To close out Autism Acceptance month, we are happy to reprint these comments from the Arc of Indiana by Carol Quirk, an ally, on her growing understanding of the many abilities of autistic individuals. Her insights provide much food for thought and capture what we know and experience so well here at Green Bridge Growers

I once thought autism meant a lot of inabilities: cannot talk, cannot switch topics, cannot give eye contact, cannot handle transitions or new routines, cannot read social cues, cannot control motor movements, etc. And I once thought some of the can-dos were not necessarily “adaptive” (as they say in the psychological and educational literature): perseverates on the same activity or conversational topic, gets anxious in uncertain situations, uses aggressive and/or destructive behavior, engages in self-injurious behavior.  In my early days as a professional, I assumed – as too many people still do – that intellectual disability was a part of the package.
 
So what happened to change my views on all of this? I got to know some autistic people who had acquired the ability to communicate, verbally or through pictures/typing, as well as some who did not yet communicate in any kind of traditional manner. I read the writings of autistic people. I listened to parents who said that, despite the testing results, they KNEW that their child was smart and understood what was going on. I listened to them say that their child was not only empathetic, but almost preternaturally so. I began to “presume competence” rather than make assumptions on face value. And I paid attention (or at least tried) in order to interpret meaning from the point of view of the people I met, not just from my own neurotypical point of view. There are still too many people who make important life decisions FOR autistic children and adults based on limited understandings and prejudicial attitude. Too many professionals have not really known, loved, or spent personal time with an autistic person; but rather base their authority on their professional training alone. Non-autistic people need to know and be helped to understand that our life experiences cannot be used to judge or value the behavior, appearance or needs of an autistic person.
 
We non-autistic people MUST listen and learn from those who are autistic. We must do what we can to support self-advocacy and dispel the myths about autism in the public and professional communities. The autistic community must remain vigilant in its outreach, community education, and demand for inclusion in public policy decisions. Awareness of what it means to be autistic is still lacking for the world at large. Acceptance of autism as a natural condition in the human experience is necessary for real dialogue to occur. That is my hope.

- Carol Quirk, Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education

 thOn April 2, in honor of World Autism Day,  the Comprehensive Autism and related Disabilities Education and Training (CADET) Academy released a livestream of a virtual discussion panel about inclusion in the workplace for autistic people. One of the panelists was Dr. Stephen Shore, a professor at Adelphi University in New York who is on the autism spectrum. Dr. Shore is somebody I’ve learned from through his autobiography Beyond the Wall and through Living Along the Autism Spectrum, a DVD documentary that involves a dialogue between Dr. Shore and another expert on autism who is the father of a son on the spectrum.

The April 2 discussion provided a lot of useful information on inclusion and helping those on the spectrum develop interests which might potentially lead to a career.  Dr. Shore said that when he was very little, around 18 months old, he began showing many of the symptoms of autism. It took his parents about a year to find a doctor who could diagnose him. When they found someone, the doctor said, “We’ve never seen such a sick child,” and they recommended institutionalization. But fortunately, his parents advocated on his behalf, and they convinced the school to enroll him after about a year. During this year, his parents implemented what most people today would call an intensive home-based early intervention program. This program paid off, and his speech began to return at age four. He says the reason the program was successful was because his parents stopped trying to get him to imitate them, and instead imitated him. Doing this helped him become aware of them in his environment. He said that a prerequisite to doing successful work with an autistic person is developing a trusting relationship with them, and meeting them where they are.

Dr. Shore said that introducing children to household chores at a young age can prepare them for having a job when they get to be adults, because doing chores is similar to employment in that it has to be done on a regular basis every day whether you want to or not, and that you have to achieve a certain proficiency with your chores the way you do with employment.

When he was in his late childhood and early teens, Dr. Shore did a paper route, dropping off newspapers at people’s doorsteps. That was another way he was exposed to employment early on. He also taught himself how to take bicycles apart and put them back together again. This allowed him to ask the people he met on his paper routes if he could fix their bikes for them. That was another way he was able to earn money.

He also spoke about some of the challenges he experienced in terms of employment. He used to work at a restaurant cleaning tables, but it was a very bad job for him, and a bad fit for him. There was too much noise for him, and it was a sensory overload for him. It led him to realize that he needed to find a job that was 1. not only something he was good at, but also 2. something that he enjoyed and that allowed him to use his strengths.

Dr. Shore said that he eventually got to the point where he was able to build his own bicycle entirely from the ground up. After this happened, he started biking to all the bike shops in the area to show off his bike to the manager, and talk to them about bikes, and after a period of time, he would ask them for a job. It took him 12 tries, but on the 13th time, he finally found a manager who would hire him. He said that looking back on this experience, what’s important for job-seeking autistic people to do is to find a way to actually show your prospective employers the work you’ve done in the domain you’re interviewing for, to lay it out for them to see for themselves. That allows you to sidestep all the parts of a formal interview process that are difficult for people on the autism spectrum.

So, he said, one of his suggestions is for people supporting an autistic individual to learn the strengths and abilities of the individual, usually by observing them.

Dr. Shore said grade school was hard for him. He was bullied often, and his teachers didn’t understand him. He spent most of his time in grade school reading books about topics that interested him, like astronomy, aviation, volcanoes, earthquakes, weather, etc. He said his obsession with science books meant his teachers didn’t know how to reach him, but at the same time, they mostly left him alone to continue reading because he wasn’t a behavior problem. Back then, not much was known about autism.

He said middle school and high school were actually easier for him than elementary school, because it allowed him to focus on his interest in music. He joined the band. Being in the band was a structured activity for him. He learned how to play almost all the instruments in the band. So when he went to college, he discovered that one of the requirements for music education was that you had to learn how to play all the instruments. Since he already knew most of them, that seemed to be a good career fit for him. He was able to help pay his tuition by doing bicycle repair.

So in short, he was able to succeed by finding his abilities and areas of interest and focusing on them. He said that same lesson can be applied to all people on the autism spectrum, no matter where they fall on the spectrum.

I hope some of this is helpful to other people on the autism spectrum, whether they’re employed or not. It was definitely helpful to me. I learned a lot from this panel.

​-Chris Tidmarsh

So many of you who are our supporters are interested in aquaponics as a growing method. Here’s a little more background about aquaponics, how it works, and its advantages. 

Aquaponics is actually the combination of two different farming methods, aquaculture (raising fish in a man-made system) and hydroponics (growing crops in a man-made aquatic system without soil). Aquaponics uses both fish and plants together in the same system. The fish and plants help each other—the waste from the fish helps to fertilize the plants, and the plants clean the water for the fish. Aquaponics is a closed-loop system, so the water in the system can continue to be reused after it cycles through the entire system. It mimics a natural ecosystem by taking advantage of the relationship between fish, plants, and bacteria to create a self-sustaining environment for all three of them, in a way that aquaculture and hydroponics individually do not.

After we feed the fish, the fish eat their food and excrete waste. Most of this waste is in the form of ammonia. Bacteria in the water convert the ammonia first to nitrites and then to nitrates, which the plants use as food. The fish, the plants, and the beneficial bacteria all depend on each other. The bacteria depend on the fish for nitrogen, the plants depend on the bacteria to convert the nitrogen to a form the plants can use, and the fish depend on the plants to absorb the nitrogen and clean the water. We do need to check the chemistry of our water frequently, including pH and nitrogen levels, because that indicates the health of the system and our fish.

Aquaponics is a very efficient method of growing crops, since it uses a minimum amount of water and space and reuses waste. Aquaponics provides food in the form of vegetables and herbs, and fish can also be raised sustainably in aquaponics. For us at GBG, we presently grow non-edible fish such as koi, which are able to tolerate a wide range of temperatures and are especially well-suited for aquaponics operations in colder climates.

Some of aquaponics’ main benefits include the fact it reduces back strain on people, limits small animals’ access to your garden, and only uses one-tenth of the water that soil-based gardening uses—and even less than that for hydroponics. It also doesn’t create toxic runoff from wastewater the way hydroponics and aquaculture do. Also, gardening chores are greatly reduced; you mainly need to focus on tending to and harvesting the plants as well as feeding the fish. Also, a couple other benefits are that growing plants in water eliminates the possibility of soil-borne diseases, and that the plants are free of pesticides and herbicides and the fish are also free of growth hormones and antibiotics.

Although aquaculture and hydroponics have only started gaining traction within the last half century, these growing methods have both been around for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years. The earliest known instance of hydroponics dates back to 1000 AD, when the Aztecs grew plants on rafts on the surface of lakes. As for aquaculture, in ancient times many farmers grew rice in rice paddy fields, and introduced fish to the water. This second example is similar to modern aquaponic farming, in how the fish and plants both live together in a body of water and form a symbiotic relationship with each other.

Various kinds of vegetables and herbs can grow well in aquaponics, such as herbs and greens including lettuce, basil, Swiss chard, kale, sorrel, and many others. Among the best kinds of fish to use in aquaponics are tilapia, catfish, trout, bass, goldfish, and koi. A general rule of thumb is that warm, fresh-water fish are the best kind of fish to use, and leafy crops like greens, herbs, etc. are the best kinds of plants to grow.

If you’re wondering if aquaponics is commercially feasible, a study from Purdue University discovered that commercial-scale aquaponics is indeed feasible, but only if aquaponics produce is sold as organic produce beginning in the third year of aquaponics business. Also, I would like to add that vegetable growing is the main source of revenue for aquaponics systems, and that the use of tilapia in aquaponics is currently not profitable. The kind of fish we use in our system is koi, which we chose to avoid problems with using tilapia or other similar fish, and to avoid needing to filet the fish ourselves.

My favorite part about aquaponics is that it doesn’t require as much watering as conventional farming. Also, the plants don’t need to be fertilized, since the fertilizer comes from the fishes’ waste. Also, the crops grow faster in aquaponics than in the soil and we enjoy the process of seeding, transplanting, tending to our plants, and harvesting them for the community. It’s been a great way to grow and we look forward to continuing to grow on and up with aquaponics!

-Chris Tidmarsh

Many people grow seeds by buying seed packets from a store or from an online seed catalog. But you can also save seeds from plants you’re already growing. Doing this is a good way to save money and become self-sufficient with seeds, reducing your dependence on seed companies. Saving seeds also helps to preserve genetic diversity, and helps growers ensure that the crops they grow taste exactly the way they like.
 
Tomatoes, peppers, beans, and peas are great choices for plants to save seeds from. They have self-pollinating flowers, as well as seeds that don’t require any special treatment before being stored. But they’re not the only choices, of course. I’ve successfully grown melon seeds I’ve saved. I’ve also saved sweet potato tubers to plant again next year (which is technically a tuber, not a seed, but it’s still the same basic idea).

Plants with separate male and female flowers, like corn and vine crops, can cross-pollinate. As a result, it’s hard to keep the seed strain pure for these crops. For example, sweet corn can get pollinated by popcorn in a nearby garden on a windy day. This will impact the flavor of the resulting corn, and the ears “will be neither good sweet corn nor good popcorn.”

Aside from corn, cross-pollination doesn’t typically affect the quality of the current crop, but it can affect the quality of the next generation of crops whose seeds are saved from the current plants.

When you save seed, be sure to choose open-pollinated varieties, rather than hybrids. Open-pollinated varieties produce offspring that are similar to the parent plant. On the other hand, hybrids produce offspring that aren’t necessarily similar to the parent plant. Hybrid seeds can contain any combination of the good and bad traits from the parent plant.

When you store the seeds over winter, store them in a tightly sealed glass container. You can store more than one kind of seed in the container, if you keep the different varieties of seeds in separate paper packets, while storing them all in the container. Keep the seeds cool and dry. A refrigerator is a good place to store them. Also, be sure to write down the crop name, variety, and the date you saved the seeds, and be sure to use the seeds within one year after you save them.

If you’re saving tomato seeds, then the best thing to do is to put the seeds and pulp in a jar to ferment before removing and drying. If you simply squeeze the seeds out of the fruit and let it dry, many of them will grow, but you’ll have a better germination rate if you allow the seeds and their pulp to ferment before drying the seeds.

I hope this helps you get started with seed saving. Good luck!

Welcome back to the third summer edition of Inside the Garden With Green Bridge Growers. So far we have focused on our pollinators and pollination. This blog is no different! We want to express the importance of growing a butterfly flower or better yet a butterfly weed. To be honest, Monarchs love this native bloomer. A butterfly weed or Asclepias tuberosa is a good-looking, sweet-scented plant that attracts beneficial insects of all sorts. Let’s dive a little deeper, Asclepias is a relative to the common milkweed, but does not have the sticky sap associated with the taller plant. The butterfly weed is native to many parts of North America. Here’s a cool fact, if placed in full sun, its bold orange-red flowers can bloom continuously until the first frost! In addition, hummingbirds usually love these flowers, but deer and other pests typically do not eat it. They can usually grow in any type of soil, however this weed prefers poor to rich soil. We want to help you transform your garden and encourage you to plant butterfly weed!  

Here are a couple of tips when planting butterfly weed in your garden. 

1. Don’t plant in areas where water is likely to pool
2. Start either from potted plants or seeds. 
3. Plant this flower in its permanent location because its long taproot is not easily dug up. 
4. If you can, plant butterfly weed six weeks prior to winter because it will perform  significantly better.
5. Be mindful that this plant is considered poisonous. Be sure small children and animals do not touch or eat the plants as these toxins can harm mammals. 
6. New butterfly weed plants may benefit from a weekly watering until the taproot is well established. After that only water if there is an ongoing drought. 

 Recent statistics released by the World Wildlife Fund show that the numbers of monarch butterflies are unfortunately declining. With milkweed being replaced with genetically modified crops and urban population centers, it is becoming more difficult for the monarchs to find a healthy migration zone. Just as we have learned with the bees when things are not organic they tend to cause more harm than help. Common milkweed is the monarch’s favorite food, however the butterfly weed is another source that can help! Therefore, we need more butterfly weed planted.

​As you all know, at Green Bridge Growers we pride ourselves on being organic. We encourage, support, and motivate more gardeners to transform their gardens, if not already there, to be organic. This connects to butterfly weeds because they are rather impactful for the organic home gardens. Create a garden filled with butterflies by planting butterfly weed in your garden and help the movement to save monarchs.

--​Lala Petty

Welcome back to In The Garden With Green Bridge Growers. At Green Bridge Growers we love and appreciate our bees. We understand the importance of their vitality. We are here to help and encourage other farmers and home gardeners to take a lead role in rebuilding their bee habitat. 

Okay let’s get down to the nitty gritty! Many people are afraid of bees. When Bees come around people usually swat, run, or become super still. However, BEES ARE IMPORTANT to humanity for a very crucial reason. To be frank our food supply can be compromised without the bee population. Scary right? 

If you can remember from our first week’s blog, Bees were one of the common pollinators. They are responsible for pollinating all sorts of plants like strawberries, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and onions. Check this out, even dairy products are a part of a food chain that starts with bee pollination. 

So now that we all understand the importance of bees. There is a serious problem. The bee population is in big trouble! According to 101 Organic Gardening Hacks, by Shawna Coronado, the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers annual colony losses above 19 percent to be economically unsustainable. A full two- thirds of the American beekeepers are currently suffering losses at more than double that threshold. If this rate continues beekeepers will be out of business and guess what… supermarkets will soon follow. This brings us to say, it is now on us to change our ways to help save the bees. They help us, let’s help them. In your home gardens, you must stop using pesticides. At Green Bridge Growers we use innovative methods to grow sustainable, fresh produce for your table year-round. We grow organically and you can do the same!

Okay let’s tap into some tangible steps. 

1. The best thing to do is to start planting more pollinating plants organically- WITHOUT chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Let us remind you it does not matter if you have a small apartment or a large farm. Whatever steps people take will help the bees. 
2. Support local organically grown produce and honey in order to help local beekeepers in your area. Also keep in mind that there are more than just honey bees in the United States. Many other kinds of bees help pollinate our vegetables and we can help them too. 
3. Plant wildflowers and native plants that support the local bee population. In order to discover what these plants are, consult with your local extension office or independent garden center. 
4. When planting annual flowers, stay away from plants that might not attract bees. Focus on pollinator plants. 
5. Let herbs and other plants bolt and flower to feed the bees. 
6. Provide a fresh water source in your yard to keep the bees refreshed. 

We hope this encourages and guides you to make a difference in the garden and most importantly in bees.  That’s this week’s Inside The Garden With Green Bridge Growers. 

 --- Lala Petty

Hey there! Welcome to Inside The Garden with Green Bridge Growers. First let’s hit some basics about pollinators and pollination. You may be asking what’s so special about pollinators? What even are they? Some common pollinators are bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Pollinators are animals that move pollen from male structures of flowers to the female structures of the same plant species. The movement of this pollen results in fertilization of the flower’s eggs.

An adequately fertilized flower will produce seeds and the fruit surrounding seeds, ensuring that a new generation of plants can be grown.

Pollination is mutually beneficial to plants and to pollinators. So that means EVERYONE is happy and healthy! Yay! Diving in a little deeper, pollination results in the production of seeds and is necessary for many plants to reproduce. Therefore plants need pollination. Meanwhile, pollinators receive nectar and/or pollen rewards from the flowers that they visit.

Now let’s get more personal. Every garden should heed this advice: plant flowering native plants such as butterfly weed, Joe-pye weed, and gayfeather to support local indigenious pollinators. Here is a tip: gradually intermixing native annuals and perennial plants can help attract and feed pollinating insects. Plant pollen and nectar-rich plants with successive flowering seasons so that the plants can help provide for pollinators all season. Annual plants bring in pollinators, but they do not return year after year, therefore they cannot support the pollinators long term. Great annuals that support butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds include zinnia, flowering tobacco, lantana, and verbena.

Why Does Pollinator Support Make A Difference?

Pollinators are incredibly important to our ecosystem! Being that we are an organic farm, there’s something we wanted to share with you! It has been proven by the University of Sussex’s Laboratory that including organically grown native and non native pollinator-friendly flowers in your garden can attract and help support bees and other insects. This is important for gardeners everywhere because adding a small amount of pollinating plants to your garden can make a positive impact on your local pollinator population. That’s this week’s Inside The Garden With Green Bridge Growers.

- Carlondrea Petty

One of the easiest ways to compost your fruit and vegetable scraps is to do vermicomposting, or composting with worms. Vermicomposting is a great way to produce compost that can be used to fertilize crops, and in doing so prevents leftover food scraps from going to waste.

Typical earthworms you would find in your garden aren’t the kind of worm that’s best for vermicomposting. These kinds of worms live underground, can’t consume large amounts of food waste at a time, and don’t reproduce very well in confined spaces. Instead, you need a kind of worm called redworms, or red wigglers. Red wigglers reproduce rapidly and remain on the surface while feeding.

There are many kinds of bins that can be used to raise worms. Some of the most common ones are plastic bins. Bins should be well-ventilated, with many holes on the bottom and a couple rows of holes on the bottom half and middle of the bin. The bins should be raised off the ground, either with stakes or with legs attached to the bin, so that air can flow underneath the bin.

Before you add the worms, fill about half the bin with moist, shredded newspaper for bedding, and then add a handful of garden soil, which will add microorganisms to the bin which will help break down the food waste, as well as sand which “...worms use in their gizzard to grind food”.

Now it’s time to add your worms. You can buy your worms online. We have had good luck with Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. Now, place the bin in a cool, dark place where the temperature is more or less constant, where it won’t freeze in the winter or become too hot in the summer. Many people usually put them in their basement but you can also put it under your kitchen sink.

Worms do best when there are as few disturbances as possible. They dislike light, and whenever you open the lid, they stop feeding and seek cover below the surface. However, they still need food and water. Food waste provides some of the water they need, but you can also provide them with water by spraying the worm bed or by placing wet shredded newspaper on top of the bed.

You can feed worms most fruits, vegetables, and other kitchen prep waste. Make sure to provide the worms a balance between nitrogen-rich food (fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh grass, seaweed, etc.) and carbon-rich food (paper, dead leaves, sawdust, etc.) Be sure to observe which foods your worms like the best. Don’t feed your worms meat, dairy, or fatty or oily or fermented foods since these will attract pests and cause foul odors and cause your worms to leave the bin. Also, be sure not to give your worms too much food at once.

As the worms eat the food you give them, they excrete dark casts, close to black, as their poop. These casts are very dense in nutrients and microorganisms, and are highly regarded for their ability to help plants grow.

Eventually the worm castings will need to be harvested. One method for harvesting the castings is the “dump and sort” method. First, dump the contents of the worm bin on a tarp in a lit place. Separate the castings from the uneaten food, and place the castings in several cone-like shapes. Since worms don’t like light, they will flee from the part of the cones that are exposed to the light, and move towards the center of the cone. Slowly scrape away castings (without removing any worms) from the top and sides of the cone until the worms are visible again. Eventually, you will be left with a small pile of worms. You can then put the worms back in the bin, and use the castings you have harvested.

Be sure not to let the bin get too wet, otherwise it can cause foul odors from anaerobic decomposition. But also be careful not to let it get too dry, otherwise it will slow down worm feeding and growth. Putting wet newspaper in the bin can increase moisture, and putting dry newspaper in can decrease moisture. The kind of food you put in the bin can also affect the level of moisture. Food that is left uncovered can attract fruit flies, but you can control them with fly traps, made of “...a small container with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a reversed conical lid with a small hole cut at the bottom of the cone.”

Now that you know how to take care of composting worms, go out and try it yourself!

You’ve likely heard the expression, “Laughter is the best medicine,” more times than you can count. When it comes to his performances, 24-year-old Canadian Michael McCreary is counting on the fact that comedy really does make a lot of things better.

Michael is known as the “Aspie Comic,” and he’s been doing stand-up comedy routines since he was 14. In a profession that relies on a quick wit and making connections with strangers in a crowd, Asperger’s may seem like an improbable fit. However, Michael says that his autism provides the fuel for his comedy. “Comedy is one of the only mediums that turns failure into a strength — turns it into something you can use to entertain people.”

During tough times in grades 7 and 8, his parents encouraged him to write out his feelings in a journal. The journal soon gave way to any piece of paper he could find, and the venting soon turned into punchlines. As so many comics before him have also discovered, Michael realized that when he made fun of himself onstage, he could get the last laugh.

Michael describes himself as an extrovert, yet shares that it’s hard to be surrounded by so many people every day and be unable to form a connection with any of them. His comedy helps him form that connection through laughter. While some may say the laughter is coming at his own expense, as he makes jokes out of some of his life experiences, Michael is only too happy to do it. “It’s less like a comedy show and more like group therapy,” he said.

Of his performance, his mother says, “I love the way…the audience responds to it… There’s a lot of people who follow him that are also on the spectrum…and it helps teach them how to manage it, how to laugh at yourself, how to laugh at other people or laugh at people who laugh at you.”

Michael has performed more than 150 times, mainly at autism conferences, but is working on going more mainstream; to reach more people in his quest to redefine “normal.”

As for his audience, Michael says: “I’m hoping that they laugh first, and learn second. I’m hoping they have a good time, but retain that we can also laugh…we also have a sense of humor…we can belong as well.” When asked to define “we,” he clarifies, “People with Asperger’s, autism, on the spectrum, you know? We also have a sense of humor.” Michael has also just written a book, “Funny…You Don’t Look Autistic.” Reading it, there’s a lot for everyone to learn about Michael’s experiences as an individual with autism and the gifts he brings to the world.

As Autism Awareness Month comes to a close, we’re delighted to highlight Michael and all he does to bring understanding and acceptance on behalf of the autism community.