Edible Landscape Guru Rosalind Creasy - Thursday, April 28

Ms. Creasy literally invented the term "edible landscaping" with the 1982 publication of her bestseller The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping.  She is a photographer and landscape designer as well, with a passion for beautiful vegetables and ecologically sensitive gardening. Rosalind's mouth-watering presentation will cover an A to Z list of her recommended beautiful edible plants for home gardens, as well as presenting principles of landscape design particular to edibles.  

The revised edition of her book, Edible Landscaping: Now You Can Have Your Gorgeous Garden and Eat It Too, will be on sale in the Brookside gift shop, and she will stay after her lecture for a book signing and reception featuring locally produced refreshments.

This benefit for Brookside Gardens is sure to sell out, and registration is required, so click here for more information on what will be one of the highlights of the spring season at Brookside Gardens - an evening with Rosalind Creasy!  

Save Nick's Organic Farm! An Update [Videos]

For those who haven't heard the news, the April 4 county meeting on Nick's Organic Farm was a rousing success - for all of us who want to stop this historic, seed-producing organic farm from being turned into soccer fields, as is the county's current plan.

More than 200 people packed a small elementary school lunch room and pounded the county government representatives with one passionate question after another about the lack of transparency (the negotiations for this deal have been carried out in secret for two years), lack of community input (this first meeting was called only after the tentative deal had been made),  and the total, stunning disregard for the value of farming, and organic farming in particular.

Watch the Channel 4 News segment here.  And then click here to read the Gazette story, and watch additional video.  (MVG was well-represented in both pieces of media coverage.)

And here's the latest stunning fact.  An interagency report by Montgomery County staff, released just this week and posted by the Parent's Coalition (go PC!), documents that there are already 167 full sized natural and artificial turf "rectangular playing fields" in our county, 317 public multi-purpose fields, and another 7 artificial turf fields to be built in the next five years.  And yet Ike Leggett wants to destroy the ONE AND ONLY organic seed producing farm in the county to build what - the 492nd and 493rd playing fields?? No way, Mr. County Executive!

This battle has just started to heat up, and we intend to rock this county to protect one of the most valuable organic farms in our region. Stay tuned to the MVG updates for more details - and get ready to volunteer!

Urban Sustainability Action Summit - Saturday, April 16 

The University of the District of Columbia's College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) will present the first annual Urban Sustainability Action Summit 2011, at the University of the District of Columbia Van Ness campus tomorrow, Saturday, April 16, from 8:30am - 6:30pm

The summit will feature 2008 MacArthur Fellow and Green innovator, Will Allen. For those who don't already know, Mr. Allen, a Montgomery County native, is the founder of Growing Power, an organization which transforms communities by supporting people from diverse backgrounds through the development of Community Food Systems.  He's a total rock star in the good food revolution, and deservedly so. (MVG had the change to meet with Will recently - more on that in the next update.)

There is still time to join this gathering of experts, scholars, professionals, organizational leaders and members of the community to exchange information and ideas about fair and equal access to healthy food options in the urban environment. Click here now to register for this special, day-long event featuring speakers, workshops, exhibitors - and Will Allen!

Garden Educator Training Course - Tuesday - Thursday, April 19-21

To help implement the Montgomery County Public School system's recent decision to allow vegetable gardens on school property, the Montgomery College Continuing Education Department is presenting this comprehensive, three part series for teachers and parents who want to learn more about starting and maintaining a school garden.

From the course description: "Through a combination of lectures and hands-on activities, this course will cover gardening basics, outdoor education techniques, and ways to integrate the garden with classroom curriculum. This three-part series covers the following areas: Gardening with Children, Container Vegetable Gardening; and Schoolyard Ecosystems. The course will give teachers/educators the essentials to cultivate and maintain schoolyard gardens. Tuition waiver applies; seniors pay fee only."

The Garden Educator Training Course will be taught from 9:30am - 2pm on April 19 - 21 (that's Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) at the Agricultural History Farm Park (a beautiful location!) in Derwood, just outside of Gaithersburg.  Click here and then type in the keywords "Garden Educator Training Course" to find the class listing and register.  Any questions/  Just contact the Continuing Ed Division at 240-567-5188.

Losing Ground [Video]

The rich, dark, deep topsoil of the American midwest has made it the breadbasket of our country.  And we are now systematically washing that precious soil away.

In an alarming new study, the Environmental Working Group has revealed how erosion is happening in the American corn belt at rates up to 12 times faster than official estimates And when storms hit vulnerable or poorly protected soil, fields can lose more soil in a single day than is considered sustainable for the whole year, or even decades.

 

These storms will only increase with the extreme weather patterns caused by climate change, but the real culprit here are federal agriculture policies that encourage massive, fencerow to fencerow fields of monoculture crops.  

While we noticed a couple interesting problems - there is a subtle implication that massive use of pesticides and herbicides is okay if you only have buffer zones, which is strange for a group that has done so much to highlight the dangers of both - this is otherwise yet another superb report from EWG.  Click here to watch the video Losing Ground and to take action.

Laws Passed to Stop Undercover Farm Videos

Would you buy food from a farm that refused to let you see how they operated?

No, neither would I.  But that's exactly what is starting to be codified into law as states like Florida and Iowa have passed laws that make it illegal to shoot the undercover videos that have done so much to expose the unhealthy, unsafe and downright cruel practices of the factory farming of animals.

As noted in this recent Grist article, "writer Will Potter -- author of the book Green Is the New Red about 'how animal rights and environmental activists are being labeled eco-terrorists, and what that means for the safety and freedom of us all' -- uncovered a Minnesota bill that would go even further. The bill -- proposed by a state legislator who is, according to Potter, the 'past president of the Minnesota Pork Producers, and a current member' -- wouldn't just make it illegal to produce an undercover video at a factory farm. It would also make it illegal to possess or distribute it."

It's hard to know what's worse here - the blatant, over-the-top violation of Constitutional rights, or the fact that factory farm practices are so disturbing they have to keep us from seeing them. Take your pick, this is yet one more reason that I have vowed this year not to eat any more meat that I do not know for a fact is pasture raised and humanely treated - which also means local.  Anyone care to join me?

Cheap Energy=Cheap Food=Loss of Appreciation for Food

I was astonished to speak with a clerk in a local food co-op recently who didn't realize that when you put a potato in the ground - any potato - that it will grow a potato plant.  It was all the more amazing that the same store sold bags of organic "seed potatoes" for $10 a pound - right around the corner from identical bulk organic potatoes for $1.79 a pound.

It's easier to understand the clerk's lack of awareness (and perhaps the County Executive's) when you realize that we have spent 50 years systematically separating ourselves from the process of growing food in this country.  And one of the main culprits in that process has been cheap oil, as explained in this intriguing Grow It Eat It blog post by Dale Johnson, Farm Management Specialist at the University of Maryland Extension.

Of course oil is not so cheap anymore, and partly as a result of that food prices are now at their highest level in recorded history, and going higher.  The antidote to that problem, we are happy to report, is simple - we need to grow more of our own food!  We are proud to partner with the Montgomery County Master Gardeners (who run the Grow It Eat It program) in this endeavor.  Keep checking out their website, as well as this update and the MVG Facebook page, for more ideas and opportunities to do just that!