End-of-season share member picnic next Sunday, Nov. 3rd... you are invited!

Hi veggie team (students who worked at the garden, Ms. Goodman, Ms. Schulz, Mr. Ng)... hello veggie share members!

I am pleased to announce two things:

1) The garden is now officially open for gleaning. Gleaning means, gathering up useful produce that is still around but that the landowner has no intention of harvesting him/herself. What this means is, if you are ever in the neighborhood (or, want to plan to come by) -- you can walk onto the garden grounds (3733 S Giles) and pick whatever is around that you'd like to have. For example, there are some people who LOVE fried green tomatoes; this is your time to rake in those gems, you can cook them for months after you've collected them... there are also lots of cabbages, kohlrabi, some root veggies (rutabagas, turnips) and even lots of peppers (there until first frost, after which I'll probably grab them all up to make into pepper powder!)

2) Dorothea, Andrew and I will be hosting an end-of-season share worker + share member picnic on Nov. 3. All students who worked at the garden, their families, and all adults who were share members are invited to attend. I will also be inviting our school principal, Mr. Horton, one of our big supporters at the school, Mr. Byrne, and finally a neighbor who has been very supportive -- Mr. Johnson -- to attend. We have some yummy culinary plans, including: Digging our own potatoes and then making fresh french fries on-site; picking cabbages and kohlrabi on-site and making coleslaw from it; picking cherry tomatoes on-site and making toppings from it; and finally, I will be bringing some grass-fed cow from the quarter cow share that Doro and I subscribed to this year, and I'll be grilling some hamburgers for all! I might also bring some wild-harvested sumac juice to add a refreshing local beverage to the mix.

Again, the date for this season-finale picnic event will be two Sundays from now, on November 3rd. The time will be from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. I imagine we'll start harvesting and preparing no later than 11:15, start cooking (burgers, fries) no later than noon, and will be enjoying food and good company starting no later than 1 PM. I'll ask that if you have folding chairs, that you bring them; we'll provide everything else! Please RSVP by emailing me back at veggies37g@yahoo.com

I hope that you'll plan to come out for this great end-of-year picnic at the 37G Youth Veggie Farm! It will be great to gather everyone together, with good food at hand (and the ground it came from merely yards away)!

best,
Mr. M

no share today, last share next sunday

Hi everybody! 

Sorry for the late notice. 

There will be no veggie box today. We are not in town today and can't pack your boxes. 

Next Sunday will be the last share day. There will also be a potato-dig, so come on out to the garden and give us a hand if you can! More on that soon...

Share #12 on its way today... and, four more weeks!

We're trying to make your last boxes pretty AND tasty. Just wanted to send out a quick reminder: unless we get a bumper crop of late season stuff (potatoes? tomatoes, maybe, the last share pickup will be Sunday, Oct. 6th.

Will let you all know what ends up in today's box later on in the day... and, I want to say, thank you for giving us the pleasure of growing you some local, organic food over the past few months!!!

best,
Mr. M

Yesterday's box... and, bring back bags and boxes!!!

Someone got a surprise via a little bundle of wild grapes (if curious, google 'river grapes') that I left in a box by mistake... I like these sour things, and the students and I picked enough during our field trip on Friday to make a couple quarts of juice. Hopefully whoever found them in their box dared to try them, and not just throw them away!

Just a quick recap of what exactly you got yesterday: packaged mixed tomato bundle (golden and red cherries + a smaller red slicing variety), kohlrabi, cabbage, semi-spicy peppers, radishes, kale or broccoli florettes/flowers, possibly a rutabaga, onions, a couple of embarrassingly crooked and undersized cucumbers (sorry, I'm not sure exactly why all our plants are dying so early) and some goose's foot. Yes, a bird's walking appendage :) This was the green plant on top, with the long tough stalk and the spade-shaped, small green leaves. Pick the leaves off the stalk of the goose's foot and eat them either raw (added to salads, thrown on a sandwich) or cooked like spinach.

One last note: please bring back the zip-lock bags, so we can keep bagging the fresh lettuce separately from everything else. I didn't have enough bags yesterday, because we've had about a 50% return rate -- so this time around I had to put the lettuces loose in the box. Finally, if you have a wood box hiding at home, please get it to me! We are four short in advance of next Sunday's share packaging, and I'm running out of creative options as to how to pack up all thirteen share members' produce...

best,

Mr. M

Quick rundown on what's in this week's box...

Thanks to Doro for the fun "over-the-truck" photo. What you'll find in this week's box is the following: onions, beets, turnips, salad greens (bagged), peppers N' tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, kohlrabi and kale greens. Fun stuff like eggplant and even some melons coming soon :)

Substitutions: You may not have received a squash, as there weren't enough fruits to put in each box, but you should have gotten more cukes if this is the case. Also, if you didn't get broccoli florets (ugly as ours are), you should have gotten kale. Finally, if you didn't get a head of salad lettuce, you should have gotten delicious Tatsoi (asian) greens instead -- they look like dark green, marbled spoons.

Two more things, and then I'll go:

#1 -- Check out a post by one of our garden student interns, Sheera, below!!! For whatever reason, you all don't get email notices when 'guest' bloggers like her create a new page. But she's going to make at least a few more -- so I'll try to send out timely emails to keep you aware!

#2 -- Please use our new wiki (link at top right of page) to share recipes! For those of you who signed up and can't figure out why you can't make pages yet -- you must request to be added as a member. I just tried to join and was successful, and this is the step I think you all might be missing. I didn't have to find a link for it (though there should be one); when I did it, the notice popped up automatically, and I said, 'sure, request away!"

best,
Mr. M

Sunday's Harvest

This Sunday turned out pretty good. Everyone worked hard and had fun putting everything in boxes.

There are heads of Lettuce, onions,and turnips on the table. That's only a small part of what was actually in the boxes.  :) Other veggies were peppers, Tomatoes, Squash, cucumbers and more!

Its a lot of work to get those heads of Lettuce for the boxes. We are doing all of this for you to have healthy and fresh veggies at home. :) 

Coming Soon!! More Tomatoes for you :)

Until next time -Ms.N

Box #7 contents...

Hard to imagine that we're already about 1/3rd through the season! Here is an annotated pic of what was in your boxes yesterday (sorry for the delay in sending it out; also sorry, Morgan, I did end up choosing the pic with your feet in it as the best one to annotate =)

Folks, please consider joining our WIKI (link at the top right of the page) and sharing a recipe with your fellow share members!!! Also, please consider taking a bucket+lid from me next Sunday, to collect fresh food scraps for us to turn into organic fertilizer. Our worms are hungry :)

best,
Mr. M

We have a wiki!

We do, we do!

Check at the top of the right sidebar on our homepage, 37Gyouthveggies.blogspot.com, and you will see that we now have a place members can go to post pictures, storys, recipes, etc. Its a WIKI, or user-editable website, courtesy of wikispaces. I've added one of my favorite recipes already, and I'm hoping other members won't be afraid to use the wiki and create their own pages with things related to the garden/food that they'd like to share. Chuck, how about that radish/turnip/beet salad? Who was it that had that amazing kohlrabi slaw recipe last year? And, I'm sure someone found something unusually snazzy to do with the surplus of eggplants we had! :) The more fun or useful stuff we can all contribute to the wiki, the better!

Also, I wanted to extend the offer again to share members: I have super-handy food waste recycling pails that you can bring home and use to help us (your local veggie garden) make wonderful, organic fertilizer. The pails come with lids and peat moss to sprinkle in occasionally. Here's how it works: you put all your uncooked food scraps in the pail throughout the week, I empty/return your pail when you pick up your share, and finally the scraps get brought back to our red wigglers. These are worms that we are keeping at the garden, for the express purpose of turning what would otherwise be waste into organic nutriment for our plants!

best, Mr. M

PS -- Make sure you follow the 'Join' link at the top of the wiki page, so I can enable your creating/editing priveledges!

Workin' hard (for you, for us... for good food!)

I think if you were to read our vegetable garden's slogan, and then watch us (the students + the adult supervisors -- Ms. Schulz, Ms. Goodman and I) you'd agree that we're bustin' our butts to make sure we can keep filling your boxes with organic goodness. Here's Ousmane, one of our interns, a rising senior at Phillips, taking a rare pause for a snapshot and wearing his work shirt:

In case its hard to read, it says... FRONT: "What's that creepin' in the garden?" (incl. picture of a Wildcat, our school mascot) -- BACK: "Just good food!"

In case you didn't know, we secured paid internships for four students over the course of the summer, to supplement the funds you all (our share members) helped us raise for spring and fall internships. And they were earning every penny on Wednesday, when it reached the mid-90s and the humidity was nothing to laugh at.

Ms. Goodman told me they got almost everything on our six-item to-do list done, including finishing composting our potatoes, watering, mowing in between and around our rows, and dressing our baby fruit trees with wood chip mulch at their bases.

The fruit trees, much like the young people active in the garden now, need time to grow stronger. Unlike the fruit trees, they bear the human responsibility of learning the techniques, science and attitude needed to care for a great host of nourishing plants. All -- fledgling trees, luscious plants and the young adults that tend them -- are working together to accomplishing a delicious feat this summer. =)

Until next time! - Mr. M

This week's box... if you dare! :)

Here is what we've picked for you this week (sorry the bottom edge of the pic got cut off...):

I wanted to explain flower stalks, as I think some people are just puzzled about what they can/should do with them. Flower stalks happen when the plant starts sending sugars upward, to create first a flower and then later (when pollinated) a seed. They tend to have the same taste as the root or leaves of the plant they grow on, but are a little bit sweeter, as there tends to be more sugar/unit volume. We try to only pick/bundle flower stalks that are soft and edible 'raw,' but may occasionally include one that is tough to your tastes. In these cases, a little pan-frying, steaming or boiling works wonders. So go on and purdy-up that salad or those steamed veggies :)

Also, this week in addition to choosing which flower stalk you want, you have another surprise: an optional mini-bag of hand-picked chantrelle mushrooms. If you've never cooked with/ate them before, they have a wonderful apricot-ish aroma and a chicken-like texture. Good for risottos and other rice dishes for sure, but my folks eat them butter-sauteed with onions on top of just about everything.

Finally, if you are really wild and risky, you can take the one box that has a zip-lock bag stashed with milkweed floret (pre-flower) bundles. A tasty wild edible that we've cultivated a small bit of on our veggie patch, it tastes like a sweet combination of broccoli and celery. Most delicious when steamed and with a bit of salt and butter -- if you ask me!

Mr. M

This Sunday's Veggie Box

Hello there,

This week I (Doro) get to show you what you get:

Lots of green. The rutabaga greens can be eaten (cooked). The Mizuna flowers are edible also, that's why they are in the box. Some boxes have broccoli, and some have arrugula instead. We packed the baby lettuce in a ziplock, and we would appreciate if you can return it with the box, so we can reuse it.

As last week we had great help from Tarique.

Come on out next Sunday, people! Besides enjoying the sun, the greenery, the company and harvesting your food, there are always unexpected pleasures, such as this:

Enjoy!
- D

What is in your first box? Well, let's see...

Hey everyone,

Neither Jasmine nor Rebekah made it out today for harvest, or I would have had them post about what is in the box. (BTW, Tarique DID come out, and was there early, lending a hand through the whole process -- thanks man!) Take a look at this picture to spot common ingredients in each box:

There are a few substitutions in other boxes, so pay attention if you have strong preferences. Some boxes have mustard greens instead of kale, while others have broccoli flowerstalks instead of arugula. A good example of an 'alternate' box is pictured here:

Finally, some boxes have a third substitution -- a more mild type of green in place of the kale or mustard greens, called 'mizuna.' The leaves look like this:

You should also find a jar of something sweet and special in your box... look out for it, compliments of the garden angel Dorothea :)

Until next week!
Mr. M

H.O.P (Hands on Phillips)

Hands on Phillips? Sometimes you have to just get down and dirty. The seven interns are being taught something valuable. Something they can pass from generations to generations. Being taught skills and qualities that will take them far in life. HARDWORK! DETERMINATION! MANPOWER! Each of the interns have been taught by Mr. M's wisdom. We're thankful that he's teaching us the different aspects of gardening, planting and growing!

We had fun on Wednesday and Saturday (even if it was without YOU!) :)

Hi everyone,

I've been told that I may be too 'wordy' in my blog posts, so I will try to keep it simple written-word wise, and then just share with you all some pics (after all, pictures are worth a thousand words :). We had a great time (the students and I) on Wednesday starting to put our mini-greenhouse together, and on Saturday getting started on the MYRIAD tasks that we have to get our operation up to speed (see pics). Wish I had more adult hands on deck than just Doro's, but hey, I have three hypotheses for that:

   1) People are just not that interested in getting dirty, working at the garden, etc.
   2) the time (Saturdays AM) is just not convenient for people
   3) the location is too far away from familiarity for most to drive/come out

Well, the most I can do is eliminate possibility #2 as a factor, so... I wanted to let you all know the INFORMAL days and times that YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND US -- AND THUS SOMETHING TO DO ALONG WITH US -- OUT AT THE GARDEN. Here is the schedule by which I will ALWAYS be out at the garden with some of our students: Mondays from 3:30 to 5:30, Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5:30, Fridays from 2:30 to 4:30, and Saturdays from 9 AM to 1 PM.

If you can't join us for a formal volunteer event, please come out whenever else you have time -- and get a taste of what working the earth so that it will give back to you is all about :)

- Mr. M

PS -- Todd's donated lawn mower kicks chicken -- no way we would have beat back all that early-to-rise grass in between our rows without it!!!

Correction on first formal volunteer day... and, possible shift in volunteer day hours

In my last post, I suggested that April 20th was the first volunteer day at the garden. However, the calendar widget states that the first formal volunteer plantings at the 37GYVF begin on the 27th. The info I put in the widget is correct; sorry for the confusion. The reason I got mixed up is that I WILL IN FACT be out there on the 20th doing some fertilizing, getting the watering tanks set up, and planting seed potatoes. I was planning to work from about 8 AM to noon on that day, maybe a little longer. Of course, you are all still welcome to come join me!!! (informally, that is :)

Also, a couple of people asked if they could come in the afternoon, as opposed to the morning, on the 27th. While they may have originally been asking so as to better fit it into their personal schedule, I thought hard about my reasons for only blocking off the AM for garden help. For example, it is said to be best to transplant seedlings in the late afternoon or early evening, to avoid heat and sun shock. The best thing of all would be to take advantage of the entirety of a cloudy day to do it -- but we certainly can't ensure this in advance. The worst thing to do is plant them mid-day on a hot day. I know we won't yet have much heat but we may well have full sun by noontime...

My thinking was that 8-noon would be most convenient for people, and that it should work OK for the seedlings given at least a partly cloudy day. "Get it done early, get em' home in time to enjoy the rest of their Saturday" was my thinking.

I will contemplate these things and then make a decision to modify the time slots or not. I may leave the early spring plantings as AM projects, and then shift the later volunteer days to late evening. In any case, you should see any changes I make no later than noon tomorrow (the 11th)...

best,
Mr. M

First big planting day less than two weeks away! (April 20th) -- sign up!

For those of you itching to get your hands dirty and to work alongside Mr. M and a handful of his hardest-working students -- please realize that our events sign-up / calendar is now up and running! Our first several events are volunteer days to help with mass planting, as we have many things we need to get into the soil. Simply click the link at the top right of the blog, and follow the prompts to let us know on what day(s) you plan to come out!

--> It's important to note that you're not limited to the "time slot" that the calendar shows for you; so, for example, if you sign up for the 11:30-12:00 SLOT, that doesn't mean you can only stay for thirty minutes starting at 11:30. Rather, registration for any 30 minute time slot is a commitment that you will come sometime between 8 AM and noon, and hopefully stay and lend a hand (or two) for at least a couple of hours!!! :)

Also, I wanted to thank last years' shareholders for making such a strong display of loyalty and committment. We had a 100% re-sign-on rate. Hooray!! Related to this, I need to tell you all that we are opening up four shares previously reserved for teachers and four shares previously reserved for garden neighbors to the larger Chicago community. That makes eight newly available shares, if you know of friends or family who are interested to join.

My reasoning for this: The paid student internships are too important to have to cancel due to lack of funding, and it simply doesn't look like we'll have the buy-in form employees at the school that I thought we would. Also, I am confident that we can expand beyond the 24 shares originally planned, if I can get more neighbors to the garden to sign up. We've already raised $250 in donations to help subsidize shares for low-income members!

In any event, this means please let friends and family know about your share, and that they can for a short time sign up for the same DEAL! The first eight forms/checks we have after April 15th will be the first eight we take for these slots.

Looking forward to putting some plants in the ground with many of you, beginning two Saturdays from now!

Mr. M

Introducing our newest members!

Hey you! Have you heard that Spring is here and plants are growing inch by inch. Lucky for you, plants isn't the only thing that's growing, so is our garden club! As the days become warmer and warmer the garden club began to expand. Check out our new peeps......

Getting ready to water our veggies

Still making time for video games and competition

And at the end of the day we're proud of what we accomplished So stay on the look out because before you know it our plants and fellow friends will grow on you, and you don't wan't to miss out. Cause once you do the plants will turn brown on you! 

Our planting plans (if you care to browse!)

Just to give you all an idea of how busy we will be starting seedlings, here is the document that some of the students and I put together, which will help us plan when to start various crops in order to have them ready to plant outside at the right time:

2013_37GYVF_seedingTransplantingHarvesting_Plans

We're trying not to have to rely on other farms or plant growers, but rather to grow all our own stuff this year. Its ambitious -- we may even be partnering with an aquaponics researcher to expand in how many plants we can raise up from seed at a time (hopefully to get into the 500-600 range, which is what we'll need given what we hope to grow...)

If you look closely at the plans, you may also notice a pattern -- there will basically be five BIG transplanting days: Apr. 20, Apr. 27, May 11, May 18, and June 1. On these days it would be very helpful to get many extra sets of hands, so we can get all the baby plants in the ground before the sun rises / the day warms up. Leading to my next point: you may also have noticed that I've arranged for all of these GIANT PLANTING days to be Saturdays. I did that to increase the chance that share members would be able to come out to our plot and lend a hand! ;)

These transplanting marathons will basically be the first 'volunteer' events for shareholders. With them, we'll also pilot a new online system for signing up / staying informed. Look for another post in the next few days that shows you where to go to register, and how the process will work. I think I've come up with a way that we can organize group events like this with little to no headache... but we'll see :)

I'm getting excited about fresh, local food, and teaching students about how easy it is to feed ones' self given a back and hands that work, a healthy piece of land, and the right tools. Hope you're also gearing up for this joint adventure!

best,
Mr. M

My First Post!

Hi, My name is Quantavia Winslow and I'm going to be your host. What I'm going to be doing is keeping you in-tuned with the 37G Youth Veggie form. This year it's going to be an experience of a life time for all of us with the freshly grown/ growing Veggies. Where going to be learning and experiencing hands on with different types of veggies that you might not even seen before. So don't miss out because the veggies will miss you.  

Our garden is in the process of growing delicious Mustard greens and Arugula. The picture that you see on the right is the Mustard greens, their very small because they have been growing for a week.
We're trying to figure out how early we should start them.


 *Stay tuned!* 









   

Test post...

Hey everyone,

I need your help. Due to the name and blog address change, I've had to reconfigure the various email addresses/groups used to sign in to the blog, notify members, keep fans updated etc. Now we must check that everything is working OK. Please do two things for me:

1) Reply to the email notification that you get of this post, so that I know that the email I set up for general inquiries is working.

2) Visit 37gyouthveggies.blogspot.com in your web browser, and help me test the "Comment" feature by adding a genuine, non-profane and (preferably) positive comment to this post. Once approved, your comment should appear below.

If you have difficulties submitting a comment, please tell me about it in your reply email. Also, if you wish to be removed from the email notification list, tell me so in your reply email.

best,
Mr. M

Our new online home...

Greetings,

Excitement abounds! We are officially committed to a 2013 season, with over $300 in seeds on the way. We still need to purchase peat pots for the more tender-rooted types of seedlings we plan to start, plus the zounds of potting soil needed to start "starting" our plants, and maybe also a new grow lamp (or two). In any case, my heart of hearts is beating with anticipation of a beautiful green space feeding dozens of big-hearted people... :)

OK, so let's also put access to the key subscription info in this post. The price of a share (one box of seasonal produce per week starting June 9th, and lasting for at least 16 weeks) has been set at $200 for the 2013 season . If you would like to download and print a 2013 invitation letter and subscription form, you can find a link to it at the top of the banner on the right side of the screen. Also important to note in the new season -- we are changing our name, and becoming "37G Youth Veggie Farm" (named after our location close to 37th and Giles). You're at our new blog right now --  37Gyouthveggies.blogspot.com -- but if you ever want to visit the old blog, either to reminisce or to look at pictures of yourself when you were younger, you can still find it here:wpveggiefarm.blogspot.com =)

The change of name is necessary because of the difficulty of properly accounting for an enterprise that trades goods (ie, the veggies we box up for you every week) for money. Even though the money is only used to buy supplies and to pay for student internships, we have to officially undo our affiliation with Wendell Phillips High School as as to not get them into any financial trouble. Our two community partners, who were financial sponsors last year and will be invited to help us set up the student internships, are SGA Family & Youth Services and Centers for New Horizons. Let me take a moment to thank them for their continued support, both logistically and financially.

The 2013 season will bring between 16-22 new share members, and each new member will be given the opportunity to be added to the "new" blog post notice email list. New members, keep in mind that you will never receive emails from other members through this list, only notifications when there is a new blog post or when there is important breaking info from myself. Members of 2012 will have a grace period of remaining on the notification list until about early April, at which time I will remove the email addresses of anyone who has not chosen to sign up for a 2013 share. If you were receiving email notifications in 2012 as a 'fan' instead of a member, you WILL continue to receive updates in 2013 -- unless you reply to this post notification and ask to be taken off the list.

I'm looking forward to discovering and getting to know our new members Keep an eye on the new blog as it unfolds -- and here's to a great Year Three of socially engaged urban "farming" :) !!!

Mr. M