Joining the Grow Appalachia Team ~by Marlyn at High Rocks

Hello. My name is Marlyn McClendon and I am the latest Grow Appalachia AmeriCorps member here at High Rocks this year.  I am a native of WV and one thing that I love about my state is the changing of the leaves at beginning of fall. There’s hardly a place you can go without noticing the indulgent purples, golden yellows, and burning reds covering the mountainsides.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, with job trainings, workshops, tutoring and our Nettlefest Fundraising kicking off the beginning of the volunteer year. My first two Grow Appalachia workshops were really inspiring because of the contagious enthusiasm from our Grow Appalachia participants and High Rock girls who attended.

As of right now, all my attention is going into the high tunnel here at High Rocks. I’ve been loosening soil and getting the beds ready to plant some greens for the winter. One of our goals is to use mostly local produce in the meals we serve at High Rocks and to keep the girls learning about and practicing healthy/local food choices.

I look forward to my year with Grow Appalachia and seeing the progress we make towards growing our own food in our families and communities!

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

FALL HARVEST CELEBRATION! ~ Pine Mountain

Grow Appalachia sites, participants, family, and friends, it is officially autumn and the gardening season is slowing down, so join us at Pine Mountain on October 13th to celebrate a successful season with an afternoon of good food, great company and fun fall activities!

I know you all love to showcase the food you grow and we would love to see and taste it, so bring a dish made with ingredients raised, harvested, or collected locally to share with us all. There will be a local foods potluck, pumpkin carving, a sorghum stir-off, apple cider press, corn hole, and more!

Fall Harvest Celebration

Saturday October 13th

12 pm at Pine Mountain Settlement School

Contact Maggie or Kathleen for more information or directions at 606-558-3416

It's not a party without the people and everyone's invited, so come on out and celebrate the season with us!

Henderson Settlement/ White Oak ~ Jackie

It's Shiitake Time!

 

Way back in March, one of our long time volunteers Elizebeth Ogden purchased Shiitake Mushroom spoors for us . This was our first time growing Shiitake Mushrooms so we decided to inject ten logs, to see if we would have any luck growing the mushrooms. We didn't expect any results from the spoors this early,  we thought it might take at least a year for the spoors to grow. But what should our wondering eyes behold, five little shiitake mushrooms growing in the rain.

 

 

 

 







Shiitake mushrooms should be picked when the cap is approximately 50 to 70 percent open. This occurs shortly after the veil between the cap and stem breaks. At this stage, the gills are exposed but the cap edges are still rolls under the cap.

After picking the mushrooms should be put in a container designed for maximum ventilation and, therefore, maximum cooling.

To slow deterioration as much as possible, shiitake should be cooled immediately after picking.

At no time should any mushrooms be frozen because this will damage the product. After the initial cooling, maintain the cold, humid airflow. Under ideal conditions, shiitake mushrooms can be kept

1 week and look very good. After the first week, quality doctorates quickly and as much as 1 percent moisture loss per day can occur. Drying can preserve mushrooms for 6 months to a year. 

According to the articles I have read, Shiitakes have a more robust flavor than the standard button mushrooms, which makes them go a little farther. By using only half the amount of mushrooms the recipe requires, they can be used in almost any recipe.
Since they are a nutritional powerhouse, they make a great meat substitute. They are a healthy alternative to meat for people trying to cut back on fat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Delectable Vegetable Float

Written by Saxon

I was hoping that some of you might begin to imagine something like a root beer float, vegetable style.  But, what I'm really talking about is a parade float!

Here at ASPI we're gearing up for the Bittersweet Festival in Mt. Vernon this Saturday.  I mentioned before that we're having a sort of "living garden" theme on the float, though the theme has now been extended to showcase a few of the things Grow Appalachia emphasized in the community this season, such as canning, mushroom inoculation, and wild edibles.

On Tuesday children of participants and the local girl scout troop we've been working with came to help us prepare decorations.  The kids chose which vegetable or fruit they wanted to paint, leaving us with about 30 hand-painted beautiful produce paintings, which the kids will hold on the float.  They also painted garden-scene murals to go on the edges of the wagon.

 While they were here, the kids took full advantage of the last of the year's ripe tomatoes in our community garden, snacking and even packing for later. 

One of our cherished participants and volunteers, Armilda Barnes, today brought in not only the wagon and haybales to be used in the parade, but a few new and helpful ideas about how to really showcase all that Grow Appalachia does.  So, besides the kids with their artful veggies, the float will also feature some of Armilda's delicious canned goods, her produce, and some corn stalks from her crop.  We'll have a scarecrow and a few banners explaining who we are and what we do.  It's sure to be a good time! 

A PROJECT WORTH OUTREACH GARDENER'S EXPERIENCE

William and Gail Mills

Hello.  My name is William Mills and I am a gardening participant in the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth Outreach Gardening Program in Menifee County, Kentucky.

As the weather gets cooler I find myself missing all the garden chores.  It seemed that a part of everyday was going to the garden with my bucket to pick fresh produce such as, tomatoes, green beans, squash and peppers.  Our family garden produced really well.  My wife Gail, Coordinator of the Grow Appalachia Gardening Project at Project Worth Outreach, loves anything pertaining to gardening.  She learned from her mother the art of preserving food.  She has canned, preserved, dried and frozen enough food for two families. We plan to share our bounty.

Now that fall has arrived I will be getting the cover crop sown hopefully this week as I pulled up all the tomato plants that are now dried up, and the bean vines are no longer bearing I realized that the biggest problem with our garden this year was developing a good watering system to keep the garden growing through those hot dry days we had this summer.  I will have to say our garden survived and produced well through it all.

After sowing the cover crop I will rest a while and then start looking for the seed catalogs in the mail, so we can plan what kind of seeds we will plant next spring as we undertake another garden.  We have enjoyed, very much, being a part of Grow Appalachia and look forward to next year.

Fall Planting @ Red Bird Mission ~~ Chad Brock ~~

         Fall planting is well underway here at our Grow Appalachia sight, and considering the weather I am impressed by our production numbers, Thank GOD! I have been going around doing some home visits and assisting families in planting some fall plants " Appalachian Staples" such as lettuce, mustard, Turnips, beets , radishes and those sort of things. These crops will provide some very healthy produce through the upcoming winter months.

This is what we started with GRRR!

Ray Hauling out weeds

Me making a raised bed

Me making a raised bed

Rays grandson helping. He was so Excited

Complete, Mustard, Turnips, Lettuce. Radishes and Beets 

                                   

Some yard long beans given to me by Sue Collins they were awsome!!
Thanks Sue!! :)

The Nicks family 

Mike Nicks admiring our good work

Mike Nicks In his garden

What we planted

What we planted

What we planted

          I have also been taking some video interviews with some families and this is just so very rewarding . For these families to give a very heart felt testimony on how much Grow Appalachia has helped them and how close they have come to me really makes me feel good. This program means so much to these people and I have built such a close relationship with them. I will post some of these interviews later in the week