syracuse Refugee Agriculture Program (SyRAP)

Come learn how to make traditional miso from Kayo Green in a fun Zoom class! What is Miso? Miso is a fermented soybean paste that is popular in Japan and throughout Asia. The rich savory flavor can be used in soups, marinades, salad dressings, and even some desserts. Hosted by Frank Cetera of the Alchemical Nursery Project and Lucy Spence of Syracuse RISE.

$25 donation to view and participate in Live & Interactive Zoom Class. >> Unlimited People

$10 add-on for ½ pint of white miso in mason jar (available in 12 weeks after virtual event when fermentation is complete, pickup only) >> Limit 16 people

$15 add-on kit of soybeans and koji to make your own miso (available after the virtual event, scheduled pick-up only >> Limit 16 people

https://the-alchemical-nursery-project-inc.square.site/

Gift Cards for Spring Plant Sale Now Available!

October 25, 2020

That’s right, just in time for holiday gift giving. What better gift than the gift of greenery. Our Spring Perennial and Native Plant Sale is entering it’s 5th year and it gets bigger and better each year (in partnership with the Bread and Roses Collective).

Our plants are sourced from our community growing sites right in the City of Syracuse, from the Rahma Food Forest on the Southside, the 610 Gifford Street Community Garden in the Near Westside, and volunteers’ own homesites in a variety of locations.

To see a list of what we had to offer this past Spring of 2020, visit our plant sale inventory sheet (note, this list will be updated for the 2021 plant sale and is subject to change).

Gift cards can be redeemed for anything on our available list starting on April 1st 2021. So give a gift today that will extend out mission, vision, and plants plants plants to more people in and around Syracuse and Onondaga County!

You can purchase gift cards form our Square e-commerce site at https://squareup.com/gift/CAB9FQXG8VXT6/order

To take advantage of the discount promotions ($5 off a $20 purchase, or $10 off a $35 purchase) for being a supporting member through our Patreon account, first visit: https://www.patreon.com/alchemicalnursery and sign up for the $2.00 or higher monthly donation level.

NOTE: Gift cards only redeemable for Alchemical Nursery Project inventory items (Code ANP).

Stop the Zombie Bind Weed! Halloween Cleanup

October 25, 2020

Clean Up Day on Saturday October 31 at 2pm!

The Rahma Food Forest (3100 South Salina St) is under attack by hungry hungry bind weed. This vine is growing out of control like a zombie and it must be stopped. We need your help eradicate this invasive weed and protect the fruit trees and berries.

To kill zombies, you need to destroy their brains, best one with a chainsaw, machete, or sword.

To stop an invasive weed you must pull it from the root. Best done wearing gloves. We will also sheet mulch with cardboard and leaves to slow the bind weed from growing back.

Come prepared to be COVID safe and garden safe:

– masks required when working along side other volunteers!
– dress for the weather!
– bring your work gloves, weed forks, and hand spades if you have them.
– Hand sanitizer will be provided.
– Bring your own water.

If you REALLY plan to attend, RSVP here so we can have an accurate head count and can more effectively plan for providing supplies and the work that can be done: https://forms.gle/58c33f2ps8sFPKHQA

Fall To-Do at 610 Gifford Community Garden

October 18, 2020

We had a fun fifth year at 610 Gifford St in 2020, and it’s time to clean up, organize, and prepare for 2021. If you want to pick one day to visit and lend a hand this fall, this coming Saturday October 24th is it, 11:00 am start time.

Here’s our Fall To-Do List in pictures:

Constant vigilance with the bindweed. Concentrating this week on the strawberry beds.

Nothing doing here, just a note that we repurposed the former potato bed with some kale seedlings and some black currant cuttings we hope will root that we salvaged from one of the black currant bushes that was damaged by a falling tree branch during last week’s storm.

Harvesting of the highbush cranberry.

Hard to see, but would like to dig out the coneflower from the middle of this bed and transplant somewhere near the front of the site.

This former radish and herb bed will become the new potato bed, we have taters to plant on Saturday.

Clean up of the corn and squash bed.

This perennial bed will be cleaned up and receive a major batch of new asparagus crowns to expand this crop. With care to also select for the raspberry that have moved into this bed.

Pull the mint from this middle bed.

Another shot of the asparagus bed from the other side.

The rhubarb bed will also be a bit reorganized. Two of the rhubarb are growing too close together. We will dig up divide and plant out with better spacing in the same bed.

Another shot of the rhubarb bed.

The potatoes for planting. Fall potato plantings requires they be placed a few inches below ground and it is not necessary to chit (cut and dry) them first.

The asparagus crowns that Frank dug from Brady Farm, they were giving them away as they renovate the bed the asparagus were in for a different crop.

MENTION: Syracuse gardens offer residents sense of community during pandemic

September 20, 2020

“For residents in food deserts, community gardens can offer inexpensive access to high-quality produce.

“If you can save $20 on your food costs, that can be significant for some families who are in a lower income bracket,” said Frank Cetera, who operates the Edible Forest Snack Garden on South Salina Street.

Cetera saw increased interest in community gardening after the pandemic began. Many people, such as Lane, were simply looking for an outlet and a reason to leave the house.

The Salina Street garden, which allows any Syracuse resident to pick food from the plants growing there, is open 24/7, Cetera said.

“Good food, organically-grown food, is not cheap,” Cetera said. “You can spend a couple dollars just on a small container of raspberries, but we have many berries available for picking at our gardens so every little bit helps.”

Cetera is also the president of the Alchemistry Nursery Project, which promotes urban agriculture in Syracuse. Through conferencing sessions, he and other members of the project have offered advice on gardening and answered questions about how people can start gardens at home, he said.

“Some people who are more susceptible to coronavirus may not want to come into a garden space even if it is outdoors because there are a lot of people in that space,” Cetera said. “So we help them in their own homes by sending (raised beds) out and giving them seeds and so forth.””

Read the full story at http://dailyorange.com/2020/09/syracuse-gardens-offer-residents-sense-community-pandemic/

Win-Win-Win Campaign: ANP Paid Garden Stewards Program

September 20, 2020

Our Fall/Winter/Spring fundraising campaign this year will be to raise a pool of funds to use as stipends for paid labor of community members doing stewardship and maintenance work on our community growing and public harvest sites.

OUR WIN-WIN-WIN CAMPAIGN

Matching starts at 8 AM on Tuesday, DONATE on GIVING TUESDAY as close to 8 AM or after in order to have the best chance for your gift to be matched 100% by Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/donate/172183821265202/

One of our challenges through the years has been recruiting enough volunteers to maintain and steward our project sites. As our project sites grow, that challenge is even greater and more important. Alchemical Nursery started public forest gardening in 2012 with the creation of the Rahma Edible Food Forest Snack Garden in the Southside at 3100 South Salina St in partnership with the Rahma Free Health Clinic. In 2013 we moved our home offices to the Bitternut Homestead on Otisco St, where we manage the propagation and potting for our annual Spring native, edible perennial plants fundraising sale in partnership with the Bread and Roses Collective. In 2015, we developed the 610 Gifford Street Community Garden on a leased Land Bank property. In 2018 we began stewarding the Gifford Shonnard Meadow Orchard to preserve peach trees, apple trees, and black currant bushes that had been abandoned. And now in 2021 we are launching The Depot Tool Share, Bike Kitchen, and Seed Library at 713 Marcellus St, in addition to geographically-distributed COVID19 relief efforts including our Raised Beds for Food Sovereignty mutual aid campaign.

Our project sites are located in two of the poorest census tracts in the city. Syracuse’s census tract 30, the Near Westside, has a median household income of only $12,823; census tract 58, part of the Southside, has a median household income of only $26,364 (https://datausa.io/profile/geo/syracuse-ny/#economy). In order to bolster the resiliency of these communities, we must bring resources into them. And so we ask for your help in developing our “ANP Paid Garden Stewards Program” by donating to the campaign that will create a pool of money that will be:

a WIN for residents of our project site communities by providing paid working hours;
a WIN for Alchemical in providing a much higher level of needed maintenance and development of the project sites than can be achieved on a volunteers-only basis;
a WIN for Syracuse by enhancing and demonstrating the ecological and economic value of community growing landscapes as a integral part of our city to be initiated and nurtured.

We hold no naive notions that we will be able to hire full-time staff in the next year. Nonetheless we know that for many people (for example previously incarcerated persons re-entering the workforce, students needing part-time work, or people working in low-wage jobs seeking to supplement their income with fulfilling hands-on work), the need is great and we hope to provide:

some income from honest-to-goodness, dirt-under-your-fingernails, sweat-on-the-nape-of-your-neck, fresh-fruits-and-vegetables-in-your-arms work,
skillbuilding for food sovereignty,
connection to neighborhood greening project sites and residents.

Please help by contributing to the Paid Garden Stewards Program

Our goal is to raise $11,683.20 which will provide for employment of one or more individuals from April through October for a total of 600 stewardship hours at one or more of our project sites. This will be our biggest campaign raise of funds from our supporters and members in the history of our activism, but after 10 years of operations and resilience, we can take this next step with you. This will move us forward in a proactive vision of a garden city that provides right livelihood in ecological landscaping and food production The challenge is to convert more of your personal charitable budget to land-based educational and work assets that gives people work towards right livelihood, while growing greater momentum over time, for people who are struggling in our community.

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

BASE GOAL: 20 hours/week for 30 weeks (from April-October) at $16/hour living wage rate = $9,600 gross wage payments. Plus 8% wage taxes ($768). Plus 6.7% workers comp NYS Insurance Fund rate for class code 0042 Landscape Gardening ($643.20). Total cost = $11,011.20.

STRETCH GOAL: Our stretch goal for any monies raised above and beyond this initial amount will be used for engaging the services of a professional payroll/human resources agency, rather than our Board volunteer time, to provide an employee handbook, handle check writing, and provide tax and insurance oversight for our employees.