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By Kerri Provost, March 14, 2013 3:21 pm

Holcomb Farm

The hand-wringing over access to fresh food in Hartford need not be. Besides the year-round farmers’ market on Broad Street, there are daily farmers’ markets running for about half the year in various neighborhoods. Another way to secure fresh, healthy food is to become a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share-holder.

CSA has existed in the United States for a few decades now and presents a way for farmers to be paid upfront, allowing them to spend more of their time growing food and less of it worrying about marketing.

It’s not without risk. If crops fail or are stolen, share-holders will not receive refunds, though farmers have ways to alleviate the loss, sometimes by extending the growing season.

Consumers experience advantages like being able to actually speak with the person who grew the food. In an age when labels do not tell the whole story — organic in what way? — there is value in being able to ask direct questions about the growing practices.

Serafina Says Farm

Pre-paying for an entire season’s produce — and in some cases, other goods — means walking away with edibles that a person might not have known existed, like kohlrabi and tatsoi. This opens the door for children, especially, to develop a taste for foods that are more sophisticated than what’s on kiddie menus. Being able to walk around the farm teaches about agriculture in a way that can not be taught in school.

Paying a large sum upfront may seem prohibitive, particularly for those in lower income brackets. The Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association even says that “CSA is not about cheap food,” adding that “cheap food” is “usually neither nourishing nor grown with care of the environment in mind.” The organization says, “CSA is about each of us being responsible.”

But how does one be responsible when her pantry is more ramen than caviar? Continue reading 'Hungry? It’s CSA Time'»

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By Kerri Provost, March 6, 2013 7:49 am

In Hartford, the Working Families Party has displaced Republicans as the minority party on City Council. We have three Registrar of Voters because of the strength of this third party.

Knowing this makes Hartford’s recorded results from November’s presidential election seem unlikely. How can a city with a sizable progressive-minded population only have two votes for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, and none at all for Stephen Durham, the Freedom Socialist Party candidate for president?

It can’t. Continue reading 'When Every Vote Doesn’t Count in Hartford'»

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By Kerri Provost, February 11, 2013 1:58 pm

Trinity Street in downtown has been plowed several times. Residents in some neighborhoods are still waiting for one plow.

The snowfall stopped two days ago, but residents are reporting that a number of streets have yet to see a plow. Streets described as not “open,” with open being defined “as the plow opening up the middle of road” were posted by residents on the Hartford Fire Department’s Facebook page. It is safe to assume that this is an incomplete report, as not everyone has access to Facebook.

If you want to know exactly which streets were reported as “not open” — which areas receive service and which do not — check out the map created by Real Hartford. The streets included on the map — marked with snowflake icons — were reported on Monday morning and early afternoon.

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By Kerri Provost, February 10, 2013 9:36 am

Frog Hollow residents began shoveling a path the width of a van down the middle of a one-way side street on Sunday morning. What started with a lone shoveler quickly snowballed into a community effort. Continue reading 'When the Plows Don’t Show'»

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By Kerri Provost, February 7, 2013 8:38 am

Updated at 4:15pm on February 13, 2013: The Hartford Public Schools are scheduled to re-open tomorrow, February 14th, with a one-hour delay.

Parents, you can all rejoice.

Updated at 6:30 pm on February 12, 2013: Mayor Segarra says, “We have approximately 550 streets and 500 curbside miles in Hartford and as of right now they are all passable, meaning emergency vehicles and cars can get in and out.”

The parking ban will be lifted at noon on February 13th for downtown. Vehicles were already parking illegally on Main Street this afternoon. [Note: The Courant is reported a different time for the parking ban lift. The time reported on Real Hartford is coming straight from a City of Hartford press release]

In a press release from the City of Hartford, it is stated that the parking ban will be lifted in the neighborhoods at midnight on February 13, 2013.

Vehicles parked in school lots need to be moved before 6a.m. on February 14th, as it is expected that the Hartford Public Schools will reopen on Thursday.

The Emergency Operations Center is slated to close at noon tomorrow.

Updated at 4:40pm on February 12, 2013:

All of Hartford Public Schools will be closed again tomorrow, Wednesday, February 13, 2013.

The Hartford Public Schools have had to contend with a series of concerns complicated by the slow snow removal from sidewalks and streets. Besides checking the structural safety of roofs, it’s been necessary to ensure that children can safely access bus stops. Anyone who has walked around Hartford since the storm can attest to the fact that there are few, if any, curb cuts in certain areas, meaning that pedestrians have to either climb over huge mounds of snow or walk in the roadway. As of Tuesday morning, the sidewalk on Lawrence Street around the Maria Sanchez School had not been cleared. Some schools lots continue to be used by neighborhood residents due to the ongoing parking ban. Continue reading 'Weather Information Without the Panic'»

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By Kerri Provost, January 31, 2013 9:20 am

On an evening when many were hunkered down during a bout of freezing rain, the top floor of 30 Arbor Street was abuzz. The former factory space hosted a pop-up marketplace, with vendors offering everything from vintage clothing at thrift store prices, to designer jeans at $200 a pair, to Valentine’s Day cards declaring that the lovebirds go together like pills and vodka. The music was loud and the vegan cupcakes were copious. This was on a Monday. Continue reading 'Leaders Discuss “What Makes a Strong Community?”'»

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By Kerri Provost, January 30, 2013 7:43 am

Residents will have a number of centers to choose from if they are seeking free assistance with tax preparation. These include the Hartford Public Library, HART, Mi Casa Community Center, Upper Albany Neighborhood Collective, Urban League of Greater Hartford, Village for Families and Children at Clark Elementary School, Village for Families and Children at Burr Elementary School, YWCA Hartford Region, and at Community Renewal Team (CRT) sites in Hartford.

Out of town options include at the Town of Enfield, Manchester Community College, and CRT sites in East Hartford, Manchester, and Middletown.

To make an appointment with EITC/VITA volunteers, call 2-1-1, then hit ’3′.

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By Kerri Provost, January 11, 2013 4:04 pm

There is a range of opinion on the effectiveness of the flu vaccine, but those who wish to take this extra step can attend a free flu clinic on Tuesday, January 22nd from 10a.m. until 2p.m.

Sponsored by the City of Hartford’s Department of Health and Human Services, the clinic will be held on the first floor of the Burgdorf Health Care Center, 131 Coventry Street. Continue reading 'Free Flu Clinic'»

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By Kerri Provost, December 9, 2012 11:09 am

It isn’t exactly pioneer work to travel beneath Hartford. Graffiti and an illegally dumped car in the underground Park/Hog River serve as evidence of previous visits, and not surprising, given how easy it is to access the river if one knows where to look. A pair of fishing waders enables a bit of access for the curious; a simple raft can get someone from the Pope Park area to the Connecticut River.

Documenting the trip is not groundbreaking either. It has been done on various websites, on public radio, and in storytelling.

But Joe McCarthy and Peter Albano may be the first to create artistic maps of their experience. Continue reading 'Hog River Exposed'»

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By Kerri Provost, November 23, 2012 4:00 pm

After being told that Walmart wanted protestors moved because they were allegedly impeding pedestrian and vehicle traffic, the singing and chanting group moved down to a space on the sidewalk where they were told by the police they needed to remain. Shoppers never lost access to the store, nor did motorists find themselves barricaded in the parking lot where many spaces remained empty.

Despite cooperation, the prisoner transport van appeared and police began to assemble a so-called free speech zone with sawhorses, an effort that seemed confusing and laughable to most, as the activists had long been sticking to walking between two cones placed on the sidewalk for the better part of an hour. Continue reading 'Police Ignore Ordinance as Activists Show Solidarity with Walmart Employees'»