Share your stories and recipes with us!

The St. Francis AgriCulture Exchange is looking for recipes, cooking and gardening tips, and short stories/vignettes that have inspired you, your family and/or your health.  

Remember, you may not have a recipe, but a story from your Mom in the kitchen, your Grandfather in the garden, a funny joke about gardening/health/eating, an experience with food/cooking, a shortcut in the kitchen or garden, or a lifestyle change that has improved your overall health….we want to hear about it! 

The Exchange plans to collect submissions and create an inspiring anthology, giving recognition to contributors.  The book will be sold to the public with all proceeds going to the St. Francis Community Garden.  Specific guidelines for recipe submissions are below:

RECIPE GUIDELINES

1. Must be an original recipe (not from a cookbook or from the internet).
2. Recipe should not contain ingredients from processed sources (i.e. canned soup, canned biscuits, boxed crackers and cookies).
3. Recipe should incorporate at least one fruit, one vegetable, or one herb (i.e. berry banana smoothie, tomato pie, ginger marinated Portobello mushrooms, savory sage chicken).

Submissions are due by April 5th, 2012. Though we may not be able to incorporate all entries, we truly appreciate every submission in support of the Community Garden!  For more information, please contact Natalie Dougherty at 255.1326.   

Bon Secours St. Francis AgriCulture Exchange

Some of you may have noticed a change in the name on our Facebook page.  The St. Francis Community Garden is only one of Community Ministries’ programming and outreach efforts in sustainability.  We also mentor and support other gardens; offer assistance with environmental questions; help set and achieve the St. Francis Green Team’s ecological goals; help plan the health system’s Earth Week activities; and teach about sustainable living, gardening, healthy food preparation and food preservation.

To better represent our scope, we’ve rebranded as the St. Francis AgriCulture Exchange.  We recently finished a vision statement that we believe reflects our goals and philosophy:

The St. Francis AgriCulture Exchange provides leadership in sustainability and collaborates with community partners to educate the greater Greenville community in gardening, environmental stewardship, and healthy food preparation and preservation. We welcome the exchange of ideas, strategies and resources that encourage development of a healthy food culture and secure local food system.   

We’ve also created of list of our current programs:

Community Garden Program:  We manage the St. Francis Community Garden and support the Odessa Street Garden.  Expansion plans for 2012 include the addition of berry bushes to all gardens, financed through the generosity of the Greater Greenville Master Gardeners and Trees Greenville, and the incorporation of other gardens into our mentoring program.

Agricultural Education Program:  Our Sustainability Specialist and other experts teach classes on topics such as garden design, organic gardening techniques, backyard homesteading, season extension, herb and fruit propagation, seed saving and seed starting.  We also are supporting the development of urban farms, beginning in the Sterling Community.

Sustainable Living Program:  Our Sustainability Specialist and other experts teach classes on healthy food preparation; food preservation (drying, canning and freezing); “green” home cleaning and personal care products; and sustainable practices.  

This year, we’ll be announcing new events that will raise both program funds and community awareness.  We hope that you will join us in celebrating our transition from a community garden to a community support system focused on collaboratively creating a vibrant, healthy, local food system in Greenville.