I’ve been saving up a lot of wonderful links to share with you, my avid readers! But first, a little news.
The garden beds are looking a bit bare, all our wonderful summer veggies were hit hard by that killing frost last weekend. Thankfully we checked the weather just in time and were able to harvest a great bunch of tomatoes to finish out our donations to the Food Bank. Despite its late start, the Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign was an overwhelming success. Between the community garden and local Winnemuccan gardeners, 347 pounds of fresh produce were donated to the Food Bank–and we are not just talking giant squash. From the children’s garden we donated 9 pounds of snap peas and 8 pounds of lettuce. Now that is a lot of food! Thank you to all who donated; the food you gave was truly appreciated. If you’re planting garlic and onions right now, throw a few extra bulbs in the ground for those who need it most!
The Harvest Festival is coming! Please join us Saturday, November 8 from 12 to 4 for Pumpkin carving, Scarecrow stuffing, Harvest Bowling and more! We’ll have games, snacks, prizes and facts to share rain or shine, at the Garden or in the cafeteria of Sonoma Heights if the weather doesn’t cooperate. Either way, we can’t wait to celebrate another successful season with you! If you’d like to volunteer, please leave us a note on this post or email winngarden@yahoo.com. And don’t think you’re off the hook if you can’t make it November 8th, we need plenty of help before that too. Drop us a line to see how you can help today!
And now, for all those links I’ve been saving for you:
One of my favorite authors wrote an incredibly interesting article for the New York Times about the industrialization of food in America and why neither of the presidential candidates are talking about such an important issue. It’s lengthy, but trust me, it is so worth it: The Food Issue: Farmer in Chief
And… I joined Raley’s mailing list and now they send me all these great recipes! The most recent strand is about how to feed a family of 4 on $10, and they have some very tasty (and thrifty!) looking recipes. I’m just linking this week’s recipe for Beef and Barley Harvest Salad, but the website has a really good recipe finder including searches for quick meals (under 30 minutes), vegetarian entrees, and my favorite, “squash, anyway?”.
Speaking of food… (this is the last one, I promise!) here’s another good article from the NYTimes (yes, sorry all, I am an east-coaster through and through) about picky eaters and how to feed them. If you’ve got a young one in the house, this is a must read: 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make
Now, if you’ve made it all the way to the end, reward yourself by going outside! Off with you! Shoo! and ENJOY THE SUNSHINE!
October 20, 2008 at 11:50 am
· Filed under press release
October 1, 2008 — Rising concerns over food safety led Congress to pass new legislation that will require grocery stores to label the country of origin of imported meats, nuts, and produce. While stores are given a full six months to comply with the new rules, you could be seeing the new labels as soon as next week at our local Wal-Mart. Calling attention to the recent slew of tainted ingredients ending up on American shelves, supporters praised the bill as a necessary step in ensuring the safety of the American public. Opponents criticized the limited scope of the law which exempts many processed foods that are more likely to contain questionable ingredients.
As the American market continues to globalize, food safety is an increasingly local concern. While meats, produce, and some nuts will soon be labeled, lack of knowledge surrounding processed foods has led many to dabble in home food preservation. To help equip residents with the necessary skills to ensure the safety of their food, the Winnemucca Community Garden sponsored a Food Preservation Workshop at the end of September. California Master Food Preservers Rachael Murphy and Claudia Skewes led the classes with ease, covering boiling-water canning, freezing, and drying over the course of four two-hour sessions. Participants were provided with 10 USDA approved recipes as well as a sample jar from each class. From fresh-pack pickles to apple butter, Murphy and Skewes offered participants everything they would need to know to process foods safely at home, including the motivation. Suzanne Schultz, one of twelve workshop participants, called the women ‘inspiring,’ adding “they made it look so easy.” Schultz was planning to sauce and can forty pounds of home grown tomatoes later than afternoon. To satisfy the overwhelming interest in the community for food preservation workshops, the garden plans to offer classes again in late Spring.
For more information about garden events, adopting a plot, volunteering, or to join our mailing list, please call the Winnemucca Community Garden at 775-623-2333, email at winngarden@yahoo.com, or visit our website at winnegarden.org. The Winnemucca Community Garden is a United Way of the Great Basin Partner.
September 16, 2008 at 12:32 pm
· Filed under events
Felt that morning chill yet? It’s a-coming. But we’re just getting started here at the Garden. Take a look at what we’ve been doing and what we’ve got planned for the next couple of months:
The cookbook has officially been submitted for publishing! Thank you to all who submitted recipes, we sent in a total of 100 delicious looking recipes for everything from pumpkin sage poofs to faux apple crisp (made with zucchini!). I must admit I snagged a copy of a few of the recipes and have already sampled them for dinner. It’s a great collection and I can’t wait to show (and sell!) them off. We expect to have them at the Boy Scout Craft Fair in November so keep your eyes open for our table!
This morning Jacob and Chad Frazier harvested 8 pounds of veggies from the children’s garden (with the help of a few adults–thanks Mom and Grandma!). We got snap peas, radishes, tomatoes, assorted green and red lettuce from the kid’s Food Bank plot, and a beet and a few leaves of spinach from the Plant A Row for the Hungry plot — 8 pounds all together, and it was a tasty looking 8 pounds. I had to keep reminding myself that the peas were for donation, not my breakfast.
Speaking of donation… we now have donation boxes at the Garden and outside the office. If you have extras growing in your plot (at the Garden or at home), please consider donating them to the Food Bank. They’re open on Tuesday and Thursday, but you can drop produce off in those boxes any time and we’ll make sure they get to the Food Bank. We’ve got connections like that.
In other news, National Public Lands Day is Saturday, September 27th and we’ve signed up the Garden for a facelift courtesy of — you guessed it — you and me! Yay! We’re going to be refinishing benches, touching up the mural on the outside fence, cleaning out the greenhouse so we can actually use it next year, and generally showing some love to the garden grounds. Check out the press release (in the post below this one) for more details and then call us to sign up! 623.2333. Or, if you’re really technologically savvy, you can add a comment to this post saying you’ll be there.
COMING UP: Harvest Festival and Spook Walk — October 25th — Mark your calendar!
WINNEMUCCA COMMUNITY GARDEN PART OF NATIONWIDE EFFORT TO IMPROVE NATIONAL LANDS IN HONOR OF THE 75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS
(Winnemucca, NV, September 27) – The Winnemucca Community Garden will be given a facelift as Winnemucca-area residents join the largest annual coast-to-coast, single-day volunteer restoration effort for America’s public lands.
From 8 am to 2 pm on Saturday, September 27, local volunteers will roll up their sleeves and devote their day to sanding, painting, spreading chips and tending the garden grounds as part of the 15th annual National Public Lands Day (NPLD). Sponsored for the ninth consecutive year by Toyota Motor Sales, USA, these national cleanups give Americans an annual chance to protect and renew public lands in local communities.
“Last year we reached a monumental participation of 110,000 volunteers in National Public Lands Day, and we are expecting to increase this by an additional 10,000 this year,” said Robb Hampton, director of National Public Lands Day.
This year, National Public Lands Day will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps. By educating volunteers at sites across the country, NPLD maintains the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps, an army of 3 million Americans who in the 1930’s countered the devastation of the Dust Bowl and the American chestnut blight by planting more than 3 billion trees, building 800 state parks, and fighting forest fires. In addition to cleaning up our public lands on NPLD, volunteers will plant a tree in the garden in commemoration of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
For more information, contact the Winnemucca Community Garden at 775-623-2333 or visit our website at www.winnegarden.org. To see a list of NPLD sites, activities, contacts, and downloadable photos from past events, visit www.publiclandsday.org. The Winnemucca Community Garden is a United Way of the Great Basin Partner.
The National Environmental Education Foundation provides objective environmental information to help Americans live better every day. They work with professionals in health, education, public lands and media to connect the environment to everyday choices and actions so the public can live well while protecting and enjoying nature. To learn more, call (202) 833-2933 or visit www.neefusa.org.
Toyota’s sponsorship of National Public Lands Day is guided by its Global Earth Charter, a comprehensive effort to promote conservation activities and protect the environment in all stages of the company’s operation.
National Public Lands Day partners include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Defense, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, USDA’s Forest Service, the U.S. Invasive Species Council, over 30 states, numerous local agencies, and nonprofit groups such as the National Parks Conservation Association, International Mountain Bicycling Association, Boy Scouts of America, and Girl Scouts of the USA.
Tomorrow at 6 pm!!! Bring your family and friends to the garden for a late afternoon stroll (and snack!). Cookies, lemonade, and homemade zucchini bread provided by the Garden. We’ll also have lots of information about upcoming events, volunteering, and how to adopt a plot for next year. See you there!
PS here’s a little food for thought from Earth Day Network:
If everyone lived like me we would need nearly 4 earths to support us all. Yikes. I definitely have some work to do, but growing and eating local food is certainly a step in the right direction.
The Garden is putting together a cookbook and we need your recipes (yes, you!) to make it a success. “Garden Gourmet” will focus on recipes that feature ingredients grown right here, preferably in your backyard or plot. So while you’re harvesting all those fruits, veggies and herbs this week, take a moment to jot down the recipes you’re using to throw them together. Help us out and earn eternal bragging rights. It’s a win-win.
Enter your recipes online at: www.fundcraft.com with this WebID: 12070-08JU (no password needed). Or, jot the recipe down on a good old-fashioned piece of paper and and return it to one of the drop envelopes, located on our office door (640 Melarkey st, suite 2) or inside the shed at the Garden. Make sure to enter your name as the contributor!
The deadline for submission is August 31st, so get cooking!
Here’s a little inspiration that uses ingredients from our garden:
Linguine with Gorgonzola and Winnemuccan grown potatoes, green beans, and sage!
2 medium Yukon gold potatoes
1 tablespoon salt
1 lb linguine
10 oz green beans
6 fresh sage leaves
8 oz Gorgonzola
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1. Peel potatoes and cut into 3/4 inch pieces. Put in a large pot, add 2 quarts water, cover, and bring to a boil. Add salt and linguine. Stir, cover, and return to a vigorous boil. Add green beans, cover, and bring back to a boil. Uncover and cook until linguine is tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, chop sage leaves. In a large serving bowl, mash cheese, butter, sage, and pepper together. Set aside.
3. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water and set aside. Drain pasta and vegetables, shaking off as much water as possible. Pour pasta and vegetables on top of cheese-butter mixture. Toss to combine until cheese melts and coats pasta. If sauce is too thick, add reserved pasta water, a bit at a time. Serve hot!
Don’t have sage? Use thyme, oregano or basil! Or pop over to the Community Garden and grab some leaves from the Garden’s herb plot which you’ll find near the back of the garden, before you hit the strawberry patch and to the left.
Here are a few sobering facts from a recent article in the Washington Post:
“In New York City, more than 3 million residents, 38 percent of the population, had difficulty affording food last year, according to a recent report by the Food Bank for New York City — up 13 percentage points from 2003. Food costs rose 15 percent during that period. The number of people using soup kitchens and food pantries hit 1.3 million last year, up 24 percent from 2004.”
It’s no surprise then that community and rooftop gardens are springing up all over the place. With the high prices of fresh fruits and veggies today it’s estimated that $1 worth of seeds can grow into $20 worth of produce. This year 22% of US households grew their own vegetables.
August 1, 2008 at 3:20 pm
· Filed under press release
Winnemucca, NV – July 26, 2008 – Volunteers and plot-holders gather at the Winnemucca Community Garden for the monthly ‘Weed and Feed’—a potluck picnic followed by attendees help around the garden. This month’s task: fight hunger.
According to the Department of Labor, the cost of food has increased 6.1% since June 2007. Meanwhile, the cost of the “Thrifty Food Plan,” the bare minimum food necessities used for food stamp allotment, has risen by 7.3%. Staples such as cheese, eggs, and bread have risen drastically, by 14.7%, 23.2% and 15.9% respectively. While the rising cost of food is straining budgets across the income spectrum, families with low-incomes are being hit particularly hard. In the past year the demand for hunger assistance has increased by 40%.
In a effort to fight the increasing demands on food assistance and alleviate hunger at home, the Winnemucca Community Garden is sponsoring a Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign. Started in 1992 by the Garden Writers’ Association, Plant a Row for the Hungry fights hunger by encouraging local gardeners and farmers to plant an extra row of produce for donation to those in need. This weekend, the WCG took to the dirt, planting spinach, endives, winter squash, and broccoli. When the veggies are harvested, they’ll be donated to the Winnemucca Food Bank which will weigh the produce and provide donation slips. The WCG hopes to donate 100 pounds of food by the end of the growing season.
If your garden is growing in abundance, please consider donating to the Food Bank, located at 150 North Bridge Street (open Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 5); or drop the produce off at the Winnemucca Community Garden office, 640 Melarkey Street (Monday through Friday 9 to 5).
For more information about the Plant a Row for the Hungry and other garden campaigns, adopting a plot, or volunteering, please call the Winnemucca Community Garden at 775-623-2333, email at winngarden@yahoo.com, or visit our website at winnegarden.org. The Winnemucca Community Garden is a United Way of the Great Basin Partner.
If you’re growing greens in your garden it’s a perfect time to pick ‘ em. This recipe calls for whatever you’ve got in the leafy green department; spinach, chard, even beet greens will do. And if you stopped by the Farmer’s Market early this week, you were lucky enough to snag a dozen farm fresh eggs (and when I say fresh, I mean right out of the chicken. I even pulled a couple feathers off an egg). Throw them together and you’ve got a protein and fiber-filled feast. If you’re worried about cholesterol, use egg whites for half your eggs and a few extra tablespoons milk. About half the protein in an egg comes from the white anyway.
A YouTube clip for a new campaign to “Eat the View”–changing boring old grass to edible landscapes. This particular video advocates putting a garden plot on the White House lawn. With all that free space (18 acres!) and people power (13 full-time groundskeepers), imagine the possibilities.
