Report on County Council Hearing on School Vegetable Gardens

It started more than two hours late, featured one elected official's favorite recipe for fresh tomatoes, and included a surprise memo from Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast declaring that there is no ban on school vegetable gardens - apparently it's just a rumor started by Montgomery Victory Gardens!  But by the end of the October 12 hearing the County Council was united in asking why the school system cannot locate any willing schools at which to build vegetable gardens, and why there is such a lack of fresh, local produce in school lunches.

More than 20 school vegetable garden supporters showed up that day, most of them staying until the very end, shaking seed packets, cornering reporters, and generally causing a good-spirited fuss.  And while we continue to push in the right direction, the hearing also begged another important question that will need to be addressed very soon:  wouldn't it be great if Weast's replacement (he leaves in June, 2011) is someone who actively champions and encourages school vegetable gardens, as opposed to someone who seems bent on fighting them and the groups that support them?

For a full who-said-what report on the recent County Council hearing on school vegetable gardens, click here.

More Media on our School Vegetable Garden Campaign

Part of the pressure on MCPS for school vegetable gardens is the almost relentless media coverage we've been able to generate.

This past week's hearing was no different, as it garnered a story on WTOP radio, this post in the Bethesda online news source Patch, and the Montgomery County Gazette article "Montgomery County Council puts school gardens on the table."

And even before the hearing, one of the best articles we've read on the issue appeared in Montgomery Blair High School's award-winning online student newspaper, Silver Chips.  Click here to read "Growing gardens, growing minds."

Join Community Service Day Gleaning at Button Farm - Saturday, Oct. 23

Our good friends at the Menare Foundation will host volunteers for Montgomery County's 24th Annual Community Service Day Project at their Button Farm Living History Center in Germantown, on Saturday October 23, 2010 (the day before MVG's big "Food and Farming" benefit starring recording artists "emma's revolution!"), from 10am to 3pm.  This year they are hosting a Gleaning Day for Manna Food Center.  Button Farm supplies weekly deliveries of fresh, local produce to Manna and its clients through their Community Supported Agriculture program.

Volunteers will help pick produce, clear garden beds and prep the soil for next year's crop to help feed Montgomery County families. Tasks are suitable for 4th graders to adults.  (Youth 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult.)  Volunteers should bring their own drinking water, bagged lunch and gloves... and dress to get dirty!  For more information click here, and to RSVP (not necessary for individuals, but required for groups of 10 or more), contact Phyllis Peterson at volunteer.buttonfarm@gmail.com.

Thank you Button Farm for this wonderful opportunity to serve the community by helping to create more food!

Should Food Stamp Recipients Be Allowed to Buy Soda?

Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked the US Department of Agriculture to allow his city to exempt soda from the list of items its 1.7 million food stamp recipients are allowed to purchase with their benefits.  it is estimated that the city's food stamp recipients spend $75 million to $135 million of their annual $2.7 billion in food stamps on soda.

The request raises thorny issues, and has pitted public health advocates against the anti-hunger community.  What is more important - the need to reduce the horrific effects that a high sugar diet is having on American health (and more so among the poor than middle and upper income groups), or the rights of the food stamp recipients to freely choose what they spend their money on?

Click here to read more about the debate in the Civil Eats article, Banning Soda for Food Stamps' Recipients Raises Tough Questions.

Interestingly, one of the frequently unmentioned solutions brought up by the author - encouraging food stamp recipients to use their food stamps on healthy food - is in practice right here in Montgomery County.  As we reported on last week, Crossroads Farmers Market in Takoma/Langley Park uses private money to double the amount of food stamps and other federal nutrition assistance, provided that the money is spent on fresh food at their market.  And after seeing the line of people waiting to take advantage of this program at the market last week, I can confirm that it works!  Way to go, Crossroads!

Enrollment for 2011 Master Gardener Training is Now Open!

The Montgomery County Master Gardeners have just opened enrollment for their 2011 Master Gardener training course.

The five-week course begins on January 25, 2011, and continues through March 4, 2011, with classes meeting Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. at the University of Maryland Extension office  Derwood, MD. The training fee is $290 and includes a training manual and other materials. Faculty and staff of the Extension office and the University of Maryland present horticulture lectures and demonstrations that cover cultivating trees, ornamental plants, fruits, vegetables and herbs; identifying pests and diseases; and managing turf, soil and landscape.

The  course is great for home gardeners and professionals alike, and is always a sell out - so if you're interested in attending, don't wait for the December 31 deadline to apply! Click here for more information on the training program, and call 301-590-2836 to request an application.

Time to Plant That Garlic!

If you haven't done it already, October is a great time to plant your final crop of the year -  garlic!  (I actually planted mine on Thanksgiving last year, and still got a decent crop in mid-June, but I was probably tempting fate.)

As all MVGers know we are great fans of garlic, a truly indispensible herb/food/medicine that makes a thousand different dishes taste better.  And best of all, garlic is truly, truly easy to plant and grow.  And the seed garlic comes from any head of garlic you can buy (although you're probably better off using local garlic that you can find at farmers markets or in some nurseries).  And if you want those great, curly garlic scapes (the flower stalk, which makes some delicious dishes of its own), make sure to get stiff neck garlic varieties.

Need a quick refresher on  how to plant garlic?  Check out this video from Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardener International.  Then go out and get planting!

Another Threat to Organic Farming - The Gas Rush

Would you buy organic produce from a farm that had a gas drilling rig on it? This is one of the strange and unsettling possibilities in our society's mad rush for ever more fossil fuels.

As MVG's friend and colleague, organic farmer Steve Cleghorn has recently discovered, taking years to convert land to organic food production apparently means little to those companies who want to drill for gas under that land.  And incredibly enough, it turns out that "surface rights" owners often have dramatically little recourse when it turns out someone else owns the "mineral rights" for what's under their land.

The health risks and dangers of gas drilling aside, the rush to develop mineral rights under sustainable, organic farmland poses severe threats not only to the farmers involved, but to society as a whole.  Will we be forced in the future to choose between natural gas and clean, natural food?

Click here to read Steve's op-ed from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Paradise lost as the Great Marcellus Gas Rush hits home."

Vote for Food Public Enemy #1

Who would you say is food's Public Enemy #1?  Is it agribusiness giant Monsanto, or its colleague Archer-Daniels Midland?  How about tainted-egg baron Jack DeCoster?  Or perhaps it's the Pied Piper of high sugar, high fat "Happy Meals" himself, Ronald McDonald?

Grist Online Magazine is "rooting out the companies and characters keeping America sick, fat and poisoned," and wants to know what you think of their intriguing list of the "Dirty Dozen" worst offenders against healthy, fresh, nutritious food.  So why not help 'em out, and take a moment to vote for your own favorite (or would that be least favorite?) food villain!

Can trading cards be far behind?

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That's it for this week, folks!  Keep sending us those ideas for the update, and please join us and "emma's revolution" at our "Future of Food and Farming in Montgomery County" event this Sunday, October 24, 2:30 - 4:00pm at beautiful Blueberry Gardens Farm!

For the Montgomery Victory Gardens Team,

Gordon Clark, Project Director