Water alert!

Hi gardeners -- just a short postcard from the road as I'm traveling this week:

We know the water is not working, and we're working on fixing the problem. It's not a good time to not have water at the garden -- we know!

In the meantime -- if you're heading to the garden and are able, think about filling a gallon milk jug or two and bringing some water with you. Not the ideal solution, but perhaps a workable temporary one.

Margot is talking to the city today in hopes of having the spigot in working order ASAP.

We apologize for the faulty infrastructure.

Planting of hope

Thank you, thank you, thank you, everybody. I really can't think of anything that might have made yesterday better. We had a terrific spring kickoff! God is good!

It was touch and go at first -- I was out on my early morning run and had to take shelter from lightning, then finished the run in a steady rain. The rain was just what we needed, though, to make weeding a cinch! Nothing more than a few sprinkles occurred while we were out in the garden, and the sun came out at the end of our work. Glorious!

Great thanks to God, and to all the cheerful people who gathered to work together in the garden Saturday morning. We're off to a grand start!

This is a "before" picture -- if you look really close, you can see Larry out mowing the edges to get the garden ship-shape for our Saturday kickoff. Thank you, Larry!

All the rest of the pictures are from Saturday. We had a bunch of folks!

Maddie, our youngest gardener on Saturday, was all decked out and prepared for rain or shine!

Here are some of the Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church gardeners, getting their four beds ready:

Master Gardener Phil works on adding compost into the Master Gardener bed:

A long view:

Margot weeds one of the handicap-accessible beds:

Paul shovels compost to add to the soil in his garden:

Karen and Sydney get ready to plant potatoes in the Social Security Administration's bed:

Christine ended up taking an extra bed, in addition to working on the four for the HVUUC:

Taylor (and Christine, and Ann, behind him) is all smiles:

Emily gets compost for her bed. Emily is a Girl Scout, and was joined by her mom, granddad and her troop leader, Liz. Emily will be the project manager for her raised bed as part of her Scouting.

Look at all of us!

Mayme and Jackie work on one of Ms. Mayme's beds:

Taylor and Jane take a short chat break:

The sun! Nicole finished planting her bed and then helped weed the others:

Ms. Louella showed up toward the end because of earlier commitments, but she was there in time to get her bed started with some onions:

Nancy waters the potatoes, under their mulch cover of straw:

Clarence, after prepping and planting two 4x12 beds for Kitchen of Hope, finishes up the community herb bed, for all the gardeners to share:

Our next team meeting will be on April 3 -- we'll meet at the garden at 5:30 and maybe walk over to the meeting room at First Prebyterian after some time in the garden. Join us if you can!

Other dates to note:
April 22 -- Earth Day -- we'll gather at the garden at 4 p.m. We can work together for a while, and then maybe have a short speaker on something Earth-Day related. Specific plans aren't yet made, in other words! But gardening together should be enough, if nothing else.

May 12 -- Late-spring planting kickoff -- this is when we can start to plant summer crops: tomatoes, peppers, bush beans and the like. We'll gather on a Saturday morning (maybe a little earlier to beat the heat) just like this weekend.

Birds of spring

I have a new friend, Amanda, whose blog starts with the quote:
"Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark."

That's the first thing that came to mind this morning as I thought: what can I say about the garden given I don't have much time? Faith! Hope! And great people!

We had a good meeting last night -- I'm invigorated by the group that gathered, and I'm excited about the planting, and I feel the hope thrumbing through. Even amid my stress over small stuff (which is my nature), I am catching the natural high that is the thought of planting seeds and watching them grow into the miracle of a garden. I feel the circle of community we're creating within our greater community. I recognized our hope of feeding the hungry, and involving new people and learning how to grow good, healthy food. Of getting hands dirty and minds clean. It's a thrill! Thanks to God for his grace, and thanks to everyone with hope for this garden, and to those who are willing to put effort toward its success.

As of last night, about half of our raised beds are assigned. Two of the big ones are taken. We have gardeners returning from last year, and we have a lot of new folks, too.

We welcome everyone! Our early spring planting leaves the station this Saturday, March 24 at 10 a.m. (meet us at the garden -- bring water, sunscreen, gardening gloves and small tools; bring a friend!), but if you can't make that morning gathering, you can apply for a raised bed and plant it whenever!

We think our late-spring planting (and the filling of the rest of the beds) will be on Saturday, May 12. More details on that to come.

I stopped in before our meeting to take a couple pictures and to drop off some tools at the shed. Here are the bed markers that Clarence and Kathie created and put into each bed so we can assign beds to our new gardeners:

And I may have shown this before, but here are our healthy, overwintering herbs! Clarence is going to fill this herb bed up and it'll be for all to share, just as Jill intended when she planted it last season.

Happy day!

Planning meeting tonight

5:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church. Be there (please)!

Happy day!

Countdown to Saturday

Saturday, March 24 will be our spring kickoff day -- less than a week away now! It's exciting, but I also feel like there's a lot to do. I hope we'll have a lot of gardeners! Our team is meeting on Tuesday night this week, at 5:30 at First Presbyterian Church. If you're interested in joining us and need more info, please comment here.

Good stuff happened Friday. For one thing, I finally stopped by the garden to see the cool sign that Margot and Bunky had made and put up. It's gorgeous! Thanks, you two.

I had to take a shot of these little cabbages (and a couple of weeds, too) that had sprung up in the chat beside one of the beds. Opportunists, I dubbed them. They'll be gone after this week -- Larry says he's taking care of all the weeds (and probably stray cabbages) this week.

Thank you Mr. Bob Fickle and City of Kingsport! I talked to Mr. Fickle on Monday, and he delivered on Friday -- two free dump truck loads of composted leaf mulch. Beautiful! We'll start using this rich stuff to amend the soil in the beds this week.

Finally, pansies in a couple of the beds.

With 81 degrees predicted for today, it may feel more like summer than spring next Saturday, but I hope the weather will agree to stay pleasant and cool for our first planting day.

Happies!

A good blog

My week has passed its prime, and I feel that smartly today, so instead of fresh material of my own, I'm going to point you to another good blog. Sam Jones has had a hand in many good things in our community, and every time I've encountered her, I've wished we had time to sit and drink a cup of tea (or, if you're me right now, strong coffee) and chat. But that's not the way of it to date -- both of us are always moving and shaking and doing stuff!

But Sam started a blog. A few weeks ago it was just starting, and I read the first post -- I went back yesterday and my word, she's been writing up a storm! I meant to catch up on more of it last night but sleep came first.

Good stuff, she writes. Read up! Here's Sam's blog.

Also, here's a cool image of a pallet garden I've been meaning to share here ever since I saw it on my friend Mary's facebook page:

Cool idea, huh? Happy day!

Today's breakfast smoothie

Pomegranate Berry Smoothie
from Eating Well

2 cups frozen mixed berries
1 cup pomegranate juice (I used pom-cran blend b/c it's cheaper)
1 banana
1/2 cup nonfat cottage cheese
1/2 cup water

Combine and blend.
Everybody at our house liked it.

Today's breakfast smoothie

Pomegranate Berry Smoothie
from Eating Well

2 cups frozen mixed berries
1 cup pomegranate juice (I used pom-cran blend b/c it's cheaper)
1 banana
1/2 cup nonfat cottage cheese
1/2 cup water

Combine and blend.
Everybody at our house liked it.

Asparagi

Yesterday I bought a bunch of asparagus. As I learn to know myself better, I decided to fix it right up and not wait: the better the asparagus and the lesser the guilt of having it sit in the Fridge for a few days without me having fixed it.

I did the right thing!

I did a quick web search for "best easy asparagus recipe," and this is what I found. Yum.

We used to have asparagus in our garden, from the people who owned this house before us. When we expanded the garden, though, the asparagus got tilled up. Not before it had seeded itself everywhere. We don't have an honest "patch," but we do have spears coming up under our dogwood in the front yard, and beside the fence in the backyard, and at random intervals here and there. Lucky us.

Asparagus Recipe
Cook time: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch of medium sized asparagus, about 1 lb
2 Tbsp of the most exquisite extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon lemon zest - freshly grated lemon rind (since I didn't have a lemon, I used a clove of garlic, minced, and a splash of lemon juice at the end)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

1 Prepare the asparagus by rinsing them thoroughly, break off any tough, white bottoms and discard. Cut into 1 to 2 inch sections, slicing the asparagus at a slight diagonal.

2 Fill a medium sized saucepan half way with water, bring to a boil. Add the asparagus and reduce heat slightly to a simmer. Parboil the asparagus for exactly 2 minutes. Drain the hot water. While the asparagus are still hot, toss them in a bowl with the olive oil, Parmesan, and lemon rind. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or room temperature.

Note that when you are working with so few ingredients, it's important to make sure they are of the highest quality.

Yield: Serves 4.

Happy day!

Roots

Driving down the road trying to loosen my load the other day, I looked up at the hillside beside me, and thought a few seconds about hillsides. There are a lot of hills around here, where we live. There was ivy growing on that hill, helping it hold -- supporting the soil.

Here in hilly east Tennessee, trees and grass and vines and whatnot are necessary to holding the ground. Their roots go down and the soil stays put. I read a story in More magazine about a women whose parents had taken her to Haiti in her youth, while they were missionaries. The story was about her anger at being taken to Haiti as a teenager, away from her friends, and then her adult reflection and recovery from her anger, and her happy rediscovery of Haiti and her father's legacy. One thing that stuck with me was her father's work -- planting trees to keep the soil from eroding.

So where am I going with this? Roots. Community. I was thinking about how people do that same thing for their communities. I know I'm not the author of this idea by any means, but I have been spending a minute here and there thinking about it, and what it means in this town. In my hometown. Elsewhere.

When we have a sense of place; when we put down our roots and invest ourselves in where we live, we keep the soil from eroding.

Recently here, invested citizens banded together to drive out a business that was selling K2 and synthetic marijuana. Kids were dying because of ingesting this stuff -- shooting up bath salts and whatever other chemicals. I haven't really read the whole history of this affair, and I haven't examined all sides of the moral implications of goings-on, which got ugly (but maybe they had to?). But people in Kingsport, and the local police, cared enough to step in. They said: Our kids are killing themselves. You have to leave. And the business closed.

There are other things. The garden. Time and again in my involvement with Harvest of Hope, I'm able to see and talk to people with an investment. With roots here. People who care. And I can watch them holding up their own patch of ground, supporting the soil of our community. And it's good.

Other places, I read about people having to pull up their roots. Being priced out of their farms or their houses or their jobs or their beekeeping operations -- and that's not right.

Not sure where this monologue ends up, but think about it. Your roots, and you as roots. What your digging deep supports, just by you being there, and being who you are.

And then, if you feel so compelled, come set down some roots in our garden!

Happy day!

Spring forward

I've posted this before, but I thought it appropriate and lovely to revisit, now that 5 is the new 6. Also, I need to go wake up my household! Happy day -

Why I Wake Early

by Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety --

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light --
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

DIY Scallions

Another bit from Eating Well:

Next time you buy scallions, don't use the whites -- sprout them. Simply secure bulbs with a rubber band and place in a glass with an inch of water. Change the water daily and in about seven to 10 days new shoots will appear and the roots will double in length. Plant them in a garden or container and snip the greens as you need them.

Happy day!

Go bananas!

Today's post courtesy not much time and Eating Well magazine: breakfast!


Banana Spice Smoothie

2 ripe bananas
2 cups vanilla kefir (or yogurt, which is what I've got)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
12 ice cubes

Blend and enjoy!


Happy day!

Fresh fruit and vegetable program

Did you know about this?  Good stuff. Let me just copy and paste the entire article here:

The Tennessee Department of Education today announced 156 schools will receive funding for the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program (FFVP) for the 2011-12 school year. A total of $3.15 million was  provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to purchase, prepare and distribute fresh fruits and vegetables at no charge to students 8^th-grade and below.

 

“Our schools play a major role in developing active, healthy lifestyles among Tennessee children that ultimately encourages healthier, more engaged students,” Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said. “Enhancing the critical link between health and academics through such school nutrition programs is key in producing well-rounded and productive citizens and investing in our future leaders.”

 

The grants, made available July 1, allow schools to provide fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables to students during the school day. For example, dried fruits may not be mixed with candy and fruits and vegetables may not be canned, frozen or vacuum packed.The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program operates in selected low-income elementary schools. Schools are selected based on criteria in the law and includes the requirement that each student receives between $50 and $75 worth of fresh produce over the school year.

 

“The Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program helps support ongoing efforts to encourage healthy habits that can stay with a child through adulthood,” School Nutrition Director Sarah White said. “The earlier we can start teaching students about healthy eating, the better chance they will live a healthy lifestyle.”

 

The Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP). The program plays an important role in combating childhood obesity by helping children learn more healthful eating habits. The FFVP program has been successful in introducing school children to a variety of produce that they otherwise might not have the opportunity to sample.

 

A list of schools awarded Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Funds is attached. For more information, please visit the Tennessee Department of Education’s School Nutrition website athttp://tn.gov/education/support/nutrition.shtml.

 

Happy day!

Bees, please

It's sort of hard for me to get my brain cranking and motivated to tackle the day on Mondays sometimes, and today is one. Lucky for me I finished a good book yesterday -- one I found at the Kingsport library and soon could be yours for the borrowing -- The Beekeeper's Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America by Hannah Nordhaus. I found a passage yesterday that I thought I'd share here:

" ... Here's why, lest we forget: Honey is the distilled nectar of blooming flowers. It is collected by bees, lots and lots of bees. To make a pound of it, the 50,000 or 80,000 bees who live together in a hive at the height of summer will travel a collective fifty-five thousand miles and visit more than two million flowers. A hive can collect more than thirty pounds in a single day when the stars align and the nectar gushes. One worker bee will visit fifty to one hundred flowers on each trip from the hive, in the process collecting and dispersing pollen from flower to flower, allowing the plants it touches to reproduce. In that sense, bees carry the future from tree to tree, and honey is the reward for their labors, nectar distilled by desire and duty into something more."

Happy day!

Seuss

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

“If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too.”
― Dr. Seuss

“You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

More!

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! Link here to make yourself some healthy green eggs and ham! (Thanks to Ann for the link.)

Here's where to go to register for an obesity symposium that's being held in Kingsport on April 12 at Meadowview Conference Center. I'm pretty sure health care providers can get continuing ed credits for attending.

I'm short on time today (what's new) so will leave you with wishes for happy and a hopeful day!

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

“If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too.”
― Dr. Seuss

“You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

More!

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! Link here to make yourself some healthy green eggs and ham! (Thanks to Ann for the link.)

Here's where to go to register for an obesity symposium that's being held in Kingsport on April 12 at Meadowview Conference Center. I'm pretty sure health care providers can get continuing ed credits for attending.

I'm short on time today (what's new) so will leave you with wishes for happy and a hopeful day!

Choppin' broccoli

I was at the garden earlier this week measuring the beds to make sure I got sizes right in my mailing, and saw that there's a little broccoli there for the chopping. See?

So I thought you might like a first-day-of-March laugh. Take a look. And I dare you to get the tune out of your head today : )!



Also, there was a cabbage:

Happy day!