Final harvest

Final totals after Mon Sept 30, Tues Oct 1 harvests:

                                                                                Lbs                         value

leaf/head lettuce	123.5	$308.75
swiss chard	270	$675.00
carrots	1125	$2,812.50
green peppers	184.5	$461.25
green beans	150.5	$376.25
eggplant	96	$240.00
tomatoes	633.5	$1,583.75
beets	881	$2,202.50
tomatillos	146	$365.00
mixed peppers/eggplant	14	$35.00
Totals	3624	$9,060.00

Thanks to all who came out the last 2 days and harvested what was left.  We still have to clean up the garden, remove the fence etc, but all the harvestable veggies have been picked.  

September 25 harvest tally

We're still harvesting!

                                                                                LBS                         Value

leaf/head lettuce	123.5	$308.75
swiss chard	236	$590.00
carrots	1125	$2,812.50
green peppers	184.5	$461.25
green beans	150.5	$376.25
eggplant	96	$240.00
tomatoes	377.5	$943.75
beets	881	$2,202.50
tomatillos	146	$365.00
Totals	3320	$8,300.00

Interfaith Food Banks' Teaching Garden

We are very proud to be involved in the new Teaching Garden at the Lethbridge Interfaith Food Bank. This garden is located on site and will not only provide fresh produce to the Food Banks and Chinook Country Kitchen, but will be used to teach the community about growing food in Lethbridge conditions.

The garden includes raised beds (including two wheel chair and standing accessible beds), a patio and sodded area, a greenhouse, composters, and forno oven. Water is provided by underground sprinklers and rain fed irrigation. The garden will also include a "found objects" section where gardening in every day "found" objects will be demonstrated.

The rocks were painted and provided by a local Seniors' organization.

Accessible raised bed

Looking north across raised beds to the greenhouse

Herb garden

Peppers

Agriculture Union Social Justice Fund

We were very pleased to receive funding from the Agriculture Union Social Justice Fund. With it, we were able to purchase this new seeder.

This week's harvest totals

We delivered more fresh produce this week. We are now at the following tally.   

                                                                             Mass (lbs)           Value

leaf/head lettuce	123.5	$308.75
swiss chard	68	$170.00
carrots	831	$2,077.50
green peppers	144.5	$361.25
green beans	150.5	$376.25
eggplant	59	$147.50
tomatoes	90.5	$226.25
beets	881	$2,202.50
tomatillos	131	$327.50
Totals	2479	$6,197.50

Harvest totals for September 4 2013

Here are the latest harvest totals as of this morning.

                                                                Weight                                 Value

leaf/head lettuce	123.5	308.75
swiss chard	68	170.00
carrots	646	1615.00
green peppers	103.5	258.75
green beans	144	360.00
eggplant	36	90.00
tomatoes	37.5	93.75
beets	881	2202.50
tomatillos	91	227.50
	2130.5 lbs	$5326.25

Recent harvests

We are now harvesting every Tuesday after work. If we get a good crew out, it takes us less than an hour to obtain a truck load full.

As of today, our harvest tally is 1639 lbs, valued at $4095.

Little harvester

Harvest

Harvest began on July 23, 2013 with lettuce and swiss chard in abundance. The Buttercrunch lettuce had some fabulous heads. Since then, we have dropped off two more loads of lettuce and swiss chard as well as baby carrots. In total, we have harvested over 50 lbs of produce with a value of over $100.

We have also installed our new solar panel for our electric fence purchased through a grant from the Public Service Alliance of Canada Agriculture Union Social Justice Fund.

We have a marmot who has been caught munching greenery in our garden. The fence won't stop him but he's an unusual visitor so we'll leave him be for now.

Tomatillos

Swiss chard & Grand Rapids lettuce

Volunteer Karma

Recent photos from our garden. We will soon be harvesting lettuce and swiss chard.

Results of the recent weather

Our lettuce and tomatoes took a bit of a battering with the recent hail, rain and wind. However, it is early in the growing season yet and we are sure they will recover. The garden has been very wet - too wet to work in. As such, the weeds have flourished. This Thursday, we will be having a weeding social. Come on out after work and help us pull weeds.

The Pleasure of Eating

This was borrowed from the Kitchen Gardeners International newsletter.

One of the tastiest morsels of edible advice I've ever read which moves us towards greater food literacy did not require 400 pages or even 4 words. It came from Wendell Berry's classic 1990 essay The Pleasure of Eating and can be summed up in just 2 words: eat responsibly.  He goes on to list 7 specific things we can do to achieve this:

1. Participate in food production to the extent that you can. 
2. Prepare your own food. 
3. Learn the origins of the food you buy, and buy the food that is produced closest to your home. 
4. Whenever possible, deal directly with a local farmer, gardener, or orchardist. 
5. Learn, in self-defense, as much as you can of the economy and technology of industrial food production. 
6. Learn what is involved in the best farming and gardening.
7. Learn as much as you can, by direct observation and experience if possible, of the life histories of the food species.

Tomatoes and electric fence!

This week we planted out tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, marigolds and Evans' Cherry trees. We also put up the electric fence. Remember to turn it off or step well over before you work in the garden! We also had some new volunteers out to help - thank you!

Peas beans peppers

Yesterday, peas and beans were seeded and peppers were planted out. Just before an evening shower.

On Thursday, if it doesn't rain, we will set out the electric fence (the deer have been lying in the garden) and we will plant out tomatoes, tomatillos and eggplant.

Seeds in the ground

Dave managed to get seeds in the ground yesterday just before all this rain. He planted carrots, red beets, swiss chard, Grand Rapids and Buttercrunch lettuce.

Garden Meeting this Thursday

Hi volunteers and other interested gardeners,

Please join us at our information meeting this Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 12 noon at the Lethbridge Research Centre Cafeteria Conference Room.

Contact us - LRCgardenATyahoo.ca

Spring 2013

Yesterday we hit record setting highs in Southern Alberta. Lethbridge touched 21 deg Celsius.

The garden is waking from its wintery slumber and our seed order is in.

Stay tuned for our initial volunteer meeting!