It's Fall Planting Time!!

It doesn't seem like it, I know, when it's 100 degrees outside, but July and August are the time to be planning - and planting - your fall and winter food garden.   Our zone easily accommodates growing well into the fall (and over the winter with a little equipment, more on that later), and once we get past August the cooler, relatively insect free days of fall are a delightful time to be in the garden.

Given the shortening days, you need to add a good two weeks on to the growing time required for most vegetables, and they need a healthy head start before we really start losing the sunlight in September and October. While one can certainly plant lettuce and other greens after Labor Day - you can even get away with planting fast -maturing broccoli starts then too - everything from Brussels sprouts and beets to carrots, cabbage and your fall potato crop needs to be going into the ground now.

And here is that absolutely vital planning device, the Grow It Eat It Vegetable Planting Calendar for Central Maryland. (I also love Elliot Coleman's book Four Season Harvest, extremely useful.) You might consider starting some of those cool weather seeds inside, so they don't bake during any extra hot summer days, and definitely start bugging the major garden shops, like Behnke's, to find out when they will get their veggie starts in. The sooner you can get 'em in the ground, the better!

Fall Gardening Class - The first of two FREE MVG classes on fall and winter gardening will be held at the Whole Foods Market in Silver Spring on Monday, August 6 , from 7 - 8:30pm. Class is FREE but registration is requested. Go to the WFMSS calendar for more info and to register.  (And it might take them a few days to put up the August calendar - be patient!)

Montgomery County Farm Tour Days - This Weekend, July 28 & 29

Our county's annual farm tour weekend is a wonderful tradition - a great way to learn about local agriculture, to support our local farmers, and to buy local food, not to mention a great way to spend a day in the countryside (especially for those MVG readers who, like myself, live down county). And believe me, it's a good 5 to 10 degrees cooler when you get out of the concrete jungle - another good reason to go!

This year will be the 23rd Annual Farm Tour & Harvest Sale on Saturday and Sunday, July 28 & 29, from 10am - 4pm. We encourage everyone to spend a day or two in the country seeing farm animals, having lunch by a beautiful pond, talking with actual farmers, and picking/purchasing the freshest possible fruits, vegetables, flowers, plants and more. It's an educational experience, a delight for the senses, and a great family outing all in one - and once again, a great way to support local farmers in our county.

The list of participating farms, along with activities and directions, can be found at the MC Farm Tour webpage.

Massive U.S. Drought Rivals Dust Bowl Days

While our area has had its share of rain recently, a severe, extended drought is affecting more than half the country. The National Climatic Data Center recently ranked the current drought as one of the 10 worst in our history, comparable to the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s, and the USDA recently declared more than a 1000 counties in 26 states as agricultural disaster areas. Farmers who were alive in the '30s are also comparing it to the worst droughts they've ever seen.

Hardest hit are some of our country's primary corn belt states, and the withering of our nation's huge corn crop will mean higher prices for everything from eggs, poultry and beef to cheese and even fuel, as ethanol producers will be competing with everyone else for a shrinking crop. (Insanely, about 1/3 of the corn crop is used to make ethanol.) It is feared by many that this drought could start another global food crisis like that of 2008, when we saw food riots in more than 30 cities worldwide.

Stephen Colbert can make us laugh about the situation, but the reality is anything but funny. Little relief is expected in the weeks and months ahead, and if dry conditions continue - as climate change models predict - we might have to start changing our food system much faster than when thought....

Organic Farmers Continue Fight Against Monsanto

As those who follow MVG updates and food news know, the agribusiness giant Monsanto controls the commodity crop seed supply in the U.S. - most of which are GMOs - with an iron fist.

In what some call a "scorched earth campaign" against family farmers, Monsanto's infamous "seed police" investigate 500 farmers every year for patent infringement of genetically modified plants that have found their way into farmers' fields; Monsanto has sued 144 farmers, and 700 have been forced to settle out of court with the giant corporation.

But organic farmers are fighting back, and led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, they filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against Monsanto earlier this year. The district judge dismissed the case, ridiculing the farmers in the process, but on July 5 the seventy-five family farmers, seed businesses, and agricultural organizations representing over 300,000 individuals and 4,500 farms filed a brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., asking it to reverse the lower court's decision.

"We have a right to farm the way we choose," said Maine organic seed farmer Jim Gerritsen, President of OSGATA. "Yet Monsanto is unwilling to control their GMO pollution and they refuse to sign a binding covenant not-to-sue our family farmers for patent infringement should their seed contaminate our crops. We will continue to pursue our right to farm, and the right of our customers to have access to good clean food and seed." We'll keep you posted on this critically important struggle...

Honey Harvest!

We reported last year on the installation of two honeybee hives in a community garden in Takoma Park, a garden improvement made possible by the unflagging support, assistance and expertise of Jeff Miller, head of DC Honeybees.

Well a couple of false starts (we had to replace one hive) and 15 months later, we just had our first honey harvest! As you can see from the picture (those are Jeff's hands, btw), the honey was thick as could be on most of the honeycomb frames, looking like a rich slab of apple pie filling. And does it ever taste amazing! All told, we harvested about 45 pounds of this precious nectar for distribution to the gardeners.

Local honey, made by local bees, pollinating local plants in the process. If you've been thinking about getting beehives in your garden, here's more encouragement - it doesn't get any better than this! (And don't forget to keep planting flowers to feed the bees and pollinators all around us!)

Coping with Summer's Garden Bounty

Okay, so you've done your planting and sowing, your watering and your weeding, and now you are confronted with a massive pile of fresh veggies in your kitchen. Or maybe you just overdid it at the farmers market, but either way you've suddenly got a lot of fresh food on your hands. What to do?

As most food gardeners discover soon enough, a commitment to growing food also means a commitment to the kitchen and cooking. This is a good thing - we should all spend more time in the kitchen preparing fresh, whole food - and it's an integral part of the new good food movement. But still, how do you cope in a thoughtful way with the seasonal overflow?

The recent New York Times article "Raw Panic" gives some good tips on how to deal with your vegetable anxiety. I think the author gives too short a shrift to fresh salads - my wife and I have them several times a week - but otherwise some very helpful tips here - use them well! (And when you are planning your fall garden, think about planting more root veggies, like potatoes, carrots, turnips and beets - they are delicious, filled with nutrients, and keep a lot longer than most other veggies!)

Yes, Even Superheroes Grow 

Victory Gardens!

Hey, why should we mere mortals have all the fun? Superheroes like to grow food too!

I recently posted this vintage comic book cover on the MVG Facebook page, and the response was so great I figured our email subscribers might like to see it as well. It's a classic, and it seems like our superhero friends are gardening in the same kind of weather we are: Robin looks a little tuckered out from the heat, and Batman is positively pink - don't forget the sunblock, Batman! But as you can see from Superman's basket, it's all worth it...

Here's hoping your harvest looks as "super" as theirs!

#     #     #

That's it for now! Thanks for sharing these emails with your friends, and for continuing to forward events and ideas for articles to us!

Looking forward to seeing you out at the farm this weekend for MC Farm Tour Days...

Sustainably yours,