Do you want to help our local institutions purchase more local food?

North Coast Opportunities' Community Action Agency is now hiring a Farm to Fork Coordinator!



Specific duties include:

1. Increase the purchase and utilization of fresh, local produce by institutional buyers by at least 10%.
2. Develop & strengthen community resources that will support an infrastructure that will enable institutions to purchase more local foods.
3. Increase the capacity of schools to incorporate specialty crops into meals by arranging for specialized training and support to food service workers.
4. Increase farmers' understanding of and access to institutional markets so they can develop responsive production plans & demonstrate an increase in sales to local institutions and businesses.
5. Complete special projects as assigned or required.
   
6. Align work behaviors in conformance with NCO's Mission, Vision, and Values.

For information about the position, including an application and more detailed job description click here


To view the position listing on NCO's website, click here

Food Policy Council in Ft. Bragg

Thank you to everyone who attended this meeting!

Here are some updates:

The Food Policy Council is currently working on the Farm to Fork program, which will bring farm fresh produce into Ukiah, Willits, Ft. Bragg, & Anderson Valley School Districts, as well as UVMC.

Our Community Food Project (CFP) is currently enhancing preschool garden programs in the Ukiah area, and will begin in North county next year, and on the coast the year after. In January, CFP will host community and school garden leadership trainings, so that individual gardens can become more independent, organized and sustainable. In April, CFP will host food production trainings, where gardeners and community members can learn skills like how to plan seasonal gardens, preserve food, deal with pests, compost, and other useful topics.

We of the Food Policy Council are also currently putting together a Food Action Plan, which organizations and businesses will sign on to so that we have a starting point to make changes in our food system.

Our USDA Regional Food Hub Project will be based in Petaluma, with several drop points throughout our counties. This will allow small farmers and producers to use existing distributors to reach a larger consumer base, and will keep our food local!

We discussed food sovereignty and the resolution that we will present to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, which recognizes the rights of individuals and groups to grow and consume their own food and to enter into private contracts with other individuals to board animals for food.

Our next meeting will be January 9th! Stay tuned.

A Festive, Garden-Fresh Treat for Holiday Parties

It’s time for holiday get-togethers with family and friends! Every year, during the holiday party season, I try to bring something new to potlucks, and if the party is at my house, I try to add some special holiday touches to the food and drinks I offer.

Here’s this year’s new (and EASY!) idea I’ve stumbled upon… Cucumber-Rosemary Infused Water. The BEANS teen peer educators inspired this one!

Here’s the background… One of our most popular BEANS lessons is the “Rethink Your Drink” lesson. During the lesson, the teen peer educators present interactive lessons showing how much sugar is in a sodas and fruity flavored “juice” boxes. The teens also lead a discussion about the impact all these sugary drinks have on our bodies. The kids ask… then, what DO you drink? Of course, we’ve got a smart bunch of kids here in Mendocino County… they know about choosing water and low-fat milk! This is when the BEANS teen peer educators reveal the “recipe” for the day – something that makes water even more appealing – Infused waters! Students then make and try (depending on what fruits are in season) “citrus water,” “cucumber-rosemary water,” “watermelon water,” “strawberry water,” and more.

This season’s favorite was the Cucumber-Rosemary Infused Water. Here’s how to make it… Simply fill a pitcher full of fresh water, add 10-20 slices of cucumber and a sprig of rosemary, and let it infuse in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, for a festive, holiday flair, add a few tablespoons of fresh pomegranate seeds and serve with ice in a glass pitcher or punch bowl. So tasty, refreshing, and healthy! Your family and guests will certainly be impressed.

Out with the cooler full of sodas and bottled water… In with the fancy (but SUPER easy) infused water!

Want to Intern with the Solar Living Instittute?

Solar Living Institute accepting applications for 2012 Intern Program

HOPLAND, CA – The Solar Living Institute (Institute), a leader in promoting sustainable living through inspirational environmental education, is accepting applications for their seven month Intern Program, which will run April 1 to October 31, 2012. Information and application information are available online at www.solarliving.org.

Since 1998, the Institute had over 200 young adults participate in their Work-Trade Intern Program that provides the opportunity to live at the 12 acre Solar Living Center demonstration site in Hopland, CA, while participating in courses on solar photovoltaic systems design and installation, organic gardening, natural building, and sustainable living. In exchange, the interns learn about and participate in the Institute’s Kids’ Education Program Tours, workshop training program, demonstration site operations, marketing and communications, and special events.

Established in 1998, the Solar Living Institute is a 501(c) (3) non-profit solar training organization that promotes sustainable living through inspirational environmental education.

The Institute’s Kids’ Education Program provides educational tours to K-12 schools at the 12 acre Real Goods Solar Living Center demonstration site in Hopland, CA, and cover curriculum related to solar power, natural building, organic gardening and sustainable living. Additional information is online at www.solarliving.org/visit-us/tours/.

They also provide onsite and online classes in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems that are accredited by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), as well as a range of sustainable living classes that includes, natural building, greywater systems, raising goats and chickens, beekeeping, building Cobb ovens and more.

For more information about the Solar Living Institute and their 2012 Intern Program, visit www.solarliving.org, or call 707.472.2460.

We got another grant!

Food for All Mendocino and the Gardens Project received a $10,000 grant from United Way of Wine Country!

This money will be used to coordinate another Food Stamp/CalFresh Match Program at the Farmer's Market. In this match program, food stamp users can double the money they spend at the farmer's market; this simultaneously increases access to fresh produce and supports our local farmers.

This past summer, the program was held only at the Ukiah Farmer's Market. In the Spring of 2012, however, the program will be held at the farmer's markets in Ukiah, Willits, and Laytonville, and one market in Lake County!

Stay tuned to find out the official the start date of the program! To learn more about the project click here.

Winter Greens for Sale!

The MCOE Youth Garden is harvesting it first late Fall/Winter greens! Francisco, Cedrick (pictured) and Anthony have been working diligently through the Fall - starting in the student built greenhouse, transplanting, and now harvesting.

Organic kale, collards, rainbow chard, and bok choy are all for sale at the MCOE main administration office in Talmage. Additionally, you can pick up strawberry plants and cauliflower starts.

To learn more about the MCOE Youth garden, visit their web page and see all the pictures of the garden and the great work these youth have accomplished!

December Garden Tips

Here at the Gardens Project we LOVE winter gardening and think it should get just as much attention as summer gardening does.
Winter gardening is the time for vegetables that make great soups for rainy and chilly days. Beets, broccoli, chard, kale, collards, herbs, leeks, onions, garlic, peas, salad greens, turnips, radishes, olives, persimmons, pineapple guavas and mushrooms are all ready to harvest.
December is also a great time to make use of hoop houses to extend your season, build a greenhouse or toolshed, spruce up your garden paths, or work on your garden plans for next year.
It's also time to direct seed your fava beans, bell beans, vetch and peas; and when it rains, you can plant barley, rye, oats and wheat. You can also sow flats of lettuce to transplant and plant cover crops to nourish your soil for your spring garden.

Michelle Obama is busy getting the White House Kitchen Garden ready for winter too! Check out their website, complete with recipes to help your garden sustain you throughout the winter.

We have a new Americorps Member!

Katrina is working part time as a health educator for the Potter Valley Youth & Community Center, and part time here at the Gardens Project.

We are also excited to announce that two of our former Americorps members, Cassie Dillman and Lucy Neely, have now joined our staff!

November Garden Tips

What to do in Your Garden this month:

Welcome to fall in the garden!

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. It is a great time to clear out your green tomatoes and make delicious canned green tomato pickles and relish for your winter pantries. You can also divide and transplant hearty root plants like artichokes and comfrey.

Finally, you’ll want to prepare for frost protection of your plants. The first hard frost is usually around the beginning of December. For those who grow and either cure or press their olives, it is almost time to plan for picking. 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.


What to plant?

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/.

Happy Mendo Winter Gardening!

Weeding the Garden... A GAME!

Wet and cold weather keeping you inside this week? Here's a fun indoor game for kids and grown-ups alike!

"Weeding the Garden" is played by placing a line down the center of the room, dividing it in two equal parts (you can use a jump rope or a length of masking tape as the center line). Next, you and the kids get some old paper out of the recycle bin... newspaper ads and used office paper work just fine. Wad up the papers into balls (this is loads of fun on its own!). You'll need about 20 wads of paper. Toss half of the paper wads on one side of the line, and half on the other. Divide into two teams (1 or more people can be a "team").

Now, here's the story and the action part of the game! The paper wads are "weeds" in your "garden" and you want to throw all your weeds over the "fence" (the center line) onto the opposing team's garden... but they are doing the same to you! Set a timer for one minute, get in your "garden," and begin "weeding" as fast as you can. When the other team throws weeds into your garden, just keep throwing them back! When the timer rings, freeze. Count which team has the fewest weeds.

Sound fun? This idea came from the Laurel Chambers at the Northcoast Nutrition Collaborative... visit their website and just click on a fruit or vegetable to get a fun energizer game! Also you can check out more active ideas like this in "Sneaky Fitness."

Soup's On!

The weather is getting a little more “November-y” around here, and the BEANS teens are cooking up some hearty veggie stew with Mendocino County school children.

Making soup is great in so many ways… 1) It’s fun and easy for kids to add all the ingredients to the soup pot; 2) Cooking soup warms up the house and gives it a nice homey aroma; 3) Soups can hold all sorts of ingredients! Whatever’s fresh at the farmers’ market, garden, fridge, or pantry; 4) Kids who are picky can often be “tricked” into eating lots of veggies if they’re puréed and added to soups; and 5) Homemade soup is economical… a great way to feed a family for $2.00 (or less) per serving.

Check out the BEANS recipe for Hearty Vegetable Stew (and others!). Feel free to customize the recipe by adding your favorite herb, pasta, potatoes, or more spice!

Gardens Project Goes to the Food Security Conference!

Tarney, Miles, Cassie, and Belinda are all heading to the 15th Annual Community Food Security Conference
from Friday Nov. 4 until Tuesday Nov. 8.

Over the past 15 years, CFSC has worked to catalyze a broad and far-reaching food systems movement. Each year, CFSC brings people together to learn from each other and to shape the future of the food movement. CFSC held its first conference with 170 attendees in Los Angeles in 1997 and this year they are returning to California for "Food Justice: Honoring our Roots, Growing the Movement."

CFSC and the movement have grown exponentially, and so has the annual conference! There will be over 1,000 participants from almost every state, many Canadian provinces, and five continents. The California Food California Food and Justice Coalition and Food First will be the conference hosts and have teamed up with many Bay Area organizations to help CFSC put on a fantastic event.


We are all very excited to attend this conference where we will share, learn, and network with other individuals and organizations working to rebuild the food system!

Some of the workshops we will be attending include how to incorporate garden and farm produce into school cafeterias, what food policy councils are working on in other cities across the country, how to develop community food leaders, what cities are doing with urban farms and how they are incorporating youth, and many, many more exciting food-related topics!

$300,000 for Community Food Project

How do we make ourselves obsolete? That is the baseline question at The Gardens Project for building a sustainable food movement. Our answer: training community and school gardens to do our job!

This Winter, we are implementing a 3 year intensive garden leadership training program. In the first year, we are recruiting and training 20 gardeners from 10 different gardens. We received a three year Community Food Project grant of $300,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture. This grant will allow us to support family and community food security by building leadership skills and new community gardens and increasing food production and marketing capacity.

In January, we will be initiating a Community and School Garden Coordinator Training which will develop leadership, advocacy, community organizing, and food production and marketing skills to 20-30 gardeners in the Ukiah Area. This training will be expanded to the rest of the county, including Willits and the coast over the second and third years of the grant.

Additionally, we will be hosting food production classes this spring and summer which will be open to the public.

Another important part of the grant will be engaging Head Start families in their new gardens by providing farmers market vouchers to those families who volunteer in their child's school garden – thus helping bring new customers and dollars to our local farmers while increasing access to local, healthy produce!

Mendocino Flavors

Our local Mendocino County Museum in Willits is calling all food enthusiasts and artists (young, old, and in between!) to submit an original piece of art to the museum for an exhibit entitled “Mendocino Flavors.”

Perhaps you are a local gardener and would like to showcase your homegrown veggies through art. Perhaps you are a farmer or forager who would like to share your knowledge about local food. Maybe you love to eat at a certain restaurant in Mendocino County and are inspired by their food to create some art. Perhaps your traditional family meals reflect the foods of Mendocino County.

Be creative! Your impressions and artistic creations, focused on the foods and flavors of Mendocino County, are what the museum would like to see.

The students at Ukiah's Tree of Life Charter School are working on watercolors of their favorite foods! Perhaps painting sounds fun... OR Do you like photographing food or maybe drawing with pastels? How about putting together a collage or mosaic? Any two-dimensional medium will be welcomed.

Check out the Mendocino County Museum website at http://www.mendocinomuseum.org/mendocino-flavors.html to learn more.

Cover Crops!

Cover crops make a great blanket for your empty garden beds during the winter.





Benefits of cover crops include:

• Replacing soil organic matter
• Recycling nutrients
• Supplying nitrogen (only provided by legumes)
• Protecting soil from raindrop impact
• Reducing runoff and erosion
• Protecting water quality
• Suppressing weeds

Common cover crops belong to one of three groups:

• Grains and grass
• Legumes
• Other broad-leaved plants

A few commonly used cover crops are clover, barley, rye, fava beans, winter peas, and buckwheat. Legumes are an especially great cover crop because they supply nitrogen to the soil rather than extracting it.

To learn even more about planting cover crops check out this website.

Get your FOOD ART showcased at the museum!

Mendocino Flavors is the Museum's 2nd annual countywide artwork project.


Mendocino County residents of all ages are invited to enter photos, drawings, paintings, poems, letters, prints, fabrics, and collages conveying a “Favorite Food” to the Mendocino County Museum for a display that will reflect the whole county.


The Mendocino Flavors display will debut at the Museum in January 2012 and then travel countywide. For more information or to find out how to enter click here!

Farmers Night Out on National Food Day!

October 24 marks the first ever National Food Day sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Food Day seeks to bring together parents, schools, health professionals, community members, local officials, and chefs — to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.

Here in Mendocino County, the Gardens Project encouraged local schools and pre-schools in their efforts to promote Food Day. We also hosted a successful Farmer's Night Out dinner at Patrona to celebrate local food and those that grow it!


Farmer's Night Out was a wonderful event with delicious food and engaging conversations. Participants tasted food from the following farms and businesses who kindly donated fresh ingredients or wine to our dinner:

Magruder Ranch, Schat's bakery, Stella Cadente Olive Oil Co., Ocean Harvest Sea Vegetable Co., Green Uprising Farm, Petit Teton, Laughing Frog Farm, Infinite Farm, Cinnamon Bear Farm, Mendocino Organics, Paul Dolan.


This casual event provided an opportunity for residents all over the county to eat together and converse with local farmers while being serenaded by the sweet sounds of Mendo Zone.

Good Times were had by all and we hope to see even more of you at our Farmers Night Out event next year!

Farmers Night Out on National Food Day!

Monday is Farmers Night Out!

Join us in a celebration of local foods and farmers!

Have a delicious local meal, meet local farmers, listen to live music, and support the Gardens Project.
Monday Oct. 24!


Dinner starts at 5pm at Patrona Restaurant and Lounge.
This is not a sit-down event so you can come and go as you please.

Adults: $20 and Farmers eat for FREE.


Reservations preferred: Call 462-9181

For more information click here!

See you there!!