2nd Annual Harvest Festival Fundraiser

Live Animals Apple Cider Donuts Arts & Crafts Live Entertainment Local Artisans Food

Join us for an incredible day!

When: October 13th, 2012 (rain date October 20th), 12 pm – 4pm

Where: Wildcliff, 44 Wildcliff Rd, New Rochelle, NY

What to Bring: a blanket to spread out & relax on during live entertainment

Cost: $5 per person ($25 max per family)

Tax-deductable donations to JCW will be accepted (cash, check, or credit card)

Turns out, even as the previous post was being written, 501(c)3 approval was already stamped and just needed to be sent out to us. It officially arrived last week in the mail.

Now the next stage begins!

(Come see us at Harvest Festival, October 13th to find out more!)

In April, we planted a garden at Wildcliff. Since then, it has grown – and in some cases, OVERgrown (looking at YOU, parsley!) – as the rain and sunshine and earth do their thing.

Blackberry runners & tomatoes

During that time, the broccoli and cauliflower – the plants from the brassica family – looked to be the only things that weren’t doing so well. They were bitten up by something or other, and the tiny cauliflowers starting to grow turned brown and stopped getting bigger.

During that time, we’ve also been waiting for our official 501(c)3 status to come from the IRS; this has been a long time coming, and sometimes it gets frustrating when supporters ask, “How’s things?” to have to reply, “Still waiting.” Our major fundraising to renovate the building is in a holding pattern until that status arrives, and it can start to feel like we’re the brassicas at Wildcliff, leaves turning brown and fruit nipped in the bud.

And then! No, it wasn’t our status, but -

Then! This morning, after nearly a week’s absence, I went to check and GUESS WHO’S GROWN BACK! That’s right – the broccoli and cauliflower have new, beautiful blue-green leaves, and the plant that looked entirely bitten to the quick has sprouted new leaves as well.

Broccoli: it’s a fighter

The brassicas have continued to grow and thrive, even though it looked for a time like they were done for. There are even little cauliflowers starting to show.

And clearing away the old dead leaves from the new growth, I thought: this is the whole reason why we want Wildcliff to become a community resource so badly. This is why JCW is so committed to seeing the project through – because we should all have the opportunity to watch life’s tenacity in action.

We should all be able to witness nature’s amazing processes and model our actions on this beautiful, colorful world. To look at something that we’ve begun, and cared for, and see it grow against all odds, and say, “I can do that, too.”

We may have to wait a little longer for the fruit, but we’re not done growing. Not by a long shot. Never count out the brassicas.

And not just because it’s beautiful out–although it is. If you haven’t found a moment to get outside today, DO IT! You’ll feel 100 times better.

And 100 seems to be the magic number for today: we hit 100 “likes” on Facebook! WOOHOO!

We’re also just $100 short of our Kickstarter goal. What’s that, you’ve been meaning to donate and just haven’t had the opportunity yet?

There’s 8 days to go; check out Wildcliff Gets Its First Garden on Kickstarter.

Have a great weekend!

Ohhhhh yeah. We’re going to get outside, and you can join us on April 22nd from 10 am til noon. We’ll bring the seeds and flowers, you bring a blanket and a brunchy lunch, and we’ll all have a ball at the JCW Plant-and-Picnic.

Now, who wants cake?

More details here and here.
We just registered all over the place; we’re so excited we couldn’t help ourselves! We also couldn’t decide which spelling of the name of the event we liked best, so we tried it three different ways. Four, if you count our Kickstarter campaign to help defray the costs of the day. Check it out (did I mention it’s on Kickstarter?), and we’ll see you on the 22nd!