Appalachia- Science in the Public Interest
Find us on Facebook!
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Mission
    • Staff and Board
    • Accessibility at ASPI
    • Partnering with ASPI
  • Focus Areas
    • Food Systems
    • Energy
    • Culture >
      • Calendar
      • Arts Connect EKY
      • Service Learning
      • Oral History Projects >
        • Creative Aging Interviews
      • Appalachian Ginseng Foundation
      • Note Cards
    • Sustainable Living Resources >
      • Demonstration Sites >
        • Rockcastle River Wilderness Site >
          • Hiking Trails
      • Publications and Library >
        • Technical Paper Series 1-70
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

There's Always Garlic and Potatoes

8/7/2014

1 Comment

 
At ASPI we dream about big things from small-ish movements. While it is no little thing to grow food for your family, it is not feeding the world. It contributes to feeding the world, and, if you think about it, if everyone could grow more of their own food, it would feed the world. And so the big dreams form. . . Our mission is focussed on sustainability at ASPI. My family dreams of producing most of our own food.

That is a big dream. When we surveyed our tomatoes after rationing the water in the rain barrels for weeks and then standing on the porch watch a deluge for another few weeks, we were quiet. My eight-year old looked at her Romas (which may be the saving grace of the tomato patch), my five-year old surveyed his yellow tomatoes (he prefers less acid, thank-you-very-much) with a serious eye, the baby sniffed a Cherokee Purple, then sunk his teeth in without even picking it. We sighed. It was the most unblemished, ripest tomato we had going. Then the five-year old laughed at his little brother, “It’s good, isn’t it? That’s the best. Right from the garden.” His sister chimed in, “At least someone ate it. Went right to the belly. Just like our peas.”

I grinned. Our tomatoes are alright. We’ve clipped some diseased leaves – oh, o.k. more like branches, and they are not going to bear the glorious harvest of our dreams. But did we have peas! This year we ate peas until, well, we could always eat more peas. We froze peas. That was my goal, even the smallest amount . We never, ever have enough peas. The few that grew were gobbled by children well before they could make it to the house. We also have onions! Never grew them before. They are drying in bunches on the side porch, next to the garlic – enough for all year and cloves to plant this fall. (Side note: I love garlic – my husband likes garlic when it is hidden in and not part of the title of the dish. If you have this conflict in your house, do not cure your garlic on the porch next to your bedroom window. Waking up and trying to identify the smell at 2 a.m. is not good public relations for garlic.)

So in a better mood, the kids and I went on to survey the rest of the garden. We pulled some spent beans and raked to get ready for some beet planting tomorrow. With that to look forward to, we turned to the grim realty of our potatoes. We are also new to potatoes. Something had not gone right. The five-year old was in charge of pulling diseased parts and putting them in a burn pile. By the beginning of July he had his work cut out for him. I figured they were done for, but he liked it. I hoped he wouldn’t be too disappointed if there was nothing to harvest – or worse, mush. While the kiddos chased a toad, I dug with the tater fork. Nothing. Little left. Potatoes! Smooth-skinned, round, good-sized potatoes. I dug a little row then called the kids. This was not a brag-worthy harvest amount, but the excitement of digging food out of the ground cannot be overstated. This was real joy.  Up from the Earth – food!

Children will gladly run out to the garden for dill for their potato salad.

We ate our first kholrabi last night.  It got great reviews from the parents and tolerable reviews from kids.  We added beans and cukes to our salad of kale (which keeps throughout the summer for some reason in our garden.)  Meat has taken a side dish place on our plates this summer.  So, as I sigh about our ho-hum tomatoes, my children and my plate remind me that a garden is more than tomatoes and even, more than food.

P.S.  I haven’t harvested many peppers, either.   The toddler and 5-year old hunt for them and eat them right there in the garden.  I will put my dreams of stuffed peppers on hold, then, until the children are eight and can wait until supper.  The toad is doing well.  We gave him a couple of upturned pots, and he is a regular among the winter squash.

1 Comment

New Facebook Group Added

3/18/2014

0 Comments

 
I have added a facebook group for our 2014 Grow Appalachia participants to add pictures, questions, recipes, and etc. so that everyone can see those. Check out what everyone is doing. https://www.facebook.com/groups/815982615081839/
0 Comments

March 15th, 2014

3/15/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Getting Ready for Spring
A big THANKS! to some students from Loyola in Chicago, IL and some Notre Dame Students that have come down for the past two weeks to be in ASPI’s service learning program. These Loyola students have helped clean out high tunnel and plant some leaf lettuce, kale and spinach back in it. They helped start more seeds for the participants.

They also helped prepare the community garden. They first weeded. Then measured the whole garden and mapped it out in even plots for everyone. After all this was done Notre Dame student started on getting compost in the garden and tilling. They done lots of work at the Nature Center, painted shelves at ASPI. They even made some pretty ASPI shirts and bags and lots more.

It has been a very busy two weeks but we are a lot closer to being ready for spring. We are ready for the snow and cold weather to go so we can start to grow!

Tagged: aspi , community gardens , gardening , grow , Grow Appalachia , planting , seeds



0 Comments

February 19th, 2014

2/19/2014

1 Comment

 
1st Grow Appalachia Workshop

    Our 1st workshop will be on Monday, Feb. 24 starting at 6 pm. This workshop, gardening 101 is free, open to public, and kids are welcome. However all new participants are required to attend. At this work shop we will be learning about organic gardening, seed starting and transplants. We will also talk about and start working on garden plans and soil testing.
    If you would like to be in the program and haven't filled out an application you can do that at this work shop. We still have room for home and community gardeners. If you haven't turned in a needs request paper, please bring that with you on this night.
    This workshop will be at the A-SPI office on 50 Lair Street in Mt. Vernon. If you are unable to attend but want to be in the Grow Appalachia program please let us know. Also for more information call 256-0077. Hope to see you there.
1 Comment

Grow Appalachia application

12/31/2013

0 Comments

 

It was brought to my attention that the application link for Grow Appalachia is currently not working. Until we get it back up you can download the two main papers to fill out here. You can bring those in or mail to office at 50 Lair St., Mt. Vernon, Ky 40456. You can also email them to aspi@a-spi.org or ldclouse@yahoo.com.

2014ga_application.docx
File Size: 242 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

grow_appalachia_2014_participant_needs.doc
File Size: 28 kb
File Type: doc
Download File

0 Comments

Grow Appalachia 2014

12/18/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
We have only received a few applications for Grow Appalachia for 2014. If you are planning to do so please try to get those back to us. Also, I have a company interested in donating some fruit trees this coming May. So if you are planning on being in the program and are interested in some fruit please get your email or phone number to me or you can reach me (Lisa) at ldclouse@yahoo.com or 606-308-2102 I have to get back with them asap on what we would like. You can get more information on these trees at www.chiefrivernursery.com. The types they have offered us are apples (gala,honeycrisp, red delicious, winesap, and yellow delicious), moorpark apricot,north star cherry, concord grape, red gold nectarine, red haven peach, bartlett pear,and methley plum.

0 Comments
    Donate
    Want to get monthly updates on Simple Living? Sign up for our newsletter:

      Sign up for Updates

    Submit

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    November 2022
    December 2021
    November 2020
    November 2019
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2017
    February 2016
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    Active Listening
    Calendar Holidays
    Grow Appalachia
    Motions Of Earth And Moon
    Nature Center
    Nature Center
    No Such Thing As Cold
    Outdoor Education
    Outdoor Education
    Solstice
    Sustainable Culture
    Sustainable Gifts

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photo used under Creative Commons from Mari Smith