"Working With Young People in the Garden" - Tomorrow, Sat., February 12

This is your last notice for MVG's first not-to-be-missed event of the year!

Tomorrow, Saturday, February 12, Montgomery Victory Gardens, along with co-sponsors the Montgomery County Master Gardeners and the Montgomery County Parks Department, will be presenting "Building Intergenerational Community: Working with Young People in the Garden."  The day's program offers an all-star lineup of highly experienced, fascinating speakers to discuss working with young people of differing ages and abilities in a variety of food growing formats.

Speakers include Woody Woodroof, Executive Director and Founder of Red Wiggler Community Farm; Pertula George, Executive Director of Common Good City Farm; and Chrissa Carlson, Director of the Food for Life program at Hampstead Hill Academy and author of the Growing Healthy Habits food gardening and education curriculum.  We'll also have a panel of local experts, including members of MVG's Congregational Community Garden Network (Fred Pinkney of Adat Shalom Synagogue and Audrey Hankinson of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church), Michele Dudley of Crossroads Farmers Market, and Rachel Clement from the Lab School in Washington DC.

The program will be held from 12 Noon to 4pm at beautiful Brookside Gardens in Wheaton; cost is $15, or $10 for seniors, students, and limited income.  Click here for more information, speaker bios, and directions.  (Please note - these will be speaker presentations; there will be no specific programming for young children at the event.)

This is gonna be a fantastic workshop - please join us!  

Rooting DC Urban Gardening Forum, Sat. February 19 

We may not be able to plant until March or April, but February is definitely the month for great conferences on food gardening!

In addition to the MVG program tomorrow, another great one just around the corner is the 4th Annual Rooting DC Urban Gardening Forum, sponsored by DC's Field to Fork Network, held from 9am-4:30pm on Saturday February 19, 2011.  Whether you are new to gardening or an experienced green thumb who wants to explore the role of food gardening in your community, Rooting DC has something for you, including a series of family-oriented activities in the morning and free child care in the afternoon.  (Not to mention an exceptionally exciting keynote speaker this year!)

This is truly one of the most chock-full conferences we have seen in the area, and over 500 gardeners, farmers, cooks and food justice advocates are expected to attend.  (Last year approximately 1/4 of the attendees were from Montgomery County.)  This year's Rooting DC will take place at Coolidge High School, which is very close to Takoma Park and the Takoma Red Line Metro station.  

Rooting DC is free and open to the public, but space is limited, so if you're interested we strongly encourage you to pre-register.  Please click here for complete program details and registration information on the 2011 Rooting DC Urban Gardening Forum!

Ensure Food Safety When the Power Goes Out

A great number of us in Montgomery County have experienced extended power outages this winter - as we did last summer and the previous winter - and we've collectively spent a lot of time beefing about our power company, PEPCO.

While we work to find ways to keep the power on, here is an absolutely critical issue that we hear almost nothing about - how do you ensure food safety when you lose your power for more than an hour or two?  And how do you know when the food in your refrigerator or freezer is still good to eat?

Providing helpful tips and some answers to these important questions are our friends at Food Safety News.  Click here to read Ensure Food Safety When the Power Goes Out.

More on School Gardens and School Food

As our own school system puts out its first guidelines for vegetable gardens, we are delighted to announce that the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations has upped the ante and recently passed a resolution urging the establishment of school vegetable gardens in our county.  This is another great step forward toward bringing the joys and benefits of food growing to our youth.  You can read the MCCPTA resolution here.

And as we move forward, it's heartening to know that at other times school vegetable gardening was wildly popular in this country.  Did you know, for instance, that in 1906 the US Department of Agriculture Estimated there were more than 75,000 school gardens in public schools across the U.S.?  You can learn this and other amazing facts in "A Brief History of School Gardens" written by one of the experts in the field, Rose Hayden Smith.  Here's hoping that we will be back at those levels soon again! (And thanks to MVGer Erica for passing this on!)

Lastly, the issue of growing food relates directly to school food.  As you've read here previously Congress recently passed updated school nutrition guidelines.  And now new school food standards proposed by the Obama administration could nearly double the amount of fruits and vegetables that more than 32 million kids eat every day, according to the Environmental Working Group.  The hitch?  A price tag of approximately $7 billion over five years.  This is a mere pittance when it comes to federal spending, but it's seen as a major obstacle by Congress.  Is it worth it?  You bet. Read more about it in "Healthy School Food: Pay Now, Save Later."  

A GMO Webinar & Millions Against Monsanto

As good as they've been on school food issues, the Obama Administration has, as you know from past updates, been terrible on regulating untested and potentially dangerous genetically engineered crops.  Over the objections of scientists, environmentalists, beekeepers, organic farmers and food advocates, as well as hundreds of thousands of regular citizens, Obama's USDA recently deregulated GE alfalfa, as well as GE sugar beets, both of which have been cleared for planting this spring.

The common thread here is that these are both Monsanto crops, and what Monsanto wants, Monsanto gets.

Oh maybe not.  Many organic advocates are fighting back, including MVG's fiscal sponsor, the Organic Consumer Association. They are organizing groups and individuals across the nation to oppose these new GE  (or GMO, for genetically modified organism) crops, including grassroots strategies such as "do it yourself" GMO labels, a non-GMO shopping guide, and petitions to major retailers.  For more information on their campaign and to join in, check out "Millions Against Monsanto."

As part of this program, Natural News' Mike Adams will be joining OCA Director Ronnie Cummins for a live discussion on the myth of "coexistence" between organics and GMOs, and how grassroots action and truth-in-labeling can start to drive Monsanto's genetically engineered crops and foods off the market. The webinar will be held on February 24th at 8pm, but space is limited - if you would like to register, click here now.

Rebel Gardeners Wage Veggie War with "Seed Bombs"

Here's an exciting local food development from (well) south of the border, reported this week by Reuters news service:  

"Forget potted plants and privet hedges; a group of Buenos Aires artists want to make the Argentine capital a free-for-all kitchen garden, turning neglected parks and verges into verdant vegetable patches.

Following in the footsteps of "guerrilla gardeners" who have been scattering flower seeds in vacant lots and roadsides in cities such as London and New York since the 1970s, the Articultores group is taking the concept a step further.

Armed with vegetable seedlings and seed bombs - seeds packed with mud for throwing into neglected urban spaces, their goal is to provide organic food for city residents."

Is this an awesome idea or what?  Wanna help start this in the U.S.?  Click here to read "Rebel gardeners wage veggie war with 'seed bombs.'"  And thanks to MVGer Kit for passing this one on!

Timely Gardening Tip of the Month

And last, here is a timely tip indeed from our friends at the UMD Home and Garden Information Center, and the Master Gardeners:

"Before ordering your seeds, consider last year's garden successes and failures, and map out your revised garden plan for this year.  To maximize your garden's yield, think about succession planting. That means that a new crop should be seeded or transplanted in an area vacated by a crop that is overly mature, has stopped producing, or is badly damaged. And then go ahead and order your garden seeds - so that you will be ready to sow seeds at the proper time."

For more tips on vegetable gardening, check out the Master Gardener's Grow It Eat It website.