The last two weeks have been absolutely beautiful at Brookside School Farm. With winter fast approaching, I kept expecting to find withered tomato vines, but even with the cooler nights those hardy tomatoes kept hanging on. At last week's farmers market here in Willits, we had the last of the corn and cherry tomatoes... and still sweet! It was such a contrast- warming my hands in the chilly but clear morning, and harvesting summer vegetables!
Despite the rain and cold weather approaching, the farm will keep going throughout the winter. A row of multi-colored chard and several varieties of kale grow tall and healthy, and rows of broccoli are forming heads, soon to be ripe. Tender peas climb up a trellis, holding on in the breeze, and lettuce heads are steadily growing larger around them. Some rows lie under a blanket of Remae row cover, shining bright white against the natural background and protecting the tender young plants underneath from the elements. Other sections are planted in cover crops- neat rows of fava beans with other soil building plants sprouting up everywhere in their midst. It's been a fun journey from the bounty of summer harvests, and as the days of sweet tomatoes and zucchini are winding down, I'm looking forward to greens, root crops, and cold season veggies!
Ukiah High Aquaponics program was featured in the TIME video. Check out the video below to learn more about the program which works closely with Ukiah High Hillside Farm. Ukiah High is taking the steps to close the food system loop!
When the Thanksgiving leftovers are gone, so is your good time to plant garlic for the winter. You have two weeks. Plant garlic now, or forever hold your peace until Spring.
Garlic is eeaaaaasy to grow. You want some reasonably decent soil and may want to loosen the top six inches of the soil. Garlic can take a wide range of pH (4.5 - 8.3). It likes full sun. If you are planting your garlic for the winter season, you don't need to water it. Just let the rain do its thing into the Spring, and yank the garlic around Spring when things start drying up.
To plant garlic, get your hands on some garlic cloves. You can get these at a nursery/garden store, or from your kitchen or supermarket. The bigger the clove and the bigger the head of garlic that close came from, the bigger your resulting head of garlic is likely to be. Don't be planting puny little cloves from punky little heads of garlic.
Take your garlic clove. Plant it two inches deep with the pointy side up (you can remember this because the flat side is where somebody chopped off the roots). Plant the garlic cloves about four to six inches apart. That's it. It's so easy. Just leave it be and harvest it in the summer.
Did you know that 77% of all the garlic in the world is produced in China?
To ward off vampires, farlic can be worn, hung in windows and doorways, or rubbed on chimneys and keyholes.
The Gardens Project Monthly Newsletter November/December
What to do in Your Garden this month:
Welcome to fall in the garden! This past weekend I got together with some of my wonderful neighbors. We cleared out the rest of our green tomatoes and made delicious canned green tomato pickles and relish for our winter pantries.
With the change in temperature and weather, most activities this time of year center around clean-up and composting of fallen fruit, mulching any leftover perennials, making compost, sheet mulching, preserving any of your remaining harvest and general clean up. You can also divide and transplant hearty root plants like artichokes and comfrey. Last year, the first frost south of Ukiah was on December 6th and it was a hard frost. For those who grow and either cure or press their olives, it is almost time to plan for picking.
Finally, you’ll want to prepare for frost protection of your plants. For some of the tender citrus plants you’ll want to build canopies for those trees and move your container plants into a safe zone where they won’t fall victim to frost damage. I move all of my tender container plants up onto my covered deck. Please refer to the Frost Protection for Citrus and Other Subtropicals guide from the University of California Cooperative Extension for additional information on the impact ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif frost damage to plants and frost damage prevention measures.
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In November you can directly sow onions and garlic. It’s also time for cover crops and fava beans.
For more Gardener's Tips, please click Inland Mendocino 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).
When in doubt, 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/.
Eating seasonally and locally is easy in California! Try this recipe and enjoy the sweet, crisp flavors of fall. Perhaps this could be a refreshing side dish at your Thanksgiving dinner!
Ingredients (for 4 servings): 3 fuyu persimmons, peeled, chopped (1/4 inch pieces), seeds (if any) discarded 3/4 cup pomegranate seeds 1 Gravenstein apple, peeled, cored, chopped (1/4 inch pieces) 7-10 leaves fresh mint, chiffonade (stack, then roll them up, and thinly slice across the roll) 2 tsp. lemon juice 1 tsp. local honey
Directions: 1. Gently toss all of the ingredients together. 2. Refrigerate, then serve (best eaten the same day it is made).
From "Something To Chew On," my weekly column in the Ukiah Daily Journal.
SEED SAVERS PARADE
I’ve been having this vision, in the sense that the image repeatedly flashes into my mind. It’s a bit like a recurring daydream, but more of a FLASH! It comes in like lightning, sometimes prompted by something I hear – that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation bought 500,000 shares of stock in Monsanto; that the USDA issued a press release supporting GMO crops; that there are less apple varieties in our supermarkets every year – and sometimes this vision just pops in from I do not know where. It comes in like lightning! But it leaves like honey…
The vision is of the Seed Saver’s Parade. The parade is in the future, in Ukiah, and the Patty Pan Squash Collective is leading the way. They are a group of women, mostly on their later side of life, but there are a few younger women, one middle aged man, and one young boy. The group is decked out in yellow and topped by a wild assortment of strange, large hats. Their garb looks like it is woven of fibers past and future. Everyone’s does, these days…
Two women and the man are pushing a large cart with quilted banners on the sides that proclaim: PATTY PAN. This cart is filled with hundreds of the most beautiful Patty Pan Squash you have ever seen; like the love child of a sea creature, the produce aisle, and a canary. The squash were grown in Willits, Philo, Round Valley, Gualala, and Ukiah, and the Patty Pan Collective takes care to know which squash were grown where.
Other Patty Pan People dole out bits of fried patty pan, patty pan dessert bread, and sliced patty pan with creamy pesto. The crowd is smiles for miles, offering appreciation to the Patty Panners they know and the Patty Panners they don’t know. It’s a great day for Mendocino, and for those who particularly care for Patty Pan Squash, this is a lovely moment.
The Patty Pan Collective beams with pride. To head up the annual Seed Savers Parade! What a treat. What a privilege! The parade starts at the Civic Center, where the lawn out front has been transformed into a community demonstration farm, and winds the one mile to the Mendocino County Center for Agricultural Renewal, which is behind where the old Starbucks used to be on Perkins Street. The Center for Agricultural Renewal is situated on ten acres that a generous, civic-minded, and forward-thinking wine maker from Potter Valley sold at a reasonable price to The County in 2011 from the two hundred acres he bought when the Alex Thomas Pear Orchards went kaput.
The squash that the Patty Pan Collective are bringing to the Center for Agricultural Renewal are among the finest grown in the county this year. Their seed will be saved with care for farmers and gardeners to plant next year. Since these squash are grown in Mendocino County, they are adapted to thrive here, and even in specific microclimates within the County. And, you just can’t always buy Patty Pan seeds, these days…
Following the Patty Pan Squash Collective is the Tomato Lovers Association of Mendocino County, the Indian Painted Corn Man, the Keepers of the Onion, the Broccoli Brothers, Betty Caswell’s fifth grade class, Baby Beet, the Lightfoot Clan, the Scion Sisters, and on and on. People are proud and joyful and the celebration will go on for days.
In total, 328 varieties of fruits, herbs, and vegetables will be saved for the future on this day. Of course, people still manage to bring in lots of seeds from outside the area most years, but you just can’t depend on that, these days…
Well, there you have it! That’s a vision I have. I must admit: the Patty Pan Squash collective is the only visual image that actually flashes into my mind. But like I said: it comes in like lightning, and it leaves like honey.
Thanks to Cate for writing up our trip to New Orleans! Check out her article below.
The Gardens Project of North Coast Opportunities has headed South-to New Orleans that is. Members of the Garden Projects team from Willits and Ukiah took off for the Big Easy on Thursday Oct. 14 to attend the annual Community Food Security Coalition conference.
“This year, the conference moved to New Orleans and highlights the vibrant history, culture and foods of the South, Louisiana, and the myriad of challenges and successes working in traditionally marginalized communities,” said Miles Gordon, Gardens Project Coordinator.
New Orleans has long been revered for its rich culture and cuisine.The conference, titled Food, Culture & Justice: The Gumbo That Unites Us All, aimed to bring groups from around the nation together to experience the “unique regional and multi cultural approach to food organizing” taking place in the area. The chance to attend field trips, cooking classes and workshops gave the team a look into what is happening in the food security movement nationally and a chance to share the progresses of their local projects.
“We went to share all the fantastic work happening here in Mendocino County, inspire others, and be inspired by them,” stated Gordon.
With topics that included rebuilding local food economies, environmental justice, food policy councils and ending poverty and increasing food access, the sessions focused on uniting organizations and individuals working towards social justice, and encouraged them to bring shared ideas back to their communities.
“The conference provides incredible networking opportunities with similar organizations throughout the country,” Gordon said,“We can share our successes and work together on our challenges.”
With a melting pot of knowledge under their belts, Mendocino County can look forward to the continuing efforts of the Gardens Project to implement food justice and security locally.
