City Roots

Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina was great- I had great friends, family, things I was involved in were lots of fun: Young Life, theatre.. etc. But as soon as I graduated my mentality was to get out! Not that I don't have incredible things here waiting for me when I come home... I think I just wanted to live differently. So here I am.. awaiting my last year of school, and hanging at home for a couple of weeks before I move back to Savannah. I find myself realizing that Columbia has changed a lot in 3+ years, or else Im just interested in different things and so I'm more aware. So its been my goal in these few short weeks to re-discover what Columbia has to offer.

Obviously I was introduced to the exciting world of farming this summer- so I decided to research different farms that I could go visit and possibly volunteer at. Today I worked at City Roots, Columbia's first urban sustainable/organic farm. Its within city limits- right next to the YMCA fields, and sits on not an enormous amount of land- but a pretty substantial bit for being in town. They grow vegetables.. in season now are: summer squash, cucumbers, okra, eggplant.. etc. But what is most interesting is their variety and amount of sprouts (or "micro-greens") that are available. They grow and harvest them in their large green house and produce types such as: sunflower, arugula, mustard, radish, water crests and snow pea. Basically they broadcast them, let them sprout- and within 7ish days they are ready to harvest. They are great for salads, greens for sandwiches.. etc. and are very rich in proteins and nutrients. They provide restaurants in columbia such as Shag Bistro, Rosso Trattoria Italia, Gervais and Vine, and Saluda's with fresh sprouts. They are also at a number of markets including the All Local Market at 701 Whaley (I got to check it out last weekend, its great!).

I love love love community supported business that in return support the community. I have learned that farms are just such community builders because everyone can relate in one thing: we all eat food.

Books Books Books

So here I am, back at home in good ol' columbia, SC after an amazing summer in Nashville, and also an amazing week at Young Life camp. I'm here until I go back to school in Sept (except for a little adventure in Colorado). The Lord slowed me down with a sinus infection, so I've just been resting and reading for about a week- and I'm ready to get moving! I've started to become so overwhelmed with the prospect of having a wide open door at this time next year- with so many possibilities, but not much direction as of yet. Whew! Here's to graduating and trusting the Lord that I will become a real person and a working member of society!

Here are a few things I have been working on as of late- some books made out of recycled boxes. Its been fun!:
I also had a bookmaking workshop in Nashville a couple of weeks ago, and it went so well! All the girls that were there really great and made really cute books! I'm hoping to have more workshops in the future!

Green Wagon

Yesterday I got an all-natural makeover at The Green Wagon. A store that sells all-natural, organic and locally produced household cleaning products, cosmetics, and apparel. Its just so much fun. The owner Jen comes to the potluck and we've gotten to talk about her purpose in owning a store like this and that is really to educate people in Nashville about the products and the importance of using natural products such as these. Just something that Is really neat.

Time Flys

Hello friends! I know I haven't posted in a bit, but a lot has been going on in the past 2 weeks- kind of a crazy transition time, but its been great! I've gotten to do some traveling and visiting friends, hanging around and preparing to end my internship in two weeks (crazy! I feel like I just got here!) I'm feeling tired- and not very wordy so here are some pictures from my past two weeks!This is what I've been working on recently- a color swatch booklet that is an example of all of the colors that the company can dye.

Gatlinburg, TN July 4th. 12:00 AM
Edgar Evins State Park- cliff jumping with my lovely roommie!

Indigo dying and starting a new vat. Here is my shout out to Nat, the other intern with me... she got in an awful biking accident 2 weeks ago and has been out of commission with a broken collar bone, rib, and stitches in the head. :(. She is recovering well though, and will hopefully be back to work soon, but its been a bummer to be without her!

Go Bees!

Yesterday we went to the community farm with Sarah, one of my boss's, who is also a bee keeper. We got to see her tend to her bees, and she also brought back some of the combs for us to harvest honey! It was so much fun.. we ate tons of raw honey right off the comb as we were scraping it into jars. I was trying to tell my roommates last night, as we were eating raw honey, green apples and cheese and drinking wine (how classy! haha!), that I'm just so excited about all that I'm doing this summer mostly because I feel so connected to the things that I'm eating, and the things that I'm doing. Like, I actually saw the bees that produced the honey that we ate.. or I actually am growing the flowers and plants that we will harvest and then dye with. A guy that is asociated with the farm that I work at brought a baked chicken to the potluck last week that he raised, slaughtered, and then baked himself... its so much more connected and invested than buying an already baked chicken from Kroger (not that thats a bad thing). I'm just loving this!!

Artisan Natural Dyeworks

Here is the link to the Artisan Natural Dye works website. The company that I'm interning at: previously known as Ask Apparel is shifting into this new company who dyes fabric for other companies like Prophetik and Alabama Chanin. Here are some more photos of what we have been doing!

p.s I made this

check out this: and other great projects at p.s. I made this!