New Garden Signs

Today I was greeted by an array of cheery row signs made for the Victory Garden by a local Girl Scout troop.  I think these signs are so awesome!

This troop is working on their Bronze Award (because I happen to be a Girl Scout leader I know all about this:  It is the highest award a Junior Girl Scout can earn, and it is quite the accomplishment for these 5th grade girls!) and they have chosen Community Gardens and Hunger Awareness as their area of focus.  I love these signs, and can't wait to put them up in the garden. Thank you Troop 40367!

Food Preservation Workshop June 30th

 

Join us June 30th, 2014 for an interactive workshop on food preservation.  We will be discussing water-bath processing and demonstrating freezer jams!  Located at 2300 E Grand River, Suite 111, Howell MI 6:00-7:30.

Cost is $10 per person, call 517-552-6913 to register.

12 Lbs of Strawberies!

It rained almost all day yesterday, and we even got some rain in the garden today, but we did manage to harvest 12 pounds of strawberries before the rain fell. I taste-tested one of these little buggers and they are so sweet and tasty!

We re-use old produce containers out in the Victory Garden, such as the ones in the photo above.  However today I used up my last small sized container, and now I only have large (think Costco sized) containers left.  I prefer the 1lb containers you find in the grocery store so we can share the harvests with more people.  If you'd like a simple way to reuse and recycle your strawberry and produce containers, consider donating them to the garden.  I'll happily take them off your hands!

A volunteer and I weeded the beets, and then she planted another row of golden beets for a late summer harvest.  (They really are beautiful when they are harvested, they remind me of peaches in color.)  Mid way through planting the sky opened up and rain fell on her, so she never got to the red beets.  I'd take a photo of the nicely weeded beets to share, but it was raining way to hard for me to take a photo!

More Harvests

I brought in a bunch of beet greens into the Shared Harvest Pantry today.  I had to thin my beets, and figured some one would really appreciate fresh beet greens.  (I know I love them!)  I actually had enough to make up two decent sized bags of greens.

And my beets are not as crowded any longer.  Beets, and greens in general, are not the most popular items in this area, but I know there are some people (like my family) that really do enjoy these items so I do try to grow a small amount.  If you have not tried a roasted beet, you really need to try it!  It is so sweet and does not taste like a canned beet at all. 

Today a volunteer and I put up my signs in each row.  I am short a few signs, due to time and weather or due to shortage of signs for a specific plant.  When we made these signs I had quite a few rows of watermelon but only two rows of cucumbers.  This year it is the opposite, so I need more cucumber signs.  I have a Girl Scout troop making me some more signs, and I should have them by next week. 

We also planted some flower seeds at the head of each row.  I hope the little bit of flowers will look pretty in there, and that it will help attract those winged pollinators as well.  But mainly it will help the garden look more inviting.

Busy Times in the Garden Today

First off, look at the brilliant colors that are blooming in the flower area of the garden!  I am so glad this cheery space exists in the garden, because it welcomes me into the garden each day with an ever-changing array of flowers!

Today I had 10 people come out to the garden, and we accomplished a lot of little and time consuming tasks.  I finally have all the major issues worked out of the irrigation, and together with another young man, I walked each and every row making sure the drip tape was working correctly and positioned near my plants and seeds.  I was excited to see quite a few seeds popping up through the ground. 

We also started staking our peppers and caged the eggplants.  I had hopped to stake my tomato plants and pole beans, but I need to borrow a fence post driver for those posts.  They are too tall or otherwise challenging to drive into the ground.  I'm adding fence post driver to my wish list, because currently I have to borrow one each spring and that creates a small challenge.

 Some of the plot-renters came out this evening to do their volunteer work.  It was a good time to weed these peas really well, so they set about weeding them and trying to encourage the plants to attach to the trellis. 

When all was said and done it looked really nice!  I can't wait to have some peas in a week or two.  I planted sugar snap peas and snow peas.  You can also see a bit of the row next to the peas where we planted Lemon Cucumbers.  We grew these last year, and while they are not the most popular items in the food pantry, the volunteers loved something different, and when I took them to special events to hand out the kids loved them, and I loved watching them eat cucumbers like an apple.

Every day is something exciting to watch come up from the ground, flower, or otherwise change in the garden.  It is a busy time of year and I love watching the changes from day to day!

WIC Information

Occasionally I find some good information on hunger related programs.  I thought I'd share a recent one sent to me through the Livingston County Hunger Council.  If  you know of a family that could benefit from the WIC program, please share!  While the number on this flyer is for Livingston County, they may be able to direct you to the proper county if you live out of our service area.

First Harvest!!

I love strawberries!  And these little fellas are so sweet and juicy!  I am sure some lucky pantry client will enjoy all four quarts of these little babies!  That's right, we harvested 4 lbs of strawberries today!

YUM!