What to do with all those tomatoes? How about learning to can them? Canning is easy and inexpensive. It is also a great way to continue eating your homegrown food all winter.

CANNING DEMONSTRATION CLASS 4:00 SATURDAY, AUGUST 21 AT WESTSIDE SCHOOL KITCHEN

Richard Weigel has generously offered to let us use the school kitchen for a canning class. We hope to demonstrate canning stewed tomatoes, beans and pickles. It is NOT a group canning session, but there will be some hands-on experience included in the class. Then you can go home and do it yourself, with one more new skill added to your resume.

Dan and I spent some time at the garden on Tuesday. It was a very humid August evening and the neighborhood was quiet. The cilantro and broccoli are quickly going to seed due to the heat so we cut back the cilantro and picked a few stems of broccoli that were already getting yellow flowers. A passerby had tried to pick one of the zinnias but the stems are much to hardy for easy picking and the entire plant was uprooted. I replanted the plant in hopes that it will survive and cut the damaged flower from the stem. Hardy stems on flowers that are so close to a sidewalk is a good thing. When I was a child I remember having a very hard time resisting the urge to pick beautiful flowers.

The garden is such a joy right now. It really needs very little, as we have had above average rainfall this summer. We thinned the carrots and weeded in the herbs and lettuce. The weeds have not been bad and most of the plants are large enough now that the weeds do not compete with them. The tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes. I think they will soon produce more tomatoes than we can keep up with. Fortunately it looks as though the new planting of cilantro will be just in time for the ripe tomatoes. Happy Gardening!

Harvest time is here!

This is the first post for the Ferry Street Community Garden in Niles, MI. Niles has three community gardens that were started this year. Each garden has it's own group of caretakers and is planted based on the desires of those gardeners. This blog has been created to discuss the needs of the garden (meeting times, what needs to be done, what needs to be picked, etc.), share recipes, share gardening tips and talk about the fun we have working in the garden!

I am learning about the set up of this blog manager so I am not sure yet if anyone can load photos and what changes can be made by others. As I learn, I will post it and if anyone has advice for the blog, please feel free to let me know.

Dan, the kids and I will be going to the garden this evening to do a little weeding and picking.

Here is a simple recipe to try

Alternate slices of freshly picked tomato with fresh basil leaves and sliced, fresh mozzarella cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with garlic salt. Can be eaten immediately or refrigerated for a few hours.


Happy Gardening!