Spring Garden Market

One does not usually associate the word ruthless with gardeners but when it comes to the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County spring sale, there is a certain "take no prisoners" attitude.  Serious shoppers arrive very early and wait in line for the gates to open.  Then wait again in a sea of serious shoppers before getting the go-ahead signal.  From there it gets brutal. 

 If you are a person whose ego might be bruised by getting mowed down by an extremely experienced gardener, then this event is not for you.  

The madness lasts about 15 minutes at which point many of the more coveted tomato varieties are gone but the atmosphere is more relaxed and fun and there is still plenty to choose from.  The sale features heirloom tomatoes, peppers, herbs and a variety of vegetables and flowers.  There are also industrial strength tomato cages for sale and (in a separate area) vendors of all gardening related goods.  The sale is extremely well-organized and even provides "plant sitting" for you while you continue shopping.

Or you can just have a family member guard your selections while you continue shopping.

                      

It is best to come to the sale with a game plan. The Master Gardeners website provides you with a list of available plants for "pre-shopping" and then of course you have to check your list to make sure you got everything.

               

The Farm Stand is Now Open

Today and every Saturday until the end of the growing season, the Veggielution Farm Stand will be open from 2:30 to 5:30.  Right now they are selling  green garlic, beets, cilantro, rosemary, green onions, lettuce, choi sum, collards, kale, broccoli, arugula, chard, and pak choi. They sell on a sliding scale with 3 levels: 1. I can't afford to pay anything right now. 2. I can pay about what I'd pay in a supermarket and 3. I can afford to pay a little extra to support Veggielution.  I bought some fine looking arugula which I plan to use in a grilled Swiss and arugula panini. The stand is set up right in front of the Emma Prusch farm house.  

Here is some calendula growing right in front of the farm stand.  Calendula's greatest virtue is that it blooms in every month of the year. 

A Winter's Day at the Farm

Certainly there was plenty I could have been doing at home for the good of the cause (in terms of care and maintenance) but I wanted to be out on the Veggielution Farm today. It is wonderful to witness this enterprise, which is flourishing. It is amazing how many winter vegetables are thriving right now.  Here is a list of todays harvest.

Saturday from 10 to 12:30 is the weekend workday that is open to the public now and it consists of work like weeding, mulching, planting, thinning, cooking, and digging and harvesting.  Here is a picture of Chloe, the rescued rooster, "helping" prepare vegetable bean soup (to be eaten at the end of the work session).

The resident peacock has quite an attitude.

One night he got into the greenhouse and leveled the trays of seedlings.  Everything had to be replanted thus delaying the planting in the fields.

One of the biggest projects of the day was shoveling the compost into wheelbarrows and then onto the grounds. Check out the steam coming off the pile.

This is Stella, who gets into plenty of mischief of her own and keeps a very close eye on the rooster.

Join the Veggielution!

I know that the location of Prusch Farm where the Veggielution gardens are located is pushing the definition of "downtown" but the scope and influence of Veggielution reaches far beyond the farm itself.  I first met the earnest, knowledgeable, Veggielution people at their booth at the heirloom tomato sale.  Their organization began as a mentoring project to help people with backyard organic vegetable gardens in downtown backyards.  It has grown into a large scale educational farm demonstrating best practice organic, sustainable farming methods.  They grow vegetables with the community and for the community.  I have been meaning to go over and work during their two weekly volunteer workdays and yesterday I finally pedaled on over and I WAS IMPRESSED!  There were about twenty volunteers working in the newly acquired, newly planted acre of land.  I settled in and started weeding a row of beans.  I am not a hot weather person and tend to exaggerate how miserable I am in the heat but I'm telling you it was hot, tiring work.  To be fair, I noticed that the young woman working next to me, as well as all the other young workers, looked fresh and cool and not the least bit miserable.  Just when I thought I couldn't take another minute of this grueling work (I did it for about 15 minutes), one of the organizers came over and asked if anyone would like to work on a job in the shade.  I jumped on it.  There were plenty of jobs including pinching flowers from basil, stirring the worm bin, weeding, wrapping twine, sorting seeds and thinning bean plants.  It was really lots of fun to be there with all these people who were excited to be learning about farming and doing good purposeful work.  You can learn more about volunteering by visiting the Veggielution website. I encourage you to read the Veggielution Annual Report to learn more about this fantastic and timely project.  At the end of each work session, volunteers harvest crops and take home plenty of fresh produce.

Let's Talk about Chicks

Off you go to your new home.

A few weeks ago when I arrived at the Master Gardeners Annual Heirloom Tomato and Pepper sale a few minutes after the 9 AM start time only to find there were NO PARKING places near the event and then 15 minutes later after parking a short distance from the sale and walking to the rows and rows of tomato plants only to discover many varieties were already sold out, I got the feeling that home vegetable gardening had become something of a phenomena.  There were scads of people cruising the aisles, loading up on tomato and pepper plants and these weren't just us old-timers like me.  There were plenty of young people including young parents pulling wagons full of kids and plants.  How heartening!  This weekend I decided to check out the chick sale at Sam's Downtown Feed store and saw a scene similar to the plant sale only a smaller scale.  Sam's hosts a baby chick sale each year with 4H members on hand to inform and educate the public on chicks and 4H.  The chicks were selling like crazy.  I overheard one customer urge someone on the other end of her cell phone to decide quickly because there was only one of a particular variety left.  Are these "victory chickens" to get us through tough times?  If you would like to get in on this backyard chicken movement then head on over to Sam's on Saturday, June 6th when this event repeats.  You can learn all about raising poultry, buy a few chicks and pick up all the feed and equipment you need for them while you are there.