Grand Junction Main Street Community Garden

Vote for your favorite veggies 2012!

2012-02-23T09:49:00.001-07:00

Hello Garden Peeps! Please vote for your favorite veggies etc on the poll to the right of this post before March 30th. You may choose as many favorites as you want. If you have other comments or suggestions (or strong dislikes...anyone else hate picking okra as much as i do?!), please feel free to post them below. We will try to make the garden as tailored to everyone's input as seeds/transplants/availability allows.

The garden is resting

2011-11-14T10:12:00.003-07:00

Thanks to a special member, the garden has been tilled and put to bed for the winter. We planted a rye and vetch cover crop to help stabilize and add some organic nitrogen to the soil. We also planted garlic for an early summer harvest in 2012! Until next year, THANKS members for a successful season.

Garden Potluck!

2011-08-22T14:52:00.001-06:00

This Tuesday, August 23rd we will have our regularly scheduled work session starting at 5pm which will be followed by our Annual Garden Potluck at 6:30! The potluck is a great way to meet fellow gardeners, hang out with friends and eat delicious food together. Please bring a dish to share, along with your own dishes/utensils. Beverages will be provided!

Watching out for the Garden!

2011-08-09T11:01:00.000-06:00

Hello Dear Hardworking Gardeners!

Before I delve into our weekly work session, I want to thank Phil and Trish for being diligent and watching out for the garden. Trish confronted the guys taking off with our cabbages (mystery solved!) and produce after a second week in a row. Although we want to maintain an open fence policy and encourage all of you to work/harvest during the week if the Tuesday session does not work for you, we also want to make sure that all of our dedicated gardeners benefit from the efforts they have put in.

If you encounter people you have ever met before in the garden feel free to introduce yourself and ask how they are involved. If they are not involved, please tell them about the garden, and feel free to give them info on how to get involved (I will be putting some brochures on the garden board on the side of the shed), but make it clear that produce is only for garden members! You will either meet a new garden member you haven't met before or you will help us weed out people that may just be mooching off our hard work.

I also want to remind everyone that the garden should be a supplement to your weekly vegetables. With 35 members and Grow Another Row, we want to make sure everyone gets a piece of the pie so please take/harvest with that in mind...there is PLENTY to go around!! And will only have more as the season progresses!

On to this week's session: We have our weekly garden session tonight from 5-7pm. We will be addressing weeds (the ever constant battle, we had a GREAT session last week, let's repeat that!), removing dead zucchini plants (in to the garbage since they are infested with squash bugs), and harvesting: onions!, green beans, ripe tomatoes, tomatillos, okra, eggplant, cukes, chard, kale, basil...etc!

See you tonight!!

Ilana

Squash Bugs: a call to arms!

2011-07-15T20:02:00.000-06:00

sad squash plant :(

ATTENTION gardeners! there is an invasion going on in the garden, and unless you want ALL the squash plants to look like this (on the right!) then we MUST join together in a unified front. this is a call to arms (or in the case of an organic gardener, your fingers and feet). every single time you are in the garden this summer whether it is to work or harvest (hopefully both) please take a minute to inspect the zucchini plants.

eggs!

FIRST: turn over the leaves and look for clusters of eggs that look like this (on right). they may also be paler brown to yellow to white. then, use either your thumb and finger, or a rock on either side of the leaf to CRUSH the eggs. they are resilient little things so you'll have to use a little effort to squish them completely. it's ok if the leaf gets a little bit crunched in the process, the eggs must be destroyed.

nymphs

SECOND: if the eggs hatch out, they produce nymph squash bugs, which look like this (on right). these little greenish critters will start sucking the juices out of the leaves and stem and pretty soon start doing in the plant. to prevent this, we have to get them too. once again, bring the fingers and thumb together to crush. if there's a big infestation (recent hatch) of these and you have some organic soap spray with you feel free to spray a cluster of the little nymphs. the soap spray will suffocate them. be careful adn try not to spray too much of the plant.

adults! mating pair!

THIRD: and finally are the adults. as seen here (a mating pair! getting ready to lay eggs! don't worry, they are now in the land of squash bug heaven). look near the base of the plant to find these. they are fast, but they don't bite. pick them up and either squish them with your finger-thumb or put them on the path and step on them, quite firmly!

i know, this is a violent post and i am not a supporter of violence. but we have a problem and there are only so many of my lunch breaks that i can try and tackle the squash bug invasion alone. if this is not taken care of almost daily we will lose all our squash plants, so get on it! (and if you can't find any eggs, nymphs or adults, feel free to do some weeding :) )

~ilana

SQUASH BUGS!

2011-07-14T10:09:00.000-06:00

Squash Bug!

If you do head down to the garden this week to do a little work, keep on eye on the squash plants as the SQUASH BUG has infested! The only promising organic means of exterminating this unsightly creature is to squash him between your thumb and forefinger! If we stay on top of eradication we'll have healthy squash all season, which, that being said, the SB has already gotten to a few squash plants. Yikes!

For those that do NOT know what the squash bugs or the eggs look like, see this VERY helpful link sent by our very own Jerry Stringfellow:

http://www.elperfecto.com/2010/06/25/squash-bugs-what-are-they-and-how-to-get-rid-of-them/

Jessie: that was a squash bug that you brought over last week for inspection! Good work --- they must perish! That was a HUGE adult and if you could only imagine how many babies come out of those eggs. Squash the bugs away!

One other word of caution w/ all of this unusual rain we are having: please do NOT pick the beans when the bean plants are wet as it spreads bacteria to the plants.

End of June Pics

2011-06-28T12:18:00.000-06:00

Garden at the end of June, coming in nicely!

Squash flowering!


Corn...growing slowly and steadily. Fingers crossed for it!

Tomatoes ready to be staked and suckered.

Last work session of spring + springtime recipes

2011-06-14T12:10:00.000-06:00

Happy Flag Day!

Tonight will be our last work session of the Spring as next Tues. will officially be SUMMER!

Tonight we will be focused on:

Suckering tomatoes
Beginning to train the tomatoes to the stakes
Drenching the corn
Drenching the nasturtium
Pulling weeds!
Replanting cucumbers
Harvesting kale, chard, and broccoli

NEEDS:

More stakes for more tomatoes! Please bring them if you have them. Anything tall and slender, like a tamarisk branch...
Boxes & plastic bags for harvesting (especially for when we have bounty for Grow Another Row)
Twine for training tomatoes up the stakes
Organic Cucumber seeds (we need about 8 seeds to replace what hasn't sprouted in a few of the mounds!)

Please bring whatever you have on this above list to our work session this evening.

Here are two recipes to help you utilize our garden's bounty. The first one showcases a succulent weed which is popping up everywhere (especially in the cracks of my back patio!)

Purslane Pesto 1 bunch purslane
1/2 of a lemon’s juice
1/4 cup macadamia nuts
1/2 clove garlic
1/4 c or less olive oil added slowly until it reaches desired consistency
salt and pepper to taste

Blend up in food processor and enjoy! Serves two. Excellent over salmon, and a medley of roasted onion, new potato, sweet carrots, and cutting celery greens. So delicious!

+++

Roasted Broccoli with Soy Sauce and Sesame Seeds 1 lb. fresh broccoli florets (see trimming instructions) 1 1/2 T olive oil 1 T soy sauce 1 tsp. sesame oil 1 T sesame seeds, toasted
Preheat oven to 450 F (or use 475 and shorten the cooking time slightly.) ---OR--- forget the oven and marinate the broccoli then toss it in your stovetop or outdoor grilling wok!
Cut broccoli into pieces about 2 inches long. Then cut through stems just to where florets start, and break apart so broccoli is in same-sized pieces. (This method of cutting through the stems and then breaking the broccoli apart also eliminates the mess when you cut broccoli and small bits fall off.)
Place broccoli in plastic mixing bowl and toss well with olive oil, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Arrange in single layer on baking sheet and roast 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, stir and continue roasting 5 minutes more, or until broccoli is tender-crisp and slightly browned on the edges.
While broccoli roasts, toast sesame seeds in a dry pan over very high heat for 30-60 seconds. When broccoli is done, put it back into plastic bowl, dump in sesame seeds, and toss again. Serve hot.

+++

Toodloo spring...see you again next year.
(image from DesignSponge)

Work Session Tonight!

2011-06-07T13:32:00.000-06:00

We are getting into the thick of the season now and we have lots to do and even some luscious food to take home and eat! Please join us this evening for:

installing stakes for the tomatoes and initial suckering
thinning beets
thinning carrots
hand watering the corn
pulling weeds, particularly elm as they continue to grow
replanting additional okra plants

This week's harvest* (each household please choose one item and take home a small bag for you and yours):

arugula
kale
chard (particularly as we thin the plants)
choi
lettuce
broccoli

Please be sure to ask if you have any question at all whatsoever about how to harvest any of these items. We will be around tomorrow between 5 and 7pm to help you out.

* Please do not plan on harvesting any greens this week if you cannot put in any work at the garden this week.

The Renegade Lunch Lady!

2011-05-17T13:22:00.000-06:00

The Renegade Lunch Lady is coming to town! Learn more about Chef Ann Cooper here: http://www.chefann.com/

She will be at Two Rivers Winery Wed., May 18th, 6-8pm giving a talk and helping to raise funds for the Wingate School Children's Garden. The event is $25 per person or $40 per couple which includes food and drinks, enters your ticket number for a chance to win fantastic door prizes! See flyer link for more details and call Melanie at 970.523.7248 for tickets.
http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102211686051-91/Festival+Flyer+Email.pdf

If you have not already gotten your ticket to see the Renegade Lunch Lady, please do so! Cameron Place CSA will have a booth at the event serving up scrumptious spring greens salad. Those farmers know how to make a salad, let me tell you! Mmmmmmmmmmm! If you are unable to attend (or even if you are planning to attend!), have you considered spreading the word about this wonderful event to at least 5 people that you know?! Please give it a try if you haven't already!

wahoo! what a successful Planting Day!

2011-05-09T14:23:00.000-06:00

Thank you all for your hard work and participation. To ice the cake, we have Ben to thank for getting the irrigation system fixed up and ready to roll with little to no leaks. We gave everything a good soaking overnight on Sat. and today's rain and mild (notwithstanding some of this wind!) weather should be welcome by the little transitioning plants. We still have peppers, okra, and eggplant starts coming our way in the next few weeks when they have gotten big enough to leave the nest (or greenhouse as it were.)

We are working on putting together the list of work assignments for each of you to be independently responsible for over the course of the season. We will hopefully be able to send that out before tomorrow's work session along w/ the revised planting plan according to where everything wound up on Saturday. If it is super rainy and muddy tomorrow, we will not conduct a work session. If it is a lovely day, please join us there starting around 5pm.

For those that could not make it to Saturday's mandatory Planting Day, please see the list below for items that need your attention. Please send us an email letting us know when you have been able to put this work into these areas. We expect that you will spend about 2 hours accomplishing this work over the next week or so. These items include:
1) pulling weeds from the north end of the garden next to the alley and in the NE corner next to the Raimer's fence --- do NOT pull the lemon balm! It is a big full-leafed plant right at the NE corner of the furthest north CSA raised bed.

2) pulling weeds along the fence on the east side of the garden. Do NOT step IN the corn's luscious tilled soil (which is a 4' wide bed about 2' away from and running parallel to the Raimer's fence) and do NOT step on the newly planted strawberries which are south of the corn's row.

3) clearing the alfalfa and seeding grasses from the driveway area west of the garden fence

4) Front Easement Xeriscape Perennial Planting Beds: pulling weeds, pulling back rock ground cover, reinstalling new weed mat (with many thanks to Martha Jones for finding a screaming deal at True Value on the weed mat and graciously donating 4 rolls of it to us!) and spreading the rocks back out.

5) Clearing the cheet grass from the area b/w the garden beds and the garden fence near the irrigation system.

6) Securing the black plastic (that has loosened in the wind) sheeting under rocks/soil.

If you need assistance or clarification on any of these tasks, please ask!

Generally speaking, now we keep on top of the weeds and the watering (the watering is handled by a small group of people that operates the irrigation system to give the garden a good soak twice a week) and the compost and wait for things to be ready to eat!

PLANTING DAY TOMORROW (Sat., 5/7) 10am - Noon

2011-05-06T12:58:00.002-06:00

MANDATORY WORK SESSION:
This Saturday, May 7th from 10am - Noon (or until we get it all done!) is our PLANTING DAY! Please plan on being there. If you cannot be there, please email us to let us know and we will get back to you with ways in which you can make up the time for this mandatory all-hands-on-deck work session.

This week at MSCG + The Renegade Lunch Lady May 18th!

2011-05-03T12:11:00.000-06:00

TODAY'S WORK SESSION (OPTIONAL):

We are workin' today from 5-7pm. It is very important for us to get the extra compost spread along the east side of the garden where we will be planting corn seed this Saturday. We also have a bit more weeding to do. A small number of hardy folk pretty much did away with most of the alfalfa and cheet grass last week. We have more cheet grass to eliminate from the decorative planting/xeriscaped easement today and we need to fine tune the weed free aspect of our beds to ready them for Saturday's big planting session.

MANDATORY WORK SESSION:
This Saturday, May 7th from 10am - Noon (or until we get it all done!) is our PLANTING DAY! Please plan on being there. If you cannot be there, please email us to let us know and we will get back to you with ways in which you can make up the time for this mandatory all-hands-on-deck work session.

MSCG PHOTO DIRECTORY:

Please advise if you do not wish for your name, email, phone #, address, etc. to be shared with the other garden members. We have received a handful of photos from members so far and we are still looking for more members' photos to add to our photo directory. Please email them to us when you have a chance. We would like to pull it together by the beginning of June and will email it out then.

WORK ASSIGNMENTS:
We are planning on issuing work assignments to everyone for the entire season. This will allow for folks to be able to take responsibility for a part of the garden in which they have shown interest. If you have not specified your area of interest, you will be assigned a row for which you (and another member or 2) will be responsible for keeping tidy and weed free! This will also lend itself well to members being able to work in the garden (not just harvesting, but a way to get their work time in) on their own time and not only at the community work sessions. We will be happy to orient you to how it's done if you need guidance. We do hope that we will continue to have big numbers at our Tuesday community work sessions thus keeping the community aspect front and center in our community garden!

The Renegade Lunch Lady is coming to town! Learn more about Chef Ann Cooper here: http://www.chefann.com/

She will be at Two Rivers Winery Wed., May 18th, 6-8pm giving a talk and helping to raise funds for the Wingate School Children's Garden. The event is $25 per person or $40 per couple which includes food and drinks, enters your ticket number for a chance to win fantastic door prizes! See flyer link for more details and call Melanie at970.523.7248 for tickets.
http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102211686051-91/Festival+Flyer+Email.pdf

Work sessions 4/26 & 5/3: optional

2011-04-25T14:14:00.000-06:00

In order to save some of our gardening mojo for PLANTING DAY (Sat., May 7th at 10am), the next 2 Tuesday work sessions are optional. But rest assured, there is plenty of work to be done!

For tomorrow's work session, please bring old sheets and blankets so that we can cover up any delicate transplants and sprouts from the frost that is slated for tomorrow night. Feel free to say a little prayer for all of our valley's beloved peach farmers who won't be getting much sleep that night!

April showers bring May flowers AND enormous weeds as soon as the sun comes out! We will be doing some serious weed PULLING and weed-wacking tomorrow evening (please bring a canister of gasoline for the weed wacker if you have it handy.) We will also be working on weeding the landscaped easement between the sidewalk and Main Street. The rain this weekend has really loosened up the soil, weeds are easily pulled right now.

Tues, May 3rd we will be focused on weeding the pathways and the beds to get ready for planting day a few days later.

Memberships are now capped. Wahoo! What a fantastic turn-out for registrations/burgeoning participation! We thank you for all of your enthusiasm and dedication that you have already shown this season. We are looking forward to gardening together this year!

Tues., April 19th Work Session

2011-04-17T09:14:00.000-06:00

Join us for our 2nd work session of the season. We will be spreading plastic row covers and laying down irrigation tape. We will also be tilling up more soil along the garden's east border where we plan on planting bushels of corn! And we have a few more weeds to do away with in order to start the season with a clean slate or as clean as we can be of weeds.

We will resume with registrations for those who were not able to make it last week to sign up.

Sign-Ups/1st Work Session - Tues., April 12th 5pm at 10th & Main

2011-04-11T17:32:00.000-06:00

Sign-ups/Registration for the 2011 season + Tilling Work Session/Spreading compost are taking place starting at 5pm Tues., April 12th at 10th & Main. Note: Membership dues are $35 for the season. Please bring extra shovels, pitchforks, and wheelbarrows as we may be doing some hand tilling and we will definitely need to be uprooting some weeds.

If you cannot make it for the sign-up/work session tomorrow, please email us to confirm that you do plan on joining as an active member this season. Further, please plan on attending one of the upcoming Tuesday work sessions to help get the garden primed and ready for the next seven months of growing veggies and flowers and a healthy community!

Join us on Facebook

2011-04-01T14:22:00.002-06:00

We now have a page of Facebook. If you use Facebook please become a fan of "GJ Main Street Community Garden" and feel free to post questions, pictures, and thoughts about the garden. And as always, remember that you are free to comment on any of these posts to start a discussion. We'd love to hear from you!!

and: the baby spinach poked up yesterday!

Spring is here --- time to start thinkin' about our 2011 season! + IMPORTANT DATES!

2011-03-19T14:35:00.000-06:00

A warm welcome to those who are joining us this year for the first time! And welcome back to veteran community gardeners who have already been working together with us over the past few years. Thanks for keeping us on our toes with all of your questions, interest, and anticipation of this upcoming season.

For your info., here are a few of the basic introductory points to know about how the Main Street Community Garden (MSCG) works:

We work collectively on the entire garden as a group, we do not have individual plots.
Cameron Place CSA maintains the four northernmost rows of the garden (near the alley) for their CSA members, MSCG members are not permitted to take food from these rows.
MSCG is entirely organic. The seeds, the transplants, the maintenance practices, the compost, the soil amendments, the pest control, and so on and so forth are all done organically. When in doubt, please ask us to clarify!
Responsibilities, such as weeding, planting, watering, cleaning/tidying up, and harvesting are shared among the members.
In addition to the 10 hour required minimum work commitment for the season, those who are harvesting food for themselves during any given week should plan to put in at least one hour of work that week on weeding, turning the compost, maintaining our xeriscape perennial right-of-way planting area, cleaning out beds, etc. The time spent harvesting food should not count towards this hour of task-oriented work.
Each week we donate a portion of our harvest to local community emergency food agencies through the Grow Another Row volunteer leaders. We have found that one of the most effective ways to distribute the harvest is for everyone to work together during the community work session to harvest the food that is ready to be harvested. Each household then takes home a reasonable amount (this varies throughout the season depending on the quantities that are available/ready for harvest, we will be making those determinations on a weekly basis and letting you know, via email or on a notice posted at the garden, what is ready and how much can be taken home) and we set aside our charitable donation from this bulk harvest as well.
Members are encouraged to work in the garden and harvest from the garden at any time during the week that is convenient for them. We would love to see members out there sprinkled in at different times throughout the week as it can add an extra level of watchfulness over our crops.
We encourage members to take on leadership of at least one weekly work session over the season. If you are not an experienced gardener, do not fear. We will be able to offer you support and guidelines. The main responsibilities of the weekly work session leader consists mainly of unlocking the shed at 5pm, collecting and accounting for all of the tools at the end of the session at 7pm, and organizing the charitable harvest to hand off to the Grow Another Row volunteer. This is not a requirement for members, but we do encourage it to help spread the responsibilities and time commitment amongst the entire membership. If you would like to be put on the calendar to lead a weekly work session this season, please send us an email reply specifying this and also let us know of any dates that you already know that you will be unavailable. We will put together a calendar for everyone's reference.
We are looking for volunteers to commit to turning and watering the compost each week. If you are interested in doing this, please let us know and we will add your name to the calendar. This is a very important aspect of our organic gardening methods and we need to focus on actively working our compost pile to create a cycle where our plants break down and we have rich soil to use the following season. Beginners are welcome at this task! All it takes is a little elbow grease and some patience. (ahhhhhhh, the organic gardening mantra...!)
The 2011 season weekly community work sessions will be held on Tuesday evenings, typically between 5 & 7pm.

We are feeling quite on top of things for our dawning 2011 season. As many of you will recall, garlic was planted (first time for garlic at MSCG! --- thanks to a generous donation of all of the saved garlic seed from Cameron Place) in late October. It sprouted in the fall and is pushing about 8" tall now. It should be ready to harvest and then hang to dry in June. Our fresh little emerald green cover crop (rye & vetch, if I recall correctly) that we planted last November has made its debut. We will till it into the rows in April for added "green manure" nutrients for our soil which is being enriched each season by our amendments and attention. A couple of dedicated members hand-tilled a row under and planted spinach this week. We may be lucky enough to be eating that in about a month. We are also looking forward to planting some lettuces and kale in the next week or so.

Please send us an email if you have particular things that you would like to see planted in the garden this year. Further, please let us know if you have starts that you would like to donate to transplant into the garden so that we can include them in our master planning. We are once again receiving generous sponsorship from Cameron Place who will be providing us with seeds and starts, possibly mature lavender transplants as well for our beneficial plant perennial border. We are so fortunate to have their guidance, expertise, resources, and generosity. Our seasonal membership dues go toward reimbursing them for starts, seeds, irrigation infrastructure, compost, and our water bill.

FOR A BIT OF SPRING CLEANING: Please send us an email reply if you wish to remain on this list as an active garden member for 2011. If we do not hear back from you by April 1st, we will remove you from the list. If you wish to follow along with us this season, but do not plan to become an active member, please subscribe to our website for updates (www.gjmainstreetcommunitygarden.com.) The emails this season are meant for members only. Our website will be updated frequently for you to observe our current activities and learn from us as we go if you are not an active member.

Please give some thought to the shared responsibilities and community work sessions that we held last season. If you were not able to fully participate last season in the group effort (don't forget that you are always more than welcome to put in the required work at times that are convenient for you, you do not necessarily need to be at the work sessions) but you think that this season might be different, please join us again.

We ask you to give serious consideration to the variety of required community work sessions offered (such as cleaning up the garden at the end of the season, etc.) We typically offer about two or three sessions at the beginning of the season, two or three during the middle, and two or three at the end which are ALL-HANDS-ON-DECK type of sessions. As a rule of thumb, we would expect for you to be in attendance at at least one out of three of each of these sessions at each point in the season. If this does not work with your schedule, we ask that you let us know when you have put in the work at an alternative time. This will help us to keep track of how the workload is getting shared amongst all of our members. Please understand that we NEED the HELP so that there are not +/-4 dedicated folks left to do all of the work alone.

We are absolutely delighted with our community involvement and we hope to keep the infectious enthusiasm going with a proactive and hard working group of community members to build upon what we have already done in our first three seasons. Please just ask us if you have any questions about commitments, expectations, etc. THANKS!

Here are the early season dates that we are planning on coming together to work. Please mark them down in your calendar and please do spread the word to friends, family, or neighbors who might be interested in becoming members this year.

Tues., April 12th, 5pm: Sign-ups/Registration for the 2011 season + Tilling Work Session/Spreading compost (tilling our cover crop into the rows)
Tues., April 19th, 5pm: Irrigation Tape + Plastic Row Covering work session
Tues., April 26th, 5pm: Inclement Weather Date if necessary (in case we are not able to work on the 12th or the 19th)
Sat., May 7th, 10am-1pm: PLANTING DAY! (Transplant starts and direct seed plants. We will aim to plant out the entire garden on this day.)
Sat., May 14th, 10am-1pm: Inclement Weather Date for Planting Day if necessary

Please let us know if you have any questions. We are looking forward to a great season ---- if you can believe it, it will be our garden's fourth season!

urban gardening

2011-02-16T10:34:00.002-07:00

as we experience these bright little snippets of the impending spring i'm sure many of our thoughts extend to our gardens. here is an inspiring (albeit 3 year old) video about a family's urban garden. if nothing else, this video provides a peek into the lush gardens of summer and the well organized urban garden. may it be inspiring as we look forward to new gardens, new plans, and new plantings! click on these links to read more:

Video about the Urban Garden

The Family's Official Website

3/23/11: ***FOLLOW UP! the family has apparently TRADEMARKED the term "urban homesteading." read the article here. I find this ridiculous, can you really trademark a Movement?! What are your thoughts?***

Volunteer Opportunity!

2011-02-09T12:00:00.001-07:00

Main Street Community Gardeners:

Read on for more info. about a volunteer opportunity that might be up your alley!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hello Cooking Matters Volunteers!

We are off to a great 2011! We have three classes in full swing now with Grand Valley Catholic Outreach, Clifton Elementary, and WIC. A BIG thank you to our current volunteers and agencies:

Catholic Outreach Clifton Elem. WIC

Chef: Steve Thoms Brunella Gualerzi Griff Chiono

RD: Katie Donohue Christina Bybee Pat Stiles

Asst: Illene Rogansack/ Ellie Walworth Heidi Hoffman-Ham

Cheryl Gummere

Shopper: Cheryl Gummere Marika Stiles

Volunteer Orientation

Because we are always in need of additional volunteers, I will host two Volunteer Orientations: Monday, February 14th from 12:00-1:00pm (Room 2058, 2nd floor), and Tuesday, February 22nd from 4:30-5:30pm (Room 2048, 2nd floor) here at the Community Services Building (510 29 1/2 Rd, GJ). The orientation will include a brief overview of the Cooking Matters program and specific duties of the various volunteer roles. You will also have the opportunity to sign up for a class if you haven't already done so. Please continue to spread the word about volunteering with Cooking Matters!

Volunteer Needs

Please view the attached course schedule - any box that is highlighted yellow is where I still need volunteers! ALL ROLES ARE NEEDED! Please let me know ASAP if you are able to help with one of the classes. We will be scheduling more classes soon, so keep checking back if none of these work with your schedule.

Please contact me with any questions! Have a great weekend!

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating." (Luciano Pavarotti, My Own Story)

Tawny Espinoza, MBA
Prevention and Chronic Disease Manager/

Cooking Matters Coordinator
Mesa County Health Department
PO Box 20,000
Grand Junction, CO 81502-5033
Phone: 970-248-6904
Fax: 970-683-6621
Cell: 970-260-3542

www.cookingmatters.org

some winter good news!

2010-12-01T12:21:00.002-07:00

as we all getting ready to tuck in for the winter and eat our canned, frozen, dried fruits and veggies from the summer, we can't forget the garden! this is a great time to plan for the spring, research seeds and plants we might want to grow and figure out what worked and what didn't. we can discuss this more in the coming months for sure! in the meantime, here's a little reading for you:

1. regarding a judge's order to remove hundreds of acres of GMO sugar beets that were illegally planted. Federal Court Orders First-Ever Destruction of a GMO Crop, Center for Food Safety

2. an article about some organic practices (such as planting crops for integrated pest management), maybe something we can use next year in the garden: Farmers Wage Organic Battle Against Pests & Weeds, NYTimes

Grow Another Row donation totals

2010-11-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

GJ Main Street Community Gardeners: We have much to be proud of this season, not the least of which is the food that we were able to grow and donate to those in need. Please take a look below at our accomplishments and the thanks we have received.

Thank you for all of your hard work!

Here is our personal Main Street Community Garden message of thanks and our donation total for the season:
Dear Main Street Growers,

Thank you all so much for donating your time and talents to help feed the hungry in Mesa County. You donated 375 pounds of gorgeous produce to the Community Food Bank, Catholic Outreach, Homeward Bound, Mesa County Supplemental Foods, and the Western Slope Food Bank of the Rockies. So much of the harvest this year was really healthy produce that other gardeners weren't providing - kale, china choy, arugula, chard, etc. With a few recipes provided along with the greens, your produce expanded the repertoire of the Homeward Bound kitchen.

The garden is such a special place in downtown GJ. Almost every time I was at the garden, I was stopped by a passerby with questions and compliments. The fact that you as a group have made it a special point to donate a portion of the harvest really attests to the community spirit of the garden.

Thank you all again,

Amanda

Grow Another Row
www.growanotherrow.org

Here is the message that went out to the entire Grow Another Row fleet of gardeners, volunteers, etc.:

Hi Grow Another Row Growers, Volunteers and Friends,

Our season has officially come to an end. We grew and delivered 6707 pounds of fresh fruits and veggies to Catholic Outreach, the Community Food Bank, Homeward Bound, Mesa County Supplemental Foods, the Salvation Army, the Senior Center, St Benedict's Place, and the Western Slope Food Bank of the Rockies. This beats last year's total of 5936, which is pretty good considering how sluggish our gardens were this season. We had 21 different growers participate, but this doesn't include people who dropped off produce at the CSU Extension office, the individual employees of Refrigeration Hardware Supply, and the gardeners with the Main Street Community Garden. The variety of produce was amazing: asian pears, tomatillos, okra, and celery to name a few exciting donations.

Eighteen volunteers picked up, delivered, and harvested the produce. This year we got more requests for harvesting projects than we could handle. I was thrilled to partner with the Mesa County Sheriff's Office Work-Ender Program. This alternative sentencing program allows people to serve their time by working for non-profit, charitable, and tax supported agencies on weekdays and weekends and still be able to retain their job and support their families. Over two hot days, they harvested 2,619 pounds of tomatoes and peppers from the CSU Research Fields. I hope next year we can continue this relationship and meet more requests to harvest produce from local fields and orchards.

All of our growers and volunteers have been incredibly dedicated, and I am so thankful for your participation. I'd like to recognize one amazing volunteer - Nicole Sizemore. Nicole delivered 1093 pounds of food this year. She personally harvested at least 300 pounds of produce from partner growers. She and her husband started a Grow Another Row garden and donated 34 pounds from their own backyard. Not bad for first-time gardeners! She did the bulk of this heavy work when she was 8-9 months pregnant and used every opportunity to teach her 2 year old daughter the value of community service. This isn't all Nicole did. In April, she designed our new brochures and found a donor to print 300+ color copies. With the brochures, we recruited new growers, volunteers, community partners, and donors. One very sweet man sent us $100 after running across our brochure at Bookcliff Gardens. We've used some of the money for coolers and scales. The rest we'll save for next year. Nicole purchased seeds, packaged them up in smaller bags, and designed beautiful cards with growing directions and a description of GAR. We used these cards to successfully spread the news about GAR. Finally, Nicole was a one-man publicity machine. She recruited new growers and volunteers from every avenue of her life -- play groups, work-relationships and even jury duty. I know I am forgetting something because at times I could hardly keep up with her energy and drive, but it is safe to say that GAR would not have grown and been successful this year without her.

Thank you to all of you who participated this year. I wish you all could have all heard the wonderful compliments and thank yous from the organizations who received the produce. Their warm response was easily worth the hard work this season. I will soon be sending you individual totals of how much you grew or delivered this year. Until then, you have my heart-felt thanks and admiration for your community service.

Warmest Regards,

Amanda

Grow Another Row
www.growanotherrow.org

MANDATORY WORK SESSION & FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

2010-10-26T12:12:00.000-06:00

MANDATORY WORK SESSION:
This Thursday we will have a very important work session to rip out all of the plants (except the perennials and the newly planted garlic) and prepare the soil for a long winter's nap. We will also remove the irrigation tape and the plastic row coverings. We need many hands to complete these tasks which are our main preparation for next season. Please plan on joining us. If you cannot make it, please email to let us know.

After last night's low of 31, many things can still be salvaged from the garden such as the hardy kale and chard. The green tomatoes should still be salvageable too. Here's one idea of what could be done with some of those green tomatoes:
Fried Green Tomatoes The cornmeal and flour crust is what sets this recipe apart from others. Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients 1 large egg, lightly beaten 1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, divided 1/2 cup cornmeal 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 3 medium-size green tomatoes, cut into 1/3-inch slices Vegetable oil Salt to taste

Preparation Combine egg and buttermilk; set aside. Combine 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl or pan. Dredge tomato slices in remaining 1/4 cup flour; dip in egg mixture, and dredge in cornmeal mixture. Pour oil to a depth of 1/4 to 1/2 inch in a large cast-iron skillet; heat to 375°. Drop tomatoes, in batches, into hot oil, and cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden. Drain on paper towels or a rack. Sprinkle hot tomatoes with salt.

Southern Living, JULY 2003
Mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmm.

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HUGE SPECIAL THANK YOU to the dedicated gardeners who planted the garlic in the rain last Thursday! We will have both Chesnook and Late White garlic varieties to harvest next June thanks to their hard work! And of course many thanks go to Cameron Place CSA for donating the garlic seed!

harvest EVERYthing!

2010-10-25T11:18:00.000-06:00

Please get out there with your neighbors and friends and harvest ALL of the food. If it makes it through tonight's low of 31, it probably won't make it through Tues. and Wed. evenings' lows in the mid-20s! Feel free to yank out an entire basil plant and take it home with you. Do NOT pull out the perennial herbs such as the chives, orgeano, and thyme. There are likely quite a few ripe tomatoes hiding in there. Gather up all of the green tomatoes you see. If you bring them home, they should ripen over the next week or so, especially if left in a sunny spot by a window.

If you are willing/able to harvest food for Grow Another Row, please email me so that we can coordinate a pick up.

The Green Room and Garlic!

2010-10-18T22:28:00.000-06:00

I will be on KAFM tomorrow (Tues., 10/19) at noon for an interview with Heidi Ihrke on her 'The Green Room' public affairs show. We will be chatting about our beloved community garden, harvest season, veggies, perennial plantings, looking forward to the 2011 season, the Four Block Diet, etc. Tune in if you can! And if you like jazz, food, wine, or a combination of all three, make a note of this special upcoming event: Vino & Vinyl.

The weather is truly holding out for us with regard to our garden's bounty. We do not have a frost predicted any time in the next week! So please continue harvesting what we have before we have to tell it goodbye, as alas, it is inevitable. Our putting the garden to bed sessions will have to wait until next week and the week after. We will be planting garlic this week. We have about 2 hours of work to do, with say 3 people working. But we could make it all happen in about 45 minutes if we had about 8 people. We will plan on working on the garlic on Tues. and/or Wed. evenings this week. Please respond in an email if you can help.