Lets get cooking...

All those good things to eat out of the garden, and everyone always sharing such delicious culinary details that eminate from the garden. What better way to celebrate this fact than with a Community Garden Cookbook. A very energetic group of gardeners has started working on this project and needs your recipes and stories.

The cookbook aims to 1) promote local organic produce, 2) to raise awareness of Community Gardens , and 3) to raise funds for future development of our Community Gardens.

If you are interested in submitting a recipe (or better yet, several recipes!), please contact garden@northernhills.ab.ca to obtain a form or visit the Northern Hills Community Association office, located in Cardel Place. Please take a look at the “Recipe Guidelines” section of the form to determine if your recipe can be included in our publication. We would also appreciate any pictures you have that you would like to share – pictures of your dish, produce, etc.

The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2011 so hurry and dig up your best kept family secrets (of the recipe variety).

We hope to have the cookbook completed by this spring. Perhaps some of the recipes will look so inviting you will be inspired to try a new vegetable in your plot next year. Keep a look out as we will be having a Cookbook naming contest in the future.

Harvest Celebration 2011...

Centrepiece and Activities for every table.

Wow. That's all I can say, big wow. A tremendous amount of thought and care went into the planning and execution of this years harvest party. I think it showed because everyone looked to be having a marvelous time.

The decorations were outstanding, there was crafts (very cool mask kits) and colouring for kids, a guess your gourd game (I really have no clue despite the fact that the mystery veg came from Superstore), the centrepieces were seasonally inspiring and inspired all at the same time, and of course the food...ohhhhh the food. It would be impossible for me to accurately describe the culinary adventure that took place, so instead you can simply feast on a sampling of the dishes visually, thanks to all those who snapped some pictures. Unfortunately the pictures didn't turn out for everything. I know there was a coleslaw made completely from local garden cabbage that my picture didn't work. I only wish I had time to get the recipes for everything, I mean how can you not want to when you're eating a beet cake...that's right a beet cake, and a beet pie. When I was a kid beets did not make there way into such magical things.

Well it turns out there are some other like minded gardeners that would also like to get all the recipes. They have started planning the launch of a community garden cookbook. It's a great idea incorporating our locally grown produce and locally grown stories. Check back soon for more information or email garden@northernhills.ab.ca for more information.

Friends chowing down.

Tomato Salsa.

Pork and Chinese Lettuce.

Tofu and Red Beans (that turn green when cooked).

Kohlrabi and Ham dish.

Quinoa.

Burger time.

Mingling anyone.

Zucchini loaf.

Beet Pie.

Beet Cake.

Carrot Cake.

Zucchini and Chocolate Chip Loaf.

Food Bank harvest 2011...

Our second year of growing turned out fantastic. This year we had a few less beds growing for the Food Bank but we still managed to pull in a bumper crop. Our potatoes are better than last year, the onions are huge, and we have enough beats to feed an army. It's great to see the pictures of our harvest day, we have some wonderfully dedicated volunteers. It looks like it was a blast. Next year it will be foremost on my calendar. Here are some of the action shots.

Harvest Pics...

The season has just blown by. Consensus seems to be that harvests were up this year. Potatoes especially seemed to get a boost. After a chat with a few different gardeners prevailing wisdom is pointing to the great compost we were able to snag from the city at the beginning of the season as well as adjusted planting after lessons learned from our inaugural year. Here are but a few great pics of harvests in action.

World Leader Presents on Food...

VANDANA SHIVA PRESENTS "THE FUTURE OF FOOD" ON SEPT 23
The 2011 Calgary Peace Prize recipient, Dr Vandana Shiva will be presenting an exhilarating talk on "The Future of Food" at the River Cafe on Princes Island Park, Calgary. Tickets are $60. This event is a Meet & Greet reception over food & drinks for passionate Calgarians interested to meet & exchange ideas with Dr Shiva on food policy, peace activism, international development & environment. During this event Oxfam Canada will be also be presenting their new campaign called GROW, which focuses on food justice and women’s rights. All welcome in this event. For tickets, click here . $30 of your ticket purchase is considered a donation in support of the Consortium for Peace Studies activities. Please provide your contact information, in order to issue your tax receipt. Please ensure you have entered the correct email address for your online registration and the names of exact attendees. Your ticket will be an email confirmation letter. All attendees need to print this email ticket and bring to the event for entry.

Date: Friday September 23, 2011
Time: Cocktails & Food at 6:30pm, Dr. Shiva's presentation at 7:30pm
Location: River Cafe, 25 Prince's Island Park, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 0R1
Ticket: $60. To purchase tickets, click here https://netcommunity.ucalgary.ca/shivareception

  
VANDANA SHIVA RECIEVES 2011 CALGARY PEACE PRIZE & PRESENTS "MAKING PEACE WITH THE EARTH" ON SEPT 24
Please join on us Saturday, September 24th 2011 at the Red & White Club as Alderman Gian-Carlo Carra & Chancellor Emeritus Joanne Cuthbertson present the 2011 Calgary Peace Prize to Dr Vandana Shiva, philosopher, environmental activist, eco feminist and author of several books. Her acceptance speech is titled "Making Peace with the Earth". This will include her commitment to social justice, food policy advocacy, empowerment of women in developing countries, her advocacy of the human rights of small farming communities, and her scientific analysis of environmental sustainability. Tickets are $12. This is a public event - all welcome. For tickets, click here . Doors open at 9:00 am, presentation by Dr Shiva: 10:00 am. Please ensure you have entered the correct email address for your online free registration and the names of exact attendees. Your ticket will be an email confirmation letter. All attendees need to print this email ticket and bring to the event for entry. Children over 2 years of age require a full ticket. Children under 2 yrs need to be seated on the accompanying adult's lap.

This event will also host craft sale & infomation booths by people or organizations involved with peace, social justice, environment, development, women's issues, food policy advocacy and natural health
Date: September 24, 2011
Time: Gates open 9:00 am, Calgary Peace Prize presentation and Dr. Shiva's presentation at 10:00 am
Location: Red & White Club, McMahon Stadium, 1833 Crowchild Trail NW, Calgary, AB
Advanced online tickets: $12; ($15 at the door)
To register/purchase your ticket, click here: https://netcommunity.ucalgary.ca/morningshiva

A belated view of tree planting 2011...

Here is a brief glimpse of tree planting 2011. An absolutely wonderful program offered by the City of Calgary called Neighbourwoods provides trees and expertise to communities at a subsidized rate as long as they commit to caring for the fledgling trees. Both our gardens took advantage of the program, and with it the landscapes have changed overnight. Thanks to the great volunteers who showed up to take our gardens to the next level. It was a huge success not just for our gardens but for Northern Hills as a whole, as you can see from some of the pictures there was no shortage of people willing to bring more green to their lives.

A terrific educational opportunity...

Raising Dirt From the Dead

Date: August 26, 2011 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM

Location: Harvest Hills Alliance Church

10099 Harvest Hills Blvd. NW

Calgary, AB

A Unique Opportunity to Learn From an International Expert

Doug Weatherbee "The Soil Doctor"

Soil Foodweb Advisor and International Soil Expert
(http://www.soildoctor.org/)

Soil is a complex community of life, supporting the most bio diverse ecosystem on the planet. A single teaspoon of soil contains billions of living organisms that are continuously at work, creating soil structure, storing carbon, producing nutrients and building defense systems against disease. Healthy soil cleans water, stores carbon, purifies the very systems that sustain us in addition to producing healthy and nutrient-dense food!
Learn how to create healthy and alive topsoil through organic agricultural methods, relying on biology and ecology instead of chemicals and utilizing naturals systems of soil regeneration.
Doug is visiting Calgary all the way from Mexico...  Be sure not to miss this unique and rare opportunity!


WHEN: Friday August 26th, 7 - 9 pm

WHERE: Harvest Hills Alliance Church, 10099 Harvest Hills Blvd. NW

TIME: 7:00 - 9:00 pm

COST: donations gratefully accepted for future educational events


100 % of proceeds donated to these great non-profit organizations: Community Garden Resource Network, Permaculture Calgary, Northern Hills Community Gardens

Sponsored by: Community Gardens Resource Network (A program of the Calgary Horticultural Society), Verge Permaculture, The Northern Hills Community Association

And then there was green...

I guess it is a good thing when life is so busy you don't have time to blog about it. And in the case of the garden it would be a full time job trying to keep up with all that has happened this year. As a quick run down here are some of the exciting things:

• fresh compost arrived to top up everyone's beds this spring;
• new ornamental beds were carved out and planted (they look fantastic);
• a raspberry bed also made its way into the garden, let hope for some berries;
• we were lucky enough to be able to capitalize on the City of Calgary's Neighborwoods Program and now have some fantastic tree groves (I can see stretching out in the shade reading a book in a few years);
• our compost bin was relocated and stirred;
• we have a wonderful new shed built and painted (what a world of difference);
• our centre piece was planted and continues to look amazing;
• we've had a few battles with the water system (it wouldn't be any fun without challenges);
• and last but not least the veggies are prolific, I know I am seeing considerable improvement from last year.

I haven't been able to get many pictures (included a few below) but it has been great seeing so many fellow gardeners tending their plots. Looking forward to running into you while trying to keep the lettuce under control. I feel a bumper potatoe crop coming on.

An adventure in composting...

Sunday we were very lucky to have an expert on composting come and share come valuable information with us. In essence lifting us out of the inactive compost club (basically we were piling up garden waste with nothing happening) and ushering us into the composting elite (or at least capable, in theory). Bert, with a varied resume of composting experience from a multitude of community gardens and other sources cannot be thanked enough. I have a feeling that if one was to map out all the composting done in Calgary he would have had a hand in most of it at some stage.

In all we spent an hour or so delving into the magic of bacteria and other critters recycling our organic wastes. It really is quite amazing what microorganisms can do. Here are some tidbits that I can remember (sorry I'm not one for taking notes):

• try and mix equal parts browns and greens by weight (browns are dried leaves, newspaper, paper egg cartons; greens are your grass and veggies)
• because greens are mostly water when you add them to compost the final mixture ends up being 20 parts browns to 1 part greens once everything has dried and started to mix
• if your compost is starting to smell it is probably too wet and needs to be turned, also add some browns
• if nothing is happening and you are getting pest infestation (ants, wasps, mice) your pile is probably too dry; add water and turn
• if you have a large enough compost pile and it is working properly it will cook some bad things out of the soil (like seeds from weeds); but to be sure you can put your weeds and their seeds in a sealed black garbage bag out in direct sun for 3 days (driveway works well) this will definitely cook those nasty weed seeds
• if you don't get oxygen to the microorganisms that are doing all the work by turning your compost and not over watering the process turns anaerobic and starts producing greenhouse gas bi-products, much like a landfill (best to keep it aerobic and turn your compost when it needs it
• a working compost pile will create temperatures from 30-50 degrees Celsius (I'd recommend gloves)

And of course what would a day at the garden be without a lovely picture (thanks Paul for being our photographer). Ohhhhhh...and also it rained just as we were finishing up so we didn't have a chance to implement any of our new tricks on our pile in waiting, however next weekend our compost pile will be propelled into action by all of us new compost apprentices.

Bert Einsiedel imparting compost wisdom

Mmmmmm, first sprouts showing...

The first tasty signs of veggies to come. In my head I was imagining the wait for germination as Sprout Watch 2011, but upon reflection of the past two years and what I always seem to see first I think Radish Watch 2011 is more fitting. They are so darned fast to germinate, and seem to love our less than stellar spring weather.

On a slightly sadder note my bean plants have succumbed to morning temperatures that must have been darn close to frosting. I guess when every gardener tells me it's to cold to grow beans here, especially down in Harvest Gardens, they are including me; it's not just jaunty banter. Two big lessons thus far and the season is just begun (the radishes having barely popped): don't seed your carrots deep (I only got a handful last year because I can't read seed packaging), and don't try to grow beans in Harvest Gardens (though I managed 7 beans from 4 plants last year).

Below are some pictures of some of our green thumb's planting magic. They are far more encouraging than anything my brown wilting thumb has managed to date.

Herbs and Spices, courtesy of Joanne D.

Love this little touch, now I want one.

Last chance for composting...

We still have some spaces left for the composting class.

Want to learn more about composting and how to incorporate this into your home or community garden plan? Then join us for Composting 101 with Bert.

Composting 101

When: Sunday, June 12 1:00 – 2:30 PM
Where: Harvest Gardens (Harvest Hills Community Garden; from Country Hills Boulevard go south on Harvest Hills Gate, left on to Harvest Hills Drive, right on to Harvest Lake Drive. The garden is located at the west end of Harvest Lake Drive .)
Facilitated by: Bert Einsiedel

Please RSVP to garden@northernhills.ab.ca with name and number of attendees by June 10th.

Brought to you by the Northern Hills Community Gardens .

In order to help defray costs a donation of $5.00 per person is kindly requested at the door. Bring mosquitoe spray and a lawn chair.

Hope to see you there!

Harvest Gardens Kick-Off day photos...

Even more great photos of our busy innaugural work day at Harvest Gardens: