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PLEASE NOTE: In the autumn of 1995, we hatched the idea for a free, local gardening publication. The following spring, we published the first issue of Michigan Gardener magazine. Advertisers, readers, and distribution sites embraced our vision. Thus began an exciting journey of helping our local gardening community grow and prosper.
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Archive for the Food tag

Detroit’s Bandhu Gardens sells harvest and shares Bangladeshi food culture

March 18, 2017   •   Leave a Comment

Bandhu Gardens recently cooked bitter melon (pictured) in a recent cooking class. (Photo: https://www.instagram.com/bandhu_gardens/)
Bandhu Gardens recently cooked bitter melon (pictured) in a recent cooking class. (Photo courtesy: @bandhu_gardens)

NPR:

One hundred seeds: That’s the number Minara Begum needs to plant in her Detroit backyard in order to grow enough vegetables such as squash, taro root and amaranth greens to feed her family for the year.

She learned to cook and garden at a young age in Bangladesh. In the two years since she moved to the U.S., she’s grown traditional South Asian crops to feed her family — and whoever visits — on any given day. There’s always a pot, or several, on the stove.

For Begum, this is a way of life. But through Bandhu Gardens, in Detroit, Begum and her neighbors are able to leverage their culinary skills into an entrepreneurial venture.

Bandhu Gardens sells surplus vegetables that are grown in the backyards of about six families to a handful of popular area restaurants. Last year they sold 120 pounds of greens, beans and peppers and 25 pounds of squash to restaurant accounts.

Read the rest of the story…

Filed Under: Clippings Tagged With: Bangladesh, Bangladeshi, Bhandu Gardens, detroit, Eastern Market, Food, vegetables

Making Food From Flies

October 2, 2013   •   Leave a Comment

NPR:

In the quirky little college town of Yellow Springs, Ohio, home to many unconventional ideas over the years, there’s now a small insect factory.

It’s an unassuming operation, a generic boxy building in a small industrial park. It took me a while even to find a sign with the company’s name: EnviroFlight. But its goal is grand: The people at EnviroFlight are hoping that their flies will help our planet grow more food while conserving land and water.

They don’t expect you to eat insects. (Sure, Asians and Africans do it, but Americans are finicky.) The idea is, farmed insects will become food for fish or pigs.

Read the full story here…

Filed Under: Clippings Tagged With: flies, Food, insects

Grand Rapids bets big on Food

November 26, 2012   •   Leave a Comment

New York Times:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The idea of building a year-round public market to tie the city’s skilled chefs to the region’s big complement of young farmers had already attained an air of inevitability by the time this Midwestern city held its first Restaurant Week three summers ago.

Next year, just in time for the fourth annual Restaurant Week, Grand Rapids is scheduled to open the $30 million, 130,000-square-foot Downtown Market, a destination that is expected to attract 500,000 visitors a year. The three-story brick and glass building, under construction in a neighborhood of vacant turn-of-the-20th century warehouses, is intended by its developers to be a state-of-the art center of commerce for the culinary arts and fresh local foods.

Read the full story…

Filed Under: Clippings Tagged With: Culinary, Farmer’s Market, Food, Grand Rapids, Market

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