Summers Past

You've seen that it's been snowing,
about a foot or two,
The garden isn't growing.
We were feeling kind of blue.

But then we started looking at pictures from summers past, and now we're feeling better.

We Can't Feel Our Toes!

But otherwise, we feel splendidly. Out gardening early this cold October morning, enjoyed the glorious sunshine!

The Kale and Collards and Cosmos love this time of year.

And apparently, so do the peppers, eggplant, and herbs. But we were worried about the tomatoes, so we picked the red and the green.
Our wonderful Facilities team delivered piles and piles of leaves and clippings for our fall garden use. We were tempted to use some of the leaves for a bonfire to warm up our toes, but will use them instead to put the garden to bed.
One more fall, one more winter; and spring will come again.

Who Is It?

This gentleman and some of his family have taken up residence in the celery. Anybody know who they are and whether we like them or not?

Oh, and check out the photo slideshow on the right. We've added lots of pictures from our archives!

Garden to Garden

Our team delivered cucumbers, melons, peppers and tomatoes to Lewis House yesterday.
Then brought more to ERC food shelf this morning and stopped by to visit their thriving community garden!
And they're growing okra, one of our favorites!
For more information about ERC's Garden to Table project, visit here.

Not Quite a Peck But Lots of Pretty Peppers

I had to look up what a peck was and our harvest today could be close since there are four pecks in a bushel.

So maybe not a peck but certainly a colorful pepper harvest.

We also dug up our first sweet potatoes and more eggplant, broccoli, squash, okra, cucumbers, and tomatoes with a lot more out there ready to be picked.

Another Big Harvest

Cucumbers, beans, eggplant, Swiss chard, collard greens, tomatoes, corn, cabbage, kohlrabi, cantaloupe, peppers, okra, and squash!

The following photos are just part of the harvest picked for delivery yesterday by dedicated Giving Garden volunteers. Chard and greens were added along with more eggplant, beans, and squash.

Black-eyed Peas in MN

This spring Susan's southern roots compelled her to add a row of black-eyed peas to the "experimental" area of the garden.  And now we have black-eyed peas!

Looks like we'll have a black-eyed pea harvest and delivery to the food shelf this year.

Red Tomatoes Red Chard Read Recipe

The chard has been glorious since spring and continues strong through the warm weather. Our tomato crop has been bumper, too, and the onions haven't been half bad either. So in honor of all (and because we like garbanzo beans in anything), a recipe we found on allrecipe.com:

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup garbanzo beans, drained
salt and pepper to taste
1 bunch red Swiss chard, rinsed and chopped
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 lemon, juiced

Directions
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Stir in shallot and green onions; cook and stir for 3 to 5 minutes, or until soft and fragrant. Stir in garbanzo beans, and season with salt and pepper; heat through. Place chard in pan, and cook until wilted. Add tomato slices, squeeze lemon juice over greens, and heat through. Plate, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Dedicated

One of the great unexpected pleasures of the Giving Garden is the chance for teams to work together toward a common goal. Our Major Accounts Membership group does just that.

A quote from one team member: I joined the Community Giving Garden because it gives me a chance to incorporate something that I am passionate about in my personal life, into my daily work routine. I can share my passion with my co-workers and give back to the community at the same time.

It has been a great experience sharing my knowledge with my co-workers that are interested in learning about gardening. It’s wonderful knowing that we work for a company that gives us the opportunity to think outside the box in our daily routine and put other people’s need in front of our own. To be allowed 15 minutes to go and work in the garden and think about the people that you are helping is very refreshing.

Thank you, Team!

Flashback to Spring

I'm always amazed at how in a few short months the garden can go from

to

Lots of Beans!

For our second deliver to the food shelf and Lewis House this week, 3 groups of volunteers (including the kids from the Child Development Center) picked beans and each reported back that there were still lots ready to harvest.

So many beans delivered that Susan included the following recipes with the delivery.

Green beans cooked in the skillet with bell peppers and onion, along with garlic and seasonings.
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
16 ounces green beans, cooked
1 red bell pepper, sliced in strips
1 yellow or orange bell pepper, sliced in strips
1 small onion, halved and sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper
Preparation:
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add cooked green beans, peppers, onion, and garlic. Cook slowly, stirring, until peppers are crisp tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serves 6 to 8.

Tasty Spanish style seasoned green bean recipe.
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 small bay leaf
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
4 cups cooked green beans
Preparation:
In a saucepan over medium-low heat, combine tomatoes, onion, green pepper, salt, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, chili powder, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer; simmer for 15 minutes. Remove bay leaf.
In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter; stir in flour until smooth and bubbly. Gradually stir in tomato mixture. Add cooked green beans. Heat through.
Green bean recipe serves 4 to 6.

Fruits of our labor, Fruits of the City

100 pounds of vegetables split between the Food Shelf and Lewis House deliveries yesterday. Granted, those are some heavy cucumbers, but Green beans! Okra! Chard!

And as we get into the harvest season when everybody has overflowing gardens and trees full of fruit - Joan posted this a year ago (Sharing the Harvest), but it bears repeating:

Too many beans, tomatoes, or zucchini? Donate to a local shelter or food shelf. Apples, plums, or cherries just falling to the ground and rotting in your yard? Join the Fruits of the City - Fruit Gleaning project. The best part about the Fruit Gleaning project is that they coordinate volunteers to harvest the fruit and get the fruit to those in need. So do you have a tree that needs picking? Sign up a tree Would you like to volunteer as a gleaner? Sign yourself up

The Okra is Ready

Our first harvest of okra was included in the second delivery of the week.  Susan's mom would be proud of us, our okra didn't get too big although a few were probably a little bigger than what she recommended.

Why We Garden

From volunteer Mary Jo: I've enjoyed working in the garden for multiple reasons. Volunteering is one way I work to keep my life in balance and I think the on-site garden is a wonderful project with so many benefits for the volunteers as well as the community. Teaming up with my friend Alice has given us a chance to keep in touch since we no longer work in the same department (or the same building), and scheduling weekly time at the garden is also helping me increase my activity level this summer. It has also been quite a challenge - keeping up with the weeds this year has been difficult, but I'm determined to keep trying!

July 15 Delivery

Delivered 35 pounds of produce to the food shelf today.






From the delivery volunteer:

I just delivered to the Eagan Resource Center and they were so pleased with the donation of 35 pounds of fresh produce from the garden! In the summer months there is always a drop in dry good donations so the fresh produce helps to off set the drop. Plus the fresh produce is so much healthier. Please thank all the volunteers for all the work that they do. They are making a difference in the lives of many.





Worth the work.

Red Yellow Green

We strolled out to the garden after a weekend of glorious weather and found that the crops had soaked up the sun and rain and grown like mad!

We'll be delivering squash, greens, beets and tomatoes this week!







And my favorite! Raspberries!

Beautiful Broccoli . . .

Beautiful Broccoli

Cheery Chard

Corn Knee High by the Fourth of July

Lots of Leafy Greens

As you can see our food shelf and Lewis House deliveries are still primarily spinach, lettuces, kale, and herbs.

Strawberries are all done but the raspberries should be ready for picking some time next week.  And the rest of the crops continue to grow nicely.

Ready for Harvest: Lettuce, Spinach, Radishes, Herbs

Growing

Everything's growing including the weeds so we'll be busy weeding while we wait for more crops to harvest.

Pumpkins

The four year olds adopted the pumpkins and beans this year. On their first planting visit, they were so excited to see what was in the big supply box. And, of course, they love wearing the gloves!

It just so happened that they were learning about the letter 'P' this week so they quickly picked up on the fact the "poking", "patting" and "pushing" (the soil) - and pumpkins - all started with the letter P! Thanks, gardeners, for providing this alphabetical boost!

First Delivery of 2010

Sweet spring strawberries, chives, green onions, thyme and oregano - and that lone carrot that sprung up from last year's planting! Delivered all but the carrot to Lewis House; the first of many more baskets of fruit, herbs and vegetables from our garden this year.

Woolch

The Woolch was rolled out and put in the garden last week. We placed it where the melons, pumpkins, tomatoes, and peppers will be planted.

To keep it from blowing off the garden, we grabbed some rocks from our ever growing rock pile to anchor down the edges.

We're excited to see how well it keeps the weeds from growing.