Late Planting

Last night we turned the soil and spread compost on a cleared bed getting it ready for a late planting of zucchini seedlings, which were planted a couple of weeks ago. Then we harvested a variety of tomatoes as well as chives for the foodbank & kitchens. It was nice we taste sampled differant kinds of tomato, I was given fresh chives and basil to try out at home. It was a very pleasant evening, talking with other staff and volunteers who come from differant parts of the world. I really enjoy being in the garden. :-)

Community Garden

Good day today, the rain stopped long enough to do an hours worth of weeding and another hour of harvesting. We gathered beans, tomatoes and beets for the food bank. I learned about beans and how they like to hide when you're picking them! Seriously! I was crawling around inside the (inverted V) frame set up for them to climb on, that was fun and much easier as alot of the beans just dangle down over head. Anyway I 'll set up a converted clothes hanger rack on the balcony next spring, I won't be able to crawl into it, but it should do the same thing.

Pizza, Garden & Balcony

Last Tuesday I went to the Stop and learned to make pizza! They have an outdoor pizza oven, the dough and toppings (there were several things from the community garden as well as pepperoni and grated cheese) are laid out on a few long tables, that you make your way along putting your pizza together. First you roll out the prepared individual sized ball of dough, put cornmeal on the paddle or the dough will stick, crimp the edges of the pizza, then lay the dough on the paddle, add tomaro sauce (not to the edges) sparingly add a choice of toppings. The paddle is taken and put in the oven to cook. I made a pepperoni and eggplant with cheese pizza and it was delicious. :-)

It rained Wednesday evening so I was only at the garden for an hour or so, but we did have time to do some weeding and use up what was left of the straw for the vegetable beds.

Today I bought a tomato plant for my balcony at my favorite plant place, oh and an orchid, I love orchids and this one was a bargan as it arrived in the shop pretty much blown out, it's an exotic so I'll try to research it in the library next week see what I can find out about it....

The peas I planted about ten days ago have been growing and I'm told there's still time, donno about that I just read the sead package and it said they should be plabted mid summer, which is the first week of August right? ;-) We'll see, being so new at this I'm amazed to see a couple of leaves never mind pea pods! lol I also planted some small onions, they're sprouting, look like blades of grass...hmmm anyway I have a spot inside for those so that'll be okay. Not excited about the onions...
I picked up some large plastic flat baskets, which I plan to use as planters next spring, they should work for the beets and leaf lettuce. I'll just line them with plastic garbage bags poke a few holes and add dirt, I got the idea from The Apartment Farmer by Duane Newcomb published by Avon Books 1977, lots of very useful stuff in there about farming in your apartment and on patios etc.

Corn Roast Pics Up!

Please go to the link below the photo to see the pictures I took of the Stop Community Garden Corn Roast! :-)



MORE CORN ROAST

Recipe:Steamed Callaloo

Find this page online at: Jamaicans.com
Steamed Callaloo
Posted Sunday, March 14, 2004

INGREDIENTS :

1 lb. callaloo
1 tablespoon margarine
1 scotch bonnet pepper
1 medium chopped onion
black pepper
salt to taste
1/4 cup water


METHOD:

Wash callaloo leaves
Cut up callaloo leaves in pieces.
Sauté onion in margarine.
Add cut up callaloo leaves, water and stir.
Cover saucepan and cook callalloo are tender.
Add whole scotch bonnet pepper
Sprinkle with pepper and salt.
Simmer then serve with avocado pear.

Balcony & Community Farning

I'm starting to grow vegetables out on the balcony. Rather than wait til spring I thought I'd get a start on the planning and plant a few things, cool weather peas and small onions. The onions will hold through the winter indoors and beets will grow indoors as well. There are apparently several vegetables that will grow on the window sill...

This evening at the Stop community garden we were harvesting leaves (greens) beet, asparagus, cauliflower, callaloo, along with tomatos and squash. Also worked on the compost bins, and learned a bit more about Jamaican cooking when we were allowed to take some of the afore mentioned leaf greens home.

It was fun I had a great time again, looking forward to the corn roast on Saturday! :-)

The Stop Community Garden

I started working as a volunteer at The Stop community garden, which grows food for their food bank program.I'll be keeping a journal of what I've learned about outdoor gardening...

Saturday Aug.12/06

Met the program co-ordinator and did a couple of hours weeding around the tomato plants and then putting down a layer of straw, to discourage the weeds and to maintain moisture for the plants.

Also learned a a bit about Jamaican cooking with vegetable leaves, their native plants and using various herbs and spices, from Herman the garden custodian.

Next Saturday there won't be a garden session but we'll be going to a farm to pick corn then back to the community garden for a corn roast!

I'm really looking forward to getting out of the city for the day and picking corn will be a new experience.

My next shift is Wednesday evening not sure what I'll be doing, as the weeding might be pretty much done. I never had a garden so it's still a mystery to me how one works. This is a great learning experience though, I'm told this is the easy part, the hard part comes in the Spring with preparing the soil, laying out the beds and planting.



Visit The STOP Community Food Center for more information on programs and volunteer opportunities.

DM :-)