Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Harvest Party and other Cool Events


Hello Gardeners!

Upcoming Events
The Seed Library will be at the Harvest Festival. Hope to see you there!
YMCA Harvest Festival, Sunday Sept 22, Noon-3pm
Join in celebrating community grown food from 12-3pm on Sunday, September 22. The second annual BearPower Harvest Party will again feature FREE small bites by local chefs. The event will take place at the White Bear Area YMCA Community Gardens, (2100 Orchard Lane) behind the YMCA building. We’ll be serving food until we run out, so join the party early.

Food 
Most of the produce was grown in local community Gardens. Our own WBL School District (Central, Lakeaires, Matoska and Oneka) the WBL Health Partners Clinic Garden, Tamarack Nature Center Garden and the YMCA Community Gardens are all sharing produce for the event. Local organic farm, All Good Organics, will again be donating to round out our garden harvests.

Chefs Matt Ellison of Bonfire Restaurants and Peggy Doran of Margaux’s Table are donating their time and talents to turn the food into tasty meals. Local fall veggies will delight your taste buds- but the exact recipes will have to wait as the chefs see what produce rolls in the day before!

Activities
BearPower is bringing family fun with giant yard games and ways to make healthy eating and activities a part of your routine. Everyone’s favorite carrot, Chomp, will be on site to get kids pumped about living healthy. The YMCA will be holding a few Kids’ Fitness classes in the garden. The White Bear Lake Seed Library will be giving seed saving demonstrations and information on their organization, housed in our downtown public library. The WBL schools will have a table about their gardens, and teachers on site to talk about schoolyard gardens. Ramsey County Master Gardeners will be available for your gardening Q&A. Forks in the Dirt will have a table about the impact of eating local, getting kids in the garden and gardening tips. Our local WBL PD will be there as well with ideas for staying safe while out and about.



October – Tuesday, Oct. 8th, 6:30 pm – Seed Talk - Putting Your Garden to Bed
What should you do before Old Man Winter comes? Learn how to take care of your garden while it rests over the winter. What you can do to help make next year’s garden even better.
October 15 – Tuesday, 7 pm - Wild Ones program
Lawns to Legumes Cost Sharing Grants Promote Pollinator Habitat  
FamilyMeans building, 1875 Northwestern Ave, Stillwater, MN

 Lawns to Legumes is a new State-funded initiative to protect pollinators, especially the rusty patched bumblebee.

This cost-sharing and technical outreach program is being set up for homeowners who want to enhance their landscape by adding pollinator-friendly habitat, including native plants. Priority is being given to areas in the State that can support the endangered rusty patched bumblebee. This includes most of Washington County.

We'll discuss the State-wide program and then details of how Washington County residents can participate. Free and everyone is welcome.

Program begins at 7pm, socialize 6:30 pm. All are welcome! You do not have to be a Wild Ones member to attend.


WANTED – SEEDS!!!!
The Seed Library is down to only 400 packets of seeds. So far in 2019, over 2,200 packets of seeds have found new homes. Every year we increase the number of packets finding new homes, so we need lots of seeds for the 2020 season as well as native plants seeds for this fall.
Please save your seeds of non-hybrid, open-pollinated beans, peas, lettuce, sweet peppers, tomatoes, annuals and native plant seeds!
If you are unable to save seeds from your own harvest, please donate a commercial packet of appropriate seeds.

A Special Note about Harvesting Seeds!
Please do not harvest seeds from seed pods that are still green (unripe). The seeds will not be viable. In particular, do NOT harvest milkweed pods until the seed pods in brown and partially open. Milkweed seeds from green pods will not germinate.

Resources
I have added a list of great resources to the Seed Library blogsite.

Contact info for the Seed Library:

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Upcoming Events, Sept 9th and 11th


Upcoming Events
September – MONDAY, September 9th, 6:30pm – How to Save Seeds
Learn how to save vegetable, herb and native plants seeds. Seed Talks are community involved discussions on a particular subject. Come share your own experiences and learn from others. This is for experienced and non-experienced people and all those in between.  

September – Wednesday, September 11th, 5pm seed packaging
No experience needed.  Easy to do and fun! Enjoy talking to your fellow gardeners while helping our Seed Library. Treats provided!

October – Tuesday, October 8th, 6:30 pm – Putting Your Garden to bed
What should you do before Old Man Winter comes? Learn how to take care of your garden while it rests over the winter. What you can do to help make next year’s garden even better.


WANTED – SEEDS!!!!

The Seed Library is down to only 400 packets of seeds. So far in 2019, over 2,200 packets of seeds have found new homes. Every year we increase the number of packets finding new homes, so we need lots of seeds for the 2020 season as well as native plants seeds for this fall.
Please save your seeds of non-hybrid, open-pollinated beans, peas, lettuce, sweet peppers, tomatoes, annuals and native plant seeds!
If you are unable to save seeds from your own harvest, please donate a commercial packet of appropriate seeds. Here’s a place to get seeds for our Seed Library or your own garden!
Seed Saver’s Exchange Sale, Up to 50% off seeds. Sale goes until 9/7/2019
There are many seed companies that sell open-pollinated or heirloom seeds. A few are listed here:



EVENTS
YMCA Harvest Festival, Sunday Sept 22, Noon-3pm
The White Bear Lake YMCA is having a festival. Food grown locally and prepared by a local chef is available starting at noon. The Seed Library will be there with free seeds and a fun game. See the following for more information:


UMN Organic Open House, Thursday, Sept 19, 2019, 4-6 pm
Stop by for a chance to hear about innovative organic growing practices and talk with researchers about current organic and sustainable agriculture research. Growers, students, researchers, and community members are invited to attend. These events are FREE & open to the public. 
Note: It says it is an open house, but it really is a tour that starts at 4pm. Though you can come at any time during 4-6pm.

Concurrent with the UMN Organic Open House will be a field day on summer cover crop mixes and how they can be used to improve soil health and fertility on your farm. Come learn about a variety of flowering summer cover crop options and summer cover crop research taking place at the University of Minnesota. Field day is supported by a Minnesota Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant.

Location: Cornercopia Organic Farm on the UMN St. Paul Campus, Intersection of Lindig St & Dudley Ave.

Parking is available in the Gortner Ave Ramp, 1395 Gortner Avenue, St. Paul, MN, 55108.
More info contact:
Anne Pfeiffer
Organic Program Associate
University of MN/Grossman Lab
436 Alderman Hall, 1970 Folwell Ave, St. Paul, MN 55108
apfeiffe@umn.edu

Ramsey Master Gardener Classes
See details of classes at: www.ramseymastergardeners.com

Contact info for the Seed Library: