Last Chance to Purchase Fall Veggie Starts - Don't Miss It!

It's still a great time to plant fall crops, but time and supplies are running out fast - so don't delay.

A tour of the major nurseries in the southern and western end of the county - Behnke's, American Plant and Johnson's - revealed that the supplies are somewhat limited (apparently cold weather food gardening hasn't caught on yet like it should), and not everything is in great shape (the lettuces in particular are rather leggy from the hot weather, and may be better started from seed), but you can still get broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, pac choi, chard and other greens.

Most of the nurseries get their shipments of veggie starts on Wednesday or Thursdays, and this week may be the last shipment for some of them - so we strongly recommend calling before you go to see what they have, but then making haste to get their and buy them before the run out! Followed, of course, by getting them in the ground as soon as possible....

Fall and Winter Food Gardening Workshop - Wednesday, September 5

Many folks think of the end of summer as the end of the food garden, but this is not the case at all. If you love to grow food you're in the right place, because our climate allows for three full growing seasons - and four seasons of harvest with minimal protection. Following up on our well-received introduction to cold weather food gardening workshop in August, Montgomery Victory Gardens is presenting Part 2 on Wednesday, September 5 at 7pm.

This second part will focus on structures for cold weather gardening, including low tunnels and cold frames, and the use of cover crops for winter garden maintenance and soil improvement. This hands-on workshop will also include a physical demonstration of low tunnel construction (weather permitting), so you won't want to miss this!

The Fall and Winter Food Gardening workshop is free, and will be held at the Silver Spring Whole Foods Market on Fenton St., from 7 - 8:30pm. We'll see you there!

Governor O'Malley Comes Out for Nick's Organic Farm

August was a critical time for the fate of Nick's Organic Farm/Brickyard Educational Farm, and we are delighted to report two major steps forward in this struggle to save the county's only organic seed producing farm, and its new educational counterpart, from development.

Victory #1 came in the form of a public letter of support from Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. In the letter, which you can read here, Gov. O'Malley let County Executive Ike Legget know in no uncertain terms that it would be "a big mistake" to destroy Nick's Organic and Brickyard Educational Farms. There was no immediate response from the County Executive, who is behind the plan to turn the farms into soccer fields, but O'Malley is the highest-ranking elected leader in our state to declare opposition to Legget's plan, and it made for a significant amount of media coverage.

Victory #2 came in the courts, where friend of MVG Nick Maravell, who runs the farms along with his daughter Sophia, was granted a temporary stay on the August 15 termination of his lease. In a related case, another court ordered the County Executive to release hundreds of emails and other records regarding the wheeling and dealing over the farm, emails which just might reveal why there is such an urgency to turn them into soccer fields.

You can see a good video on these developments here on Channel 7 News, and read articles from the Washington Post, WTOP News, and the Potomac Patch, among others.

This is by no means the end of the struggle, and all of those who have been working to save these vital farms are planning the next steps. If you haven't done so already, please visit the websites of Nick's Organic Farm and Brickyard Education Farm, and find out how you can help!

Victoire for Food Gardens in Quebec!

With the support of all the MVG supporters who responded to our Facebook posting, along with tens of thousands of others around the world, we won a big victory for front yard gardens in our neighbor to the north!

Quoi, you might ask? Well, for those of you who didn't hear about it, there was a major food gardening dust up in Canada, when Josée Landry and Michel Beauchamp, of the Quebec suburb of Drummondsville, were ordered to dig up their incredible, immaculate front yard veggie garden, pictured at right, because it did not conform with local regulations. The issue became a cause celebre in Canada and around the world: with the help of Kitchen Gardeners International, they collected more than 30,000 petition signatures supporting the garden, along with hundreds of letters delivered to officials in Canada.

The result? Not only did the Drummondsville Municipal Council decide that front yard veggie gardens would henceforth be allowed, they also invited Landry and Beauchamp to help them develop the city's new guidelines for urban gardeners. (You can read their blog post on the big victory here.) As noted by KGI founder Roger Doiron, this could well be a landmark case not only for Canada, but internationally as well.

Another wonderful gardening victory to savor - here's a big thank you to all the MVGers who helped make it possible!

The Insect Villain of the Month - Cabbageworms

Given that this is the time to be putting in members of the brassicas family - such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage - sure enough there is an insect just waiting to attack your new transplants: the cabbageworm, also known to some as the cabbage looper.

I had a few market packs of broccoli sitting outside on the ground waiting for transplant, when I noticed some small but growing chew holes in the leaves. I mistakenly thought it was slugs, so brought the brocs inside, and put them by the southern window in the back of the house, with a good watering. When I came back to get them a few days later, they were gone - literally skeletonized with only the central rib of each leaf remaining.

The culprit was the cabbage worm - I had missed the small white moths, and not checked for eggs or the small new worms that ultimately consumed my plants. Argh!

There is clearly a lot of this around right now - the irregular leaf damage was widely visible in virtually every nursery I visited this past weekend - so don't let this happen to your new plants! (They will attack other families of veggies as well as brassicas.) Here is a good description of them from the Master Gardener's Grow It Eat It website. Check your newly purchased starts for the eggs or worms, and if you already have a problem you can treat them successfully with organic products such as spinosad, pyrethrum and

California's Epic Battle on GMOs

Proposition 37, which is on the California ballot this November, would require labeling of foods sold in the state that contain genetically modified or engineered products. Dozens of countries worldwide require labeling of GMO food, but our agribusiness-influenced U.S. government does not.

If California were to pass this law, it could create major changes in our national food system, as companies would be forced to comply with this huge market and other states might decide to follow suit. The Cornucopia Institute has been working in this historic struggle over control of our food, and you can read their update on it here.

Not surprisingly, the major agri-business and food corporations - led, as always, by our friends at Monsanto and Dupont - are fighting Proposition 37 with everything at their disposal... which first and foremost includes lots of disposable cash, at this point roughly $24 million as compared to the $3 million that pro-labeling advocates have raised. More surprising, perhaps, is that a lot of the organic products many of us buy - labels such as Horizon, Silk, Kashi, Naked, Odwalla and Honest Tea - are owned by companies that are pouring millions into the anti-labeling campaign. Click here to read more about them, and let them know what you think of their practices, while also thanking those food companies fighting for the labeling.

And did you know that none other than President Barack Obama actually promised to deliver labeling for GMO foods in 2007, when he was Candidate Obama? Food Democracy Now figured it's a good time to remind him of that, in this online petition to be delivered to organic food advocate and First Lady Michelle Obama. Thanks for signing it, and for supporting those who are fighting for our food future, in whatever way you can!

Locavore's Gotta Drink Too - Try a Gin Fuzz!

Here at MVG we're always looking for great ways to consume the bounty of any particular season, and we're particularly delighted when we find a way to drink it!

Well we are in the last weeks of peach season, and on cue MVG's Networking Coordinator Meredith Epstein delivers the Gin Fuzz. I tried them, and they're awesome. (As anything with a lot of fresh peach puree in it is likely to be!)

The Gin Fuzz recipe is the initial post on Merdith's new blog Harvest Spoon. Meredith is a 26-year-old farmer from Maryland, currently in graduate school in Boston. She started Harvest Spoon to stitch together her interests in growing food, kitchen creativity, nutrition, alternative medicine, agricultural policy, environmental sustainability, and self-sufficiency.   Mereidth plans to return to her glorious home state (as she calls Maryland!) to start a farm and work in agricultural education. We can't wait to welcome you back to Maryland, Meredith - and in the meantime, thanks again for the great recipe!

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That's it for now! Thanks for sharing these emails with your friends, continuing to forward events and ideas for articles to us for this update, and for doing everything you can to support (and grow!) local food in 2012!

Yours in aggressive fall plantings... followed by a cool Gin Fuzz,