Blog
(585) Magazine Features LFC!
(585) magazine, greater Rochester’s only city-regional magazine, launched in May 2013 and covers food and drink, culture, destinations, and personalities in the region. And now it covers the Little Flower, too! Pick up the latest issue for a look at LFC as Rochester’s magazine media sees us! (And if you can’t find a copy, read the snapshot we took of it here: click here to read page one, and click here to read page...
read moreMushroom Cultivation Workshop!
It’s cold outside! So today we’re reminiscing about planting garlic, harvesting veggies, saving seed…and establishing mushroom gardens! So join the Little Flower Collective later this year for our annual Basic Outdoor Mushroom Cultivation Workshop! Learn how to establish mushroom patches within your veggie and plant beds, plugging logs and other techniques that ANYONE can do using a few readily available/free materials! It’s a blast and it includes a delicious lunch! A lunch that will be loaded with local organic ingredients, local foraged mushrooms and LOVE!! Please join us! Support and help create mycelial connections that will fruit change, food and sustainability! So stay in touch, and drop in when the sun comes back out,...
read moreLittle Flower In The News!
The LFC is the D & C headline story on intentional communities! “It was the monthly Tuesday night potluck at Little Flower Community on Parsells Avenue in the Beechwood neighborhood, and the crowd was the sort to make a fire marshal antsy — but a community organizer proud… Click here to read about what Rochester’s top media have to say about the Little Flower!
read moreBest Wishes, Jesse and Mary!
Little Flower residents Jesse and Mary were married August 31st in a ceremony followed by a post-wedding reception / brunch / potluck at Pavilion Lodge in Ellison Park attended by one and all, young and old; and a great day and a great time it was for all. To learn more, visit the couple’s Facebook page. Needless to say, everyone in the Little Flower Community, and beyond, wishes Jesse and Mary a wonderful future, a long life, and great happiness.
read moreRe-Elect Greg Young!
Back in 2013, the wise voters of Gloversville NY elected Greg Young, one of the founding fathers of the Little Flower Community, as Fifth Ward Supervisor. Woo-hoo! Smart move, lucky people of Gloversville! But time has passed and a new election looms. So let’s get cracking and re-elect Greg starting today! Learn more about Greg’s views and candidacy at www.gregforgloversville.com
read moreDouble Holiday Potlucks!
Join us on Tuesday, December 23rd at 7PM for our “A Festivus for the Rest of Us” Potluck at 499 Parsells! What, didn’t we have one on the second Tuesday already? So what! Two evening potlucks in one month is our present to all of you from all of us at the LFC. So bring a vegan-friendly dish to pass, along with witty conversation, personal charm, and general coolness. Food should be low-fuss and related to this month’s theme — Seinfeld! (Or at least the ’90s, if possible.) Absolutely NO holiday-themed food or clothing, please. We gather to proclaim the non-commercial miracle of Festivus for the rest of us. And remember: bring your kids, bring your wife, and bring your husband, bring your A.L.F. (remember Alf?), cuz everybody likes to eat. P.S. – What? You say two potlucks isn’t enough? Fine, fine. Let’s make it three! December 24th at 6 PM, whether you’re burning the midnight oil, waiting on the jolly gent, or getting the Ujima flowing, it’s guaranteed to be an evening of food, friends, and general merriment if you stop by the Little Flower at 499 Parsells! Perchance, Jesse “The Gray” Ghost of Christmas past, present, and future will even make an appearance! You never know which Little Flowers you haven’t seen in a while will be there (unless you look on the Facebook event page and check out the RSVPs and then you’ll totally know which Little Flowers are traveling far and wide to be there this particular evening), and if you do or don’t, who cares? The Little Flower wants to see you...
read moreWrite For A Worker-Owned City!
The D&C recently quoted Mayor Warren referencing the “innovative efforts” of the the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, “where a network of worker-owned cooperatives — leveraged by area foundation and business investments, and tied into growing sectors of the local economy — are being developed in six low-income neighborhoods.” And hinted at the possibility of bringing something similar to Rochester. Read full article here. I would encourage you to (a) post an online comment to this article supporting the idea above — the number of comments also gives the D&C an idea of which topics are of interest to readers, and (b) to express your support for this idea to our mayor. I wrote to her via her facebook account earlier this morning (see below) and have already received a positive response. As a bonus, (c) reach out to your city council member and other elected representatives as well. As a point of reference, here’s what I sent: “Dear Mayor Warren, Some associates and I were just discussing the Evergreen Cooperatives and the potential benefits a similar program would have here in Rochester. Imagine our surprise when we came across the recent D&C article in which you reference the great work they are doing in Cleveland, Ohio when speaking of innovative efforts that could move people in Rochester out of poverty. I just wanted to thank you for your willingness to think outside the box. My hope is that this co-op model is an idea that you will pursue for our city. I will very much be looking forward to seeing further developments in this arena. Sincerely, Joe Di Fiore” If you’d like to contact Mayor Warren (or any other federal, state or local political official), you may want to browse the following online resources to find their contact information: I especially recommend: http://www.cityofrochester.gov/contactus/ That page will give you a list of nearly all City of Rochester officials and features their phone number. Click on their name link, and their direct email address pops up too....
read moreGandhi Institute In The News!
The M. K. Gandhi Institute (whose offices were built with the help of members of the Little Flower’s fellow co-op, Ant Hill) is taking a strong stand to stop violence in the community, and the media are taking notice: read the Time Warner feature article here. Recent instances of violence were addressed at the Institute’s 4th annual celebration this Sunday. Said Institute Director Kit Miller, “We have young people teaching young people,” through the institutes’ nonviolence clubs. The pilot program in its second year and is offered at select city and suburban schools, where teens are taught and teach each other Martin Luther King’s and Gandhi’s ways of non-violence. The clubs meet weekly. “We’re getting the kids skilled up and trying to get them to think critically about violence first and getting them to think critically about non violence and getting to understand it as an internal practice, a personal practice and a systemic way of thinking,” explained Miller. Learn more about the Gandhi Institute at their web site at www.gandhiinstitute.org ...
read moreLife On The Farm (with LFC)
The LFC got a mention recently in the GVOCSA newsletter, which is worth reading in itself. So we thought we’d share: Farm Update August 25, 2014 From Ammie Chickering, Peacework Farm All of the field tomatoes now have late blight except for “Defiant”, which was bred to be late blight resistant. On Friday, we picked all of the green tomatoes that looked good from the 3 varieties that had shown some resistance to the blight. By today, blight spots were showing on several. We will continue to monitor them and throw out the ones showing blight. If there are enough left by this Thursday & Sunday, we will put them in your shares. Please use them quickly. If blight spots develop, cut them out. The rest of the tomato should be fine if it feels firm and smells fresh. This week’s shares: Full Shares: choice of chard or kale (chard for Newark shares), potatoes, summer squash, basil, onions, cherry tomatoes, hopefully green tomatoes, possibly tomatillos or possibly a tomatillos/hot peppers/sweet peppers choice. Partial Shares: choice of chard or kale (chard for Newark members), cucumber, carrots, onions, cherry tomatoes, hopefully green tomatoes. Last year, late blight wiped out all of our tomatoes before we had any ripe fruit. This year, it’s been interesting (very sad but interesting) to watch its progress. The two heirlooms we grew lots of because they’ve shown some resistance in the past (Ruth’s Perfect and Striped German) only got us an extra week or two of ripe tomatoes before succumbing. The Striped Germans make huge fruits that are slow to mature so very few of them made it. What’s fascinating is the Striped German plants still look healthy but all of the fruits have been blighted. The cherry tomatoes are mostly hanging in there in their hoop house. The blight is slowly spreading on the plants but the fruits still look very good. Closing the hoop house up at night seems to be helping. We’ll keep picking them for your shares as long as they last. We began harvesting the storage onions today. Most of the tops have fallen over and started to dry down in the field, which is our cue that they are ready. After pulling them, we lay them out on bread trays in the greenhouse to let the necks dry down completely. Then we put them in wooden crates and stack them in the barn with plenty of air space between the crates. The past few years, we have had terrible luck with “sour neck”: a disease that infects one leaf of the onion top and rots the corresponding layer of flesh in the onion. I read this past winter that if you purchase onion sets, you shouldn’t grow them anywhere near the onions you start yourself from seeds because of possible disease contamination. We have always purchased some onion sets to get really early onions and scallions but we’ve always planted them in the same “allium block” with the onions, leeks, and scallions we start from seeds. For a proper crop rotation, you need to have 8 years between allium crops (which also includes garlic) on any piece of ground. To put another separate block in an 8-year rotation just to do onion sets seemed ridiculous so this year, we bought no...
read moreCapoeira!
Yes! Capoeira Angola Quintal Rochester is bringing a FREE capoeira mini-workshop and roda to Little Flower’s Sunday brunch! Don’t miss it! https://www.facebook.com/events/1505303486350025/ And for more on CAQ’s ongoing classes in Rochester, please visit http://www.rochestercapoeira.com/.
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