Upcoming Gardening Workshops!

The Gardens Project Annual Gardening Workshops have begun!
Upcoming Workshops:

Sunday April 22nd: EARTH DAY!!!
12-1pm at Talmage Preschool Garden with Ron Woolsey: Planning a Summer Garden

Ron Woolsey, of Living Sculpture Studios in Willits, will be teaching an hour long workshop on Planning a Summer Garden. He will include techniques for all sizes and types of gardens, including his unique "Wedding Cake" garden for small spaces. Admission is free. Dress for gardening, rain or shine.

Sunday April 22nd: EARTH DAY!!!
1:30-2:30pm at Grace Lutheran Church Community Garden with Nona Carpenter & Louisa Aronow: Starting Seeds and Preparing a

Louisa Aronow and Nona Carpenter of the Mendocino County Master Gardeners program will be teaching an hour long workshop on Starting Seeds and Preparing a Garden. They will specifically discuss starting seeds in the ground, as now is the time to sow your garden! Admission is free. Dress for gardening. We will be outside in the sun or inside in the rain.

Saturday, May 5th:
1:30-3:30pm at Plowshares Garden with Peter Reynolds: Drip Irrigation Workshop

Peter Reynolds, a Plowshares volunteer and owner of Down to Earth Landscaping in Redwood Valley, CA, will be teaching a two hour long workshop on Drip Irrigation. Learn about drip irrigation and help out the Plowshares Peace & Justice Center at the same time! Admission is free. Dress for gardening, rain or shine.

For more information on these and other gardening workshops, visit our Events Page.

Garden Leaders On the Rise! Pt. II

Twenty-four Garden Leaders from throughout the Ukiah and Anderson Valleys consumed pozole, created visions of community-rich gardens, and created plans for a year of garden events last week.

In the second gathering of the Garden Leadership Training series, Building Community and Communication, gardeners from the Washington Avenue Community Garden and the Cleveland Lane Community Garden prepared a delicious pozole for all - followed by a lively discussion on building happy, healthy communities. Above, gardeners create vision of their gardens filled with playgrounds, social areas, and vibrant community spaces. See all the photos of the day!

To learn more about the Garden Leadership Training, read Garden Leaders On the Rise, Pt. I. Next session - Effective Leadership - with gardeners taking on the task of conflict resolution, planning and running effective meetings and making decisions.

Farmers' Markets are More Affordable than You Think!

A 2011 study in Vermont found that for most organic items, it was cheaper to purchase them at a Farmers' Market than at a grocery store or co-op!

For 13 out of 14 organic items surveyed, the cheapest price was at a farmers' market!!

According to the study, even when comparing NON organic items, farmers' markets were sometimes cheaper than grocery stores (depending on the item).

To view the report, click here!

The Ukiah Farmers' Market is every Saturday at the Alex Thomas Plaza, on the corner of School and Clay St.

If you are using food stamps, the farmers' market is even more affordable for a limited time while we are offering the Food Stamp Double Match Program! Each week, the market will match up to $15 of EBT money at the Ukiah and Willits Farmers' Markets.

Try some delicious, local food at your nearest farmers' market this week and know that not only are you getting high quality, nutritious food, but you're also supporting your local farmers and the local economy.

Check out the McGrow page to learn more about what we are doing to help promote farmers' markets in Mendocino County.

To find out more about the farmers' markets in Mendocino County, click here!

Double Match Program is BACK!

Starting March 1 CalFresh participants can double their food stamp benefits at the farmers' market!

Up to $15 of EBT/food stamp benefits will be matched, giving CalFresh individuals and families a total of $30 to spend at the market. To redeem the match, CalFresh users should go to the Farmers' Market table. The match program will continue until the money runs out.

The match program will be offered at the Ukiah, Willits, and Laytonville farmers' markets! Click here for more information about Mendocino County's farmers' markets

The Ukiah Farmers' Market is every Saturday at the Alex Thomas Plaza (school & clay st.) from 8:30am-Noon.

For more information about CalFresh or the Double Match Program contact Belinda Judelman at Bjudelman@ncoinc.org

This program is made possible by funding from United Way of Wine Country. If you'd like to support this program contact Belinda to find out how!

Farm2Fork: new grant, new coordinator!

In case you haven’t noticed, Mendocino County is quietly transforming into a rather happening player in the “Real Food Revolution” that is gaining momentum across the nation! For the past 10+ years, a wide range of activated citizens from the Coast to Covelo and every nook in between have been steadily building a healthy local food system, by strengthening our farmers markets, growing gardens at schools across the county, educating a new generation of farmers to feed our community, and strategizing towards a shared vision for a more sustainable and delicious future.

Thanks to these efforts, production is steadily increasing and community support of and demand for local food is at an all time high, but we still have much work to do before our daily meals, throughout the seasons, feature the bounty of the county. The time is ripe to take the next step and engage the large food purchasers in our community--the schools, hospitals, restaurants and markets—in this movement. If we can capture their significant purchasing power, we will infuse the local food economy with dollars grown and raised right here in Mendocino County, ensure food security for our community, and improve the quality of food served to our children, patients, customers and ourselves. This is where the Farm2Fork project comes in.

Farm2Fork is a new initiative of North Coast Opportunities/Community Action aiming to ramp up institutional purchasing of local food in Mendocino County. Launched at the beginning of February, Farm2Fork is coordinated by Susan Lightfoot, who will be facilitating connections between local farmers and the schools, hospitals, restaurants and stores that purchase significant volumes of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), this 2-year Specialty Crops Grant aims to increase the capacity of both local farmers and Food Service professionals to get fresh, healthy food from the field to the plate.

While the grant focuses primarily on creating Farm to School partnerships across the county, providing resources for training and equipment for schools to meet this goal, Farm2Fork will also work with restauranteurs, chefs, and produce managers who are interested in offering more locally-produced food on their menus and shelves. Susan is eager to connect with interested community members, farmers, food purchasers, chefs and distributors across the county to identify opportunities, trouble-shoot challenges, and synergize efforts towards a thriving local food system in Mendocino County. For more information, please contact her at (707)467-3238 or email slightfoot@ncoinc.org.

About Susan Lightfoot: Lightfoot is the Co-Founder and former Executive Director of the Noyo Food Forest and was instrumental in setting up the organization’s lauded Farm to School partnership with Fort Bragg Unified School District. She has been working in the grassroots on local food issues in Mendocino County since 2004 and is beyond excited about moving from the Coast to Ukiah to take on this new position as Farm2Fork Coordinator at NCO Community Action. An avid surfer and dancer, Susan truly loves working and connecting with all kinds of people and looks forward to making new friends on this side of the hill.

Medicinal Herb Gardening in Mendocino County

Now is the time to start growing your medicinal herb garden!
Check out our new resource under the "Herb Gardens" section on our "How to: Grow Food" page, all about herbs that grow well in this area of California, including their care instructions and companion plants!

Garden Leaders On the Rise!

The Gardens Project of NCO has begun an intensive Gardener Leadership Program to train community gardeners to share, organize, lead, and continue to build the movement for expanding and sustaining spaces for community and school gardens.

The Leadership Program (we're still searching for a catchy name if you've got one), began in January and brings together 24 gardeners from 11 different community and school gardens in the greater Ukiah area and Anderson Valley. We will meet every six weeks through November to teach each other greater skills in: Building Community and Communication, Effective Leadership, Accessing Resources and Hosting Work Parties, Marketing Opportunities, and Garden Advocacy.

By the end of the year long training, the participants will comprise our new Leadership Council that will continue to meet, share, plan, and advise The Gardens Project. In year two, the training will move to gardens in Northern Mendocino County (Willits, Covelo, Laytonville, Legget), and then year three on the Coast (Point Arena to Fort Bragg).

The Leadership Program is a component of NCO Community Action successfully receiving a USDA Community Food Projects grant to train community leaders in food production and work to alleviate poverty through re-building our local food system.

The gardens represented at this year's training are: Washington Community Garden, Grace Lutheran Community Garden, Anderson Valley High School Garden, Jack Simpson Senior Garden, Cleveland Lane Community Garden, Orchard Apartments Garden, Plowshares Garden, Oak Manor Elementary School Garden, Yokayo Elementary School Garden, Northern Circle Indian Housing Garden, and the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas Community Farm and newly developing school gardens. For more info, contact The Gardens Project.