Recent Storms and the Damage Done

While we had our share of flooded basements and power outages, most of us in Montgomery County weathered the blows from Hurricane Irene in late August, followed by early September's week long tropical downpour, without too much difficulty.  The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for many farmers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

As this recent article from Grist describes, many small farms, especially in New York state and Vermont, were hit hard by the storms, losing late summer/early fall crops and a large portion of their annual income to flooding. Worse yet, most of them are too small to be covered by the federal crop insurance programs.

We wish these farmers the best as they rebuild, and know their customers will continue to support them. These storms should serve as a potent reminder, though, of the fragility of our food system in the face of extreme weather - and of the need for us to diversify and localize that food system.  (And for future reference, here are some good tips on how to handle your own garden after heavy rains - thanks to to MVG Advisory Board member Erica Smith for passing it on!)

How to Grow a School Garden - Hear from the Authors Themselves on Sept. 29!

While the word is still getting out there, MVG readers know that the Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) system - with the active support of Montgomery Victory Gardens, the Master Gardener Association of Montgomery County, and many other community groups - decided recently to allow vegetable gardens on school property, with new guidelines posted this past January.  (Does your child's school have a vegetable garden in it yet?)

What better time, then, for our friends and colleagues at Brookside Gardens to host two of the top practitioners in the country of school vegetable gardens?

These are superstars in the field: Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle of the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance are the authors of How to Grow a School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers, the definitive, step-by-step resource for building and sustaining school gardens, published last year. On their first east coast tour since publication, Arden and Rachel will offer insight into the success of their organization and guide us through the process of not just building gardens, but building educational programming to ensure a garden's value is best realized in the classroom and the community. 

You won't want to miss this FREE presentation (registration required) on Thursday, September 29 from 6:30-8:00pm, at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton. Click here to register, or call Brookside Gardens at 301-962-1400 for more information.

Talk to the New MCPS Superintendent About School Food

Speaking of fresh food and our schools, MCPS's new superintendent, Dr. Joshua Starr, is holding a series of listening sessions at schools around the country through November.

Would you like to see more emphasis on edible school gardens, bringing them into the curriculum as well as into the school yard?  Would you like to see more fresh food served in school lunches, and have more of that food locally sourced?  The listening sessions are an excellent opportunity to bring these issues and more directly to the new head of the county's public school system - don't miss it!

Click here for MCPS Superintendent Starr's listening session schedule; and if you attend and bring up any food related issues, thanks for reporting back to MVG how it goes!

Queen of the Sun" - New Documentary on Bees Premieres Monday, Sept. 26

As you know from past updates and Facebook posts, Montgomery Victory Gardens loves honeybees - as should anyone who cares about rebuilding our a healthy, resilient, local food system.

"Queen of the Sun:  What the Bees are Telling Us," is a brand new documentary on the plight of the bees, which is getting rave reviews.  In the words of New York Times critic Jeanette Catsoulis, "Queen of the Sun" is "a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis.... Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world."

Called "remarkable" and "revelatory," the Montgomery County premiere of this blockbuster new documentary happens at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton on Monday, September 26 at 7pm. And better yet, the modest $8 admission goes to support our friends at Montgomery Countryside Alliance. You won't want to miss this incredible new film - click here for tickets, and a film trailer.  There are only a few tickets left, so do it now! (And for the most timely announcements on events like this, so you don't miss out, become Friends with MVG on our Facebook page!)

Personal Gardens to "Agriburbia" - Local Food in the Mainstream Press

The ongoing presence of food and agriculture issues in the mainstream press is as sure as sign as any of the continuing growth of the good food movement.

On the one hand, there is The New York Times article "Vegetable Gardens Are Booming in a Fallow Economy." Far away from farmers markets in upscale urban areas, the article notes how personal food gardening has grown dramatically across the country since the economic downturn of 2008, with seed sales going through the roof and increasing numbers of rural families viewing their gardens and small farms as "sturdy patches of protection in uncertain times."

And on the other, consider "An Apple Grows in Suburbia" from the Wall Street Journal. A hedge against a weak economy is clearly not a primary concern for people buying new homes costing upwards of a million dollars, and yet new housing developments are increasingly focused on including edible landscaping, community gardens, and even working farms as major selling points. As the article states, golf greens are being traded in for salad greens. Yeah!  (And thanks to MVGer Ira for passing both these stories on!)

The struggles of the local food movement are far from over, however: after reporting this summer on a Michigan woman who faced jail time for having raised beds in her front yard, Grist is reporting now on a Tennessee high school teacher who has been cited for the "nuisance" caused by the raised bed vegetable gardens in his front yard. Gardens, which, not coincidentally, he uses to teach kids about urban agriculture.  (He is due in court later this week: you can find out how to support him at the Grist site.)

Clearly, there is continued work to be done...

Successes in the New Community Gardens!

We have followed the progress of the Montgomery County Parks Community Garden program, which continues to open up one great community garden after another - a dozen in just the past two years!

So what better way to end this update than with reports on the successes that can be obtained from even these brand new gardens.  MVG's friends on Facebook are probably familiar with the unexpected success of my own melon patch at the new Fenton St. garden in downtown Silver Spring, which produced 18 (!) six inch Ambrosia muskmelons in only a 10' x 3' plot. Some of them were knocked out by the heavy rains of earlier this month - they literally cracked open from the volumes of water they were soaking up - but the ones we ate were delicious beyond description.

And much more officially, fellow Fenton St. gardener Anne McDermott (pictured here being high-fived in the garden by yours truly), won not just one but FOUR awards for her garden produce at the Montgomery County Agriculture Fair last month -  blue ribbons for her Orange Fantasia Swiss Chard and curly parsley, second place for her Black-Eyed Susans, and third place for another swiss chard entry!  Way to go, Anne!!  Here's hoping your winning example will encourage your fellow gardeners in our new community gardens (and throughout the county) - and more entries in next year's Ag Fair!