Summer activity - kids in the garden with art!

Join the Riverschool and Urban Roots Garden Classrooms for a week of fun as we grow our own
food, make sculptures out of nature, harvest fruits and veggies, make fashion out of trash, find garden
critters, turn gourds into art, and MORE!

Who: 5-11 year old students

Where: The Riverschool
7777 White Fir St.
Reno, NV 89523

When: August 9-13 from 9am-3pm

Cost: $125 early bird registration by July 15,

$150 after July 15

Bring: Sack lunch (we provide daily salad), water bottle, sunscreen!

EcoArt + Gardening Day Camp. First come, first serve! Visit us online at http://www.urgc.org/ to secure your spot or contact Lynnae Fischbach at lynnae@urgc.org to register today!

Happy to be a CSA member 'cause the weather is making it tough all over

It's tough year for farming all over the world this year. Floods and tornados in the mid-west, cool weather and water wars in California, drought and political conflict throughout the world.  (Wow...gloomy...shake it off)

Last year the weather was great in Nevada...we actually had an abundant fruit crop. This year it has been far too cold for far too long. The growth in my vegetable garden has come to a complete stop. The greens have gone milky and bitter because the daytime temps are higher, but the warm weather crops are dormant because the air temps have been abnormally low well into the traditional growing season so the soil temps remain too low.   This is a picture of summer squash.  The weather stayed warm long enough to encourage the plant to set blossoms, then a mid-June freeze killed the foliage. 

I look into my backyard and get cranky because my hobby isn't going well and the lack of growth is messing with my dreams of donating huge quantities of fresh food this year. Then I remember that farmers deal with the same issues but on a huge scale....and their livelihoods rely on it. This year I feel really good about being a CSA member because I know that our family's support will help our farmers work through what looks to be a tough year for food. Not just in Nevada, but everywhere.

Farm update - Custom Gardens

Virginia at Custom Gardens periodically sends out an update about upcoming events and how the growing season is going..Below is the latest.
The Silver Springs On-Farm Green-Market farm stand opened on the 20th. 10 AM to 2 PM, for the season, although the selection and quantity will not be terrific until after July 4th.

Sunday visitors will have a lot to look at when visiting, as the hoop houses are looking great. (We have tomatoes set)! The public demonstration plot is looking good - the 2010 theme being Asian Vegetables and Herbs (last year it was Mediterranean).

Think good thoughts for better weather days, soon. Our soil temperature is still hovering at 63 degrees and we need both soil and air to be at least 70 degrees + less wind, please. Cool weather crops (germination and growth) are doing quite well, however. This was not a good tree fruit or table grapes year for us, due to late freezes and or high winds. Apples? YES! Of course we will have lots of melons of all types, and the strawberries will be fine, after they too recover from a late frost. (Jams this fall, of course.)

Nuts!

When I visit the California farmers market each Saturday I stop by Boggeri Farms to pick up a couple bags of nuts, and some fruit.  Look what I found this time...Red walnuts!  They come out of the shell like this...no Red Dye #5 is involved.

I had planned to use them in dish that would put the beautiful color on display so was thinking about adding them to a really great salad.  Turns out I didn't have to think about at menu too long because we ate most of them right from the bag.  Delicious! 

Robert Boggeri tells me Natalie at 4th Street Bistro beat me to it and will be including these on her menu.

A really great cookbook for Nevada CSA fans

Here's a great cookbook for northern Nevada CSAers....Eating Local: the Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers, by Janet Fletcher and Sur la Table. It's filled with recipes that work with many of the vegetables grown in Nevada, along with great pictures and farmer profiles.  I'll be testing one of the recipes for my lunch today -- Summer Squash Carpaccio with Arugula, Pecorino, and Almonds. It's available at the library if you want to take a peek before buying.

edible Reno-Tahoe summer edition cover to cover

Last night I put on a pair of my favorite pajamas and snuggled down with a glass of wine to read the latest edition of edible Reno-Tahoe from cover to cover. What a great way to spend an evening! Amanda Burden and her crew have produced another fantastic edition. It was especially thrilling to see the cover of the spring edition on page 42 in company with covers from other community publications. Don't miss the great portrait of BJ (Mr. Bojangles) on page four.

Commercial Lavender Production Workshop

From my mailbox to you:

Western Nevada College Specialty Crop Institute announces a commercial lavender production and sales workshop Friday, July 9, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., at Lavender Ridge Farm, 7450 W. 4th St. in Reno. Cost is $35 if registered by June 30; $45 after June 30. Includes lunch.

The workshop is intended for new and experienced farmers interested in starting a lavender farm or business. Classroom and on-farm instruction will focus on commercial lavender production, from plant selection through harvest and marketing. Topics include site selection, soils, irrigation, pests and diseases, lavender varieties and their uses, harvesting and pruning, oil distillation and product and market development.