PROJECT WORTH OUTREACH HOLDS PARTICIPANT'S MEETING

Hello.  This is Alex Sanders, AmeriCorps VISTA at Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky.  I hope everyone is doing well this week.

Project Worth Outreach held it's latest participant's meeting on Monday, October 1.  We had several people attend this meeting.  We discussed cover crops and end of the gardening season activities.  Most everyone in attendance still had a few vegetables in the ground and are preparing to harvest these vegetables and close out their garden for the year.

Our special speaker, Jerry Redden, was one of our gardeners and he discussed his garden with the group.  If you recall, Jerry had made a blog post for us on his garden titled " My Deep Mulch Organic Garden".  This post was made on August 3, 2012.  It is a very interesting read.  I would encourage you to check it out if you happened to have missed it.  During his presentation, he mentioned that he read a book that led him to raise this type of garden.  The title of the book is "No-Work Garden Book" by Ruth Stout and Richard Clemence.  He mentioned that the 5 things that got his attention in this book were:   (1) No more tilling! The tiller was the last thing that I needed to eliminate before I would be using nothing but human powered tools in my garden. Also it is very important to have an abundance of earthworms in a good garden --- it’s a bad day for the earthworms when a tiller is used.  (2) Less weeds! When an 8 inch layer of spoiled hay is spread on the garden very few weeds work their way through and the ones that do are easy to pull.  (3) Little or no watering is needed! The thick layer of mulch keeps the ground moist.  (4) Your garden gets richer! The mulch decomposes into your soil and produces rich loamy soil as the years pass.  (5) Less work! That is why the title is NO-WORK GARDEN BOOK.  He also stated that the two plants that he enjoyed the most were Poke and Lambs Quarters. Young shoots of Poke early in the spring are delicious and can be cooked several ways.  About mid summer the poke berries make a beautiful colored wine that I like when it is very young.  Poke has been said to increase one’s strength and help build a strong immune system. I think poke is a most handsome plant, especially when it is hanging full of berries.  Lambs Quarter, in most peoples opinion, is not a plant but a weed!  When my onions were about 8 inches high this spring, I recognized that little plants of lamb’s quarter were coming up. I decided to let a few of them grow to maturity. Their presence didn’t hurt the onion crop --- may have helped it. Lambs Quarter greens are delicious. They have more vitamins than spinach and taste a bunch better. Imagine this --- they grow like weeds.  Both of these plants volunteered to take root in my garden.   Jerry's presentation was very interesting and informative.  We thank Jerry for taking the time to prepare and give this presentation.

Our next Grow Appalachia Gardening Participant's meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 22 at 6 PM at Project Worth Outreach.  This will be our final meeting of the year and it will be followed with a pot luck meal with dishes prepared by our gardening participants from vegetables grown in their garden this year.  I personally can't wait for that event.

That's about all for today.  Please find photos of a few of our gardeners below and I hope everyone has a great week.

                  Project Worth / Grow Appalachia Garden Participants

Jerry Redden, Don Williams, Gloria Williams & Drema Clifford

Gloria Williams & Drema Clifford

Jerry Redden & Gail Mills

Don Williams & Gloria Williams

Gail Mills

Eddie Page

Sarah Dehart, Paul Dehart & Joni Dehart

Christine Deaton

William Mills & Don Williams

Jerry Redden

William & Gail Mills

Nancy Ritchie

HAPPENINGS AT PROJECT WORTH OUTREACH

Hello everyone. This is Alex Sanders from Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky.  I hope everyone is well this week.

I have spent several days visiting garden sites to see what everyone is doing. We have several gardeners with some fall vegetables but most of our gardeners have began the process of closing down their gardens and getting them ready for the upcoming winter season. Myself, we still have green peppers and fall green beans in the ground. We hope to harvest these before the first hard frost of the year. In addition, we are in the process of transforming our garden from raised garden to in-ground for next spring. One of our gardeners had a lot of success in raising a mounds garden and we were so impressed that we were movitated to go that route next year. We have very much enjoyed our gardening experience this year with Grow Appalachia and hope to do it again next year. We have learned a lot about gardening and made many mistakes that we will learn from.  It has given us more food than we expected.  We have learned to can food and have eaten a lot healthier this year.  I usually get a summer cold in August but this year I did not.  I cannot tell you the last time I didn't get a summer cold and I attribute this to eating healthier this summer.  The other benefits from participating in the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth Gardening Program this year was that I found the time spent working in the garden was therapeutic, my family spent a lot of quality time together and therefore, we became closer and more familar with each other, and it was fun to see vegetables go from seed to storage.

Our next Grow Appalachia participant's meeting is schedule for October 1 and that is when our participants will turn in their journal for review and the best journal will win a first place prize. We have set up a panel of independant judges to review and name the winner. I am looking forward to reviewing these journals. It should be an interesting experience. Also, at this meeting we will discuss the successes and problems that have been encountered this year as well as gauge the interest of of participants in participating in the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth Gardening Program next year if we get funded. The other item on the agenda for this meeting will be requesting the participants to fill out a survey on their Grow Appalachia / Project Worth Outreach Gardening Program experience. Finally, our last Grow Appalachia / Project Worth Gardening Program meeting for this year is scheduled for October 22. This will be our wrap up meeting followed by a pot lunch meal with the dishes being prepared with items that our participants grew in their garden this year.

Well, that's about all I have for today. I hope everyone has a great week

BARTERING: A ELEVEN YEAR OLD'S ADVENTURE

Hello everyone. This is Alex from Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Ky. Hope everyone is doing well this week.

My nephew, Ben Hall

A few weeks ago I told you about how my eleven year old nephew was trying to barter with some of his classmates. Well, he came to me this week and told me that he had finally reached a deal with one of his classmates. He said it had taken a little while but he had reached a agreement with a girl in his class. At first they discussed a lot of different vegetables before making a decision. The girl, according to Ben, had kept changing her mind about what vegetable she wanted to barter because her parents kept changing their mind. Ben said he didn't think it was her parents changing their minds because this girl was always changing her mind about everything. Ben said he had told this girl that he wanted to receive corn and she started out wanting tomatoes, then cucumbers, the green beans, then back to tomatoes before she finally decided that she wanted green beans. Ben said she told him that she wanted a bushel of green beans for 6 ears of corn. Ben then said, I told her that she was crazy and that my uncle would never agree to this trade. Besides, my aunt and uncle have learned to can and they have gone nuts canning everything they can get their hands on. They have canned green beans, tomatoes, pickles, pickled corn, green tomatoes and tomato juice. So, I know they will never agree to your offer. Ben told her I will give you a bucket of green beans for a dozen ears of corn. Ben said it took her almost a week to accept this offer because she changed her mind like 100 times. Ben told me, "Girls are like that". Ben said it took a while but it was fun to finally agree on what and how much to barter. Next year I hope I can do a lot more bartering, said Ben. But I think I will try to do my bartering with the boys in my class instead of the girls because they change their minds to much.

I hope you enjoyed Ben's bartering adventure as much as I did. I think he'll make a good business man someday. I told him that next year he will have a small garden and he can barter, trade , give away or sell his own produce. I beleive he liked that idea because he told me that he was going to get some great deals next year. I wish him luck.

                                                                                                

Ben and his brothers Zach and John                 

Well, that's about all I have for today. This week's recipe is listed below. I hope everyone has a great week.

Country Casserole

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup diced green pepper

1 {16 oz.} can pork and beans

2 cups cooked elbow macaroni

1/2 cup tomato juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 slice {about 1 oz.} sharp process cheese, cut into 4 triangles

In a skillet brown beef and cook onion with green pepper until tender; stir to separate meat. Pour off fat. Add beans, macaroni, juice and salt. Pour into 1 quart casserole dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until hat; stir it up. Top with cheese. Bake 5 minutes more or until cheese melts. Makes about 4 cups. Enjoy.

Geneva Powers

I submit these recipes as they are given to me. Please feel free to substitute healthy ingredients whenever possible.

TACO PIZZA FOR LUNCH

Hello everyone.  This is Alex from Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky.  Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend.

This past week we had one of our Grow Appalachia Gardening participant's volunteer to come to the office and fix us a taco pizza for lunch.  I have never had one.  It was absolutely delicious.

The ingredients for this pizza are 1.5 lb. ground beef, 2 tubes pie crust, 1 large jar pizza sauce, l bag shredded cheese, lots of lettuce and tomatoes (grown in the Dehart garden) and any other toppings you want to put on it.  First, you brown and drain your ground beef and then you take a large cookie sheet and spread out the crust to cover as much of the cookie sheet as possible.  Next, spread the pizza sauce over the crust as evenly as possible.  Now it's time to spread the ground beef over the crust and sauce.  Place in oven and bake at 275 degrees for 30 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown.  Next remove from oven and top with lots of letuce and tomatoes and any other toppings that you wish.  Guaranteed delicious.  It's amazing how much better vegetetables are when they are home grown.

The names of our Grow Appalachia Garden participant are Paul and Joni Dehart.  I want to take this time to thank the Deharts for sharing this recipe and showing me how to make a Taco pizza.  It was a fun and tasty lesson.  I have invited him back anytime he wishes to give me a cooking lesson.

That's about all I have for today.  I hope everyone has a great week.  I know I will as long as I can get my report in to David on time.

THIS WEEK AT PROJECT WORTH OUTREACH

Good morning everyone.  This is Alex from Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky. 

It is hard to believe it is almost September.  We held our latest participant's meeting this past week.  We had a pretty decent turnout for this meeting.  During this meeting we discussed our journals, our August harvest numbers, fall gardening, the closing of our gardens {when and how}and had a class on care of late gardens and weather related problems.

According to most of our participants it seems that most our our journals are up to date with information about their gardens.

It appears that our July-August harvest numbers are going to be pretty good if early numbers are any indication as to what the final numbers are going to be.  We're really anxious to know the final results.

Several of our gardeners have planted fall beans and a few herbs.  Some participants have cleared parts of their gardens and stared making plans to cover certain areas of their gardens.

With fall coming on and school starting back up I would like to thank all of our summer youth workers.  I do not know how we could have done as much with our Community and raised gardens without them.  These young people were a tremendous asset to our program.  They worked very hard and did everything that we asked of them to the best of their ability with lots of enthusiasm.  I believed they learned a lot about gardening and the work, fun and satisfaction of gardening.  I hope that some of these young people, along with new ones, will join us next year if we are fortunate enough to be a part of Grow Appalachia next year.

Well, that's about all I have today except for this week's recipe which is listed below.  I hope everyone has a great week.


Swiss Steak

2 lbs. steak  {round or sirloin}
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups tomatoes {put through sieve}
1 garlic clove
1 /4 cup bacon drippings

Wipe steak with damp cloth, trim edges off; rub with garlic.  Mix flour, salt and pepper.  With a mallet or edge of plate, pound flour mixture into meat.  Saute` onions in bacon drippings, sear steak in the fat.  Bring strained tomatoes to a boil, cover and place in a slow oven {275 degrees} for 2 hours or more.  Serve hot and enjoy.

Gail Mills

Note:     These recipes are posted  as submitted to me.  Please feel free to modify these recipes. 

THE JOY OF CANNING

Good day to everyone.  Hope everyone is well.  My name is Alex Sanders and I am an AmeriCorps*VISTA Volunteer with Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky.

Our next Grow Appalachia Gardening participant's meeting is at 6 PM tonight.  This meeting will discuss the care of late gardens and weather related problems.

I would like to tell you about what the last month has been like in my household.  I grew up around gardening and canning.  I remember watching my mother and grandmother spend many hours canning pickles, corn, tomatoes, green beans, squash and many more items.  Of course, I did not pay much attention to details but I do remember how hard they appeared to be working and how much they enjoyed this process.  I remember thinking how could they enjoy working so hard.  On the other hand, my wife has never had anything to do with canning. Her parents were educators and the families of students were always giving them fresh food and canned vegetables.  As I stated in an earlier post my wife had never harvested anything out of a garden, her family's or anyone else's, until we grew our own Grow Appalachia garden.  I believe she as well as myself have become hooked on growing and canning as much food as we can.

Over the past month we have been very busy learning how to can many items.  These items include green beans, tomatoes, tomato juice,  and our personal favorites, different types of pickles.  Yes, I said pickles.  Bread and Butter, Dill and Sweet pickles.  We have purchased a canner and all the necessary items you need to can.  We have canned 19 quarts of green beans, 4 quarts of tomatoes, 27 quarts of tomato juice, 6 quarts of Bread and Butter pickles, 8 quarts of Dill pickles and 7 quarts of Sweet pickles.  Now she wants to try pickled corn and pickled eggs.  Oh my gosh, I think we have created a monster.  We are sharing this food with my sister and her 3 children as well as two elderly neighbors.  This activity has taught us a lot of new information and made us realize how much money can be saved by preservation, not to mention how much fun it has been.  Now I understand why my mother and grandmother enjoyed canning so much.  It is because when you grow your own food and preserve it the food taste much better and is healthier than anything that you can buy in the grocery store.  Thank you Grow Appalachia for the opportunity to grow and preserve our own food.

This week's recipe is listed below.  I hope everyone has a great week and has as much fun as we have had preserving the harvest from our garden.


Corn Pudding

1/4  cup flour
1 egg
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cup whole corn
1 3/4 cup cream corn
1 1/4 cup evaporated milk, undiluted
1/3 stick butter

Mix egg, flour and sugar.  Add corn and blend in milk.  Dot top with butter and bake at 325 degrees until center is firm and knife, inserted 1 inch from center, comes out clean (approximately one hour).

Paul Cooper

Note:  I submit these recipes as given to me.  Please feel free to substitute healthy ingredients whenever possible.

Project Worth Outreach holds Grow Appalachia Learning Camp

Hello. This is Alex Sanders, AmeriCorps*VISTA at Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky. Hope everyone is doing well today. Our next Grow Appalachia participants meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 20. This meeting will focus on taking care of late gardens and weather related problems.

This past week we held a Grow Appalachia Learning Camp that focused on gardening. We had 13 children attend this camp. The children discussed all aspects of gardening. Topics included the advantages of growing a garden which included raising healthy food and how much money you could save, raising an organic garden versus raising a garden that used chemicals, the satisfaction of raising your own food, the joy of spending family time together, how much work is involved in gardening and many other topics. There were many interesting gardening crafts and many books about gardening were read and discussed. The children were also given lunch every day. During the last day of the camp I asked some of the campers to answer 3 questions about the camp and below I am sharing some of the answers and a few photos. Also, below please find this week's recipe. Hope everyone is having as much fun with their gardening project as we are at Project Worth Outreach.

Grow Appalachia Learning Camp Questions

Name:  Ryan

1.         Do you like the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth      

            Outreach Learning Camp and why or why not?

Yes, I did because you get to have fun with my friends.  I liked the

crafts and lunches.

2.         Do you have a garden?

Yes, I have a garden.

3.         If so, do you like gardening?  If not, would you like to    

            have a garden?

Yes, I do because you get to have fun.  The other thing is you get to play

in the garden.

Name:  Carolyn

1.         Do you like the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth      

            Outreach Learning Camp and why or why not?

           

            Yes, because we learned a lot of stuff about plants and how they       

            grow.  We got a lot of new friends and got a good lunch.

2.         Do you have a garden?

Yes

3.         If so, do you like gardening?  If not, would you like to    

            have a garden?

Yes, I like chopping the garden out.  I like planting the garden and also

liked picking stuff out of the garden.

 Name:  Angela {Angie}

1.         Do you like the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth      

            Outreach Learning Camp and why or why not?

Yes because we learned a lot about plants and how they grow. 

I like learning about friendship and bad friends.  I also liked the

crafts to help us learn.

2.         Do you have a garden?

            Yes

3.         If so, do you like gardening?  If not, would you like to    

            have a garden?

No.  I don’t like to garden because of the hot heat and all the

time you have to  put in to help it grow.  But I like to plant the seeds.

Name:  JAMES

1.         Do you like the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth      

            Outreach Learning Camp and why or why not?

            Yes because it teaches you about gardening.

2.         Do you have a garden?

            No

3.         If so, do you like gardening?  If not, would you like to    

            have a garden?

            No, I don’t want a garden because I don’t like to garden

because it is hard work.

 Name:  Madilyn

1.         Do you like the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth      

            Outreach Learning Camp and why or why not?

            I like it because of the lunch and crafts.

2.         Do you have a garden?

            Yes, I do.

3.         If so, do you like gardening?  If not, would you like to    

            have a garden?

            Because I like corn.

Name:  Ben

1.         Do you like the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth      

            Outreach Learning Camp and why or why not?

           

            Yes, I did like the learning camp because it was fun,

interactive and passed time.  I also liked it because

I made new friends.

2.         Do you have a garden?

Yes, I do have a garden.

3.         If so, do you like gardening?  If not, would you like to    

            have a garden?

            Yes, I do like gardening.  I think gardening is a great way

to get fresh food.

Name:  Kimberly 

1.         Do you like the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth      

            Outreach Learning Camp and why or why not?

            Yes, I Liked it because people were nice and I liked the crafts.

2.         Do you have a garden?

            Yes

3.         If so, do you like gardening?  If not, would you like to    

            have a garden?

            Yes because it has vegetables.

Name:  Ervin 

1.         Do you like the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth      

            Outreach Learning Camp and why or why not?

            I liked it because it has free stuff and nice people.

2.         Do you have a garden?

            I have a big garden.  It has 24 rows.

3.         If so, do you like gardening?  If not, would you like to    

            have a garden?

            I love gardening.  I love picking cucumbers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed these photos from our Grow Appalachia Learning Camp.

This week's recipe:

Cabbage Rolls

8 large cabbage leaves   

1 lb. ground beef 

1 cup cooked rice

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 tsp. table salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 cup tomato juice

Cook cabbage leaves in boiling salted water to wilt.  Combine beef, rice, onion, egg, salt and pepper with 2 tablespoons of tomato juice.  Divide meat mixture among cabbage leaves, roll together and secure with toothpick.  Put in skillet and pour remaining tomato juice over this.  Cover and cook over low heat for about 40 minutes, turn often spooning sauce over rolls.  Makes 4 servings.  Enjoy.

Gail Mill

Note:  I submit these recipes as gived to me.  Please feel free to substitute healthy ingredients whenever possible.