Category Archives: COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

Home Grown New Mexico’s ‘Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour’!

I’m on the Board of Directors of Home Grown New Mexico organization and we are putting on our main fundraiser this Sunday, July 27 from 9 am – 2 pm. Please come out and support us, you won’t be disappointed! I just went by all 5 houses this week and they are totally inspiring! Here is the post from our website.

FINALWEB 2014 HGNM KItchen Garden Tour

IT’S HERE! The print version of the 2014 Kitchen Garden Tour addresses and map

Just print it out and come out for the tour. Read on for more info on how to purchase tickets and the homes on the tour!

Our 4th Annual Kitchen Garden and Coop Tour is on Sunday, July 27  from 9 am – 2 pm.  Come get inspired for your own gardens! See five of Santa Fe’s most inspirational gardens.  Pick up ideas that you can use at your place or just enjoy these beautiful edible and functional landscapes.

‘The 5 properties on the tour this year will feature many gardening ideas—beautiful vegetable gardens, backyard chicken coops, beehives, composting, greywater systems, hoophouses, a neighborhood community farm, permaculture sites, edible landscapes and rainwater harvesting systems.’
Excerpts from: Edible Magazine, our premiere sponsor

 Tickets are $25 this year and children under 12 are free.

*Tickets can be purchased 2 ways:
1-Pre-purchase tickets online here.
2-Purchase on day of tour at homes. Cash or checks accepted at each house and credit cards accepted at house #1 only.

HERE ARE THE ADDRESSES FOR THE 5 SPECIAL PROPERTIES ON THE TOUR:

1. Linda and Jim Archibald- 1105 Caminito Alegre
This Casa Solana home features chicken coops, fruit trees, large raised vegetable gardens, perennial and annual flowerbeds.

2. Jesus and Charlotte Rivera – 405 Salazar Place
Tune-Up Café’s owners, Jesus and Charlotte Rivera’s home features raised vegetable gardens, fruit trees, herbs and greywater systems. Charlotte’s goal is to use greywater only for watering all her gardens.

3. Reese Baker – 2053 Camino Lado
The RainCatcher’s owner, Reese Baker’s home incorporates many Permaculture designs. His mature gardens will amaze and inspire all. His edible landscaping includes fruit trees, berries, edible bushes and vegetables. He has chickens, a fishpond and passive water harvesting systems including Zuni bowls, rainwater catchment and greywater systems that channel water to the fruit trees and pond. This site is a great example of what can be done on a small city lot!

4. Poki Pottin/Gaia Gardens – 2255 Paseo de los Chamisos
Poki who started Gaia gardens is known from the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market where he sells his vegetables. This is a phenomenal property that is a neighborhood community farm based on biodynamic principles. The farm features many vegetable gardens, chickens, composting systems, hoophouses and even has ducks! Poki will have lots of  plant starts for sale if you still need some.

5. Jeremiah Kidd – 29 Hidden Valley Road
San Isidro Permaculture’s owner, property in the foothills of the Sangre De Cristos showcases permaculture designs in keeping with our arid high desert. His property features edible landscaping, erosion control installations, grey and blackwater systems, rainwater catchment and a hoophouse. His edible landscaping includes berries, grapes, fruit and nut trees and many other exotic edible plants.

Master Gardeners and the homeowners will be present to answer questions at each site. Don’t miss this exciting Kitchen Garden & Coop tour in Santa Fe this year!

Other contributing sponsors for the tour are: Joes’ Diner, Osuna Nursery and Whole Foods

2 exciting classes this weekend!

I’m involved with teaching 2 classes this weekend that should be terrific! Read on!

If you’d like to come to either or both,  please RSVP  at 505-983-9706 so I know how many ingredients to buy for the Jam class and number of handouts to run out for both classes. We won’t be confirming your RSVP– just know you’re in! Come to one or both!

FIRST CLASS

rain-barrelSaturday, July 19
Creating a Rain Barrel and Learn About Rain Catchment
Learn how to make your own rain barrel and learn all about rain catchment
Time: 10 am-1 pm
Instructor: Amanda Bramble/Jannine Cabossel
Location: Milagro Community Garden (Rodeo Road and Legacy behind church)
Presented with Milagro Community Garden at milagrogarden@yahoo.com
RSVP to 505-983-9706 or email: homegrownnewmexico1@gmail.com

Learn how to make your own rain barrel with this hands-on workshop. Amanda will cover the basic elements of rain collection systems including sizing and sitting your tank as well as keeping the water clean. We will also discuss accessories like tank gauges, first flush systems, and filters for DIY systems. Jannine will demonstrate making a rain barrel out of a 55 gallon drum. Amanda Bramble is the director of Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center in Cerrillos, NM (www.ampersandproject.org).

Class is free but we have a suggested $10 donation or become a 2014 Member for $35 and the following free: classes, potlucks and one ticket to the big tour on July 27th.

 

THE SECOND CLASS

jam photoSunday, July 20
‘Jamming Jam Class’
Jam Making Class
Time: 10am-1pm
Instructors: Jannine Cabossel/Duskin Jasper
Location: Whole Food’s Community Room (St. Francis location)
RSVP to 505-983-9706 or email: homegrownnewmexico1@gmail.com
(You will not be contacted back, we just need to know how many are coming for printing handouts and how much ingredients/jars to bring.)

In this preservation class, you will learn how to make and process jams with available seasonal fruit. The twist on this jam session is our emphasis will be on adding unusual ingredients to make unique artisan jams. We will hand out recipes. We will also go over basic canning processes. You’ll get a jar of jam to take home! Come jam with us!

Class is free but we have a suggested $10 donation or become a 2014 Member for $35 and the following free: classes, potlucks and one ticket to the big tour on July 27th.

The nicest people always seem to go first

PINK CLOUDS

This week I went to visit my good gardening friend, Amy Hetager on Wednesday afternoon. Her dad, John had emailed me that she went into home hospice care on Monday and I knew I wanted to visit her. Little did I know it would be the last time I would see her. She slept while I was there and I knew she was on her journey and she seemed peaceful. It seemed so sudden when I heard from her dad that she had passed away the next day on Thursday mourning and yet it was not really sudden.

Amy Hetager, leader of Home Grown New Mexico and whom I had gotten to know through working with her in both Home Grown and Master Gardeners organizations had been battling brain cancer for 5 years and had beat it back many times. Not many people knew she was sick as she was a very private person and I could respect that.  I saw at many of our events she would not be feeling well-maybe she had chemo that day or the day before and yet she always showed up at the events. She was so strong internally. It seemed like in the 4 years that I knew her she had to go every week to put those chemicals into her body. They would save her for a while but they also wrecked her. One of those ways was that she had many joint replacements during that 5 years as the steroids the doctors gave her to counter the side effects of the many different chemos she had also destroyed her joints. Many people knew that she had some joint replacements because it’s hard to hide a cast. This was no secret.

I use to tease her and called her the bionic woman and actually she was now that I think of it in several ways, the most obvious way being those new metal joints but there was another way she was bionic in that she could do so much. Running her baby, Home Grown New Mexico and being involved in so many other gardening associations and organizations in our community took a bionic effort as well and it was something she really enjoyed and I’m sure it kept her going too.

Amy was a kind, gentle person with a passion for vegetable gardening and especially growing tomatoes which we both shared. She loved to grow vegetables, harvest them and process or cook them and she was an excellent cook as well. She wanted to be more sustainable which is also why she started Home Grown.

It seems like the nicest people always go first to the other side. When Amy got obviously physically sick late last year, I took on her responsibilities in running Home Grown to help her out and am continuing it forward now. Many of us will miss her and hopefully those of us in Home Grown can carry her vision forward as she would have wanted it. I know I’m sure going to try.

Seed Starting For Early Spring Crops-Class handouts

The Seed Starting For Early Spring Crops class that I taught today was sponsored by one of the organizations I’m a member of called Home Grown New Mexico. Home Grown New Mexico puts on many classes about growing, raising, making and preserving your food throughout the year. They are about sustainability, urban farming and growing organically which is right up my alley and the classes are open to the public. If you’d like to see what other classes/workshop Home Grown New Mexico is putting on, check out their website homegrownnewmexico.org.

Now, here are the handouts if you weren’t able to make the class or if you didn’t get them as we ran out of them during the class today-it was definitely a full house with about 35 people attending. It was a good mix of Master Gardeners, Interns and the public that attended. I really like to teach when you all show up! Hope you learned something and enjoyed it!

Starting Cold Hardy Plants in Early Spring Inside-2014

seed germination chart

PRESPOUTING SEEDS

Cold hardy crops for early spring in March-April

COOL-WARM SEASON CROPS

Pickle class a success!

pickle class

Duskin with picklesPickle making class went well today. We processed 15 lbs of cucumbers into about 15 pint jars. Pictured above are some of the finished pickles. Duskin, who co-taught the class with me brought his giant pressure cooker. We didn’t use it as a pressure cooker this time but instead filled the big pot with water to sterilize the jars and to use for processing the pickles using the water bath method. I brought my camp stove to make the brine and syrup. It was a beautiful day for making pickles outside instead of over a hot stove. After a short talk on the how to process food safely, everybody got involved—Duskin sterilized the jars, while the students cut up the cucumbers and garlic, mixed up the brine and syrup, added all the ingredients and cucumbers into the hot sterilized jars as they came out of the pot, poured the brine and syrup, wiped the lips of the jars and put the lids/caps on them. Then we put them back into the hot water and brought the water back to boiling and adjusted the processing time for our high altitude. While we were waiting for them to finish processing, Duskin showed them around Milagro Community Garden. When the pickles were done, we pulled them out of the hot water and let them cool enough and then the students took home a jar of each type of pickle. Good job folks!

Here is the one handout that wasn’t available today that I told the students would be available tonight:

Preparing and Canning Fermented and Pickled Foods

Here are the handouts that were given out in class:

General Canning Information

Duskin’s Favorite Pickle Recipes

Lastly, here is the Lemon Dill Refrigerator Pickle recipe that Randy asked for:

Fresh-Packed Refrigerator Lemon Dill Pickles

Food Preservation Class TODAY-canning pickles

799px-Pickle

Do you have too many cucumbers? Do you want to learn how to make pickles? It is much easier than you think! Today from 12 noon – 3 pm I will be teaching a preservation class on pickling for Home Grown New Mexico.

pickle_cornichonThose who show up will learn how to make two types of pickles-bread and butter pickles and dill pickles. We will review canning safety at high altitudes and then make the pickles using the water bath method. This is a hands-on class.

Pickle Making Class- 12 noon-3pm

Milagro Community Garden – located in parking lot behind:

2481 Legacy Ct, Santa Fe, NM

Tomato Lady of Santa Fe at Farmer’s Market this Saturday

3omato_costuluto genevese

Saturday I will return to the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market as the ‘Tomato Lady’. I don’t have lots of tomatoes yet but everyday more are ripe so come early to get the best choices like the beauty pictured above from Italy called “Costuluto Genevese”. I have 12 new varieties as well as the ones I grew last year.

The Fair was a great success! Phew! Sigh! I’m exhausted!

The Santa Fe Master Gardener’s Spring Garden Fair is over. Phew! Sigh! Putting on the garden fair on is a lot of work for all us Master Gardeners + I was one of the speakers this year so double the work for me. Today the Journal North had a great article about the Garden Fair and my lecture on the front page. Really nice. The writer actually wrote down a lot of the tips I gave! Here is the article if you want to read it:   http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/04/28/north/sound-advice-from-the-tomato-lady.html

Now I just need to recover and the best way to do that is be in my garden! So today Tom came over and we worked on the greenhouse and got 9/10 of the roofing on. More progress! I will take some more pictures soon.

Santa Fe Spring Garden Fair this Saturday April 27

SFMGA_SpringFair13_Flyer_02

This year’s theme is Food for Thought, with speakers, exhibits, clinics, and demonstrations all tied to the idea of nourishing ourselves, our land, and the creatures that share the land with us. There are 3 speakers this year.  I will be one of the guest speakers and talk on tips for growing tomatoes and other vegetables. Anne Schmauss will talk about providing habitat and food for birds and Les Crowder will talk about bees, how we can help them and what we can plant to support them. Here is the speaker schedule:

Jannine Cabossel       10:45am
Tips for Terrific Tomatoes, Making the Most of Your Vegetable Garden

Anne Schmauss         12:00 noon
How to Attract Birds to Your Backyard Year-ound

Les Crowder               1:15pm
Honeybees: Landscaping with Bee friendly Gardening Practices

You don’t want to miss this event if you are a gardener here in the greater Santa Fe area!

Santa Fe Seed Exchange

ATTENTION ALL SANTA FE GARDENERS!

seed exchange HGNM

Come to the Santa Fe Seed Exchange Wednesday —   March 20

If you are looking for seeds and ideas for your vegetable garden, come to the Santa Fe Seed Exchange on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 from 4 pm-7 pm in Frenchy’s Barn on Agua Fria and Osage Ave. Last year we had over 200 people come and pick up and exchange seeds!  Hope to see you there! For more info about what this is all about go to the Home Grown New Mexico link here:

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=1918a75deae1c54e3561e368c&id=c96905515a&e=fa40006742

Master Gardener Interns

tomatoes on table

Tonight I taught the Vegetable Class section to the aspiring Master Gardener interns of 2013 and tomorrow will be the second group of interns in the morning. A total of 63 students for both groups which is inspiring to me to see so many people interested in becoming Master Gardeners. To every one of you-hang in there! There are many more interesting classes to come.

I promised to put the class handouts on my blog for anyone interested so here they are:

VEGETABLE GARDENING IN SANTA FE

INFORMATION SHEET

PLANTING SQUASH

PLANTING TOMATOES

I also said I would put a couple of extra handouts on the blog which were not given out in the class but have very useful information on them:

TOMATO DISEASES

COOL-WARM SEASON CROPS

HERBS

Pictures from the Santa Fe 4th Annual Pumpkin Bash

Santa Fe 4th Annual Pumpkin Bash!!

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Yesterday I held the 4th Annual Pumpkin Bash here in Santa Fe and about 35 people came! IT was COLD but not as cold as later on during the day and people warmed up swinging an axe! My friend Jill Foster called them ‘the choppers’! I also supplied my pumpkin soup (the recipe is in the previous post) to warm the bones. This was the biggest turnout to date. All my friends, Master gardener friends and Homegrown friends came out for the big event. Everyone had fun and afterwards took some pumpkin home.  Must have given away over 300 lbs to friends and the other 85 lbs is going to Kitchen Angels! Let’s figure out how many pies it would make- Take 385 lbs x 16 oz (16 oz in a lb) = 6160 oz. Divide that by 12 oz (1.5 cups is the standard amount of pumpkin used in pies) and we get  513 pies!!  Even if we subtract some out for that stringy stuff and seeds we still get around 500 pies!

2012 Kitchen Garden and Coop Tour is Sunday! Don’t Miss It!

Excerpt taken from HomeGrownNewMexico.org:

We look forward to seeing you on our Second Annual Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour on Sunday, July 29th from 9am-2pm. This event is presented by Home Grown New Mexico and Edible Santa Fe.

The tour is self-paced. Guests will go to the homes in any order that they select with a wrist band to identify them. The homeowners will be the main tour guides, but also have help from the Master Gardeners and volunteers from each location to review edible gardens, chickens, bees and any other self-sustaining items such as solar, water catchment and more.   Cold drinks will be available at each location sponsored by Whole Foods. Revolution Bakery and Joe’s Dining have also sponsored the event.

For questions contact homegrownnewmexico@gmail.com or 473-1403.

Click Here to Download Map for Tour– Note Exit 62 is closed on 599

Click Here to Download Addresses & Bios for Tour

Truck Farm Movie! Monday July 23 at CCA at 6:30 pm

Monday night the movie, ‘Truck Farm’ presented by Whole Foods is about people in New York who wanted a garden in New York City and didn’t have a place to put one  so they planted it in the back of a truck! Afterwards Homegrown New Mexico will have a panel discussion on community gardening. Come see our own ‘truck farm’ which will be on display at the movie.

Related articles

‘Plant a Row’ for the Hungry in Your Garden

Every year I give about 700 lbs of organically grown GIANT PUMPKIN in November to the Food Depot here in Santa Fe. It feels good to not waste any food that I’ve grown and I grow so much. Yes, I am the ‘Tomato Lady’ at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market and make a little money but I like to donate food I’ve grown as well. It feels good to give back to the community.

So this year I’ve created another small vegetable garden patch at our studio, Liquid Light Glass in an empty plot in front of the parking lot where it was just dirt and weeds.  We will be growing tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and beans.  The food produced there will be donated to The Food Bank and other organizations that help feed the hungry.

The Food Bank is a service organization that distributes food in Northern New Mexico to communities in need.  They encourage gardeners in the area to ‘plant an extra row’ in their vegetable garden and donate the produce to help feed the hungry.  ‘Plant a Row for the Hungry’ is a Public Service Program that was originally started by The Garden Writers Association in 1995.

Maybe you can ‘plant an extra row’ and donate some of your produce for the hungry. Here is the PlantARow flyer  from The Food Depot explaining how you can help.