Harvest wrap up

We will be having our harvest potluck at Stephanie & Ray's on November 8 at 6:30pm. We have a lot to celebrate!


Our final harvest tally is 3886 pounds, which works out to a $7772 contribution to Interfaith Food Bank.


Some of our volunteers have still been busy. Dave has done a huge amount of work, adding 12 rotting round bales that the barns wanted rid of, then rototilling it all in along with spreading more used Cornell mix. The plan is to add urea tonight or tomorrow before the snow and then some leftover compost and/or manure from some experiments next week or the week after. Thanks for this effort.


Notes from the Food Bank:


"We were exceptionally pleased to benefit from your garden this year.  Clients are eternally grateful for the selection of fresh, quality produce, and we very pleased with the variety of vegetables they could choose from.

The Tomato Plant Project was particularly great for our client base, as it not only educated our Young Chefs about the ability for individuals to produce their own food, but also provided a sustainable option to clients in working towards their own food security.  We believe the Tomato Plant Project worked very well with our aim to offer our clients a hand up, and not just a hand out.

We found the amount and variety of the produce you chose to grow for us to be a huge benefit to the food bank and those we serve, and we are looking forward to a continued relationship with you and your group, especially as we progress past our current kitchen project, and begin working on our own garden in the future.

Thanks again to you and your team, you've done a fantastic job and we've really enjoyed working with you."

September 27th harvest

On September 27, we harvested: 
370.5 lbs of carrots; 
28.5 lbs of eggplants; 
79.5 lbs of tomatoes; 
50 lbs of peppers.


Last week we harvested: 
22 lbs of peppers; 
26 lbs of tomatoes; 
319 lbs of carrots.

It appears, to date, we have harvested 3717 lbs of fresh produce.

Next week we will finish the carrots (late seeded) and the red beets and anything else.

Little helper

Drowning in tomatoes!

800 lbs delivery!

Today Stephanie and Dave delivered 808.5 lbs of produce to the Food Bank. That's a record haul!

2000 lbs!

We've hit 2000 lbs of harvested produce. Last year, our grand total was 2079.5 lbs. With lots of produce yet to be harvested, we will surpass last years total by alot!

September!

It's hard to believe that September has arrived. The summer has been fleeting! We are still busy harvesting weekly. The beans and peas have been finished as of last week.

Harvest occurs on Tuesdays after work with Food Bank delivery occurring Wednesday morning. Volunteers are required for each so contact us (lrcgarden@yahoo.ca) or show up Tuesday after work at the garden to help out.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Carrots

Our pink tomatoes

Marigolds with a friendly pollinator

Crates of tomatoes and pounds and pounds more to come

Plethora of peppers

Harvest and caterpillars

We have harvested about 675 lbs of produce so far this year!
Peas
Lettuce 
Beets
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
Peppers
Eggplant
Radishes

Also, the cabbage white caterpillars have attacked! Next year, we'll cover the vulnerable crops with butterfly proof netting!

Tomatoes for the Young Chefs Program

We grew patio tomatoes for the Food Bank and Young Chefs Program. This was funded by the P.S.A.C. Area Council. The Young Chefs Program teaches young people about cooking healthy meals. Here are some photos of our tomato plants with their new owners.

Harvest update

We’ve delivered radishes, lettuce and swiss chard to date, with donations totalling about 150 pounds, worth approximately $300.


Also, this Sunday, our garden will be included in the Lethbridge Horticultural Society tour. 

Our first harvest!!!

This week, 95 lbs of radishes were delivered the Food Bank! There are more to be harvested early next week. Contact Dave if you can help out.

Photos

Planting beans

Tomato plants for Food Bank clients

More varieties

Here are some more varieties of vegetables we've added to the garden.
Cauliflower - Snow Crown
Cabbage - Winner

Also, from Stephanie -
Dave, Derrick, Stephanie took another 30 potted tomatoes to the foodbank this morning.   There are 36 plants left to bring next week to adult clients, and then we will bring the 40 for the young chefs program at the beginning of July.

Contributed by Stephanie - On June 14, 30 tomato plants were delivered to the Lethbridge Interfaith Food Bank along with fertilizer and instructions.  Foodbank coordinator Teresa gave Ray, Lorna and Steph the tour of their new facilities.  They were very happy to receive plants and gave them to clients right away.  They even got pics of clients with plants. We’ll deliver another 30 next Monday.  They will be ready for more.

Also, on June 14, Parthiba and Karen planted cauliflower and cabbage in the garden.  These were the plants left over from the Lethbridge Horticultural Society sale that were donated to the garden.

Garden is looking pretty good.  It is almost full.  More lettuce to be planted, and perhaps more peas.  Everything is still fairly small, and some things are a bit sad due to lack of heat, but hopefully this will change.  Radish, carrots and beets up.  The eggplant is looking great.  Peppers, tomatoes, okra (1.5 rows) all Ok.  Okra going thru a bit of transplant shock.  

Ray set up the solar panel for the electric fence but we might have to change it out as it's not working right.

Parthiba says there are still marigolds to be planted too so they may call on others to help.

Garden update

Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and okra seedlings have been transplanted to the garden. Peas have been seeded. The first load of potted tomato plants is heading to the Food Bank on Tuesday (if you can help out with delivery, contact Stephanie). If you have extra vegetable seedlings from your home garden, let Parthiba know and they can be transplanted to the Food Bank Garden. We're also still looking for raspberries, or other fruit bush, donations.

Lettuce has been seeded

Today Lorna and Stephanie seeded a couple rows of lettuce. They may seed more tomorrow, if the rain holds off!

The Stop Community Food Centre - Toronto ON

This is a very inspiring project from Toronto -

Mission

The Stop strives to increase access to healthy food in a manner that maintains dignity, builds community and challenges inequality.

What We Do

The Stop has two locations: at our main office at 1884 Davenport Road we provide frontline services to our community, including a drop-in, food bank, perinatal program, community action program, bake ovens and markets, community cooking, community advocacy, sustainable food systems education and urban agriculture. The Stop’s Green Barn, located in the Wychood Barns at 601 Christie Street, is a sustainable food production and education centre which houses a state-of-the-art greenhouse, food systems education programs, a sheltered garden, our Global Roots Garden, community bake oven and compost demonstration centre.

Take a look at their website.

Tomato Plant Project Update

On Tuesday, several volunteers met to transplant the 135 tomato plants to their pots. These tomato plants will be donated to the Food Bank to distribute to clients - including participants in the Young Chefs Program. With in a couple weeks, these plants will be turned over to the Food Bank.

Garden plan for 2011

3 May 2011 update

It seems like spring has finally arrived in Southern Alberta. Meanwhile, our volunteers have been busy starting seedlings in the greenhouse - tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, okra, marigolds.

Hybrid tomatoes for the Tomato Plant Project

Okra seedling

Be prepared in the next couple weeks for transplanting our Tomato Plant Project patio tomatoes into larger pots.


Our garden spot looks great - Dave has been overseeing the amendment of the soil over the winter. He plans on discing and plowing the garden this weekend. Planting can be started after that! It's likely the Carrot, Lettuce and Pea Teams will hear about seeding in the next couple weeks.

Garden with compost and recycled peat moss

Varieties

Here are some of our vegetable varieties for 2011.

Grand Rapids Lettuce

Grand Rapids Lettuce - Loose leaf. 45 days to harvest. Good tolerance to tip burn. Well adapted for outdoor use.

Buttercrunch Lettuce - Head lettuce. 60 days to harvest. One of the best tasting loose leaf types. Harvest over a 2 week period. Thick, crisp leaves are very tender.
 

Odyssey Lettuce - Head lettuce. 62 days to harvest. Dark green butterhead/boston type with excellent tip burn and bolting tolerances.  Heads are slightly larger and heavier than Baja.  Use for fresh market or processing.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Bright Lights Swiss Chard (hyb.) - 55 days to harvest. Unique blend of many colors. Mature plants average 50 cm with savoyed leaves.  Colors fade when cooked.

Centennial Rocket Tomato - Bush type. Only half the leaves of normal Tomatoes--so most of the energy goes into early medium-size fruit. Heirloom Seed.

Prairie Pride Tomato - Bush type. Abundant, flavorful, low acid content, medium-sized fruit on sturdy, compact plants. Heirloom Seed.

Mamma Mia Hybrid (paste tomato) - 60 days to harvest. Mamma Mia is a meatier, firmer fleshed fruit, just right for a thick and rich spaghetti sauce, or for salsa and any other recipes requiring a rich Tomato taste. Staking type.

Early Prolific Hybrid Pepper - 55 days to harvest. Produces far earlier than any other sweet Pepper on the market. The fruit is 3-lobed, with medium thick walls and a mild sweet flavor.

Black Bell II Eggplant - 58 days to harvest. Early maturing oval round fruit are dark in color, good quality. Plant is a little more compact than Black Bell, tolerant to Tomato Mosaic virus.

Annie Oakley II Hybrid Okra

Annie Oakley II Hybrid Okra - 48 days to harvest. (F1 hybrid). Pods are ridged, medium green, tapered, remain tender up to 4 1/2 in./12 cm long. Spineless, dwarf plants.

Bonanza Yellow Marigold/French - The Bonanza series is larger flowered than the Janie or Boy types. Blooms average 2 in./5 cm. Bushy 8 in./20 cm plants are early flowering and provide better hot summer garden performance than Janie types. Bonanza Bolero is an All America Winner. 

Early April progress update

The tomatoes have been seeded - both our garden tomatoes and our Tomato Plant Project tomatoes. Thank you Drusilla! The marigolds will be started this week, too.

Our garden is still far to wet to consider seeding. At least there are a few good gardening workshops to attend (see the poster below for the Urban Farmer sessions and the calendar for upcoming events).

Come on sun!

Seen in downtown Toronto.....

Volunteer Meeting - a dozen new recruits!

The Volunteer Meeting was a success with about a dozen new people signing up to help with the garden. These new volunteers have been distributed among our teams. Thank you to our new recruits!

Our first job will be planting our tomato seeds for our Tomato Plant Project. This will likely happen next week (the first week of April). Emails will be sent.

The Tomato Pepper Eggplant Okra Team (TPEO) will start their seeds the week after.

Upcoming Gardening Events

These are also posted on the calendar. Click on the poster to enlarge.

Volunteer Meeting - March 30 12:15pm

The seeds have arrived

Some of our seeds have arrived in the mail. Tomato and pepper seedlings will be started in a couple weeks.

What's new in the garden this year?
How about okra and swiss chard!

The planning begins...

We held our first meeting of 2011 recently. We discussed plans for the 2011 garden and the searching through seed catalogues has begun. Our garden plot soil has been amended with the addition of compost and used potting mix. We will surely see improved harvest yields from these amendments as well as enjoy the improved soil texture. Last year, the soil crusted over like clay and we had to help the seedlings break through!

We plan on increasing the area of our garden slightly and plan to add a raspberry patch.

We also have some other exciting projects planned - to be revealed later on!

If you are an employee of the Lethbridge Research Centre, email lrcgarden@yahoo.ca to volunteer. We will host a volunteer and information meeting in March.