Red Wiggler Event - Thurs. Nov. 10th at 7:30 at Harvey Wheeler

VERMICULTURE BASICS: WINTER COMPOSTING WITH RED WIGGLERS

Come join us on Thursday, November 10 at 7:30 pm with Ray Pourali, Green Planet, at Harvey Wheeler Community Center, 1276 Main Street, West Concord (same parking lot as the Concord Children's Center). Please RSVP to deb01742@comcast.net by November 8! Come on your own, or bring a friend! All are welcome.

Tired of trudging through the snow to your compost bin?  Try vermicomposting....get rid of  your kitchen scraps in an odorless, effective and low cost INDOOR compost! Sound intriguing?? Learn more from Ray Pourali...Environmental Engineer by day...and all-the-time champion  of  vermicomposting!

This spring, Debbie Bier and the community gardeners brought Ray to Concord to sell the start up kit of red wigglers to 25 gardeners. I can attest that mine are alive and well in my compost  bin...but they will not take freezing weather. They are best for indoor composting! 

Ray will  bring concentrated compost tea for sale (500 ml, 3000 ml) to feed plants this winter ( a popular  product),  and 1/2 lb packages of the starter kit and care instructions, including how to make your own vermiculture bin!

Come join the discussion...and reduce the volume of trash at your curbside pick-up this winter!

More Local Food Events

Gardeners,

Hope you all find some of these food related events interesting to attend!

COMPOSTING BASICS 10/11 tonight!, 7:30 – 9 PM Mark Hanson, experienced gardener and avid compost fan: Harvey Wheeler Community Center: Sponsored by Garden/ Life. RSVP by 10/10 to deb01742@comcast.net


ROOT CELLARS AND OTHER STORAGE TIPS FOR VEGGIES ALL WINTER: 10/16, 2-3 pm: Leslie Thomas and Katherine Endicott, Sweet Autumn Farm, Carlisle: Sponsored by Garden for Life; RSVP to deb01742@comcast.net:  http://www.carlislemosquito.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1576:sweet-autumn-farm-is-simply-organic-&catid=8:feature-articles&Itemid=12

SUSTAINABLE CONCORD COFFEE: 10/18 from 7:30-9 AM at Harvey Wheeler Community Center:
Facilitated discussion of Town approved Sustainability Principles as they apply to Concord’s Food System-- with special guest Henry David Thoreau! ALL ARE WELCOMED! For details:  hassoewing@comcast.net.

CARLISLE SCHOOL GARDEN TOUR & COMPOSTING PROGRAM: 10/23, 3-4 pm, led by Launa Zimarro. Learn about the 75-student composting crew, drop in garden club, role of parents and teachers in this expanding project: check out www.carlisleschoolgarden.org; RSVP to deb01742@comcast.net

NATIONAL FOOD DAY IS 10/24! Help us grow the list of events to celebrate local/homegrown; share
a recipe, host a potluck. Volunteers are needed to research and promote local participation; follow leads by
phone or internet. Plan and post your activity! Interested? Contact deb01742@comcast.net.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE FOOD FIGHT FILM AND PANEL: 10/ 24 @ 3:00 p.m. Since the 20s and 30s, American agricultural policy has promoted big farms and bigger food processing conglomerates that favor cheap commodities and long shelf life over fresh, healthy, flavorful food. Food Fight offers a look at how this food culture developed, and how the 60s brought values centered on local and healthy meals.

MUSHROOM WALK, 10/30 10:30 am to 1 pm Sudbury Valley Trustees, Memorial Forest, Sudbury; With Doug Brown, Boston Mycological Club; RSVP: http://www.svtweb.org/events-calendar.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: deb01742@comcast.net, or click on the ConcordCAN/League of Women Voters of Concord-Carlisle Food for Thought website: www.concordfood.ning.com.

Sustainable Concord Coffee - You're Invited

Cousins Field Community Gardeners,

You are invited to:

Sustainable Concord Coffee

Tuesday, October18th, 7:30 -  9AM

Harvey Wheeler Community Center, West Concord

How sustainable is our food system?


October kicks off Focus on Food Six months of food-related study and public conversation through a film series, speakers, garden tours, cooking classes and more!

Discuss with special guest, Henry David Thoreau, Concord’s recently adopted sustainability principles and how we can apply them to our local food system.
(Richard Smith, Thoreau Scholar and Historic Interpreter for
The Concord Museum & Thoreau Birthplace will join us)

 Brooke Redmond, of the Farm-based Education Association, will introduce
Concord’s Community Food Assessment Project to develop a
Food Baseline Report by March, 2012


We'll have strong coffee and local treats.
Bring your cup, co-workers and friends

Upcoming Events

Hello Gardeners,

It's about time to put our gardens to bed, but it's not time to stop learning about gardening. I'm forwarding along a couple of events that are sponsored by Gardens for Life and Debbie Barr, that I thought you may be interested in. Hope you can make it!

Hello Gardening friends,

Our fall calendar is ready for garden lovers to enjoy! Among the
topics members have requested is a tour of root cellars, and we are
following  up some leads, but if you know someone, please let Debbie
Barr know! (deb01742@comcast.net)

COMING SOON: GARDEN TOUR, 10/2, 3-4:30 PM
Don't miss the tour of Black Brook Farm tour with Hasso Ewing on
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 3-4:00 PM in Carlisle. Hasso is a landscape
designer and farmer, and we will see newly installed hoop beds, learn
more tips for extending the season, harvesting and putting the beds to
rest for the winter. If you heard Hasso's standing room only gardening
presentation at the Concord Library last year, you know we are in for
a terrific conversation!

SPACE IS LIMITED, so RSVP by September 30 to deb01742@comcast.net.
Directions will be provided when you sign up.

NEXT UP: COMPOSTING TIPS -- JUST IN TIME TO DO NOW.....AND ENRICH
YOUR  LAWN AND GARDENS NEXT SPRING!
Our October Garden/Life program is on COMPOSTING, with Mark Hanson,
experienced gardener and true composting fan, on Tuesday, October 11,
7:30-9 PM at Harvey Wheeler Community Center in West Concord (note the
7:30 time, which will make it easier to have dinners/tend to kids etc
and still come to enjoy our speaker!). Mark's presentation at the
Concord Library speaker last year also wowed the crowd!

PRESERVES: SUMMER IN A GLASS JAR
Check out this website with great photos and recipes for jams and
pickled veggies from Treehugger
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/09/summer-in-a-mason-jar-3-recipes-and-tips.php?campaign=weekly_nl

SAVE THE DATE: We are joining all three community garden members in a
joint potluck on Friday, October 21 at 6:30 PM at the Thoreau
Birthplace. Details to follow!

Happy Gardening!
Debbie Barr

In Memoriam of Dan Farmer

Some of you know Dan as the husband of Jeanne Farmer, the former Coordinator of the Cousins Field Community Garden, before Pamela H. and I. Dan passed away on Aug. 18th, 2011 and in memory of him a Mum has been planted in the planter at the front of Cousins Field Community Garden. Dan had been gardening many years at Cousins and I know he enjoyed many beautiful tomatoes and basil over the years.  I'm sure I can speak for all when I say we will truly miss his wit and humor around the garden. See here for more.

Please take a moment to pause at the planter and enjoy the newly planted Mum and remember Dan and his enthusiasm for gardening, his love of West Concord, and his friendship.

Concord Ag Day - Sat. Sept. 10, 2011, 10am - 2pm

Reminder:

Please come to

Main Street, Concord Center on

Saturday, September 10, 2011 10AM-2PM 

for

A Farmers Market on the Milldam

Participants:

Colonial Gardens, Verrill Farm, Hutchins Farm, Brigham Farm and Greenhouses, Scimone Farm, Macone Farm, Millbrook Farm, Kenney Farms, Silferleaf Farm, Walden Bros., Gaining Ground, Minuteman National Historical Park, Concord Land Conservation Trust, Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds and more.

Basil Blight

I'm including an email from Cherrie Corrie, a gardener from the East Quarter Farm Community Garden, who's sad to say she's gotten basil blight. Hope this hasn't effected any of you...I'm going to be on the lookout at ours today. Here are the details:

"A heads up, gardening friends -

Just as I am reveling in the beautiful lushness of my East Quarter Farm community garden, I'm SO sad to report that the sudden yellowing of leaves that I noticed on four varieties of my many basil plants last weekend is confirmed basil blight.  Now the leaves are quickly thinning and dark spores are appearing on the undersides and they must be pulled.

See my photo link:  https://picasaweb.google.com/khadro06/BasilBlight2011

This particular blight is relatively unfamiliar in the U.S.  Even our own Thurston Handley was unaware of it when I mentioned it to him today.  It apparently was first seen and ID'd in Uganda in 1933, then not again until 2001 in Switzerland and made the press last year in another resurgence. Wish I'd seen those news flashes before making it the dominant planting (in several varieties) in this year's garden design. Here's a link with more information for anyone with basil:

http://organicgardening.about.com/b/2010/06/24/a-new-blight-to-worry-about-here-comes-basil-blight.htm which is also linked to this one from NPR:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128061773

The organic gardening post has instructions regarding detection, harvest, and disposal...much the same as with the late blight that hit tomatoes 2 years ago.  Hope yours will be passed over...good luck!

Sigh!!!

Cherrie

-- 

Cherrie A. Corey

Naturalist, educator, and photographer
Concord, MA   978.760.1933

http://sense-of-place-concord.blogspot.com/"