The Potter Valley Youth and Community Center Garden is starting to look good as we begin our first growing season! We just installed our drip irrigation, and this being the first time I had ever installed drip irrigation, I felt a lot of satisfaction getting everything set up with just a little bit of outside help. Thanks to the wonderful work of our Garden Coordinator Mary Essenbock, as well as the kids in the summer program, most of our starts have now been planted. We’ve got all kinds of things going in; tomatoes, peppers, artichokes, pumpkin, peas, lettuce and some flowers to make everything come together.Some of the peas and lettuce that we planted in window boxes are a little further along, and will probably be the first things to yield produce. Our next steps are trying to get some wood-chips to mark off our pathways, and to put some stakes in the ground for some tomatoes as they start to come up. Other than that, everything is going great! Hope everyone else can say the same,
What to do in Your Garden This Month by Suzanne Millard, Mendocino County Master Gardener
It has been quite an interesting month for weather. Rain has continued to fall through the month and cooler temperatures than the seasonal norms have prevailed. While we have seen the effects of El Nino since the beginning of the year, some weather bloggers now say it is over. Looks like we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, we are still pulling up those weeds in the garden to keep the pests at bay.
What to plant?
For June and July you can directly sow beans, beets, chard, corn, turnips and kale. You can also start heat tolerant lettuce, chard, leeks and at the end of the month, brassicas for planting. Plants ready for transplant are lettuce and chard.
Flowers and herbs appropriate for June and July direct sowing are Lobella, Alyssum, Limonium, Zinnias, Amaranth, Petunias, Marigolds, Cosmos, Tithonias, Ageratum, Strawflowers, Calliopsis, Cleome, Celosia, Sanvitalia, Morning Glory, Nasturtiums, Dahlia, Heliotrope, Gomphrena, Geraniums, Sunflowers, Impatiens, Nicotiana, Thunbergia. Basil and heat tolerant flowers are ready at this time for outdoor transplanting.
For more Gardener's Tips, please click Greater Hopland Planting Guide (Peter Huff and Kate Frey's Monthly Planting Calendar for Inland Mendocino, also found at the "How to - Grow Food" page on The Garden's Project Website).
What to look out for…
This is prime tomato growing season. For best results here are some tips to maximize your tomato crop:
• Amend soil with good fresh compost. Too much nitrogen will create lots of green growth. Calcium is important for tomatoes so any fertilizers should be calcium rich. • Support your indeterminate tomato plants. These are not the bush varieties but the tall tomato plants. With many of these plants, regular tomato cages just won’t hold the weight or the size of these plants. Heavy duty home built cages can be built, but be sure use supporting materials that allow you to easily get to the fruit. Cages should be 6’ to 7’ high to accommodate a healthy tomato plant. • Water consistently to prevent blossom end rot. Water deeply twice a week at the beginning of the season and then reduce water as fruit ripens. • Be on the lookout for wilting on your tomato plants. Verticillium Wilt (Verticillium IPM Pest Note) and Fusarium Wilt (Fusarium IPM Pest Note) are two plant diseases that can impact your tomato plants.
Towards the end of July, you’ll want to start planning your cool season garden. Now is the time to lay out your garden plan on paper and choose what plants you’ll want to have through the fall.
Just a friendly reminder that there is a tremendous body of knowledge about gardening in California, provided by University of California Cooperative Extension. This site, geared toward the home gardener can be found at http://cagardenweb.ucdavis.edu/.
From The Gardens Project's weekly column in the Ukiah Daily Journal, Something To Chew On:
PARADISE AND THE PARKING LOT
This is a tale of transformation and renewal – an empty parking lot to community garden story… Not so very long ago, in the magical valley of Ukiah, just North of the Myers Dentistry building and just West of the Ford dealership, there sat an empty, there sat a quarter acre parking lot that had been unused and neglected for decades. The land beneath the asphalt yearned for a purpose. Lynda Myers, owner of the lot and the building next to it, listened to the lot's yearning and felt motivated to call Miles Gordon, Project Coordinator of The Gardens Project, in July 2009. She said, "Miles, I want to turn this parking lot into a community garden." Miles replied, "That sounds like it has potential. We'll look into it." In August, three AmeriCorps volunteers arrived to The Gardens Project in Ukiah and started looking earnestly into the possibility of turning that empty lot into a garden. In November, they canvassed apartment buildings in the neighborhood, assessing whether there was interest in a community garden. There was interest, and that weekend twelve excited gardeners-to-be stood in the middle of that empty lot, dreaming a transformation. The soil under the asphalt was tested for contaminants of folly past. It was clean. Throughout the winter and into early Spring of this year, The Gardens Project worked with Kim Jordan and others in the planning department of the City of Ukiah to define the language and conditions of the permitting process for a community garden on private land in Ukiah, since this had never been done before. We hammered it out and obtained the first permit for such a garden. It was time to take out the asphalt, which fortunately was quite thin and crumbly. A front loader scraped off the asphalt and top few inches of soil in a few hours. The California Conservation Corps of Ukiah donated their entire Corps to The Gardens Project on April 22, Earth Day, and twenty of those Corps members went to work on the Washington Ave. garden, trenching and laying irrigation, pick-axing the hard packed ground and sifting out thousands of rocks. The neighborhood noticed the transformation that was happening. When the garden opened its gates to the public in late April, all forty one plots were claimed by eager gardeners within two weeks – people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to the space or resources to have a garden. The gardeners prepared their garden beds, installed drip irrigation, lay cardboard and woodchips in the paths, held meetings and organized to create a productive, safe community space. And, of course, they planted their garden beds. Less than two months after the asphalt came out, tomatoes, peppers, squash, flowers, herbs, peas, cactus, tomatillos, corn, and more are thriving. The Gardens Project invites and encourages you to come take a look at this garden at 168 Washington Ave., North of the Myers Dentistry building. It is a beautiful site to behold. To see pictures of this transformation, click here. We at The Gardens Project are eager to apply what we learned during this process to the development of other community gardens, and there is a need for more of these gardens. There are currently waiting lists at every community garden in Ukiah. 41 plots filled up in less than two weeks at the newest garden. People are hungry for the chance to dig in to the earth and have the satisfaction of growing their own fresh, healthy food. Here’s something to chew on: The Gardens Project needs access to land to create these spaces, especially in the North and South ends of Ukiah. If you have a lead on a plot of land that could be turned into a community garden, please let us know by calling Miles Gordon at 462 - 2596 x 103 or emailing mgordon@ncoinc.org.
Better Eating,Activity, and Nutrition for Sutdents (BEANS) is newest program at The Gardens Project and Community Action of NCO. The program hires 6 local teens in Ukiah, Ft. Bragg, and Willits to teach nutrition and cooking lessons in after school programs for K-8 students. BEANS teen have already completed the school "season" and will be making their debut this summer at the Farmers Market.
To learn more about healthy cooking, get healthy low cost meal ideas, test taste some sample recipes, or to stop by and say, "hi" to the teens come to the Ukiah Saturday Market on July 10th, 17th, and 24th from 8:30 to noon.
Ukiah High Hillside Farm is on the California Report!
Check out the report to listen to the innovative things they are doing! With funding from the stimulus money Ukiah High is starting a new aquaponics program as well as a CSA for faculuty and community members at Ukiah High. The CSA is run by two farm managers with help from six students interns. Ukiah High is creating jobs and providing training for future farmers!
If you are interested in signing up for the CSA and you are in the Ukiah area contact Julie at 468-8493.
Ever have a fava bean?? Well, you should if you haven't.
They are great. Beautiful. Amazing. Tasty. Glorious. And...they are SO versatile! Not only can you eat them, but many farmers and gardeners use them as a cover crop. They are high in nitrogen and protect soil since they grow so fast and large.
But, their versatility lies with- in their delicious taste. With their smooth texture and nutty taste Fava Beans make an amazing side dish. Or you can puree them and make a tasty pasta like pesto sauce. Or, why not, make them your main dish. They are that great.
Although Fava Beans are indeed delicious you have to work hard for them. You have to work hard for everything that is good in life though, right? When you cook with Fava Beans you need to peel the pod on the outside to get to the beans. But then, since Fava Beans are so good, you have to peel the skin off the bean too!
How do I do that, you ask?
Just bring a pot of water to boil. Once the water is boiling put your Fava Beans in the water and let them boil for about 4 minuets. Then drain the water out, let the beans cool, and peel away! The hot water will soften the bean skin so you can just pop the bean right out of the skin. Easy as pie ... or Fava Beans.
Try this recipe, or find your own. But try cooking with the Fava Bean, you'll love them.
Fava Beans with Feta Cheese
1 pound fava beans 4 oz feta cheese 2 tbsp chopped mint 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 3 tbsp olive oil Salt and Pepper to taste
Mix together vinegar, oil, mint, and salt and pepper. Stir onto beans and stir in feta.
This is the latest article from our weekly column in the Ukiah Daily Journal. I hope you enjoy it one tenth as much as I enjoyed writing it.
THE MENDOCINO GRAIN PROJECT
The best and most radical idea in the county right now is The Mendocino Grain Project, which consists of three Anderson Valley farmers – Doug Mosel, John Gramke, and Sophia Bates – who are reintroducing grain production to Mendocino County through a grain-share CSA. Their reintroduction of grain represents an essential step towards a local food economy in Mendocino County, but one that has historically been overlooked.
Last Friday, I visited with Mosel, Gramke, Bates, and the grains to learn about their project. It was a beautiful spring morning following those tiresome rains, and the clarity of the blue, cloud-dappled sky could just barely rival that of The Grain Project. The three farmers share a creative, forward thinking, and good-humored ethos. Mosel is a hay-man whose passion is grain. Gramke got into grains by way of biodiesel and canola. Both are Nebraska-born farm-boys living the second halves of their lives in Mendocino County. Bates is a Philo native with thirty in sight, a braid to her waist, horses instead of a tractor, and a feather in her hat.
As Mosel remembers it, the idea of reintroducing grain production to the county came to the fore during the Steps Towards a Local Food Economy gatherings that took place from 2005 to 2007, primarily in Anderson Valley. During these gatherings, grain production was identified as “a gap in local food production.” So, Doug figured, “Let’s try it.” After all, until post World War II, Mendocino County was self-sufficient in food production, grains included. So what happened? “The commodity market happened,” answers Gramke. “Grapes happened,” Bates adds.
While Mendocino County maintains a modicum of vegetable and meat production in the harrowing face of modern agriculture, it lost grain production entirely. This is dangerous (and dull). If resource distribution – say, weather or fossil fuels – changed drastically, we could have no grain to consume. Wheat, barley, rice, beans, lentils, oats: you name it, and we wouldn't eat it because it isn't produced here. And, currently, if someone wants to buy local grains for the joy of consuming locally, they can’t.
Until now, that is! In its second season of producing grains for human and animal consumption, The Grain Project has twelve acres under cultivation, including wheats, barleys, rye, lentils, oats, and beans, grown primarily at the Nelson Family Vineyards in Ukiah. The grains are dry farmed, meaning the only water they get is rain. Most of them are shin high about now because the late rains forced a late planting, but the grains that were planted last autumn and overwintered between vineyard rows are as tall as the grape vines and look glorious.
Mosel and Gramke spent the last year (and Mosel’s savings) scouring the continent for the inputs necessary to recreate a lost grain economy in Mendocino County: a disc from Sebastopol, a mini-combine small enough to fit between vineyard rows from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, seeds from California, Montana, Minnesota, and Canada. The Grain Project also has to recreate the lost knowledge of how to farm grains in Mendocino, and that’s why they have 21 grain varieties planted in 12 acres. The whole operation strikes one as a phenomenal experiment. “We learned a lot about where we can plant and when to plant,” Mosel says.
Discussing Bates’ role in the project, Gramke and Mosel said that “she’s the future,” describing how Bates farms with horses rather than tractors. She also seems to know more about sustainable small-scale agriculture than our two Nebraska farm boys.
Except for the mini-combine, The Grain Project runs its vehicles and equipment on biodiesel. “This is all transitional,” Mosel declares, and Gramke elaborates: “We need to put people to work instead of machines. We need to bring people back to the farm.” What are the future plans for The Mendocino Grain Project? Well, Mosel says, “We’ve got a combine. Now we’ve got to get serious about grain.”
The grain-share is probably fully subscribed for 2010, depending on production levels. For more information contact Lucy Neely at lneely@ncoinc.org or Doug Mosel at dmosel@wildblue.net .
