Calling All Gardeners!

The sun is shining and the soil is beginning to warm up, so now’s the time to order seeds and plant lettuce seedlings. We’re just a month away from planting potatoes, spinach, lettuce and peas!

red-world-iii

Photo credit: ecstaticist / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

If you need more sunshine or more land, think of joining the gardeners at the Mayo Yowell Community Garden – we’re taking requests now for plots in Madison, Virginia’s only community garden..

Carty Yowell has been getting the soil ready and will do the last prep before mid-March. Drive by and see those plots just waiting for someone to use them! The garden is on the east side of Route 29, between Shelby and Gibbs Roads (just south of Lam’s Furniture).

Roscoe Barnes is returning as the on-site coordinator this year, which is great news. Roscoe did a terrific job last year of keeping in touch with gardeners and keeping the perimeter of the garden under control!

This year we have good news – we have received a grant from the Piedmont Environmental Council to help us promote and maintain the garden. We are hoping to stretch the PEC dollars by seeking donations of key equipment and supplies as well. If you have a working wheelbarrow to donate or manure you can deliver, please let me know!

Our community garden kick-off is scheduled for 2 pm, Sunday, March 24. James Barnes of the PEC will demonstrate how you can build suitable housing for birds that need a boost in Madison County – bluebirds, wood duck, kestrals, screech owls, barn owls, and bats. If you want to be a good bird landlord but don’t want to build your own housing, James can take orders for pre-made housing.

Please spread the word about signing up for plots in the community garden and about our Community Garden Kick-off at 2 pm March 24.

See you at the garden!

Jan Richter

Seeds of Freedom

Seeds of Freedom seeks to challenge the mantra that large-scale, industrial agriculture is the only means by which we can feed the world, promoted by the pro-GM lobby. In tracking the story of seed it becomes clear how corporate agenda has driven the take over of seed in order to make vast profit and control of the food global system.

Through interviews with leading international experts such as Dr Vandana Shiva and  Henk Hobbelink, and through the voices of a number of African farmers, the film highlights how the loss of indigenous seed goes hand in hand with loss of biodiversity and related knowledge; the loss of cultural traditions and practices; the loss of livelihoods; and the loss of food sovereignty.  The pressure is growing to replace the diverse, nutritional, locally adapted and resilient seed crops which have been bred by small-scale farmers for millenia, by monocultures of GM seed.

The story of seed has become one of loss, control, dependence and debt. It’s been written by those who want to make vast profit from our food system, no matter what the true cost.  It’s time to change the story.  http://seedsoffreedom.info/

“If we don’t radically transform the direction of the global food system we will never feed the billion who are hungry, nor will we be able to feed ourselves in the future.”

http://stephenleahy.net/2012/10/11/double-food-production-in-10-years-and-reduce-global-warming/

White Bean and Kale Soup with Spanish Chorizo

Cannellini beans simmered in homemade chicken stock with olive oil, cooking chorizo,  garlic, onions, red peppers, smoked paprika, saffron, kale and fresh rosemary..

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Spinach, Bacon and Freshly-Grated Nutmeg

Low in saturated fat and cholesterol with tons of Niacin, Vitamin B6, Dietary Fiber and Vitamin C, this winter vegetable is made sublime with the addition of spinach, specially-prepared bacon, red pepper flakes, pastured butter, sea salt, cracked pepper and freshly-grated nutmeg.

Boldly-flavored and satisfying, this dish is inexpensive and easy to make..

1 organic spaghetti squash (cucurbita pepo, squaghetti)
1-1/2 cups spinach, blanched and squeezed dry
4 oz thick-cut bacon
1 cup filtered water, boiling
olive oil as needed
sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons pastured butter
red pepper flakes to taste

Split the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and fibrous material as you would do before carving a pumpkin for Halloween.

Place the squash cut-side-up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Mist with olive oil and season liberally with sea salt and cracked black pepper.

Place the squash in a 300 degree oven and roast slowly for 1-1/2 hours.  Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees and continue to roast until squash begins to brown and char slightly, about 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside, keeping warm.

Meanwhile, prepare the bacon by cutting it into 1/2-inch strips and placing it in a heavy skillet set over medium high heat.  Pour the boiling water over the bacon and allow to cook until the water is half gone.

Pour off the water and rendered fat and return the pan to medium-low heat.  Cook the bacon until nicely browned, then remove from heat and set aside, keeping warm.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan set over medium heat.

Using the tines of a fork, shred the cooked squash into the pan with the butter, separating it as best you can.

Toss the squash so that its coated with the butter, then add the spinach and red pepper flakes and stir to combine.

Continue cooking and stirring the squash and spinach until heated through, then taste and adjust for salt and pepper.

Turn the squash out into serving bowls.  Top with bacon (including some of the drippings) and just-grated nutmeg.  Serve immediately.

Male_spaghetti_squash_flower

“Spaghetti squash are relatively easy to grow, thriving in gardens or in containers.

The plants are monoecious, with male and female flowers on the same plant. Male flowers have long, thin stems that extend upwards from the vine. Female flowers are shorter, with a small round growth underneath the petals. This round growth turns into the squash if the flower is successfully pollinated.

Spaghetti squash plants may cross-pollinate with zucchini plants.”

Roe-on Diver Scallops

Rarely seen in the US, these wild North Atlantic scallops with roe still attached are seared until opaque in a fiercely hot skillet with local, farm-fresh butter.  The scallops are plated while black garlic, Louisiana shallots and bits of double-smoked bacon are sautéed and then quickly poured back over the top.  Finished with a grind of black pepper and a few flakes of crunchy Fleur de Sel..

Roe-on Diver Scallops

A diver scallop is a sea scallop that has been hand-picked off a rock by a scuba diver.  More ecologically friendly and less gritty than the boat-harvested variety,  mature scallops are selected from areas with strong water currents, helping to assure that they have firm, plump flesh and nice color.  Diver scallops also tend to be fresher, since they are shipped directly instead of being held in boats while they are sorted. (paraphrased from cookthink)