National Food Day - October 24

Food Day, now in its second year, is a nationwide celebration and movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food - a collection of diverse food movement leaders, organizers and activists coming together on a single day to change our national diet.

Organized by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Day will showcase more than 1400 (and growing!) local food events, great resources such as school curriculums, reading lists and food questions to ask candidates, and a marquee event "The Future of Food: 2050" to be held in Washington D.C. You can participate in any of a hundred different ways, including holding your own local food event and putting it on the Food Day Map!

Food Day is a great way to celebrate how far we've already come in the new food movement, and to push us even further. Go to the Food Day website for all the information you need to get involved!

School Vegetable Gardens Are Growing in Montgomery County!

As you may recall, compelling the Montgomery County Public School system to enact a new policy in support of school vegetable gardens was a major battle we fought - and won - in 2010. Working with allies such as the Montgomery County Master Gardeners, the Audubon Naturalist Society and other community groups, as well as members of the County Council such as Valerie Ervin, Montgomery Victory Gardens was able to convince the MCPS Administration of the wisdom of school veggie gardens, and the new policy was introduced in January of 2011.

We are delighted to announce that MCPS, with the support of the County Council, is now moving forward more aggressively on this: at a recent presentation to the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, Laurie Jenkins, head of the MCPS Outdoor Environmental Education Program, announced the completely righteous goal of an edible garden in every public school in the county!

Nothing could make us happier, and few things could be more beneficial for the county's students. MVG will be helping with this new effort as well - we are currently planning a survey of the county's schools - and we'll let you know more about that in the near future. In the meantime, our congratulations to MCPS, the County Council, and everyone else who is helping to bring this incredible dream to fruition - and our thanks again to all those who helped start us on this road two years ago!

Harvest Festivals for the Whole Family

October is the month for harvest festivals, and there are two good ones coming up this weekend.

On Saturday, October 6, from 11am to 4pm the Montgomery County Agricultural History Farm Park will be having it's annual Harvest Festival at the Farm in Derwood (between Rockville and Gaithersburg). The Farm Park is an invaluable resource in our county (including being the home to the County's Master Gardeners and Extension Service), and the annual Harvest Festival is a hoot for the whole family: pumpkin carving, candle and scarecrow making, a corn maze, farm animals, tours of the MG demonstration veggie garden and antique farm equipment are just part of the fun. The Festival is from 11am to 4pm, rain or shine - click here for details.

Another good one is at Butler's Orchard in Germantown, which is hosting its 32nd annual Pumpkin Festival each weekend in October, starting with this one. Hayrides, a hayloft barn, giant slides, barnyard animals, corn maze, pedal tractors, spider web, pumpkin coach, rubber ducky derby, pumpkin land and straw maze, are all featured attractions, along with food (hey, it is a farm!), face-painting, and pony rides. The festival is each Saturday and Sunday in October from 10am - 5pm; click here for more information.

For even more pumpkin patches and harvest related events in Montgomery County this month, click here for the Washington Post guide, and search for "pumpkins."

Local Beer Events!

Here at MVG we strongly believe that local beverages are every bit as much a part of a healthy, sustainable system as local food - and here are two events where you can sample local brews while supporting a good cause.

On Sunday, October 7, from 5-7pm the Crossroads Community Food Network, which runs Crossroads Farmers Market, is hosting "Hops for the Hungry," a pairing of delicious farmstead cheeses from Keswick Creamery with craft beers from "hyperlocal brewers" 3-Stars and Flying Dog Breweries, and food from Atwater's and Smith Meadow's Kitchen - with your donation going to support Crossroad's Fresh Checks program, which puts fresh local food into the homes of those in need. Click here for details.

On Saturday, October 13, the Takoma Park Foundation is hosting the area's only "hops-powered, nuclear free" beerfest from 4-8pm. It will feature "bottomless" beverages from 9 (count 'em!) local brewers, food from local eateries, music and fire dancing. The event is well worth the $35 cover charge, especially since the money goes right back into the community, through grants from the Foundation. Click here for details and to buy advanced tickets.

A Food Justice Victory For Farmworkers

While the new good food movement has made considerable strides in terms of supporting family farms and getting more local, fresh food into our diets (including growing it ourselves!), there has been much less of a focus on supporting labor and human rights for the farmworkers who grow and pick the vast majority of fruits and vegetables eaten in this county.

That's why this week's victory is so great - Chipotle, which operates over 1300 restaurants around the country, has become the 11th major food company to sign on to the Fair Food Program with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The CIW represents most of the farmworkers in Florida, where the majority of our nation's commercial tomato crop is grown, and those workers have long suffered from sub-poverty wages and harsh, often brutal working conditions. The Fair Food Program, in addition to guaranteeing a rise in wages, will also institute a Code of Conduct for working conditions, and a monitoring system to make sure growers follow it.

All in all, a big step forward for farmworkers in the U.S., and for all of us who eat the food they harvest and who believe in fundamental values of fairness. Click here to read more about this victory for farmworkers!

Epic GMO Battle in California

For those who have been following events on the left coast, the ballot initiative on GMO labeling in California, Prop 37, is turning into an epic struggle - as it should, given the impact this new law could have on the entire nation's food system.

It was reported recently that the proponents of the new GMO labeling law have raised over $4.1 million for their effort - while those opposed to it have raised a whopping $34.5 million, starting with agribusiness giants Monsanto and DuPont, but also major food companies like Nestle, Pepsico and Coca-Cola and large pesticide companies, which have benefited greatly from our nation's investment in GMO crops.

At the same time, polls show that the majority of Californian's still favor GMO labeling - smart food consumers, these Californians - and it will be fascinating to see how this battle ramps up over the remaining few weeks.

For more information on the GMO battle in California, and what you can do to help, click here.

Garlic and Cover Crops - Final Plantings of the Season

Even for those of us who have planted cool winter crops to harvest this fall (and winter, if you have a low tunnel!), activity in the garden is winding down. There are, however, two final crops that can still be planted this month.

Garlic, the king of alliums, (in MVG's book, anyway), is ideally planted in our region in October. This gives it enough time to sprout during the fall - and it is wonderful to see new growth in the garden in November - before overwintering and continuing it's growth in the spring for a June/July harvest. It's pretty easy, as each clove will grow into a new head, but we do recommend that you grow hard neck varieties, as soft neck tends not to do so well in our area.

Here is a good description of garlic planting and care from the Master Gardener's Grow It Eat It program. And while many places are selling out of seed garlic, you can still find several varieties at one of our favorite organic suppliers, Peaceful Valley Farm.

Cover crops (oats are pictured at right) are a great way to do several things for otherwise unplanted plots, including fix nitrogen (the primary macronutrient for plant growth) in the soil, control erosion, and suppress weeds. While they are a little trickier to use in a garden then on a farm - it's harder to plow things under without a tractor - it's still a great way to achieve the same effects in the garden over the winter/early spring. You just need to know what you are trying to do with the cover crop, and pick the right one for the purpose.

The University of Maryland's Extension program provides this good basic factsheet on using cover crops. For purchase, we recommend checking out the supplies at Johnny's Selected Seeds - and talking to their staff as well, who are always wonderfully helpful and informative. Happy October planting!

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That's it for now! And don't forget to keep going to your garden plots - as you can see from the picture at right, there is still plenty to harvest in October, even if you didn't plant a fall garden!  And thanks for continuing to send us updates on events and ideas for future updates!