I was thinking this morning as I prepared the thank-you note for Delores for standing up for Loving Garland Green that we are making our own dreams come true. It's a rather amazing as well as empowering experience.  If you've read my posts, you know that I've expressed more than once the belief that a local plant-based economy can increase the health, prosperity and wealth of the local economy.  

Now, with our first fund-raising drive--Selling Texas Native Pecans for Holday Cooking--we are seeing that belief put to the test.  By using only found plants (pecans) taken from Garland parks, we will be creating at least $1,000.  Unfortunately, unlike some of our later examples, this money will not be circulated into our local economy.  Instead, $925 of it will go to pay for fees required to file as a nonprofit corporation in the state of Texas and then with the IRS.  Still, we are clearly demonstrating the ability to make money from plants grown locally in Garland.  

We plan to demonstrate this again in early March by selling bamboo poles to be used for plant stakes in local gardens.  Again, the materials for this fund raiser will also come to us free from Mother Nature as we will gather these poles from the bamboo forest at 4022 Naaman School Road--being careful, of course, to be prudent with the number of poles we harvest from the forest as we want to maintain the bamboo forest as one of the viable features of the Garland Urban Agricultura Center and Community Garden.  The bamboo forest as well as a walking lambyrinth are two features that we hope to have established as attractions in the early spring of 2014 as they both will require little work.

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Text from the Loving Garland Green Pecan Fund-Raiser Thank-You Note.  Call 972-571-4497 to reserve some pecans and you will get a similar note:

THANK YOU FOR LOVING GARLAND GREEN!

You have just purchased some Texas native pecans.  Members of Loving Garland Green, a soon-to-be Texas member-directed nonprofit corporation, handpicked these pecans from Garland Parks and packaged them for sale as a fundraiser in our community.

The pecan is native to Texas.  It is the official state tree and can be grown in every area of our vast state.  It is a part of Texas tradition.  The little Texas native pecans come with some good lessons for us all.  Among them is the lesson that "bigger is not always better."  The small Texas native nut size, alternate bearing, low yield and many other characteristics of native pecan production are a vital part of pecan survival in Texas and should be considered good.  Today's pecan growers push their trees far beyond the natural limits of production of native pecans.  Those of us at Loving Garland Green support and encourage crop diversity.  Thus, it should come as no surprise that we encourage the planting and use of Texas native pecans and especially their planting in our local parks.  The proposed site for the Garland Agricultural Center and Community Garden at 4022 Naaman School Road comes ready-made with at least 6 mature Texas native pecan trees.

You have joined the ranks of those who know that together as a community we can love Garland green.  By helping to increase the number of urban gardens within our city limits, you are also raising up many other desirable factors as well:  Increased food security for all; increased prosperity; increased self-sufficiency as a community and as individuals; a stronger economy; new job creation; healthier lifestyles; increased beauty; and more.  We thank you and look forward to working with you to discover more ways to increase the number of edible plants and people growing them in our community.

Our website, LovingGarlandGreen.org will be open to the public on Christmas Day.  Be sure to visit us there for more detail about our upcoming activities.  We hpe you will continue to walk with us on this trand adventure of loving Garland green.  Who knows where the road will lead us.