Newsletters & Blog

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Donna Garrison Donna Garrison

Community Gardens Abounding On The Ridge Invite YOU To The Fun!

We have to say: the Ridge is the most active Community Garden region in Butte County. You have FIVE of them from lower Paradise to Stirling City. Did you know that? Let us introduce you to them so you can find your match:

Paradise Community Garden

The Team has been working like an ant farm behind the scenes and is now ready to get the beds in place and start growing! It's located on Déjà vu Nursery’s land, 5424 Foster (thanks for letting the community use the land, Cindy! ).

Show the community your love by joining“Make A Difference Day” on October 25.

From Aaron Singer (ED of Paradise Stronger the garden's fiscal sponsor): “ We have made some fantastic strides towards the Paradise Community Garden, we've secured funding, finalized the lease, finalized the MOU and begun forming a committee If you haven't already, please register at Love Paradise for this event.  Kickoff starts at the Terry Ashe Center

at 8:30, garden work starts at 9AM at 5424 Foster Rd. in Paradise. *Please bring your own gardening tools. Rakes, shovels, hoes, etc...

You’ll be helping to: 

Clear property  Trim Trees

 Build Garden Boxes

 Lay Cardboard over weeds  Decipher Garden Layout

 Hang Artwork Courtesy of Shelley Miller and Butte County Food Network  Possibly plant trees

Sign up and join your whole community for Make a Difference Day Love Paradise Day here. Find out more about the event by contacting Arron at aaronsinger@paradisestronger.org

Magalia Community Garden

The brains and brawn of the Magalia Community Garden just had an Open House and Dedication on Saturday! But don’t despair if you missed it. You can stop by at 13843 South Park Dr. The current scheduled work day is Wednesdays 9-noon.

It’s even on Google Maps!!

We have been so excited about this garden. These folks have really come far- fence, irrigation, boxes, art, Free The Food Stand, trees, Community Compost program…hundreds of

pounds of food…all since Spring this year!! The garden is a mix of private boxes and community growing spaces and they are already talking about expanding. Thanks to the Magalia Community Park for donating the land, irrigation and water!

From the Team: “We still have one large bed, one medium bed and an ADA compliant bed available. Please spread the word to anyone you know who might want to join us. Interested gardeners can email Jeanne Brovelli brovellijeanne@gmail.com for more info. You can also join our private FB group Community Gardeners of Magalia and/or contact Chris Rauen at Magalia Community Park Chris@magaliacommunitypark.org."

Paradise Neighborhood Garden

This is a sweet, newer, low key space on Jennifer and Mike Peterson’s land on Brookview, not far from the Ace Hardware Store. It inherited the boxes from the Paradise Guild’s old garden, and is becoming a hub for composting and bio-char. Stay tuned and come play as this gem grows into a vital part of the Paradise food and healing scene. Want to find out more? Join the Paradise/Magalia Gardens and Local food Facebook group.

Stirling City Neighborhood Garden

From the looks of the pictures on Facebook, this wonderful space is run by Yvette Ramierez and her crew. We have not yet made it up there but will soon but from the pictures it looks fantastic. Join in the fun and adventures as it continues to be a community hub waaay up the Ridge. Want to learn more? Reply to this email and I'll connect you with Yvette.

Bumblebee Garden

This delightful garden is BCLFN's very own piece of abundance beauty in Paradise! We are so blessed to be in partnership with Denofrios- Allison and Mike- to create community, grow food together, have neighborhood events and meetings and to inspire all with what can happen when you transform your yard into a budding food forest.

It’s time to clean up the Old and bring in the New (that would be the new Winter Garden at Bumblebee). Join us on Monday, October 28 from 9am to 2PM. Bring your garden gloves and a trowel if you have them and help us transition the garden for winter produce delights. Come on down to 253 Garden Terrace (right on the corner with Neal

Rd.) then or any time and pick a few weeds, take a bit of produce home breathe in the fresh air.

So now you know about your Community gardens…we invite you to join us!!

And if you like the work we do here at BCLFN please help us out…it will only take 3 minutes: You have an opportunity to help us make even more of a difference in our community.

GreatNonprofits-a review site like TripAdvisor-is honoring highly reviewed nonprofits with their 2024 Top-Rated Awards. Won't you help us raise visibility for our work by posting a review of your experience with us? All reviews will be visible to potential donors and volunteers. It’s easy and only takes 3 minutes!

Go to https://greatnonprofits.org/org/butte-county-local-food-network to get started! Thanks, much!

The Team At BCLFN

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BCLFN BCLFN

The Importance of Growing Your Own Food

The New Year is here and Spring is just around the corner ! What better way to start 2023 with a fool-proof way to improve your health in every way possible? What is the key to this you may ask, well I will share. Growing your own food! Planting, growing, and gardening your own fruits

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Pamm Larry Pamm Larry

Town Crier Alert 2- A Note Of Food System Urgency From Pamm Larry

In my ongoing Town Crier hat, I thought it important to update my Beloved Community about the ongoing food collapse. I know this is not fun to hear and we are all in overwhelm, but I believe it’s best to be real, especially since we can mitigate the impacts if we act NOW. I have…

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Donna Garrison Donna Garrison

Growing Beyond the System

by Wendy McCall, ExCom Chair The current food systems on which we all depend: our farmers, laborers, global and local connections are experiencing a collapse like dominoes falling, will have cumulative effects that will continue to wreak havoc on our food systems for years to come. The reality of this is already hitting us hard …

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Pamm Larry Pamm Larry

Pamm Larry to Hold Food System Talk

By KYRA GOTTESMAN | Correspondent August 19, 2022 at 4:00 a.m. OROVILLE – The collapse of the food system and how to mitigate its impacts will be the topic of a talk hosted by the Butte County Local Food Network on Saturday. The presentation by Pamm Larry, BCLFN director, is from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Riverbend …

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BCLFN BCLFN

Transition Time In The Garden

August has always been a time of transitions- school starts, the intense heat of the summer peaks and starts to decline and our gardens are in transition from summer crops to Fall and winter ones. It’s a busy time when we are re-adjusting to the lazy days of summer into the frenzy of harvest and …

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BCLFN BCLFN

Events, Community, Local Food Hooray!

Greetings, Local Foodie Friends: Enjoying the heat? It isn’t stopping us and others from getting out in community at local food events to celebrate our amazing community! Just bring that squirt bottle and our new found friend, a wet sarong to put over your shoulders and you’ll feel like you are in air conditioning…

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BCLFN BCLFN

Local Food Town Crier Edition

As summer progresses and the heat sets in, let’s give thanks for all the glorious bounty in our gardens and lives. We are pretty darn lucky to live in such a beautiful world at this moment in time. We are cherishing it. In the midst of so much going on “out there,” there is so …

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BCLFN BCLFN

We’ve Missed You!

Hello, Friends- How is your garden growing? It’s been a very long time since we’ve shared. We’ve missed you. As long overdue updates: We had an incredible BLITZ, with over 80 gardens installed. This brings total BLITZ gardens numbers which YOU, the community, have constructed and installed since March 2020 to 250 across Butte County! Thanks, again, …

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BCLFN BCLFN

Thank You BLITZ Volunteers

Friends! We could not have done this without you because YOU ARE THE GARDEN BLITZ!! Thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts for your open hearts, hands, strong backs and patience with the install loading process! You were amazing troopers. Know that you have done huge things for our community and our …

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BCLFN BCLFN

Deep Gratitude!

We hope you had, and continue to have, a grand holiday season, however you celebrate it! We, like the winter, have sort of pulled in and gone underground with the cold and rain and taking mental health days. But we did not want the year to end without a short note of huge gratitude, appreciation …

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BCLFN BCLFN

It’s Giving Tuesday – Double The Local Food, Double The Love!

This Giving Tuesday, we are inviting the community to come together to create a stronger, more secure food system by making sure all are fed. Your gift today will support at-risk families that continue to deal with the ongoing struggle of recovery from fires. And due to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the first $5000 …

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BCLFN BCLFN

Giving Tuesday Is Just A Week Away

Giving Tuesday is just a week away so we hope you keep your community in mind and become a member of the Farmers Marketmobile Angel Club. By joining in, you support local fire survivor families AND our our local farmers by providing fresh, locally grown food to those who need it most. How do your donations …

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BCLFN BCLFN

Giving Tuesday Is Coming!

Greetings- This is our first attempt at a larger fundraising campaign, so please bear with us. We are reaching out at this time to remind you that Giving Tuesday is November 30th this year. We are so blessed to a very generous donor pledge to match every donation up to $5000 to support Fire Survivor Families …

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Linen & Cassidy Linen & Cassidy

Farmers Marketmobile at Community Center on Sunday, 11/14

Greetings- Come on down to the Community Center on Sunday and get your local veggies! Please note: We have a different Fall schedule in alignment with the Community Center. We will be up there this Sunday the 14th, Nov. 21, Dec. 5 and 19. The Center has asked us to start at 10am to better align …

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Pamm, Toni, Donna, Jarrett, Ali, Amy and the rest of the BCLFN Gang! Pamm, Toni, Donna, Jarrett, Ali, Amy and the rest of the BCLFN Gang!

Composting, Local Food Security Forum, Hydrosols and more…

It’s that time of year, again, when the trees provide us with an abundance of brown matter for our compost bins and mulch for gardens. The leaves are falling, and aren’t they a gorgeous sight this year? The last few years there have plenty of golds and yellows but this year the reds are breathtaking! …

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BCLFN BCLFN

Got Seeds? Want Seeds?

Locally grown seeds matter Did you know that seeds acclimate to their region? Over the years, if you keep replanting with the generations of seeds produced in your garden, you will get varietals that have survived our unique growing conditions and create plants more suited to our bioregion. As this article states: “Local Seed is the Heart …

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BCLFN BCLFN

Life Is Peachy!

The air is getting cleaner and the mornings, at least, are cooler. It’s the season for O’Henry Peaches! Ever taste one? Rumor has it that in a sea of delicious peach varieties available over the course of our local peach season, they are the BEST that grow in this area. Their combined tang, texture and …

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BCLFN BCLFN

Smokin’ Yard Sale and Hot Pepper Sauce!

We hope you are taking good care with the smoke and having to hunker down again, due to fires. We, along with the rest of the community, are learning that it’s time to surrender to Nature and shift our lives accordingly. Our hearts and prayers go out to all in the mountains most impacted by …

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