Kickstarter’s Potato Salad challenge – which raised more than $40,000 in its first week, far-exceeding its $10 goal and attracting national media attention – seems to have spurred a couple of Spokane projects.

Backers can now help a Spokane 20-something grow tomatoes. They can also pay for ingredients for a yearlong cooking project reminiscent of “Julie and Julia.”

The latter project – “My Joy of Cooking Challenge” – comes from Greg Kauwe, 31, the subject of the May “In the Kitchen with … ” feature in the Spokesman-Review Food section. The project was mentioned in the story, but that was before the Kickstarter campaign.

Kauwe is on a mission to complete one recipe per week for a year from the 1946 edition of “Joy of Cooking.” He posted the Kickstarter project on week 12, hoping to raise $500. Donations would help him take on the more “daring/costly” recipes. He writes about each one on his blog.

Rewards include being thanked on Twitter or mentioned in a wrap-up blog post when the project’s complete, selecting a recipe for Kauwe to cook, and receiving a video of him making the dish you picked for him to prepare.

The “I’m Growing Tomatoes” project was posted by Jonas Burke, who describes himself as “just a poor, currently unemployed 20-something struggling as we all do.” On his page, he says he’s ready to go with garden supplies, tomato seeds, a green thumb and sense of humor. He lists risks and challenges as “aphids and other garden pests.” He’s hoping to raise $50 by Aug. 6.

Rewards include being thanked on social media as well as while he’s watering the plants, an e-card noting the progress of the plants and  having a plant named in your honor as well as receiving updates and postcards. Bigger spenders can name a plant, decide what he does with the tomatoes and receive a video or live-stream as proof, and receive seeds from the plants. For $50, he will send you one of the plants, with a “full back story and a letter of thanks.”

Burke acknowledges the frivolity of his plan.

But, he writes, “It'd mean a lot if you could donate to my silly fund.”