Work Day at the Garden!

Well winter has come and gone and we have begun some of the work in the garden for this summer's growing season. New this year you will see that all the walk ways have weed barrier and bark paths. Our perennial plants are already flourishing and we have started some veggies like acorn squash and broccoli. But...

We are ready for volunteers!!!

Next Saturday, May 22nd from 9am to Noon we will be having a work day. We need help planting the remainder of the beds, staining the cedar fence that was installed last year and other general clean up around the building. Please come, bring your shovel & gloves and any seeds or starts you have signed up to contribute.

If you have any questions please call Melissa Dailey at 509-879-7858

See you Saturday!!

Parsley

I sprinkled a little parsley seed in the dirt this spring not sure how well it would take. Much to my surprise we've had a huge crop of parsley. It must be pretty easy to grow after all. So we've taken snips of it to use as a fresh herb all season long. A few weeks ago a dried a bunch upside down which made it loose all its pretty green color. So this time I am using a dehydrator. Short of freeze drying it (my freezer is now full with all the blanched & frozen tomatoes & zucchini) I think a dehydrator is the next best thing. This way we can store it and use it all winter long in the Jacob's Well Community Resource Center kitchen.

Big zucchini... little zucchini

No matter the size these tasty veggies are delicious and can be used a variety of ways. The smaller zucchini you typically see in the grocery stores have less seeds and are great for roasting or used in salads. The large zucchini are usually used for baking in breads, cupcakes, grilled or turned into relish. In the garden we try to pick a variety of both so they can be used for a variety of purposes.

Just a tip, zucchini also freezes well and can be used later in the year. One great way to use zucchini or other squash is to chop it with the skin on in 1" sections and then bake it with butter, season salt & Parmesan cheese. It's a tasty dish and works well with either fresh or frozen veggies.

A million tomatoes!

We planted three types of tomatoes this year - Roma, Cherry & Black Russian. They were slow to get going but man oh man... did they make up for it. There are hundreds of little green tomatoes. We've picked some to let them ripen indoors. We've also thinned out the non-producing branches to make way for a little sunlight to the rest of the plant. The best part is these little tomatoes are great for picking and eating right off the vine!

Sunflowers

The sunflowers are blooming everywhere.... we'll see if we can harvest a few sunflower seeds out of them before the birds get to them later this summer.

Potatoes

Potatoes are a root plant. They grow by placing another potato in the ground that has started to grow "eyes" on it. The plant will take off into the ground and can produce around 10lbs. of potatoes off of one plant! Above ground will grow a nice green leafy plant with small white or pink flowers. Once the plant dies off completely... turns yellow than than brown and falls over... then it is time to harvest.

Harvesting the potatoes before then will result in much smaller potatoes and much much fewer veggies per plant. Even if you see a few larger ones just under the soil... be patient... they can wait a few more weeks until the rest of the plant is ready for harvest.

Kohlrabi... What?

What a weird little veggie? I had never heard of this before we started the community garden and a volunteer gave me a packet of kohlrabi seeds to plant. I figured I might as well and then we'd figure out what to do with it later.

This weekend we harvested a few and I tried to cook it up so I could promote it in the garden. You can eat both the meaty base of the plant as well as the leaves. It has almost a potato texture and cooks well in stews or soups as it absorbs the flavors of the foods cooked with it. I tried it cooked in some of the fresh green beans and sure enough... it tasted like the beans. Supposedly it can be eaten cooked or raw but I would certainly consult a cookbook or something for direction. Mine was boiled for 10 minutes.

It is supposed to be a good source of Vitamin C and other vitamins & minerals and it is very easy to peel and prepare.

Healthy vine

Here is the wonderful old grape vine that welcomes you into the Jacob's Well Community Garden. It is completely overflowing with grape clusters. We are still not sure what variety of grape it is but we should be able to make good use of it somehow... eating off the vine, wine, or jelly at least!

We had a pretty good little harvest last week and were able to distribute lettuce, beans, onions, squash, kohlrabi, beets, cucumbers, etc to the neighborhood.

As we get closer to the harvest season, if anyone has any interest in putting together or even attending a canning or food preservation class please let me know. We will most likely try to host something at the Community Resource Center which is fully equipped with a commercial kitchen. For details email: melissadailey@comcast.net

Proud Shara standing by her sunflower plants she started from seed.

Cucumbers are growing well... courtesy of the Reeds.

Daniel checking out the pepper plants....

The garden is growing and we've even harvested a bit of the zucchini, beets, beans... and the volunteers have picked a few yummy strawberries along the way.

Want to get your hands dirty??

Digging in the earth is good for your soul! You can help our community garden project in the following areas:

**Daily watering schedule **

(sign up for 1 day a week or month... any little bit helps)

**Weekly weeding schedule **

(if we stay on top of it ... it is an easy task!)

**Provide grass clippings to cover our walkways**

**Provide grass clippings & leaves for our compost bin**

**Help finish the fence**

**Help stain/seal the new fence to keep it in good condition**

**Donate plant starts or seeds throughout the season **

(we will be planting cold weather crops like beans, lettuce, cabbage, etc throughout the summer)

Or, just call or email to see if there is anything else on our to do list. Thank you so much to all our volunteers right now that keep this project fun and exciting.

Happy Growing!!

CONTACT: Melissa Dailey 509.879.7858 or email: melissadailey@comcast.net