It’s mid June and at the Kenney Cottage Community Garden, the table beds are fully functioning. This particular 4’ x 8’ box of soil is supported by 4 thick long stumps of wood that act as legs. You can see men and women rolling their wheelchairs under the elevated garden plot. They would grab a coiled hose attached to the box, push down the lever and spray their veggies with water. The growth rate of the plants in these accessible beds have been faster than the ones in the regular plots. The disabled plot holders are happy to be able to harvest their produce. They are eating the veggies that they grow themselves.

Meanwhile, we have the box of strawberries of different kinds growing on the side of the garden site. These include the albion, sequoia, eversweet, dynamite, hood, quanault and seabreeze varieties. Our wonderful supporters on 4th St have made it possible for us to get the materials to build this special berry box. Dollars were put in the Kenney Cottage jar while we were out there busking and we ran straight with the money to Ashby Lumber and bought the woods for a discount price because the company is also one of the local businesses that support our garden project.

Christian Mollett is now our secretary. Next to his ability to do administrative tasks, his talents in the area of gardening and bio-engineering will spearhead some of the high-tech urban garden experiments you will see in Berkeley.  

We also have a pumpkin patch ready for Halloween, more wild flowers to enjoy this summer and an area where the ground has been covered with mushrooms to stimulate soil remediation. 

Grab this chance to take the 350 Victory Garden Challenge and come be a volunteer at the Kenney Cottage Community Garden located at 1631 5th Street, Berkeley (between Cedar and Virginia). See poster below for more details:

Dear Friends,

Join us for our Upcoming Event :

What: eVe's Dirt Dinner
When: Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 6 PM
Where: eVe Restaurant   http://www.eve-berkeley.com/
             1960 University Ave, at Bonita
             (between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Shattuck Ave.)
             Berkeley, CA 94704
             Telephone nr.: (510) 868-0735
Cost: $40 per person ($10 from each dinner goes to support the garden)

Details: eVe will continue its series of family-style Dirt Dinners. 
Partnering with local community gardens to source ingredients straight
from the Berkeley soil, the dinners will be dedicated to putting seasonal
and local vegetables, fruits and herbs on the table.  For this dinner,
eVe will partner with Kenney Cottage Garden. Priced at $40 per person,
$10 from each dinner will go back to support the garden.
For more info, read the article on SF Weekly:
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2011/03/eve_berkeley_down_and_dirty_dinner_kenney_cottage.php

More garden news:

As the seasons change so do our veggies. Plot holders are
starting to see their seedlings turn into stronger plants. Some
are still harvesting their kale and spinach. We are still working on the
plumbing part of the accessible table plots but we can't wait for the disabled
plot holders to come out and plant their veggies soon.

And yes, we are partnering with eVe Restaurant to do an event twice a year
called Dirt Dinner. Please support this event and make a reservation
before this Sunday.

We also still need more of your financial support
in the form of cash, check, or online using your credit or debit card
(see button on the bottom).

There's a lot more to be done at the site. We're almost finished
with the temporary Site Plan C and the next step will be starting
to raise funds for the Master Site Plan.

Please take this chance to make a difference in your
community. Donate online:
 

Or mail donations to:
 
Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association
2318 Durant Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
 
Donations can be made in the form of cash or check
(made out to BAHA with FKCOG Match in the Memo).

Once again, we thank you very much.

Sincerely,
 
FKCOG Team

Dear Friends,
 
The Kenney Cottage Community Garden is looking good
as the weather gets warmer, the season changes, and we
are gearing up for summer planting. Plot holders have
been turning over the soil in their beds and planting seeds such
as onions, peas, carrots, tomatoes, strawberries and radishes.

Steven Evans is our new Treasurer as Rhiannon steps off
after serving successfully for a year. Claire Risley replaces
Beebo Turman as the new Secretary of FKCOG while Beebo
takes on the challenge of being our Fundraiser Coordinator.

Speaking of fundraising, we need more of your financial support
in the form of cash, check, or online using your credit or debit card
(see button on the bottom).

There's a lot more to be done at the site. We're almost finished
with the temporary Site Plan C and the next step will be starting
to raise funds for the Master Site Plan.

Please take this chance to make a difference in your
community. Donate online:
 

Or mail donations to:
 
Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association
2318 Durant Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
 
Donations can be made in the form of cash or check
(made out to BAHA with FKCOG Match in the Memo).

Your donation to FKCOG makes it possible for us
to carry out the FKCOG garden project that benefits the
people of Berkeley in their strive to live more
naturally. Growing our own tasty food in our community
strenghtens our ties with our planet and
each other, promotes good health, and provides the satisfaction
of knowing we're doing at least a small amount to lessen
climate change by reducing our carbon footprint.
 
We thank you very much and wish you a Happy
Valentine's Day.
 
Sincerely,
 
FKCOG Team

Dear Friends,

We hope you've had a wonderful Hanukkah and Christmas celebration
with family and friends. And now we, at FKCOG, wish all of you
a happy, healthy, peaceful 2011 with many blessings and lots of love,
clean air and water, and of course fresh local fruit and veggies.

It's been an action-packed year for our garden project and we have
booked progress. We wouldn't have been able to keep building the
garden without your support so we thank you again.

Above are photos of the nine garden beds, the water source, the 
grow benches, the path fines, the accessible deck with the two
table beds for disabled plot holders and the ramp for wheelchair
accesibility to the garden. These are some of the constructions
we have done for the past months and they were possible to do
due to the generosity of people in the community such as you and
folks on 4th St. donating dollars into the jar at our Busking For Beds
events, and of course the local businesses too such as Bette's Diner
and Ashby Lumber.

Our work is not done yet. There's some loose ends to tie before we
can get the disabled plot holders to plant their veggies. We are
collecting the resources needed to put in the plumbing, the extra
leg support and inner lining for the table beds. Shira Leeder, our
ADA co-ordinator, is also doing some direct fund raising on the
streets of Berkeley as well as through Facebook. On top of that, we
need to generate some financial support for us to be able to
get our 501c3 Non-Profit status. Please help us with your donations
by clicking on the donate button below. It takes you to PayPal, it's all
safe and you get a receipt that you can print out.

Once again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts and we hope
that you will continue to support FKCOG and the Kenney Cottage
Community Garden that it oversees. Happy New Year 2011!

Sincerely,
 
FKCOG Team

The second table was just assembled thanks to this weekends busking!

Dear Friends,
 
Join us for our upcoming events:
 
Busking for Beds - Ever since we started our Busking For Beds event
late June this year until October, we have raised a total of about $435
straight from the public and we went with that amount to local
businesses and asked if they could help us match it so we could go
ahead and buy the materials we needed to finish building the
accessible deck, which is the last part of our Site Plan C.
Bette’s Oceanview Diner, Café Rouge and a few of our supporters such
as bussiness owner Carlos Hill pulled out their check books and
donated each $100. Sandy Leeder matched their total and gave
FKCOG $500. Because of this, we were able to open up a credit account
at Ashby Lumber and get the materials to build the accessible deck
and one table bed. We thank all of these generous people for their part
in the success of this garden project. See photos of how we
built it >> click.
However, there are lots more to be done; there’s one more table bed
and the ramp to build and we need funding for this. We continue our
Busking For Beds events at Peet’s Coffee on 4th St. but also at
other locations coming up. Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010,
we will be playing at  Amanda’s on Shattuck from 1PM-3PM.
Come by and support us there. If you’ve never eaten at Amanda’s,
then you’ve never tasted fresh fast food and felt so good!

One Fermented Evening - Thursday, November 18, 2010,
7 PM at Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto, 1919 4th St. in Berkeley,
$40 + Tax and Gratuity.
Join Executive Chef Devon Boisen in this special dinner event.
He has been a source of help and support together with
Berkeley's Kitchen, creating lunch treats for FKCOG's 1-year
Anniversary Celebration. He has been named 'Best Showman Chef'
by the East Bay Express so  this event promises to be entertaining
and delicious too.
 
The Friends of Kenney Cottage Garden (FKCOG) NEWS
 
We just had our 1-year Anniversary Celebration at Kenney Cottage
Community Garden and it was a day to remember. The day started with
FKCOG President and Vice President finishing up the last part of the
accessible deck early in the morning. We were pushed back a couple of
days due to the storm and didn’t make the deadline. So while FKCOG
Chair of the Community Garden Committee took several visitors on a
tour of the garden and invited them to harvest some tomatoes, beans,
strawberries and other edible goodies to take home, Gary Cromp and
Kevin Gilmore sawed and screwed wood panels. And when they were
almost finished, Capoeira coach Carlos Hill came up on to the deck with
his students and we all watched their wonderful presentation of the
Afro-Brazilian martial arts dance movements. In the afternoon,
everyone had a lunch treat provided by Berkeley’s Kitchen and ate
Halloween pies from Fat Apples. Live music came from
Lisa Graciano and the Gracenotes with Will Scarlett on mouth harp
as the audience put cash in the familiar Kenney Cottage donation jar.
The highlight of the day was the moment when members of the
disabled community, all dressed for Halloween and led by
FKCOG ADA Coordinator Shira Leeder, drove on the deck with their
wheelchairs and went straight to the table bed to try it out.
See video and photos >> click and last but not least, Rodrigo Esteva
danced among the Sunflowers and that’s how we ended our celebration.
Watch the whole event on YouTube here >> videos.

Remember when we joined forces with The Victory Garden Foundation
in our local action for a global sustainable living and recruited many
people for the 10.10.10 Global Work Party at Kenney Cottage
Community Garden? See video and photos >> click.
The 10.10.10 Global Work Party was initialized by 350.org and we are
glad we took on the challenge. Members of FKCOG went to the
Green Gathering at Berkeley City College last Saturday November 6
and learned from Bill McKibben of 350.org himself what 350 is.
As we all know, the earth’s atmosphere is made up of gasses such as
oxygen and carbon dioxide. Many scientists, climate experts, and
progressive national governments are now saying that
350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.
Our modern way of life, from what we eat, what we buy, how much
time we spend under the shower to how we get around, depends on
energy sources like coal and oil which are fossil fuels that have been
formed for millions of years from dead animals and plants buried in the
earth’s ground. These non-renewable resources emit carbon dioxide and
other heat-trapping gasses into our planet’s atmosphere. As cities all
over the world grow at a fast rate the amount of carbon released into
the atmosphere exceeds the 350 parts per million safe limit. By now
our planet has 392 parts per million of CO2 and this number is rising
by about 2 parts per million every year. Please keep helping us in
making Kenney Cottage Community Garden a success. It’s the least
we can do in solidarity with our brothers and sisters from all over the
world to reduce CO2 emission and hopefully bring it back to somewhere
under the 350 parts per million limit. Community gardens help to
localize our food system, thereby reducing carbon, and
each plant’s need for CO2 during photosynthesis helps clean the
atmosphere of too much carbon.

     Above: Bill McKibben and FKCOG ADA Coordinator Shira Leeder at the
                   Berkeley Green Gathering 2010


Also, continue to watch out for upcoming Cottage Work Days
to restore the façade of the historic Kenney Cottage. If you are
interested in architecture and want to gain experience in restoring
buildings contact us.
 
Once again we cannot thank you enough for your continuous support.
 
To donate to FKCOG, mail donations to:
 
Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association
2318 Durant Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
 
Donations can be made in the form of cash or check
(made out to BAHA with FKCOG Match in the Memo).
 
 
Sincerely,
 
FKCOG Team