2015 Calendar of Events

The Harvest of Hope (HOH) 2015 Calendar of Events is detailed below.  Unless otherwise noted, all classes/events are to be held at:

Harvest of Hope Community Garden, 130 W Charlemont St, Kingsport, Tn

• Feb 4th 4pm - Quilt Trail Dedication.  See blog post titled:  "Grandmother's...Quilt" 

• Feb 7th  8:30am - 12:30pm - Vegetable Gardening 101: Family Fun, Healthy Foods
  Location: First Presbyterian Church, Kingsport.  Registration is encouraged. To register contact RLnetmga@charter.net  or call Robert at 276.492.1722 or Dave at 423.929.2233.  More details on event are posted on Vegetable Gardening 101 post

• Feb. 24th 6:30 pm - Meeting for MEMBERS to discuss bed assignments, rules/regulations to garden or work in HOH gardens (all should attend).
  Location: First Presbyterian Church
•  March 21st 10:00am - Early Spring Veg. Planting Class at HOH
• April 18th - Class TBA
• May 16th - Summer Vegetable Planting at HOH
• June 20th 10:00 am - Cooking Your Vegetables ( by TN Agricultural Extension)
• July - TBA
•  Aug 15th 9:30am? - Fall Vegetable Planting class
• Sept. - TBA
• Oct. 24th 10:00am - Clean up & Cook Out (Members Only)

Image courtesy of staticsquarespace.com

Possibly more events on April-July-Sept to come TBA. There will be a How to Build/Use Rain Barrels one month.

A garden requires patient labor and attention.  
Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions
 or to fulfill good intentions.  They thrive
because someone expended effort on them.

-- Liberty Hyde Bailey

Giving Thanks

Harvest of Hope wishes to recognize recent philanthropists who contributed to HOH projects:

Shed, current photo

For the newly expanded shed: Shingles & felt paper were donated by Saxon & Clark Enterprises -- Andrew Allen 765-8858 (see timesnews.net article)

Guttering was from Holtsclaw Guttering 423-357-6056.

Also pizzas donated for the HOH Clean Up Day were from
Rush Street Neighborhood Grill

These donations, and others throughout the year, helped HOH tremendously in achieving some of our goals, completing our projects :)

"Fall" in the Garden

"My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece."

— Claude Monet

....enough said

 

  

Recent shed expansion
See 'before' photos here:  Shed Foundation and in Mary Mary ... post

 

Local tree

 

Photos taken today at HOH.

Here is a link to Fall Vegetable Gardens. Look for links to NETMG training videos soon.

Happy Fall! Happy Gardening :)

Broccoli Recipes on a Budget $

With 17% of the general Kingsport population considered 'hungry' (www.feedkingsport.org), it seems that there must be easier, cheaper ways for people to feed themselves.  It is now the season for broccoli, so below are a few recipes and/or links to broccoli recipes that are easy on the wallet.  Note, if you are able to grow your own at a community garden, it's quite a bit cheaper :)

Broccoli with Alfredo Sauce Recipe

Serves 4

1             head broccoli
                ($2.40 Walmart, less if grow own)
1/2 jar     15 oz jar Light Alfredo Sauce
               (Bertolli, $2, Walmart)

Steam broccoli until fork tender.  Warm 1 cup Alfredo Sauce and serve over broccoli.

Cost is about 85 cents per person (calculated by adding $2.40 for broccoli, $1 for sauce to give $3.40. Divide that by 4 to get about $0.85/person.)



See some other budget friendly  recipes

• Broccoli Soup (60cents/serving)
• Broccoli Garlic Penne Pasta  ($0.60 to $1.00 /serving)
• Creamy Broccoli Soup & Broccoli Quiche (each $1.50 to $2.00/serving)

Happy Gardening & Cooking :)

2014 Kingsport Pepper Festival PHOTOS

Here are a few photos from the1st Annual Kingsport Pepper Festival (website)

held Sept 13th at the Farmers Market.  Enjoy!

Ghost Pepper Plant - one of the hottest peppers you can grow

Buffalo Wild Wings

Pepper Class

H.O.P.E. Teen Volunteers

Dobyns Bennet FFA (Future Farmers of America) Volunteers

Pepper Pot Toss

Pin the tail on the pepper (above photo & below)

Class on Raised Beds: Saturday, October 11th

'HOW TO' and 'WHY TO' 

Build a Raised Bed for Your Garden

CLASS

 Saturday Oct.11th at 10:00 am

at Harvest of Hope,

 130 W. Charlemont St, Kingsport Tn

 Weather allowing. Bring a chair (optional).

Questions?
Contact Doug Hilton:  howlatthemoon1775@gmail.com

Shed Foundation

Last week local boy scouts helped to build a foundation to the right of old shed. Shed to be expanded - future. 

From HOH:  Thanks Boy Scouts :)


See updated photos of shed

Zing! Poof! Pow!... Sweet!

Visions of sweet bell peppers, jalapenos, chiles, and habaneros danced in their heads...

Zing! Poof! Pow! ... Sweet!      ... PEPPERS!!

A month from now, the downtown Kingsport Farmers Market will be filled with the many sights, smells, and tastes of local and southeastern peppers at the first annual Kingsport Pepper Festival. The festival, a fundraiser organized by the Harvest of Hope (HOH) Community Garden, will be held Saturday, September 13th 2014 from 9am to 4pm.  Admission is free; various costs for the purchase of items from vendors.


We asked one of the pepper festival committee members, Doug Hilton, to tell us more about the festival's origins, planning, expectations, etc. When asked how the Kingsport Pepper Festival originated, Hilton says "It all started in March of this year when the Harvest of Hope Gardeners (while hosting a booth at the Farm Expo) were asked had they ever thought of having a pepper festival as the nearest one was several states away."  After mulling over the idea, the gardeners began to start planning in April.  Their main reason/objective for the festival:  To raise funds and awareness (recognition) of the Harvest of Hope Community Garden.  Read more about the Harvest of Hope Community garden and its goals on the following links:

Pepper Festival website    First Post in HOH Blog      City News

The festival, able to handle 25 vendors, is expected to draw people from all areas of the community. Vendors, restaurants, crafters, and pepper professionals will be on hand to offer workshops, food, games, and contests to those who attend.

Restaurant vendors include Buffalo Wild Wings, Longhorn Steakhouse, and possibly Earthfare.  Barberitos will even take lunch orders and deliver meals.

Talk about HOT! Contests include gnarliest, biggest, best looking peppers, best tasting pickled peppers.  The public will also have the opportunity to purchase tickets for food items, try the wings and pepper poppers, and judge them; those restaurants that receive the most votes will earn bragging rights. The Wing Eating Contest will definitely be exciting and quite official with weighing of wings before and after participants eat the wings.  You will want to join in or cheer on friends.

Children and adult games abound:  Pepper toss (platforms built by Randy Neel of Lowe's Kingsport), tongue twisters, and pin the leaf on the pepper.  The pepper toss is much like a corn-hole toss.

The festival will host several workshops and demonstrations.  The festival is hoping to have Ed Currie (or representative), record holder for the world's hottest pepper on earth! Mr. Currie will be speaking about peppers during one of the workshops.  A Jonesborough gentleman will talk about hot peppers and how to get the plants started, etc.  Learn what a Scoville unit is!

Another featured demonstration event will be canning peppers and/or relishes. Robbie Peppers (no joke) from the Hawkins County UT Extension office will speak on canning details including materials, preparation, and procedure. These are just a few of the programs planned for the event.

The entire pepper festival committee wishes to thank all the sponsors who have contributed so far (or have signed up to help). When asked if it was too late to be a vendor, sponsor, or goody-bag sponsor for the festival, Mr. Hilton says that 'no, it is not too late' and to call him at 239-9433 and/or see the website link: kptpepperfestival.com.  

So get ready to:  Zing a pepper into your mouth. Poof it disappears! Pow, feel the spice! And Sweet, savor the pleasure of enjoying the sweet or fiery peppers and the entire festival.

Best of all, proceeds from the Kingsport Pepper Festival benefit the Harvest of Hope (HOH) Community Garden :)

See photos from the event on This blog post