Winter Green

 Howdie Folks,

Hard to believe but here we go! The executive committee met a few weeks back at Plato's Pizza for our first AGM as the Edmonton Organic Growers Guild (EOGG). What that means functionally to most of us is not much. But we are a little better organized this year and a little better able to keep things running smoothly! I've posted up the meeting minutes here for your perusal.

One of the things we agreed on at the AGM was to build small working groups to distribute the garden planning this winter. These groups have leaders at present, but they will need some help!  If you would like to join one of them, just send an email to edmontonorganic@gmail.com indicating which one.

Here they are:

• Annual Seed Selection
• Perennial Selection
• Budget Spending
• Irrigation
• Liaison to the University
• Guidelines committee

I've also built a very small survey for everyone to take...
Click Here to Start

It is literally 4 questions and shouldn't take you more than three minutes. I would be very grateful if you could fill it out for us. It gives us "Ivory Tower Folks" a broad understanding of how we are doing and where you folks would like to see us going.

Thanks,
Travis

To Victor goes the spoils, and U-farmers if you make it out.

Hi Folks,

First let's give each other a pat on the back. We won a number of awards at the EHS Bench Show! Some victories of note were:

1st Place
Best heirloom variety (for our Green Zebra Heirloom Tomatoes.),
Yellow beans


2nd Place
Yellow Zuchinni
Green Cabbage (Copenhagen)


3rd Place
Community Garden Display
Winter Squash (Potimarron)
Hot Pepper

We didn't win best of show... but we definitely know what we need to do next year!

The great potato harvest of 2010 has begun! A strong group of volunteers have made their way through 3 rows of potatoes. We have harvested around 1000 pounds. We've tucked the taters and some carrots against the Barn in the tin trough, its covered with ply. Please stop by and get yourself some Norland Reds!

One of our Anarchist contingent is busily preparing a raspberry rescue mission for the week of the 13th to 19th. Derek has a plan to transplant some 200 or so plants from an abandoned nursery site in the north of Edmonton to our garden plot. More details to follow.

Travis

The Vineyard

Wednesday was a great success, Victor has put together a vineyard layout and provided a few pictures, thanks for all the help everyone! We'll raise a glass to this night in four years.

Late Summer Yellows

Another season coming to a quick close!

We had a great community garden tour last weekend. For those of you who couldn't make it, I recommend going next year, we saw a whirlwind of action at various locations. We saw brand new gardens (Oliver, Queen Mary) and gardens where the sun is setting (Boyle Mcauley). We also saw everything in between. The guide for the event Anna V. has put together a photo album; you can have a peak here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/annaradix/sets/72157624783640550/

Things are ripening nicely at the farm, our Basil is in serious need of cropping! I tried this recipe the other night:http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetarian-recipes/basic-pesto. Aside from the issue of a sore wrist, mortar and Pesto is the way to go!

The Corn is tasty as well, even if our more experienced gardeners would have us wait a few days! Remember there are plenty of baby carrots to be harvested and the beets are still lingering. Peak under the cucumber leaves for a good look at the crop. Your best bet at a full basket is to come out wednesday when the pros are coaxing harvests off the crops, they'll show you where the goods are, don't be afraid to ask!

The Bench Show put on by the Edmonton Horticultural Society is on this weekend. http://www.edmontonhort.com/bshow_889.htm
Tomorrow night we can select a few choice specimens and show edmonton who UFOG is! You can brush up on your favorite categories here: http://www.edmontonhort.com/bnchshow/EHSBenchShowbookletforwebsite.pdf. Submissions need to be down to the hangar at Fort Edmonton by 7:00am on Saturday, if anyone is interested in helping let us know tomorrow.


Last but not least... now that I've got you coming on Wednesday... Who says wine grapes can't grow in Edmonton? One of our newest editions to the club Victor 'The Oenophile' Wojeki has been studiously working away at procuring our group the best quality vines a northern climate can grow. Through discussion with the Quebec grape growers Victor was able to get 25 each of four varieties of vines shipped our way. The following varieties are at the farm and itching to be planted E.S. 8-2-43, Baltica, Marquette, and Frontenac.

Hope to see you out,

Travis

Community Garden Tour

Howdie,


Our friends at Oliver Peace Garden Park have set up an exciting garden tour for this upcoming Saturday. Please follow the link to see the schedule and information on the Bike based event. There is also a Facebook Event Page for those interested.

The tour is scheduled to be at our garden at 3:45 PM on Saturday. If you are interested in the ride simply show up on Saturday at the old St. John's school site in Oliver around 8:30am!

See you there,

Travis

Bean a long time thyme since I ate so much cilantro

Wow...

Almost mid August. We had a great weekend at UFOG. Marshall showed up early and set to work creating a "Field Borscht" to be remembered. Everybody learned quickly from the 2" Ipod screen and a copy of Gardenerds Garlic Braiding Video.

By the end of Saturday we had 60 braids of softneck. We had a great crowd turn up, and we did some serious harvesting. The beans, carrots, beets, zuchinni and a variety of potatoes are now ripe for the taking.We are going to need to focus on getting the beans off the plants tomorrow.

In other news, we've secured our funding from IMANTA Edmonton's Latvian Society, this will allow us to purchase a few additional tools, and build ourselves a much needed greenhouse!