This is the first post from Big Ugly Community Center so here’s our update, and sorry for the delay! 

Thanks to the efforts of two college groups, a log-cabin style, three-sectioned compost bin has been constructed at the community center for our Grow Appalachia project.  Dumping food-scraps from the after-school program is helping to get the children involved in the gardening process, especially as we are in the midst of preparing raised beds to start planting with the children.  They will be participating in weekly Junior Master Gardener activities, for which we gratefully received a seed donation from Krogers. 

We’re on the home stretch with seed and plant orders for our families and have been getting those distributed along with the fertilizer (still waiting for soil test results).  Our next all-participant meeting will be next week, for which we’ve scheduled a visit from the WV Dept of Ag Health and Safety Coordinator to go over gardening precautions, particularly for the folks plowing and tilling.  We are establishing our workshops for the year and hope that West Virginia University Extension Agents will be visiting us to lead classes on soil, pest management and canning.  We’re also planning a trip to Huntington’s Kitchen for a healthy cooking class, and some potential face-time with Jamie Oliver.