Volunteer Opportunity!

Main Street Community Gardeners:

Read on for more info. about a volunteer opportunity that might be up your alley!

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Hello Cooking Matters Volunteers!

 

We are off to a great 2011!  We have three classes in full swing now with Grand Valley Catholic Outreach, Clifton Elementary, and WIC.  A BIG thank you to our current volunteers and agencies:

 

              Catholic Outreach                    Clifton Elem.                              WIC

Chef:         Steve Thoms                    Brunella Gualerzi                      Griff Chiono

RD:           Katie Donohue                    Christina Bybee                        Pat Stiles

Asst:       Illene Rogansack/                  Ellie Walworth                   Heidi Hoffman-Ham

               Cheryl Gummere

Shopper:                                          Cheryl Gummere                       Marika Stiles

 

Volunteer Orientation

Because we are always in need of additional volunteers, I will host two Volunteer Orientations: Monday, February 14th from 12:00-1:00pm (Room 2058, 2nd floor), and Tuesday, February 22nd from 4:30-5:30pm (Room 2048, 2nd floor) here at the Community Services Building (510 29 1/2 Rd, GJ).   The orientation will include a brief overview of the Cooking Matters program and specific duties of the various volunteer roles.  You will also have the opportunity to sign up for a class if you haven't already done so.  Please continue to spread the word about volunteering with Cooking Matters!

 

Volunteer Needs

Please view the attached course schedule - any box that is highlighted yellow is where I still need volunteers!  ALL ROLES ARE NEEDED!  Please let me know ASAP if you are able to help with one of the classes.  We will be scheduling more classes soon, so keep checking back if none of these work with your schedule. 

 

Please contact me with any questions!  Have a great weekend!

 

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating." (Luciano Pavarotti, My Own Story)

 

 

Tawny Espinoza, MBA
Prevention and Chronic Disease Manager/

Cooking Matters Coordinator
Mesa County Health Department
PO Box 20,000
Grand Junction, CO 81502-5033
Phone: 970-248-6904
Fax: 970-683-6621
Cell: 970-260-3542

         www.cookingmatters.org

 

some winter good news!

as we all getting ready to tuck in for the winter and eat our canned, frozen, dried fruits and veggies from the summer, we can't forget the garden!  this is a great time to plan for the spring, research seeds and plants we might want to grow and figure out what worked and what didn't.  we can discuss this more in the coming months for sure!  in the meantime, here's a little reading for you:

1. regarding a judge's order to remove hundreds of acres of GMO sugar beets that were illegally planted.  Federal Court Orders First-Ever Destruction of a GMO Crop, Center for Food Safety

2. an article about some organic practices (such as planting crops for integrated pest management), maybe something we can use next year in the garden:  Farmers Wage Organic Battle Against Pests & Weeds, NYTimes

Grow Another Row donation totals

GJ Main Street Community Gardeners: We have much to be proud of this season, not the least of which is the food that we were able to grow and donate to those in need. Please take a look below at our accomplishments and the thanks we have received.

Thank you for all of your hard work!


Here is our personal Main Street Community Garden message of thanks and our donation total for the season:
Dear Main Street Growers,

Thank you all so much for donating your time and talents to help feed the hungry in Mesa County.  You donated 375 pounds of gorgeous produce to the Community Food Bank, Catholic Outreach, Homeward Bound, Mesa County Supplemental Foods, and the Western Slope Food Bank of the Rockies.  So much of the harvest this year was really healthy produce that other gardeners weren't providing - kale, china choy, arugula, chard, etc.  With a few recipes provided along with the greens, your produce expanded the repertoire of the Homeward Bound kitchen.

The garden is such a special place in downtown GJ.   Almost every time I was at the garden, I was stopped by a passerby with questions and compliments.   The fact that you as a group have made it a special point to donate a portion of the harvest really attests to the community spirit of the garden.

Thank you all again,

Amanda

Grow Another Row
www.growanotherrow.org 
 
Here is the message that went out to the entire Grow Another Row fleet of gardeners, volunteers, etc.: 

Hi Grow Another Row Growers, Volunteers and Friends,

Our season has officially come to an end.  We grew and delivered 6707 pounds of fresh fruits and veggies to Catholic Outreach, the Community Food Bank, Homeward Bound, Mesa County Supplemental Foods, the Salvation Army, the Senior Center, St Benedict's Place, and the Western Slope Food Bank of the Rockies.  This beats last year's total of 5936, which is pretty good considering how sluggish our gardens were this season.  We had 21 different growers participate, but this doesn't include people who dropped off produce at the CSU Extension office, the individual employees of Refrigeration Hardware Supply, and the gardeners with the Main Street Community Garden.  The variety of produce was amazing: asian pears, tomatillos, okra, and celery to name a few exciting donations.

Eighteen volunteers picked up, delivered, and harvested the produce.  This year we got more requests for harvesting projects than we could handle.  I was thrilled to partner with the Mesa County Sheriff's Office Work-Ender Program.  This alternative sentencing program allows people to serve their time by working for non-profit, charitable, and tax supported agencies on weekdays and weekends and still be able to retain their job and support their families.  Over two hot days, they harvested 2,619 pounds of tomatoes and peppers from the CSU Research Fields.  I hope next year we can continue this relationship and meet more requests to harvest produce from local fields and orchards.

All of our growers and volunteers have been incredibly dedicated, and I am so thankful for your participation.  I'd like to recognize one amazing volunteer - Nicole Sizemore.  Nicole delivered 1093 pounds of food this year.  She personally harvested at least 300 pounds of produce from partner growers.  She and her husband started a Grow Another Row garden and donated 34 pounds from their own backyard.  Not bad for first-time gardeners!   She did the bulk of this heavy work when she was 8-9 months pregnant and used every opportunity to teach her 2 year old daughter the value of community service.  This isn't all Nicole did.  In April, she designed our new brochures and found a donor to print 300+ color copies.  With the brochures, we recruited new growers, volunteers, community partners, and donors.  One very sweet man sent us $100 after running across our brochure at Bookcliff Gardens.  We've used some of the money for coolers and scales.  The rest we'll save for next year.  Nicole purchased seeds, packaged them up in smaller bags, and designed beautiful cards with growing directions and a description of GAR.  We used these cards to successfully spread the news about GAR.  Finally, Nicole was a one-man publicity machine.  She recruited new growers and volunteers from every avenue of her life -- play groups, work-relationships and even jury duty.  I know I am forgetting something because at times I could hardly keep up with her energy and drive, but it is safe to say that GAR would not have grown and been successful this year without her.

Thank you  to all of you who participated this year.  I wish you all could have all heard the wonderful compliments and thank yous from the organizations who received the produce.  Their warm response was easily worth the hard work this season.  I will soon be sending you individual totals of how much you grew or delivered this year.  Until then, you have my heart-felt thanks and admiration for your community service.  

Warmest Regards,

Amanda

Grow Another Row
www.growanotherrow.org 

MANDATORY WORK SESSION & FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

MANDATORY WORK SESSION: 
This Thursday we will have a very important work session to rip out all of the plants (except the perennials and the newly planted garlic) and prepare the soil for a long winter's nap. We will also remove the irrigation tape and the plastic row coverings. We need many hands to complete these tasks which are  our main preparation for next season. Please plan on joining us. If you cannot make it, please email to let us know.
    
After last night's low of 31, many things can still be salvaged from the garden such as the hardy kale and chard. The green tomatoes should still be salvageable too. Here's one idea of what could be done with some of those green tomatoes: 
Fried Green Tomatoes  The cornmeal and flour crust is what sets this recipe apart from others.  Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings   
Ingredients 1  large egg, lightly beaten  1/2  cup  buttermilk
1/2  cup  all-purpose flour, divided 1/2  cup  cornmeal  1  teaspoon  salt  1/2  teaspoon  pepper  3  medium-size green tomatoes, cut into 1/3-inch slices  Vegetable oil  Salt to taste    

Preparation Combine egg and buttermilk; set aside. Combine 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl or pan. Dredge tomato slices in remaining 1/4 cup flour; dip in egg mixture, and dredge in cornmeal mixture. Pour oil to a depth of 1/4 to 1/2 inch in a large cast-iron skillet; heat to 375°. Drop tomatoes, in batches, into hot oil, and cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden. Drain on paper towels or a rack. Sprinkle hot tomatoes with salt. 


 Southern Living, JULY 2003  
 Mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmm. 

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HUGE SPECIAL THANK YOU to the dedicated gardeners who planted the garlic in the rain last Thursday! We will have both Chesnook and Late White garlic varieties to harvest next June thanks to their hard work! And of course many thanks go to Cameron Place CSA for donating the garlic seed! 

harvest EVERYthing!

Please get out there with your neighbors and friends and harvest ALL of the food. If it makes it through tonight's low of 31, it probably won't make it through Tues. and Wed. evenings' lows in the mid-20s! Feel free to yank out an entire basil plant and take it home with you. Do NOT pull out the perennial herbs such as the chives, orgeano, and thyme. There are likely quite a few ripe tomatoes hiding in there. Gather up all of the green tomatoes you see. If you bring them home, they should ripen over the next week or so, especially if left in a sunny spot by a window. 
   
If you are willing/able to harvest food for Grow Another Row, please email me so that we can coordinate a pick up.  

The Green Room and Garlic!

I will be on KAFM tomorrow (Tues., 10/19) at noon for an interview with Heidi Ihrke on her 'The Green Room' public affairs show. We will be chatting about our beloved community garden, harvest season, veggies, perennial plantings, looking forward to the 2011 season, the Four Block Diet, etc. Tune in if you can! And if you like jazz, food, wine, or a combination of all three, make a note of this special upcoming event: Vino & Vinyl.


The weather is truly holding out for us with regard to our garden's bounty. We do not have a frost predicted any time in the next week! So please continue harvesting what we have before we have to tell it goodbye, as alas, it is inevitable. Our putting the garden to bed sessions will have to wait until next week and the week after. We will be planting garlic this week. We have about 2 hours of work to do, with say 3 people working. But we could make it all happen in about 45 minutes if we had about 8 people. We will plan on working on the garlic on Tues. and/or Wed. evenings this week. Please respond in an email if you can help.

potluck + mandatory work sessions

we WILL have our potluck this week. The weather is predicted to be absolutely lovely for just such an occasion, particularly for an evening so close to the average first frost date! Now that's an indian summer for ya! We will gather for the potluck on Thurs. (10/14) at 6:30pm after our 5:30pm work session. please bring a dish to share and bring your friends and neighbors who would like to learn more about GJ's first community garden! 

 

we will plan on a solid work session for each of the remaining thursdays of october. Please plan on being at at least 1 out of the 3 sessions: Oct. 14, 21, 28. We have quite a bit of work to do to prepare to put the garden to sleep at the end of the season. In the meantime ------ the garden is nearly overwhelmingly abundant! Now is the time that we should be in there enjoying all of our work from this season that has flown past us. 

  

This week we should be able to plant garlic seed which is being donated by Cameron Place. We have prepared the row where the garlic will be planted by tearing out the beans and amending the soil with the luscious composted soil that we uncovered at the bottom of our compost bin --- with the encouragement of "the compost lady", Pat. 

If we haven't seen much of you at the garden lately ---- don't hesitate to come back out and reacquaint yourself w/ the veggies and your fellow gardeners. 

  

See you on Thursday!