And the Award Goes to...

Last week, Blue Cross' Twin Cities Corporate Giving Garden Network initiative was honored with the Corporate Volunteerism Council-Twin Cities’ (CVC-TC) Innovation Award. The Blue Cross Corporate Giving Garden continues to spur interest and enthusiasm for a growing network of corporate giving gardens throughout the Twin Cities metro area. Blue Cross provides consulting, leadership and connection for the network, holding two Garden Summits each year for members to share best practices and learn from each other. Read more

Seeds from Minnesota Green

Being still quite cold (only high 20's today!) here in Minnesota it's hard to envision getting our hands dirty planting seeds is just a little over a month. But spring will be here soon and we'll be ready with seeds picked up today through our Minnesota Green membership.  What an amazing variety of seeds donated to the program by Seed Savers Exchange!

So excited that we've got three varieties of Okra to try.

Monkey Scarecrow Does Good Job.

Our loofah seedlings are doing beautifully, probably because no crows have gotten past our monkey scarecrow.

Spring

Outside, we have snow on the ground. 

Inside, we have plants started.

Spring is almost here.

The Great Loofah Experiment

Our garden friends in Texas gave us this:

We peeled it, and got this:

Since loofah has such a long growing season, and Minnesota doesn't, we've started them inside.  Assuming the seeds are planted at the right depth (We did carrots too deep one year.) we'll post pictures of progress.

Hoping by July to see this:

And if we pick them early (before they become scrubbing loofahs) we can make this:

2 tbsp. canola oil
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 lb. loofah gourd, peeled and cut diagonally into 1 1⁄2"-long pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper, to taste
Sugar, to taste

Heat oil in a 14" flat-bottomed wok or nonstick skillet over high heat. Add garlic; cook, stirring, until golden, 15–20 seconds. Add loofah and 1 tbsp. water; season with salt, white pepper, and sugar. Cook, stirring, until just tender, 30–60 seconds. Serve immediately. (from Saveur Magazine

Thankful

Here at the Giving Garden we are thankful for all our wonderful volunteers! During this year's growing season we harvested over 1,200 lbs. All of which went right back into the community. Some of it even went for a cruise! How is that possible....well, have you heard about the ELRC Mobile Food Pantry?  It is an innovative approach to hunger relief that brings food support into neighborhoods. To learn more, check out the Eagan and Lakeville Resource Center (ELRC) website.

Blue Cross volunteers and Eagan and Lakeville Resource Center (ELRC)  leadership celebrate the inaugural delivery of the ELRC Mobile Food Pantry. During the Minnesota growing season, some of the produce delivered to food shelf recipients in Dakota County comes from our very own Blue Cross giving garden.

Fruits of Our Labor

Oh my...I can't believe we have been away from the blogging world since August! The garden has definitely kept us on our toes this growing season.

Since we last shared an update, we have held two events. One was our fall clean up while the other was an Ice Cream social. Of course, after enjoying a few scoops of ice cream harvesting was in order!

We will be back soon to hopefully share some photos of our fall clean up event and our year end harvest total. Stay warm!!