Greetings from Rockcastle County!   

ASPI received a visit from folks from Uplands Village in Pleasant Hill, TN.  Gail Ford and Jerry Ziegele came up to consult with us about their plans for building a more sustainable community at Uplands.  They were familiar with the many years of this kind of work that ASPI has been doing in Appalachia and wanted to get some first-hand information as well as see our demonstration center.  A big part of what the ladies were interested in talking about was food production.  They were impressed with the work that Grow Appalachia is doing and hope to be able to do something similar at their site.  They already are doing some gardening, but would like to expand their production to include most of the fruits and vegetables used at Uplands (a community of 300 retirees).  This project is still in the early stages and will, of necessity, be a long-term process.  Uplands is a retirement community with elders of varying abilities who are never-the-less very interested in growing their own organic food.

Nancy attended the Upper Cumberland Watershed Watch water quality training and has been re-certified for stream testing and will be out in the creeks this summer!

Mike has set a definite date for our ground-breaking work day of the Richmond St. community garden site.  Local Girl Scouts, the Mayor and numerous local citizens are expected to be there on Wed. the 15^th to build raised beds, install a sign, and do a bit of planting.  The Girl Scouts will be painting rain-barrels as well.  The newspaper has committed to covering the event.

The gardens at the ASPI site are beginning to look like something now, and home gardeners are reporting the beginnings of growth in their gardens.  Spring has definitely sprung!  Or is that summer?  What do you think of this weather?