Vegetable Highlights at Outer Aisle!

More abundance this week of Snap peas, Fava beans, English Peas and Strawberries.  

Asparagus will continue strongly for another 4 weeks as will artichokes. 

We are harvesting gorgeous salad greens from the farm this week. Tender and mouthwatering!

The menu for the Awards Dinner, Saturday night at Sierra Green Days will feature Outer Aisle produce: asparagus, beets, sweet potatoes, our salad greens and strawberries, as well as Mountain Ranch grown chicken. Don't miss it! Buy your tickets here. 

SUSTAINABILITY U!

Economy, Ecology, Energy

Don't miss the Sierra GrEEEn Days Educational Program - a full two days of presentations in the Placer Room as well as two outside FoCuS Learning Centers with inspiring and practical information. From visionaries to hands-on-workshops.

• Learn about everything from soil health and your health, how to use your CSA bag in exciting new ways, community supported cooperatives, water issues and successes and more!
• Visionaries with creative solutions to our biggest challenges - local economic growth and banking; protection from environmental and electromagnetic pollution; and "community immunity" with plant medicine.
• Practical and community planning for an uncertain future, and cohesive community collaborations for greater self-reliance.

Go to www.sierragreendays.com for detailed information on the speaker schedule. The Lodestar this week has our pull out event program schedule for all activities.

CSA/Grain Shares - we are continuing our campaign to bring grain to our region both in the form of food and seed!  

LATEST UPDATE: We are 7/8 of the way with 23 people signed up. Thank you! We are stilling accepting grain and CSA shares. 

We have a unique opportunity to partner with John DeRosier of With The Grain, a certified organic and bio-dynamic grain farmer, and bring local grains and beans to our community.  (See his bio below). 

We are really excited to bring this important component of food security and sustainability into Outer Aisle. We hadn't realized until this past weekend with John how crucial and important it is to act now! We hope you will respond with enthusiasm too and trust that our judgment alone will be enough of a guarantee. To demonstrate our commitment to the success of this relationship Outer Aisle is purchasing 10 shares! 

Here's how it works:

Following in the footsteps of our recent success in community financing, where we raised enough upfront capital to put solar on our store by selling "futures" and paying participants back in Outer Aisle purchases, thereby creating a win-win situation. 

The CSA/Grain Shares will cost $500 (or special offer $250). This will buy you a $200/$100 share of grain seed and beans received in 3 increments over the next three years. The grains that would be included would be a combination of heirloom wheats, oats, barley, rye, millet, corn, lentils, peas, and dry beans in 10, 20 and 20lb increments. The other $300/$150 share will be in Outer Aisle purchases with no time limit. This is available to existing CSA delivery customers, CSA members that shop at our store and the general public. 

Win-win-win benefits for all:

• You receive the full $500/$250 back in food (a portion in grain over a period of time and the other in Outer Aisle purchases with no time limit)
• John receives upfront money during a time of difficulty
• Outer Aisle receives your continued commitment
• We together create a model financing system.

Multiple benefits abound:

• Pioneering a micro-loan financing model that will not only help John continue his important work, but provide a sound model for future projects/businesses.
• Establish a direct supply connection between Outer Aisle and With the Grain. We'll have his grains and beans on our shelf and other customers get the health benefits too.
• Provide a local source of hard-to-find heirloom varieties of grains and beans that are adapted to human scale  production (ie. home gardening) and adapted to our regional climate. These seeds will be used to increase local production of grains and beans on a larger scale bringing back this important crop closer to home.
• Provide a source of bulk seeds for distributing through our store and seed share events for everyone in the community to grow.
• John's extensive knowledge will bring an important educational element to our community.   

PLANT SALE:   

This weekend at Sierra Green Days Outer Aisle has a booth selling our beautiful seedlings, seed potatoes and seeds. With the first 70 degree weather on the horizon the window is open to plant.

We'll have heirloom tomatoes, bell peppers, basil seedlings. The event is free and we encourage you to come out and see what's going on!  

We'll continue to have plants coming out of the greenhouse through May at our store.  

Compost is available through Brice Station between Murphys and Avery. You must call ahead: Stuart Mast 768-7262.  

If you enjoy sowing your own seeds, now is the time to start all your summer crops. We have a wonderful array of vegetable varieties to choose from: lemon cucumbers, dill, Cherokee purple tomatoes to lettuce, basil and beans. 

The store will be stocked with gardening supplies as well, covers, hoops, irrigation tape and deer fencing. Eric will be available on Thursdays to answer your questions.