February Garden Tips

What to do in Your Garden this month:

Bare roots!!!! The local garden shops are filling up with their stock of bare root fruit trees. This time of year is prime time to plant bare root fruit trees. It’s also the right time to shape young trees and maintain your mature trees. For new bare root trees, be sure to plan accordingly for mature tree size as well as whether your new specimens are self-fruitful or require pollination partners.

Guidance on how and when to prune and manage your fruit trees for optimal health and harvest can be found here: Fruit Trees - Training and Pruning Deciduous Trees. Even brand new trees should be pruned to get a great start. For pruning of citrus trees you’ll want to wait until spring when harvest is completely over.

Don’t forget to add fresh compost to fruit trees, existing strawberry plants and your asparagus beds.

What to plant?

In February, we revisit many of the same plants that you could directly sow in January. Spinach, radishes, carrots, turnips, beets, peas and Asian greens such as bok choy and mustard greens can all be directly sown into your garden. You can also start seeds indoors for onions, lettuce, peas, leeks, Asian greens and brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, cabbage, etc.), as well as chard, kale, fennel, dandelion, shallots, raddichio and mache. Cilantro and Garlic can also be started outdoors.

In February you can transplant asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, cane berries, grapes and of course fruit trees.

Flower lovers can start Hollyhocks, Scabiosa, Calendula, Gaillardia, Centaurea, Helenium, Viola, Yarrow, Rudbeckia, Columbine, Agastaches and Lavender indoors.

As always if you have a question about what to do in your garden, 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/.

Final thoughts…
If you haven’t done so already, give your garden tools, gloves and implements a good cleaning before you dig in. Now is also a good time to recheck your irrigation and replace any worn out or inefficient parts.

Enjoy watching your early bulbs start to bloom through February and March! There is nothing more cheerful than clusters of daffodils dotting the Mendocino hillsides. The promise of spring is right around the corner.

For year round tips on what to plant, 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).

The Roof! The Roof! MCOE Youth!

The Earth Oven at Talmage State Preschool is getting a roof! One year ago in October, the Solar Living Institute partnered with The Gardens Project and MCOE to hold their Earth Oven building class at the Talmage State Preschool. John Richards Construction came and worked with River School students to build a rammed earth base for the oven. Then for the class, community members, staff and students participated in its construction and have since enjoyed tasty garden pizzas.

However, cob and rain slowly make mud over time. So now with the leadership of local builder Michael Riddel, and beautiful sustainably harvested redwood from North Cal Wood Products, the students are building a roof. The structure will incorporate cob counters for food preparation, ensure the longevity of the oven for preschoolers, River Students and MCOE staff for the long haul. Click on these to read more about the MCOE Youth Garden and the Talmage State Preschool Garden.

Food Pantry Opens in Covelo!

The Round Valley Food Pantry opened last month in Covelo. On the first distribution day, over 30 households in need received free food, which benefited over 100 people! That amounts to nearly 10% of the population of Covelo served on the very first day. Food is available to any community member in need.

The food pantry is administered for Food For All Mendocino. Many organizations have contributed to the food pantry. Supporters include : The Round Valley Library Commons, Round Valley Tribal TANF, First 5 Mendocino, Willits Community Services, and local Round Valley Farmers.

The food pantry is open once a month in the Community Room at the Library Commons. Food is distributed from 2-4 pm on the following Thursdays: February 17th, March 17th, April 14th, May 19th, June 16th, and July 14th. People may also apply for food stamps during this time.

If you would like to make a donation to the Round Valley Food Pantry, please call Adrienne Binder at 462-7323

Recipe of the Month

It's been so hot lately that our spring gardens are really starting to root, which means lots of carrots right now! Carrots are high in beta carotene, which is why they are so orange and great for healthy eye site.

Try out this recipe for some carrot curry soup, perfect for the still chilly nights!

- 2 teaspoons of curry powder
- 1 medium garlic clove, crushed
- 1/2 inch of ginger, chopped
-1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 pound carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 bay leave
- 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 can of coconut milk

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the curry powder and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
2. Add the ginger, onion, carrots, bay leaf, and broth, increase the heat to medium high, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the carrots are soft when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaf.
3. Working in batches, process the soup in a blender until smooth. (Be very careful when blending the hot soup, as steam could blow off the blender lid.)
4. Pour the soup into a clean pot and return it to the stove over medium heat. Stir in the coconut milk and adjust the seasoning as needed. To make appetizer portions, serve small amounts of soup in shot glasses or demitasses. Garnish with a few flakes of toasted coconut, if using.

Something To Chew On - Seed and Scion Exchange

EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL COUNTY-WIDE SEED AND SCION EXCHANGE



On Saturday, February 5th, a who’s who of Mendocino County horticulturalists descended on Anderson Valley High School for Mendocino Permaculture’s 28th annual Winter Abundance Workshop. Around 200 attendees, hailing from Hopland to Laytonville, Potter Valley to Fort Bragg, swapped plant material, knowledge, good cheer, and showed off the latest fashions springing forth in this great County.
Almost everything about the event is free to attendees, and as organizer Rob Goodell puts it, “that makes it pretty simple.” Event organizers call the Winter Workshop a “public service event” and declare “a feast of knowledge may be had by all who are ready to eat!” Organizer Barbara Goodell says it’s “an incredibly diverse group that comes to the event, both age- and interest-wise,” and the lady speaks the truth! There were mere babes to octogenarians, dread locks to crew cuts, horticultural novices to professional fruit farmers, and everyone in between!
Free offerings included: admission; an assortment of hundreds of fruit, vegetable, herb, and flower seeds, collected and brought to the event by local gardeners; hundreds of apple, pear, plum, apricot, fig, kiwi, grape, peach, olive and other fruit scions (vine and tree cuttings used for grafting); and workshops on grafting, seed saving, Mendocino County apple varieties, the Anderson Valley High School Garden, and local grain growing.
For sale was lunch prepared by AV group The Salsitas, fruit tree root stocks, and locally-grown fruit trees and vines.
Attendees (or, it might be more appropriate to say participants, since the sharing of knowledge and plant material is such a collaborative effort in this community event) spent their time wandering between the geodesic domes, shade structures, hallways, and sunny fields of Anderson Valley High School Agriculture, greeting old and new friends, perusing seeds and scions, and riding the wave of knowledge spilling forth. As Ukiah attendee Angie Lowe noted, the event “starts all kinds of ideas about what you can do” in your own garden.
The organizing body, Mendocino Permaculture, is a “vaguely amorphous group” based in Anderson Valley that puts on social and educational events pertaining to permaculture in Mendocino County. Permaculture is “permanent agriculture” – or an agriculture that exists in harmony with the land and with social structures and can go on indefinitely. It’s about “growing your food and fiber as locally as possible” and using “sustainable agricultural techniques to not deplete the land and its growing capacity,” says Barbara.
I asked organizer Rob Goodell why Mendocino Permaculture puts on the event: “Well, everybody seems to be really enjoying it or we wouldn’t be doing it,” he responded. The event saw about 200 participants, up from the normal 125 of past years. Rob also notes that many of the varieties of seeds and scions available at the Winter Workshop are not available in stores, and that offering the plant propagating materials at the workshop allows people to be less dependent on big stores. The combination of plant material and hands-on educational workshop offers people a greater “ability to do it themselves,” something Mendocino County residents relish.
Rob also cites that the event is partly a reaction to the increasing domination of the global seed market by corporations like Monsanto, and that the event serves to “short-circuit the goal of total control of the seed market” that these corporations work towards. It’s an “agricultural empowerment thing,” he says.
The day was glorious. There was nary a cloud in the sky, and the brilliance of it all was enough to give even the most pessimistic brown-thumb confidence in their spring garden.
Mark your calendars: Mendocino Permaculture’s next event will be the Chestnut Gathering in the fall, during which participants gather chestnuts together and roast them on an open fire, and the next Winter Abundance Workshop will be in 2012 around this same time of year. For more information on Mendocino Permaculture, or to join their mailing list, call Rob and Barbara at 895 – 3897.

The Continued Adventures of "New Food Mondays"

Here’s an exciting update to my family’s “New Food Monday” experience! I found a great recipe for collards on The World’s Healthiest Foods website http://www.whfoods.com/. Of course, I knew that I would like it, but would the rest of my family go for it? Yes!

My husband and son ate an entire serving willingly. They both liked the flavors of garlic and olive oil with the greens. We decided that we’d like a few red pepper flakes in the recipe as well… it gave the greens an extra zip.

My five year old daughter is still in the “yuck” camp for this latest new food. One of these days she’ll come around. Maybe she’ll get on board with a homemade veggie chili next Monday!

Here's the recipe for 5-Minute Collard Greens

Note: Collard greens are a highly nutritious green rich in calcium that are a great addition to your Healthiest Way of Eating. Long popular in the southern states, you will find out why they are becoming increasingly popular throughout the rest of the U.S.

Prep and Cook Time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
1 pound collard greens, chopped
Mediterranean Dressing
1 tsp lemon juice
1 medium clove garlic, pressed or chopped
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and black pepper to taste
1-1/2 TBS sunflower seeds
Optional:
1/2 red onion, sliced (add to steamers with collard greens)
6 kalamata olives, sliced
3 TBS pumpkin seeds
5 drops tamari soy sauce
dash of cayenne pepper
Directions:
1) Fill bottom of steamer with 2 inches of water.
While steam is building up, slice collard greens leaves into 1/2-inch slices and cut again crosswise. Cut stems into 1/4-inch slices. Let both leaves and stems sit for at least 5 minutes to enhance their health-promoting properties.
2) Press or chop garlic and let sit for at least 5 minutes to bring out more of its health-promoting properties.
3) Steam collard greens for no more than 5 minutes.
4) Transfer to a bowl. For more flavor, toss collard greens with the remaining ingredients and any of the optional ingredients you desire while they are still hot. (Mediterranean Dressing does not need to be made separately).
Serves 2

Get you coffee on!

Have you visited the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-Op espresso bar lately? If you haven't then you probably don't know that all tips for the month of February will be donated to The Gardens Project. Stop by the co-op for a morning cup of joe or a nice mocha to get you through your day and donate your change to The Gardens Project! Thanks to the staff at the espresso bar for being so generous by giving their tips each month to a different community organization!

BEANS teen peer educators speak for themselves

Trying new foods, making healthy choices, and searching for knowledge... it's all part of "a day in the life" of a BEANS teen peer educator. Check out these links to hear about it in their own words:

Devina

Simba

Megumi

Tauna