Sunny and Successful Saturday at Orchard

Last Saturday turned out to be beautiful weather and beautiful company at Orchard garden. The garden welcomed three new members from the surrounding apartments who will be planting this spring and summer. The gardeners also worked on combating that dreadful Bermuda grass - a constant battle at Orchard. The Bermuda grass has made its way into the beds and have taken over the pathways. The gardeners have decided to combat the Bermuda grass by laying cardboard over the grass and will cover the cardboard with wood chips. Keep and eye out on the corner Ford and Sidnie to see some progress in the next couple of weeks!

Fresh From the Start Begins!

This Tuesday is the first day of the Fresh from the Start Nutrition and Cooking Program! From January until May, Fresh from the Start will be conducting 16 nutrition classes with the Young Parent Program of Ukiah High School. We aim to empower teen parents to adapt healthier lifestyles for themselves and their families by teaching them about nutrition, physical activity and how to cook healthy affordable meals. Fresh from the Start is a grant funded program through the Network for a Healthy California and is being administered by Adrienne Binder, an AmeriCorps VISTA of First 5 Mendocino, and Cassie Dillman, an AmeriCorps VISTA of First 5 and The Gardens Project.

We will be working with a class of 16 teen mothers over the course of the next month, exploring the basics of healthy living. Fresh from the Start will cover topics including: Portion sizes, label reading, how to manage a food budget, breastfeeding, child and infant nutrition, healthy breakfasts, and Re-Think Your Drink. We will be making yummy recipes with the mothers, ranging from Turkey Veggie Chili to healthy baby foods for their children.

Check in over the next few months to hear updates about the project!

January Winter Garden Tips

Thank you so much to Suzanne Millard for the garden tips!

What to do in Your Garden this month:

It is winter in the garden and it has been cold! January is a time of renewal and that certainly applies to the garden. While there was not a great deal of activity in the garden in December, January starts fresh with opportunities for planting and planning for the upcoming year.

For die hard seed starters, your catalogs have been trickling in over the last few weeks. Now is a good time to start your garden design and planning and to start purchasing seed for spring and summer. It’s also a good time to inventory your personal supply from seed-saving. Clean up, repair and replace any tools you’ll need for the new season in order to maintain your garden throughout the year. This is the time of year to prune your deciduous trees and feed them with a fresh application of compost. You’ll want to prune your cane berry and grape plants.

What to plant?

In late January you can directly sow spinach, radishes, carrots, turnips, beets, peas and Asian greens such as bok choy and mustard greens. You can also start seeds indoors for onions, lettuce, peas, leeks, Asian greens and brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, cabbage, etc.).

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

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/.

Final thoughts…

Don’t forget about frost. Frost can cause severe and fatal damage well into April and sometimes May. 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 of frost damage to plants and frost damage prevention measures.

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).

Happy Mendo Winter Gardening!

Noyo Food Forest Seeks Executive Director!

We are looking for our new fearless leader!

The Noyo Food Forest has a position open for a new Executive Director to provide dynamic and engaging leadership as the organization grows into its 6th year of operation.

The ideal candidate will be passionate about working from the ground up through grassroots-style community development and enjoy working with people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities in achieving our strategic goals and objectives. He/She will have a proven history of leading organizations and managing programs. The salary for this part-time position is $1,600/month. For a full job description go to www.noyofoodforest.org or call (707) 964-0218.

The application deadline is January 24, 2011 at 5pm. To apply, email a cover letter and resume to Anna Kvinsland, interim Executive Director, at noyofoodforested@gmail.com.

Orchard Work Day!

Beat the winter blues with the gardeners at the Orchard Community garden in Ukiah. Get outside and enjoy the crisp winter morning by helping remove the dreaded Bermuda grass, mulching some paths, and helping gardeners build up their beds. Meet some new community members, enjoy company of other gardeners, and get outside! Work day is January 22nd, starting at 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM on the corner of Sidnie St. and Orchard Ave. at Orchard garden. Contact Kelly Burwell for more information and to RSVP, 462-2596 x 185

New Food Mondays

My family has begun a new tradition… “New Food Mondays!” The idea is to try a new recipe or ingredient every Monday and to hopefully find some new family favorites. I have to say that so far, my family hasn’t loved any of the “new” foods… however, we all enjoy the anticipation of trying something new.

This past Monday featured a new vegetable for us called kohlrabi (kol-robby). I realize that we’re behind the times when I write that this vegetable is “new.” It’s not. But, for us it was our first time buying, preparing, and tasting kohlrabi. Boy! I thought it was one of the tastiest vegetables I’ve ever had!

Here’s the kohlrabi story. I found kohlrabi in the supermarket produce section nestled between some cauliflower and chard… it was only $2.49 for three large kohlrabi bulbs! At home, I peeled the bulbs, diced them, then sautéed them for about 10 minutes. Then, I combined the slightly-cooked kohlrabi in a casserole with chicken sausage and a cream sauce. I baked the mixture for another 20 minutes.

I found that the kohlrabi was still firm (though evidently it’s great to eat kohlrabi when it's firm and/or raw). I served a heaping spoonful to myself, my husband, and my kiddos. Mmmm! What a sweet, crispy veggie treat that kohlrabi turned out to be! I couldn’t stop making yummy sounds, but the rest of my family was not so impressed. Good for them to give it a try though!

I bet the next time I include kohlrabi in a coleslaw they’ll all like it, or I can try to winter roasted Kohlrabi recipe below. Maybe I’ll give it a go for one of the next “New Food Mondays!”



Winter Roasted Kohlrabi

1 1/2 pounds fresh kohlrabi, ends trimmed, thick green skin sliced off with a knife, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic (garlic is optional, to my taste)
Salt
Vinegar

Set oven to 450F. Toss the diced kohlrabi with olive oil, garlic and salt in a bowl. (The kohlrabi can be tossed with oil and seasonings right on the pan but uses more oil.) Spread evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and put into oven (it needn't be fully preheated) and roast for 30 - 35 minutes, stirring every five minutes after about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with a good vinegar (probably at the table so the kohlrabi doesn't get squishy).

We Miss Our Intern - Alison Petro!

The Gardens Project is truly sad to have to say goodbye to Alison Petro - an amazing student intern from the Community Services Dept. at UC Santa Cruz. Alison has been a great asset to the organization over the past six months.
As Alison learned, The Gardens Project is engaged in numerous projects with the overall goal of creating access to local, fresh produce and facilitating the rebuilding of our local food system. An area of great need, particularly in the Willits area, has been to develop the capacity to implement a Farm-to-School program with the Willits Unified School District. Alison’s main accomplishment has been developing this capacity.
* She developed a Farm-to-School resource binder with case studies from other schools focusing on successes and challenges.
* She assisted with the leadership and community development of the new WISC Community Garden through facilitation and participation in weekly events.
* At the Willits Farmer’s Market, Alison assists with the promotion of the Brookside School Farm and sales of their produce to support the Willits Farm-to-School program, as well as sell Brookside produce, along with the sale of bulk grains from a local grain promotion program - Grange Grains, promote the Farm-to-School program and the Brookside School Farm.
* At the Brookside School Farm she assisted with weekly harvesting of vegetables for food preservation workshops and for farmers market.
* She proactively facilitated meetings with the Food Service Director, helped organize food service staff trainings in the use of fresh produce, and is actively promoting food preserving classes to preserve foods for the developing program at Willits Unified.
* One of the other pieces to developing capacity in the Farm-to-School movement is providing food service staff with training to handle seasonal, fresh produce. Alison successfully facilitated the development of trainings for food service staff in Fort Bragg, Willits, and Covelo. The trainings, paid for by NCO, brought in a local executive chef to train food service staff in fresh produce preparation.
Once again, we are grateful to have collaborated with UCSC to host Alison at The Gardens Project of NCO. We hope to have the opportunity to work with Alison in the future. We miss you!