Community Garden Update

Saturday morning, March 19th, in the Community Garden was picture perfect. Great group, great plants, great weather. Off to a great start indeed! Harry Summerlin has produced plant description sheets that we will post at the end of each row very soon. They have a picture, short plant description and harvest tips. A hearty "Thank You Harry" for your love and labor.

 

If you are willing to help Paul Tescione with the care and tending of the blueberries, and other berries and apple trees in the side yard to the south of the church, please email him. He needs a few good gardeners and can share knowledge about fruit tree and berry care.

Community Garden Gearing Up!

A very special thank you to all the garden helpers, children, youth and adults, last weekend! Transplants are in the ground growing now and the "flower power" beds are prepped because of all the hard work.

March 19: First Garden Planting

First Garden Planting | Saturday, March 19 | 9 AM | GCPC Community Garden

You are invited to help out in our community garden! Come one time or join as a regular gardener. Please bring a trowel and be ready to work. We will be planting cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards and much more. A great time for fellowship together!

Community Garden Events

Cabbage Harvesting

Last Thursday, Buzz Durham and Rick Philipsen traveled to Anthony's farm for the third cabbage harvest. More than 200 heads found their way back to town and about 50 heads remained for the Leicester Welcome Table to harvest as needed. Cabbages were delivered to GO Ready Kitchen, Loving Food Resources, East Side Community Welcome Table (Grosse UMC) and the Veterans Restoration Quarters. At every location they were greeted with high fives, fist bumping, hugs, and well wishes for the New Year. Amazing how a few cabbage can give such a feeling of well-being and happiness! Turns out our desire to give to others starts when we are toddlers-- NPR News Hour reported research on how giving to others, investing in others is one ticket to our well-being and happiness. Click here for the full report.

The Community Garden is helping to reduce some of the pains of hunger with fresh vegetables. We are improving our health and happiness by sharing the garden bounty!

Mark your calendars! | Community Garden Potluck Dinner

Friday, February 19 | 6-8 PM | Grace Covenant Fellowship Hall

Come early and help set-up or stay late and help clean-up. Past, current and future gardeners are welcome. Along with sharing food and laughter around a common table we will set our expectations for the garden season and begin to organize ourselves into gardening teams. All are welcome. More information on the Community Garden can be found here.

Community Garden 2016

Planning our 2016 crops and calendar

Planning for spring 2016 is underway. If you have ideas, please email Buzz with your suggestions. Thanks to Win, we already have added a significant garlic crop and will plant a spring crop of Brussel sprouts.

Mark these dates for 2016:

January 11 - deliver seeds to First Step

March 14 - pick up our robust transplants 

March 19 - 9 AM: plant the garden

Recipes Needed!

Simple Recipes from your Kitchen!        

Crossroads Mission Magazine published an article on GCPC gardening in their fall issue. They now are on a mission to bring more attention to hunger and food deserts in their spring issue. They will use sidebars in the article to share recipes from community gardeners that are quick, simple and nutritious. Please send Buzz your 3 best recipes that we can share and hopefully they will select to publish. Stand aside Martha and Julia - there are new cooks in the neighborhood!

Community Garden in the News!

Have you seen the latest issue of Mission Crossroads magazine? The Winter 2015 edition features Grace Covenant and our garden work as well as some amazing pictures of our kids in action! Follow this link to check it out. There are also a few hard copies in the narthex. 

October 4: GCPC Day of Service to Stop Hunger

Come around early afternoon on October 4^th you are invite to join with others to help bring attention to the need to better address hunger in the World and in our community; it is about growing healthy children and healthy minds.

You have a spot in the afternoon activities—join one or all three. The afternoon starts with the Asheville area Crop Hunger Walk.

Crop Hunger Walk

1:15 PM Meet at Grace Covenant to carpool downtown to First Baptist Church.

Or come directly to First Baptist--1:45 PM Meet at First Baptist Church. Crop Walk begins promptly at 2pm.

Yes you can do a half the distance by starting at First Baptist and ending at Grace Covenant. Grace Covenant is the approximate half way point!

2:45 PM Snacks, fellowship and rest at GCPC…your energy will be fueled by brownies cooked by K-8 young people, and fruit.

3:15 PM Service Project at GCPC --packaging beans and rice for Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Poverty on the reservation is one of the highest in our nation.

·   Some statistics recorded this decade.

·   Unemployment rate of 80-90%

·   Per capita income of $4,000

·   8 Times the United States rate of diabetes

·   5 Times the United States rate of cervical cancer

·   Twice the rate of heart disease

·   8 Times the United States rate of Tuberculosis

·   Alcoholism rate estimated as high as 80%

·   1 in 4 infants born with fetal alcohol syndrome or effects

·   Suicide rate more than twice the national rate

·   Teen suicide rate 4 times the national rate

·   Infant mortality is three times the national rate

4:00 PM Dinner and Presentation, “Joining Hands with Haiti’, Mark Hare and Jenny Bent-Hare Agricultural and Health Workers in Haiti and the Dominican Republic will share their work. Mark’s Yard Garden work is the inspiration for the tire garden beside the GCPC parking area. Dinner will be a robust Haitian Vegetable Stew served over grits or rice, dessert a WNC apple crisp.

For sure you can make a donation for your dinner and also Sponsor a Crop Walker by buying a foot for$10. All donations go to help ease hunger in our community.

Community Garden Update

What's in your World Garden—Thanks you all —the garden is doing wonderfully well. The eggplants are producing and will continue till frost.  As the fruit grow it has “creases”. The creases lessen as the fruit matures--when the creases disappear and the skin is more or less smooth it is ripe for harvest. The stems are somewhat tough and you may want to cut with hand clippers.

The Green and Yellow Zucchini in the tires are ready to harvest when they are six or more inches long but before they are nine inches.  Firmly grasp the fruit and gently pull and twist—the fruit stem should break, if not take your trusty garden knife or clippers and cut the stem.

In a couple of weeks we will ask you to help transform the tires into a fall garden removing the squash, refreshing  the soil and planting broccoli and cauliflower—stay tuned we will do the work on a Sunday morning.

The tomatoes speak for themselves. With this week’s abundant rain the fruit should grow rapidly and color begin to appear in the fruit in about two weeks. Once you see color on at least half of the fruit body it will be completely red on the inside and can be harvested and finish changing color on your kitchen counter. Try “fried green tomatoes” harvest one or two when they are about the size of a baseball. Bread with Panko and fry—top with a basil leaf and think you are at the Whistle Stop Café in middle Georgia.

June 6: Gardens That Give Tour

Visit Local Gardens That Give Away Produce

to those in need of food

Gardens That Give WNC 2015 Garden Tour

8:00 – 12:00 Saturday June 6^th

Suggested donation $5/person for entire tour

ASHEVILLE

·       Grace Covenant Community Garden, 798 Merrimon Avenue, Asheville, NC 28804  Buzz Durham, buzzdurham@gmail.com 

  http://www.gcpcusa.org/#/our-community-garden

·       Love & Fishes – ONLY OPEN FROM 9 – 11   297 Haywood St, Asheville, NC 28801 (Downtown Asheville area across from Hunter Volvo on Patton Haywood Street Congregation Church is an old small red brick church The Love and Fishes Garden is behind the church) Contact person is Lynne Michael @ lmichaelnine@gmail.com 

·       The Kenilworth Church Giving Garden, at Kenilworth Church -  123 Kenilworth Rd. Asheville 28803. Katie Adams is the contact person. kenilworthpresbyterianchurch@gmail.com

If you would like to volunteer in the garden, or have questions, please contact Katie Adams 828-273-3747 orwww.kenilworthchurch.org

 

EAST & SOUTH EAST

·       Dr. John Wilson Community Garden,  Dr. John Wilson Community Garden is located at 99 White Pine Drive, Black Mountain, NC 28711 Contacts: Diana McCall, Garden Supervisor, diana.mccall@townofblackmountain.org
828-337-8932 or Jill Edwards, Health Services Programs Administrator
jill.edwards@townofblackmountain.org 828-669-2052

 http://www.nccgp.org/garden_directory/information/dr.-john-wilson-community-garden

·       The Lord’s Acre, 26 Joe Jenkins Road, Fairview, NC 28730. Susan Sides is the contact person: thelordsacre@gmail.com  or 828-628-3688

 www.thelordsacre.org

WEST

·       The Sand Hill Community Garden, is located at the Buncombe County Sports Park on Sand Hill School Road. Elaine Sargent is the contact person:  email: sargent_e@charter.net  phone:  828-808-2645   

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sand-Hill-Community-Garden/398036656887147

HENDERSONVILLE

·       Veterans’ Healing Farm - 19 Mahshie Ln, Hendersonville, NC 28739   Contact persons: John & Nicole Mashie -  veteranshealingfarm@gmail.com   (704) 928-6949   http://veteranshealingfarm.org/

·       The Friendship Garden -  1735  5th Ave. West, Hendersonville, NC, 28739 (First Congregational Church) Contact: Milton Stewart - greenbriar13@gmail.com 828-692-8630