If this newsletter has an "asparagussy" flavor to it, it's all wishful thinking on my part.  My own bed just reappeared under the recently melted snow, but is still weeks away from producing its first spear.   I am particularly excited about this year's crop because it's year three for this newly planted bed which means we can actually start to reap where we sowed. I was of course joking above the alarmist tone of some green groups; the environmental stakes are very high and we need to speak up and step up our efforts to avert a climate crisis.  We gardeners have a role to play in this by getting more people harvesting at home.

Speaking of harvests, I want to fill you in on some happy developments at KGI. But first a bit of history.  Regular readers of this space know that the idea of creating a global network of home-gardeners and home-cooks started in my own backyard in 2003.  I had been surfing the internet when I came across an announcement for "Snack Food Month."  It turns out that the world's largest manufacturers of processed foods join forces each February in a month-long marketing blitz for corn chips, pretzels, and fluorescent orange cheese thing-a-ma-jigs.  It was at that point that I decided that home-gardeners and cooks needed to get organized to promote another vision of good eating.

Four years and countless hours of volunteer work (mine and many others) later, we're really starting to reap where we sowed.  Here are some highlights of our accomplishments to date. 

1) Our network now includes over 3400 individuals from 80 countries.  These are people like you who sign up for the newsletter and stay signed up.  A growing number of you are answering our calls for financial and volunteer support.  I can't stress enough just how important this support is and will be if we're are going to take this organization to the next level.  As KGI's lead organizer and cheerleader-in-chief, I am working long hours for KGI, but still only drawing a symbolic stipend as the KGI board and I try to invest our modest resources in other ways. Growing KGI is a passion for me, but I'd like it some day to be a profession too, not just for me, but more importantly because I think the world needs a KGI, now more than ever.

2) Although we started virtually, we are starting to effect real change on the ground.  In the past month, we launched our first true local group in Kentucky called Kitchen Gardeners Bluegrass.  This group and other more informal groups of kitchen gardeners are bringing people together to share information, to eat delicious local fare, and to introduce more people to the pleasures and benefits of home-grown, home-cooked foods. Through our combined efforts, we have already helped to plant kitchen gardens behind homes, schools, and even churches.  We have over 400 people who have signed up to our local organizers e-list.  I will be working with them in the months ahead to get more local groups started and to organize more projects including backyard and community celebrations of Kitchen Garden Day (August 26th). 

3) Although locally-rooted, we are globally concerned and are reaching out in solidarity to kitchen gardening groups in other parts of the world.  We just recently received a report from our friends in Guyana on a project that we helped launch  As you will see, they are off to a good start but still need some assistance.  As we grow, we hope to be able to help more groups, near and far, through philanthropic giving.

4) Although not financially wealthy, we are rich creatively and are using these creative resources to get our healthy messages out in effective and cost-effective ways.  Our website, for example, receives more traffic than the sites of many food and gardening organizations that are many times our size, despite our annual budget being just a sliver of theirs.  Our online videos (1 2 3 4 5) are proving popular.

In the past couple of months, I've resisted my introverted nature to speak to a number of gardening groups in Maine and New England about KGI and have had very good feedback.  Next Saturday, April 28th,  I'll be manning a booth at the NYC Grows festival in Union Square Park. I still don't know exactly what I'll be doing in that booth, but if you live in or close to NYC, be sure to come down and say "hi".

Last but not least, we are laying the groundwork for a bigger and better version of the kitchen garden visibility project we ran last year for the first time.  We have given it a new name (the "Grow-Off Show-Off" contest) and are happy to have signed on Mother Earth News as our co-sponsor.  There'll be over $1000 worth of prizes not to mention a lot of fun to be had.  I'll give you more information about that next month, so stay tuned and get ready to strut your gardening stuff, whatever that may be.  

All of this long-winded update is to say "we're on the right track" and "thanks" to all of you who have helped already in some way.   As in the garden, many hands make light work.  Please think about how you might get more involved and let me know your thoughts and ideas by e-mail.