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!!

Joel Salatin in Person

Joel Salatin, the farmer and author, will give a FREE talk on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7pm in the Multi-Purpose Room at Redwood Elementary School in Fort Bragg.

Gallery Bookshop will be on hand with copies of his new book, Folks, This Ain't Normal, and sales will benefit the Noyo Food Forest. This will be Salatin's only Northern California appearance.

Salatin, hailed by the New York Times as, "Virginia's most multifaceted agrarian since Thomas Jefferson [and] the high priest of the pasture" was profiled in the Academy Award nominated documentary "Food Inc." and the bestselling book The Omnivore's Dilemma.

The Noyo Food Forest is a non-profit organization based in Fort Bragg. Their mission: growing community, one garden at a time.

Doors open at 6pm. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information, call Noyo Food Forest at (707) 964-0218 or www.noyofoodforest.org

We Ran the Ranch!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out and supported the Gardens Project's 2nd annual Run the Ranch event this past Saturday!

It was a beautiful day and all participants had a great time and couldn't stop talking about the delicious, local lunch of caprese salad sandwiches and grilled veggies.

Thank you to the North Coast Striders, Jaxon Keys Winery, Brookside Farm, Raleys, Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op, and Schats Bakery for donating the cheese, bread, vegetables, and race registration and support!

We raised $650 which will be used to provide new infrastructure for our community and school gardens.

Thanks again to everyone who ran, if you didn't make it, we hope to see you there next year!

Check out the slideshow below to see pictures from the event!

A Plate, Half Full

MyPlate! If you haven’t already heard, this is the new icon from the USDA that has replaced the ol’ food pyramid. For our Mendocino County teen peer nutrition educators… the BEANS team… this means a slight shift in the way some of our lessons are taught. The BEANS team is studying MyPlate to figure out the ways to present this new information to school kids throughout the county.

What does the BEANS team like best about MyPlate? That it graphically shows how half of every meal should be fruits and vegetables.

Ever notice that lots of ads and magazine food photos usually show a big piece of meat filling half the plate, a small side of rice, and 3 or 4 pieces of a vegetable? Well, this is what the BEANS team is out to change! They’d like to show school kids a new way to build a meal… with colorful fruits and veggies filling half the plate! Their first project will be to cut and paste foods from grocery store ads onto a paper plate… to practice filling half the plate with garden-fresh produce. Their next project will be to take the kids on a visit to their school garden. They will harvest some veggies together and use them to cook up a great meal.

I’ll be sure to take some photos of the kids’ meals… with tasty veggies filling half their plates! Stay tuned to the Real Dirt Blog… in November, I’ll show the kids in action.

Extra pears put to good use, thanks Nelson Family!

Here at the Gardens Project we'd like to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to the Nelson Ranch for letting the public harvest pears that otherwise would have gone to waste. It was a big step in the right direction for creating a stronger sense of community and supporting a local food system.

More than 1,200lbs of pears were harvested in just one weekend. Gleaners included individual community members and families, as well as elementary, middle, and pre-school staff who were able to incorporate fresh pear treats and tastings into their lesson plans the following week.

At Calpella School the pears were used to teach the nutritional value of fruit and to encourage the students to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables in their daily diet. At Head Start, this pear harvest coincided with “Pear Week” in the Food For Thought lessons, which gave pre-schoolers a chanceto taste and compare varieties of pears, make pear sauce, pear bread, and dehydrate the remaining pear.

Whether pickled, dried, baked, or juiced, the pears were greatly enjoyed by community members of all ages. We have heard nothing but appreciative and positive remarks about having the opportunity to glean the pears and everyone hopes to be able to do it again in the future.

Thanks again Nelson Family Vineyards for sharing your pears with the community!