Listen in!

My friend John gave me a heads-up that Sam Jones will be on NPR this week.

I first encountered Sam through a local voluntary simplicity group, and since then have mostly waved at her as she bikes and I run by on the Greenbelt, but every chance I get to interact with her I'm wowed by her faith in action and her wealth of knowledge. She's as friendly as she is smart.

Anyway -- Sam is a community activist who was integral to the founding of the Carver Community Garden in Johnson City. This week she's the guest on NPR radio show Religion for Life. Here's the link, and, in case you don't want to link, here's the bit about it:


My guest this week on Religion For Life is Sam Jones who blogs at Tennessee Transitions. She is a community activist and advocate for transitioning our communities and our lives to the post-petroleum reality that is coming.  She speaks candidly about the issues that we are facing as well as the importance of living simply.

Thursday, September 20th at 8 pm on WETS, 89.5.
Sunday, September 23rd at noon on WEHC, 90.7.
Sunday, September 23rd at 2 pm on WETS, 89.5.
Monday, September 24th at 1 pm on WEHC, 90.7..
Via podcast beginning September 25th.


If you can, also check out Sam's blog (see link to Tennessee Transitions above). Good stuff; I need to read it more often myself.

Go, Sam!

In news of our garden, I'm sorry I'm not being more bloggy these days -- a lot of unrelated stuff going on for me. Watch in the next couple of weeks for more info about our October 27 celebrate and clean-up day. Anything you'd like to see or do that day? Let me know!

Happy day.

Raising the beds

Yesterday, Doug and I met with Bradley and his mom. Bradley is a local Boy Scout working on his Eagle Scout award, and he's chosen Harvest of Hope to be his project. Through the winter, he's going to be raising the sides of our beds to approximately 15 inches, so that we have deeper beds all around. We're thankful Bradley's chosen us, and look forward to working with him! If you see him in the garden, be sure to thank him yourself!

Here are some pictures from yesterday afternoon -- Bradley and his mom, Suzie:

Doug talking to Suzie and Bradley about composting:

And just because it was so lovely, one of the Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church's fall plantings, starting to grow:

God bless your day!

Meet Doug!

We have a new master gardener working with us at Harvest of Hope, and he is super. Doug is a former force recon Marine who grew up in Gate City but has been in Kingsport for quite a while. He's going to help us do great things. Thanks to Nancy, who recruited him to our cause, and to Doug himself for joining us and being so ready to help.

Here's the garden -- we're starting to clean some beds and ready for fall. If you are planning on a fall garden, it's time to get it going if you haven't already. We're working on clearing some beds now.

If you're in the garden, please harvest what's ripe and take it to share!

Happy day.

No better time

As my husband and I harvested the rest of our corn this weekend, and -- GULP! -- canned for the first time (nobody was injured : ), we talked about how glad we were to finally be trying this, which we'd talked about for more than a year.

We also talked about how there's no better time for us to figure it out, and to try to pass it along to our kids. Food prices are going to get higher, especially this year, as a result of the severe drought most of the country has been feeling -- here's just one article about it. There's no better time to be growing your own, and learning to store some of it.

Happy day!

Companion gardening at Bays Mountain

A quick PSA and then I must be off to tend my sheepies. I was at Bays Mountain last weekend and picked up a flyer about a companion gardening seminar they're hosting next Saturday, August 25. Sounds like what Sue Cadwallader talked to us about earlier in the summer, but maybe more in-depth. Here are the details:

Companion gardening with fall vegetables and herbs
presented by Grassy Creek Wildlife Foundation

10 a.m. till 1 p.m. Saturday, August 25, 2012 at
the Farmstead Museum at Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport

$15 at the door, $5 for children 14 and under
Call 423-272-5535 for more information

Learn what vegetables and herbs benefit each other,
tips on intercropping, succession planting and how to control pests naturally

free herb plants, take-home literature, light refreshments, door prizes

Sponsored by Ward's Feed Store and Silver Lake Garden Center and Landscaping
Proceeds to benefit Grassy Creek Wildlife Foundation in Rogersville

Happy day!

A tale of two recipes

I have now made this tomato recipe twice, and it's so delicious, I am going to post it again -- not in a link, but as a full-text recipe, lest you think you don't have time to click the link I gave you last time. They're SO good.

For attribution's sake, here again is the link. This recipe is Molly Wizenberg's. I like her blog, and I have her book, and if you like to read and to cook, I'd venture to say you'd like her a lot, too.

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

Ripe tomatoes, preferably Roma
Olive oil
Sea salt
Ground coriander

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. (If you're feeling impatient, preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.)

2. Wash the tomatoes, cut off the stem end, and halve them lengthwise. Pour a bit of olive oil into a small bowl, dip a pastry brush into it, and brush the tomato halves lightly with oil. Place them, skin side down, on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle them with sea salt and ground coriander—about a pinch of each for every four to six tomato halves.

3. Bake the tomatoes until they shrink to about 1/3 of their original size but are still soft and juicy, 4 to 6 hours (at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, these are ready after 2 hours). Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and allow the tomatoes to cool to room temperature. Place them in an airtight container, and store them in the refrigerator.

The other recipe I'll share is a new favorite from Cooking Light's newest issue. The farmer's market will probably have to help you with this one, but if you're like me, you might have bought a bunch of peaches at their prime to freeze, so you can keep this smoothie going for a while. It's grand:

Peaches 'n' Cream Smoothie

1 1/2 cup peaches, sliced (I used one peach)

1/2 banana

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup ice

2 tsp honey

Blend and serve. Yum!

Monday morning at HoH

My best girl and I stopped by the garden this morning to do a little weeding and picking. We ran into Jim, who was there working in his bed. He was adding worm food to his soil, per our education session in June with Phil Ramey. Note to other gardeners: you might want to plant near Jim next time around -- maybe some of his worms will slink over to your bed and do their magic there, too!

My sweetie wanted to check on the carrots, and there were some in a bed that need to be pulled now or very soon, so we got a few to take with us to Hunger First.

There are lots of weeds in some of the beds, and many of our tomato plants need to be pulled up. Please visit and get ready for a fall crop if you're planning to do one. I hope you are!

Thanks again for all you do.

Happy day.