Farm market takes food stamps, aims for health: Fresh food made readily available in area that needs it, advocates say

COURTNEY HERGESHEIMER

Saturday, June 14, 2008 By Amanda Dolasinski THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The South Side Farmers' Market bills itself as the only area farmers' market to take food stamps. Free blood-pressure checks and medical advice also are offered.

A farmers' market that says it's the only one in Columbus that accepts food stamps opened yesterday to provide affordable, nutritious food to South Side residents.

The South Side Farmers' Market at SouthPointe Marketplace, 3459 S. High St., also intends to educate adults and children about healthful eating habits and lifestyle decisions, its organizers said.

"We're helping focus people to pay attention to health indicators and be conscious of their health," said J.D. Beiting, director of strategic alliances for Children's Hunger Alliance.
Research has been conducted on areas struggling with obesity and access to food, said Julie Accetta, spokeswoman for Children's Hunger Alliance.

"This ZIP code has really poor nutrition and really high rates of obesity, so this farmers' market is part of a big initiative," she said.

In addition to the fresh food outside, people are invited inside the building to receive free blood-pressure checks and medical advice from Columbus Public Health.

"It's because of all of us working together that we're able to be successful," Beiting said. "It's really the strength and backbone of the South Side."

About 80 percent of the products for sale at the market are cultivated locally. Ten vendors displayed melons, strawberries, potatoes, radishes, gourds, homemade pastries and honey.
Beiting said people can expect to see a larger variety of food through the summer. "In addition to just in-season fruits and vegetables, there's going to be a vendor there selling plants to keep costs low for you," he said.

Marsha Swinehart, a nursing teacher at Capital University, bought meat that was raised without antibiotics or hormones, as well as seven-grain bread, from the National Trail Family Farm in Preble County.

"I want to support locally grown food," she said.

Accetta said the market welcomes people from every income level who want to save on grocery bills.

"Farmers' markets in general tend to be lower cost because it's really just coming from the farm to your house," she said.

The farmers' market will be open from 2 to 6 p.m. every Friday until the beginning of October.
Health services will be offered the first and third Friday of every month.

Labor of love for those in need: Gardeners share bounty

SHARI LEWIS

Saturday, August 30, 2008 By Rita Price THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

It hardly seems possible to improve upon a ripe, sun-warmed tomato straight from the garden. But Linda Casto and Dominic Verrilli know how to make the fruit even sweeter: Give it away. The two tend a sprawling garden on a flood-prone patch of ground at Glenwood United Methodist Church on the city's West Side. They grow food to feed the hungry, sending hundreds of pounds of fresh produce to neighborhood food pantries.

"It feels good," Casto said.

Home gardeners with excess harvest can help, too. Instead of tossing -- or cursing -- surplus

zucchini and cherry tomatoes, community-gardening advocates suggest donating. Area food pantries continue to face record demand, and fresh produce is always needed.

The Mid-Ohio FoodBank can link local growers and donors with a pantry near them, said Evelyn Behm, senior vice president of food and strategic initiatives.

"We'll make matches," she said yesterday. "We're trying to enhance the quality of food at pantries. Fresh fruits and vegetables are something that many families don't have access to."
Behm said the produce supply at Mid-Ohio, which provides food to hundreds of central Ohio pantries, has been good this summer. But the number of families who need food shows no sign of easing.

During the first six months of this year, demand jumped 14 percent over the same period last year, Behm said. Gardening for the needy is a welcome next step in the community-gardening movement, said Bill Dawson, coordinator of the Franklin Park Conservatory's Growing to Green program.

"In the last couple years, church gardens have really taken off," he said. Plant a Row for the Hungry, a national campaign by the Garden Writers Association, also encourages growers to plant extra for giving.

And homeowners shouldn't forget their fruit trees. "Don't let it fall in the yard and rot," Dawson said. "Collect it and take it to the pantry."

Casto said she and other church members started the garden after a former pastor challenged them to find new ways to reach out to their community, which includes many low-income, immigrant and refugee families.

"People were very enthusiastic," Verrilli said.

Organizers secured grants and plant donations; church members also were offered separate plots in exchange for a promise to donate at least 10 percent of their harvest.

"It's good fellowship," Casto said. "We can laugh together. Sometimes we cry together."

One dark day in early June, Verrilli climbed atop the water tank and took out his cell phone to call Casto. The garden, shed and greenhouse were 6 feet under water. "It's gone," he said.
That likely won't be the last time they face temporary ruin, Casto figures. But hope, and sometimes tomatoes, spring eternal.

Help the hungry: To make a donation or find an area pantry in need of fresh produce, call the Mid-Ohio FoodBank at 614-274-7770.

Compost Bin Extraordinaire

The garden in NY had a wonderful compost bin system that I want to share with you. I think it is brilliant. If you have any specific questions, be sure to let me know so I can add more details on this description I didn't think of!
Paul built the system into the standard three bins, but what is new to me is the idea of covering the final dirt so that the nutrients do not leech into the soil when it rains. Some other neat ideas that might be difficult to see are:

1. On the right hand side of the first stage of compost bin, there is a shelf for people to gather around to learn, talk, and add material, as well as a small foot shelf so that people can easily see into the bin.

2. The bin height is completely adjustable. Paul designed and marked boards to slide into the main posts. They are clearly labeled with A, B, C, etc so that all of the A boards go in one section, etc. You can see Ds if you look closely. This really helps for adding material, moving the pile, and making the process efficient. It only took two weeks for straight grass and leaves to turn into compost.

Here is a close up of the boards. As you can see, they have some room for air to get into the pile, even though they keep the material secure.

Paul covers the bin contents with carpet remnants. I have seen this material used in gardens in between rows, as well. It works great for keeping moisture and heat within the pile. We measured the heat in the pile at 180 degrees, and we could easily see the steam rising off of it in the middle of a warm day!

Paul seperates out his leaves and grass and stores them in a "cellar." Storing the material so that you can add it together keeping the ratio 1:1 is essential for efficient composting. In my own garden, I just added things to my compost bin as they came (so manly grass in the summer, leaves in the fall) and because I couldn't get into the full bin to really mix stuff around, it takes a very very very long time to make compost.

Paul also really chops things up before they go into the bin. He has this table out in the garden to process the material. The orange handle is to a big cleaver! Very theraputic!

Saving Tomato Seeds

dojiline's photostream

I had a particularly yummy yellow/orange tomato that I LOVED this summer that I would like to save seeds for next summer. I did a little research on saving seeds, and Garden Web provided these directions from Trudi Davidoff:

1. Take your chosen tomato and slice it in half across the middle (it's "equator"). With a spoon or your well-washed fingers scoop out the seeds and their gelatinous "goo" into a clean cup or container. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the seeds. Cover the container with a piece of plastic-wrap and then poke the plastic-wrap with a paring knife or pen point to put a small hole in it...this is to allow for air-transpiration. (A little fresh air needs to get in and out of the cup to help foster fermentation.)

2. Place the container of seeds in a warm location; a sunny windowsill or the top of the refrigerator are both excellent sites to place the container of seeds. Now Mother Nature will take over and begin to ferment the seed and water mixture. This takes about two or three days. Each night remove the plastic-wrap, stir the seed and water mixture, and then replace the plastic-wrap, if you use a new sheet of plastic-wrap then don't forget to put a small hole in it for air-transpiration. The top of the liquid will look "scummy" when the fermentation process has separated the "goo" from the seeds. It also helps destroy many of the possible tomato diseases that can be harbored by seeds.

3. Take the container of fermented seeds to the sink and with a spoon carefully remove the scummy surface. Then pour the container's contents into a fine kitchen sieve and rinse the seeds with water several times...stir them while they're in the sieve to assure that all surfaces are thoroughly rinsed. Give a few sharp taps to the sieve to help remove as much loose water as possible from the seeds.

4. Line an open plate with a piece of waxed paper or a large automatic-drip coffee filter. Place the rinsed seeds onto the wax paper or coffee filter and spread them about so they are in a single layer. Place the plate in a safe location where the seeds can dry for a few days. Stir the seeds a few times during the drying process to assure that all their surfaces are evenly dry. Spread them out again into a single layer after each time you've stirred them. Tomato seeds are thick and can take up to a week to dry thoroughly. If you're having a rainy week that drying time may lengthen by a few days.

5. How do I know when the seeds are dry? Dried seeds move quickly and easily across a plate, they do not stick to each other.

6. How do I store them? I like paper packets or some folks like plastic. Whichever envelope style you choose is a matter of personal preference. If you choose to store your seeds in plastic the seeds must be BONE DRY....otherwise any moisture in the seeds will be transferred to all seeds inside the plastic packet, it will foster mildew and rotting and the seeds will be ruined.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Aren’t these tomatoes beautiful? They are from the garden in NY. I often hear gardeners speak about heirlooms, I wanted to know more about what this term means. Here is a summary of what I found on Wikipedia:

This definition is highly debated, but it can be broken down into two main schools of thought:
1. To be an heirloom, the seeds must be a certain age (over 100 years old, 50 years, or around 1945 which marks the beginning of industrial agriculture and hybrid seeds.)
2. A true heirloom is a cultivar that has been nurtured, selected, and handed down from one family member to another for many generations. This also includes cultivars that were picked up by companies.

However, regardless of definition specifics, most agree that heirlooms must be open pollinated (pollinated by bees, animals, wind) using natural breeding practices, which means no GMOs can ever be considered an heirloom.

(Note: In this photo, you can find Green Zebras which seem to have a little controversy around them as well. According to some sources, they are not considered heirlooms.)

Good Idea for Signage!

I love this idea for a community garden herb section: a laminated sign for each herb. I would add to the sign how to harvest and use it.

Cutting Garden

This is a raised bed cutting garden.

This image brings up two talking points:
First, which flowers are great for a cutting garden? In my garden and this bed, some really nice flowers I have used for cuttings are: cosmos, sedum, eucalyptus, zinnias, black eyed susans, echinacea, gladiolas, sunflowers, and snapdragons. I love using mint (which I always have a ton of), baby's breath, and eucalyptus as filler material in the cuttings. Do you have any good recommendations to add to this list?

Second talking point: What is the best way to maintain the area around the bed? Obviously, this is overgrown grass, so mowing and trimming would do it wonders, but what if you want to avoid grass? Is weed barrier, sand and stone the best way to go? Please share any good tips or ideas.

Sheet Mulching for Lovely Soil

I have been working in a beautiful garden for the past 5 weeks in Woodbourne, NY. The gardener there is Paul and he has been at it for 20+ years. He is completely self taught, too, which gives me lots of hope.

I learned a lot from him, but to begin, I wanted to tell you more about the sheet mulching technique that was extremely helpful for his volunteer based work force on an extremely rocky piece of earth in the Catskill Mountains.

This technique requires careful planning and waxed cardboard edging:

cardboard (soaked in water)

compost (this is cow manure and sawdust that has been sitting in a huge pile for a year)
newspapers
more compost

and results in this lovely mounded soil AND it did not require any weeding or tilling

Sheet Mulching Technique

Greater Plant and Soil Health for Less Work

Once you get the hang of it, sheet mulching can be used anywhere plants are grown in the ground. Sheet mulching may be used either in establishing a new garden or tree planting, or to enrich existing plantings. In both cases, mulch is applied to bare soil or on top of weeds. New plantings are planted through the mulch, and a small area is left open to accommodate established plants and trees.

The benefits of mulching justify putting the energy into doing the job right, using ample materials. Collect all of the materials, and complete the mulching process in a day. A reduction in maintenance and increase in plant vigor will reward the initial effort.

Sheet mulch is put down in layers to mimic natural forest mulch: well decayed compost, weed barrier, partly decayed compost and raw organic matter.

Step 1: The Concentrated Compost Layer
To prepare the site, knock down tall weeds and woody plants with a brush cutter, scythe, or simply by trampling the area. Then proceed to lay down the sheet mulch.

Whether you are mulching bare soil or weeds, the first step is to "jump start" microbial activity by adding enriched compost, poultry or stock manure, worm castings or the like at the rate of about 50 lbs/100 square feet. This high nitrogen matter stimulates soil life and gets things going. If the soil is acid, which it likely is if the area has been disturbed recently and treated with conventional fertilizers, add a layer of lime or crushed coral. A soil analysis will indicate the need for adjustment of pH or mineral amendments. This is the appropriate time to add the recommended doses of amendments such as rock phosphate and K mag.

Soak the area well with water when the amendments are dispersed.

Step 2: The Weed Barrier
Most cultivated areas today harbor untold numbers of weed seeds. There are also weed seeds carried around by wind, animals and people. Soil borne seeds are lying dormant and waiting for the right conditions to sprout. Simply pulling or killing growing weeds will not erase the weed problem: more seeds will sprout almost as soon as the soil is exposed to moisture and light. Therefore the next step in mulching is to put down an organic weed barrier. This barrier prevents the germination and eventual emergence of weeds through your mulch.

Underneath this weed barrier grasses and weeds die and quickly become food for earthworms. From now on, the worms turn and aerate the soil, as they do naturally when in the right environment.

Of the four sheet mulch layers, the weed barrier has no natural counterpart on the forest floor. In the forest, weeds do not sprout because there is "no room for them," which simply means a lack of space above and below the ground, and a lack of light. By planting an area properly, there will eventually be no room for weeds. The weed barrier is needed only for establishment of the mulch, and disappears with time. If your area is planted appropriately, weeds will not emerge after the decomposition of the weed barrier.

Materials for the weed barrier that work well are: 4-6 sheets of newspaper, cardboard, burlap bags, old rugs of natural fiber, worn-out jeans, gypsum board, or whatever you can find around. Banana, ape and ti leaves also work if laid down in several layers. Overlap the pieces of the material so as to completely cover the ground without any breaks, except where there are plants you want to save. Around these leave a generous opening for air circulation around the root crown. Care in laying down the weed barrier will save you the headache of emerging weeds later on.

Step 3: The Compost Layer
This layer is on top of the weed barrier - it must be weed seed free. Well conditioned compost, grass clippings, seaweed and leaves are ideal materials to spread over the weed barrier. Any weed-free material mixture at the right moisture level for a good compost will do. This should form a fairly dense layer about 3 inches thick.

Step 4: The Top Layer
The top dressing mimics the newly fallen organic matter of the forest. It also must be weed-free. Good materials for this include leaves, twigs and small branches, fern or palm fronds, straw, coffee chaff, macadamia nut shells, wood chips, sawdust, bark, etc.. The top layer will slowly decompose into lower layers, and therefore must be replaced periodically; it represents reserves of compost. This layer should be about 3-5 inches deep. Many materials suitable for the top layer often have a pleasant cosmetic appearance. What luck! For this reason, there should be no hesitation in using sheet mulch in all cultivation from landscaping to gardening to permanent orchard crops. In fact, as you use mulch, bare soil will begin to seem ugly and undesirable.

When the soil is amended and sheet mulch applied properly, there will never be a need to turn the soil. Earthworms do the tilling. The only task left will be to keep the soil covered by replenishing the mulch.

Four Seasons City Farm Freedom Festival

Hello All,

Four Seasons City Farm would like to invite you and your friends to join us this Saturday October 11th, from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm for the Four Seasons City Farm Freedom Festival: A Harvest Celebration. The festival will take place at our largest community garden, The Garden of New Freedom, located at the intersection of Mound Street and Carpenter Street. This year's festivities will include a delicious lunch provided local Columbus restaurants; performances by local musicians; crafts, games, and pumpkins for kids; and more.
Each year we hold a harvest festival in order to celebrate the close of the growing season, thank garden volunteers, and provide an opportunity for the community to come together. We hope that community will include not only our local neighbors, but also members of the Columbus gardening and service community. In fact, if your organization or gardening group interested in sharing information about your work, we invite you to do so by bringing handouts or setting up an information booth.

In close, we hope that you will join us this Saturday, and we look forward to meeting and sharing with you. If you have any questions about the festival or Four Seasons, or if you would like to participate by volunteering or setting up a booth, please contact me as soon as possible at the email below. Thank you for your time and for the great work that you do!


Happy Harvesting!

Lindsey Watson
Four Seasons City Farm Community Outreach
lwatsonster@gmail.com