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.