Well, maybe not all of them.  No offense, but I would be happy if I never heard “Feliz Navidad“, especially the Jose Feliciano version,ever again.  But that one song aside, I start listening to Christmas music and holiday tunes at the start of November and stop after the twelve days of Christmas are over on January 5th (where do you think “Twelfth Night” came from folks?).

My moniker came from my days working at Dayton’s/Field’s/Macy’s and every time a song came on the Muzak I could name not only the song but singer in just a few notes, Bill Cullen would be proud.

I can tell the difference between Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Tony Bennett and Perry Como singing the exact same song.  Now with all the modern & country singers jumping into the holiday music pool it has become more difficult and my skills have begun to wane, especially since I no longer work retail, but my holiday music collection will still rival many.

Combined cassette, vinyl and CD there are over 200 albums in the collection. Perhaps the most prized is the ”Merry Christmas with the Brady Bunch” Original Vinyl (we three sisters wore similar robes). You haven’t heard anything until you have heard Cindy Brady sing “Frosty the Snowman” with a lisp.

Then there is the Fred Waring Singers with Frank Sinatra & Bing Crosby 12 Songs of Christmas with my favorites “Go tell it on the Mountain” & a fantastic duet “We wish you the Merriest” with Frank & Bing.  Then there is the Columbia Records “Magic of Christmas” 3- record boxed set which I loved,  and all the Dean Martin Christmas albums, those are mum’s, but we kept the old Soundesign stereo turntable just so we could still play them.  And get this, we even still have a Bing Crosby White Christmas 8-Track somewhere! 

As for modern CD’s I think I like the Barenaked Ladies “Bare Naked for the Holidays” (includes some Hanukkah songs) and Harry Connick Jr’s “Harry for the Holidays” or his more recent “”What a Night.”  Brian Setzer Orchestra’s “Boogie Woogie Christmas” or “Dig that Crazy Christmas” are the two I own but he has also released several more including a live two CD set “Christmas Extravaganza.”

Leonard Slatkin Conducted Minnesota Orchestra Nutcracker Suite

Twitter is a wonderful way to meet new people and often times those people can become quite close in the Social Media realm but wouldn’t it be nice to meet those people in real life?  That is what MSPTweetup was organized to be, a regular event for Twitter folks in the Twin Cities to mix and mingle at a local establishment to put faces to usernames.

The Thursday, November 14th MSPTweetup was a big success, held at the Bulldog Northeast and sponsored by IZEA’s Sponsored Tweets there was a huge turnout enjoying the tater tots and conversation.

Planned by Kareem Ahmed & David Dellanave it was one of the largest MSPTweetups. And then it happened. The special surprise guest arrived.  Dallas Mavericks owner and twitterer Mark Cuban arrived at the MSPTweetup. 

Twitpic of @kazeemy & @mcuban @bulldogne #msptweetup

@snyd043 & @mcuban @bulldogne #msptweetup

Mr. Freeze is upon us. Yes, the Twin Cities has already endured the first official hard freeze meaning the growing season has officially ceased.  I had to scramble home to dig up what was left of the carrots, parsnips, turnips, leeks, beets and onions to put up in the root cellar (well the one I set up in the basement) for the winter and try to see if any of the cabbage or cauliflower had anything to harvest when the temps plummeted in late October.  I had plucked most of the green tomatoes at the first frost warning but was disappointed not to have just a few more weeks, especially now we are having this last gasp Indian Summer. 

My second harvest of peas never quite made to blossom thanks to the lack of rain unfortunately, and a bad case of fungus on a nearby squash wouldn’t have helped their quality anyway. 

It was a challenging year for gardening this season. With the very cool temperatures and drought conditions there were many challenges. I had my worst year for squash borer ever, killing most of my winter squash plants. I also battled late onset of white mildew on my zucchini and yellow squash due to all the late watering I had to do, and then very wet fall, so a very disappointing year for squash.

What I lacked in squash I more than made up for in cucumber however.  I tried a new variety alongside my traditional Organic Sweet Marketmore, a Thompson & Morgan Picolino F1 Hybrid Organic, which was a tremendous hit. Incredible producer and wonderful flavour, no bitterness, thin skin.

My peppers did yield but very little thanks to the cool temps and late start to the summer and the fact that I planted too close to tomatoes that grew out of control so they likely didn’t get quite enough light.  I got enough Jalepeno to make salsa, and red peppers to make stir fries so that is good.

My tomatoes were out of control this year.  All of my plants were from seed this year except two, the Amish Paste & Sweet 100 that I picked up at Mother Earth Gardens.  Unfortunately My experiment of trying to get the rainbow cherry tomatoes didn’t work as well as hoped and I ended up with hundreds of red cherry tomatoes. A good thing if you have people to donate them to, but after a while you do run out of things to do with cherry tomatoes. I was disappointed I did not end up with the purple, yellow and orange varieties from the seeds but the plants did thrive well and the Sweet 100 was insane with production.

The Roma, Black Plum, San Marzano, Amish Paste & Roprecco Paste Tomatoes were fantastic though as mentioned before they were delayed, once they finally started to ripen I had a wonderful crop and made wonderful sauces & salsas all summer long and have been canning all fall.

One of the nicest surprises was a new tomato variety I tried, the Matina, another organic Thompson & Morgan seed. Despite the black walnut mystery that baffled me for a while, these were a wonderful early and constant producer throughout the summer and fall.  A great salad & slicing tomato also good for sauces and cooking and even have held up to canning.

This was a first year for garlic for me and was very pleased with the result and am excited to plant again this week! Small bulbs but who can complain when you get both scapes and a fresh bulb from a tiny clove fresh from your own ground?

Onions I did not have as good a result thanks to trampling super-raccoons. They used the place where my onions were planted as their path to my yard and kept breaking the stalks, stunting the growth of the bulbs so I ended up with very small yield for my onions this year.  But have some nice shallots and a few nice ones for cooking.  Will have to address that next season.

Despite a mowing down by baby rabbits (chicken wire fence didn’t keep them out) early in the season my carrot crop is tremendous!  Am going to be making stews and soups all winter long!  There are some spotty nematode affected areas, but have found an organic early treatment product that can be applied to prevent the space alien-type distortion that the harmful nematodes create.

Parsnips and turnips did well too, despite the drought, though the turnips did also have some pest issues. Because it is an organic garden there is little that can be done other than try to introduce some more beneficial insect population.

The rainbow beets have been enjoyed all summer in salads and a second yield will be pickled and canned.  The organic compost mix and tilling I did to the corner plot seemed to be a boon for my beets though the lack of water was a challenge at times.

Being the fine Welsh lass that I am, I am probably most proud of my perfectly straight row of thick pale leeks.  I am looking forward to making a lovely bowl of Cawl with the Yukon Gold potatoes I grew in the bag this year.  The red new potatoes were lovely too, and the bag method was fantastic, such an easy harvest.

The cabbage & cauliflower & broccoli plants did extremely well but did not produce until just now so they are tiny.  I believe it is because there was a big branch of my maple tree that decided to grow over the raised bed this season that seemed to shade that area during part of the day.  It received a great deal of sun but perhaps not for long enough of the day and that may have stunted the growth, or perhaps the growing season was just not long enough this year with the cool weather having grown the plants from seed.  Either way, the plants were disappointing with only a few small cabbage heads and some plants with no cauliflower heads or tiny ones.  Will have to examine what to do with tree or bed next season.

The bush beans and broad beans were perfect for us this season, but did not yield enough to preserve as the drought took its toll on the plants late in the season. Hopefully next year is better.

Japanese Eggplant was stupendous, despite the cool weather, much better than the traditional one, which only yielded one big fruit due to lack of heat.  Will add a Thai eggplant next year I think.

With my added space from the raised beds I’ve found I need to devote more time to preserving.  We are going to invest in a new freezer for next season, though I quite enjoyed canning  it is much greater time investment, so I will split my harvest next year between the freezer and pantry, or find some sous chefs to help in the canning process in exchange for a few take-home gifts of tomato sauce or tomatoes. And I will be buying more Green Bags to keep the fresh items like cucumber and lettuce in the refrigerator longer.

It was a challenging season but the end of the year was wonderful and I am still enjoying my bounty but now it is time to cover up the beds with mulch, put away the tools and start pouring over the seed catalogs to plan for next season.

Lets see, seed starting begins in February, so that gives me three months for planning!

Tucked in for the Winter (Pamz2)

Putting your garden to bed is never a fun garden chore.  I am in the process of doing mine and I speak from experience. But it is a necessary one and there are certain things to keep in mind to ensure a happier spring. Peat Wilcutt, famous is conducting a seminar on proper techniques for putting your garden to bed for the winter as well as planing garlic and other fall crops.   Details of the seminar below:

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Famous Chickens in the City Instructor, Peat Wilcutt, will provide you with the tools to have a proactive approach to perennial and vegetable winter gardening

Date:      Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Time:      6:30pm
Where:      Urban Earth Cooperative
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Topics included:
Winter gardening
setting up a cold frame
planting fall crops such as garlic
cover crops

Space is limited so reserve now for Peats class tonight, October 20th!
To pre-register call Urban Earth at 612-824-0066
$10 for members
$15 for nonmembers
Each student will receive a free heirloom garlic bulb for planting.
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Urban Earth Cooperative
910 W. 36th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55408
www.urbanearthcoop.org
612-824-0066

Terry Straub
Program Coordinator
University of Minnesota Extension
Hennepin County Master Gardener Program
479 Prairie Center Drive
Eden Prairie, MN   55344-5378
P:  612.596.2130
F:  952.828.7280
Preferred E-mail at:  strau097@umn.edu
Hennepin County Master Gardener Hotline:  612.596.2118

Become a Master Gardener!  Applications are now on-line at www.hcmg.umn.edu.

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”  Marcus Tullius Cicero

Well it answered one question, only to create another great big one.

They’re NUTS!  More specifically, something resembling walnuts.  So now the mystery is, how does a walnut grow on a tomato plant?  I understand cross pollination but never in a million years could have thought a sweet little bumble bee flitting about my tomato plant could deposit a bit of walnut pollen on my tomato plant and it would grow an actual nut right there on the tomato vine!!

And then, the other question is, what should I call this new interesting variety of nut, the Walmato? Waltina?

They are almost alien like and reminiscent of hedge balls you can purchase as a natural repellent for spiders in your home.

If anyone has any information to help me identify these strange tomato plant formations please let me know, I don’t know whether I am more intrigued or afraid at this point.  The Matinas are still producing wonderfully, and there were even juicy red tomatoes on the same vine and bunch as these strange green creatures.  There are only two that I can see out of three plants so far but it is indeed a Matina Mystery I would like solved.

Below is the announcement and information on the two-film event at the Riverview Theater.

Celebrating Local Food, Creating Permanent Community Spaces Gardening Matters and the Midtown Farmers Market invite you to a two-part film event:

The Garden
Wednesday, September 9th – 7p.m.
Riverview Theater

&
Food Fight
Wednesday, September 16th – 7 p.m.
Riverview Theater

Do we value our community spaces?  How do community gardens and farmers markets impact our ability to nourish ourselves and the neighborhoods in which we live?  What can and should be done to protect these spaces for the benefit of the common good?
The Garden: In 1992, neighbors working together to grow food, feed families, build community, and repair blight established The Garden, a 14-acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles.  It became the largest community garden in the United States.  But behind closed doors at City Hall, the Garden was sold to a developer for less than fair-market value.  The Garden, an Oscar-nominated documentary by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, follows a group of urban farmers, mostly immigrants from Latin America, as they organize, fight back, and demand answers. View the trailer at www.blackvalleyfilms.com

Food Fight: When we walk into a supermarket, it’s easy to believe we are in the midst of the widest possible selection of wholesome foods available.  Don’t be fooled: Chris Taylor’s film Food Fight documents how over the course of the 20th century, our food system has been co-opted by corporations whose interests aren’t always in providing our families with fresh, healthy, and sustainably-produced food.  But there are alternatives: beginning with the 1960’s counter-cultural revolution, Taylor’s film features some of the folks who have been taking our nation’s food production back into their own hands through innovative urban agriculture projects, schoolyard gardens, locally provisioned restaurants, and community farmers markets. View the trailer at www.foodfightthedoc.com.

Featured Speakers: Following each film there will be a brief presentation/panel discussion to address the issues raised by the films. Chris Taylor, director of Food Fight will be at the screening on the 16th to discuss the documentary & answer questions from the audience. Additional speakers to be announced.

Tickets for both shows are $10 at the door, no advance sales.

Doors open at 6:30pm.

The Riverview is located at 3800 42nd Avenue South, Minneapolis, 55406.

Sponsored by the Midtown Farmers Market & Gardening Matters, with support from our Promotional Partners:  Birchwood Cafe, Common Roots Café, Environmental Justice Advocates of MN, Headwaters Foundation for Justice, Land Stewardship Project, MN Food and Justice Alliance, Peace Coffee, and Seward Co-op.

Please contact Jesse (jesse.gardeningmatters@gmail.com) with any questions and we hope to see you there!

The Garden Facebook Page

Celebrating Local Food/Protecting Community Spaces Film Facebook Event Page

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Issues like these are important to our community.  Locally, the Soo Line Community Garden in Minneapolis just received notice that they are considering the area for rezoning. Community meetings regarding the rezoning are being held August 31, September 1 and September 2.  All three will be in the Midtown Exchange building (920 E Lake St) from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.  A the same presentation will be given at 7:00 PM at each meeting.

Organizers have said that at present, the Soo Line Garden’s land has split zoning,  with half zoned residential (R2B) and half industrial (I1) which was was created 15 years ago at the request of the Whittier Alliance and the South Whittier Land Use Task Force to create an obstacle to possible development (one half would have to be rezoned before any project could go forward).  As part of the Midtown Greenway Rezoning Study it is now proposed that the lot where the Soo Line Community Garden lies  be zoned R1A, Single Family Residential.

Say Soo Line Community Garden leaders “We would like to see the City adopt an open space zoning category so that the zoning code can reflect the intended use of the land. Until such a category can be created we support the rezoning to R1A as the option which offers the best protection against any future development threat.”

While there is no immediate threat to the SLCG and it was not individually singled out for the rezoning, the organizers are requesting supporters to participate in the meetings so that the garden’s interests can be protected and any future threat minimized.

For further information on the rezoning meetings or the Soo Line Community Garden you can contact Russell Raczkowski (rracz@earthlink.net).

Soo Line Garden: Annual or Perennial

After a long wait finally this summer’s tomato crop is coming in! You may find it strange that for a gardener who grows so many fresh tomatoes, I actually don’t enjoy fresh tomatoes myself.  For some reason I have never been able to enjoy the taste of a raw tomato; I need it doctored in salsa or sauce. But that is fine because I grow not only for myself, but for others, and I also plant enough varieties of tomatoes to ensure I have enough tomatoes for all my cooking endeavors as well.

This year seems to have produced a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes, though they are late.  I thought for a while I was only growing tomato vines, and not fruit, and then only green tomatoes, but this recent spate of hot weather has started to turn the green fruit red, finally.

The old standbys are doing well, Sweet 100, Rainbow Cherry, San Marzano, Roma, Amish Paste, Double Rich & Robrecco Paste. But this year I tried a new one organic tomato called “Matina” from Thomson & Morgan which has been an outstanding success.  I grew all my tomatoes from seed this year except the Amish Paste which I get each year from Mother Earth Gardens.

Tomato Matina

Other than the Amish Paste & Matina, I did not grow any heirlooms this year, choosing instead to grow more tomatoes for canning and roasting and saucing.  The Matina has been a huge suprise with the volume of yield and how wonderful they are for a nice salad or sandwich slicing tomato.  I even made a fantastic bruchetta with them and plan on using them in a nice salsa as well.  With the continued production of the plants there will also be some canning of them I am sure.

Surprise compost tomato

One of the surprises I received in my garden this year was a tomato plant that grew next to my compost bin. Obviously it was a plant that seeded itself from one of the plants I placed in the bin last year and somehow one of the tomatoes escaped. It appears to be a cherry tomato so the good news is it has enough time to yield perhaps a few fruits.

I am afraid to write that so far I have avoided many problems with tomato blight or disease for fear that I will jinx myself. Other areas of the country are experiencing severe bouts of tomato and potato blight.  The worst I have seen so far (knock on wood) is some blossom end rot on a potted tomato from uneven watering.  But now that it is warmer and more humid fungal diseases can start to take hold more easily so I will likely keep an eye on the plants, trim any leaves that show signs of yellowing or brown spots and use and organic fungicidal spray if necessary.

Because we also still are behind as far as the growing season goes I think I may look into building some form of greenhouse for my tomatoes to extend the season, some way to encase my raised bed in a big plastic tent to allow the temperature to be a bit warmer once the cooler fall temperatures arrive.

In the meantime, I will be enjoying this wonderful harvest of fresh tomatoes.  I’ve even  invested in a few kitchen gadgets over the years like my Wüsthof-Trident Tomato knife to my Tomato Press to make processing the tomatoes even easier.

One of my favorite food television programs was Jamie Oliver’s “Jamie at Home” where he specialized in cooking meals straight from his organic garden.  He had an entire episode devoted to tomatoes where he cooked a tomato salad, fusilli with salsa rossa cruda, an oven baked sausage ragu and pale pink tomato and vodka consomme. I think I’ll be tapping into that on the old Tivo soon.  But the other surprise I had in my garden has been a second yield of asparagus, only a handful of spears, but it was a fun discovery nonetheless.  And the discovery means I’ll be making one of my other favorite Jamie Oliver recipes for dinner this week, Chicken with asparagus & cherry tomatoes.  I have a lovely little chicken breast from Braucher Sunshine Harvest Farms that will be perfect for it.

I am not want for recipes or ideas that is for certain. I know Andy Williams says that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but it is hard to beat tomato season!

One Day of Cherry Tomatoes

One perfect Matina

The Minneapolis Parade of Community Gardens is August 22nd.   It will be a wonderful kick off to National Community Gardening Week that was declared by the US Department of Agriculture.   Minneapolis & St Paul City Councils will be passing resolutions proclaiming August 22nd as  “Community Garden Day”, honoring each and every community garden and the hard work that everyone contributes to making these green spaces community assets.

It is important to show support for these resolutions being put forth by the cities so if you have an opportunity to stop by the City Council meetings this week please do so.

The entire process takes only 15-30minutes.  Quick and Easy. Let the city council know just how important these green spaces are to our neighborhoods.  You won’t need to say anything — your presence will say it all.

Minneapolis City Council Meeting
Friday, August 14, 2009
9:30 a.m.
300 5th St
Council Chambers, Room 317 City Hall, Minneapolis

St Paul City Council Meeting
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
3:30 p.m.
15 Kellogg W Blvd
Council Chambers, Third Floor City Hall, Saint Paul

The International Outreach Church Community Garden in Burnsville is working on a City of Burnsville Resolution also! Right on!! Date of Resolution TBA.

Parade of Community Garden brochures can be found at www.gardeningmatters.org or call 612-492-8964!

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I have had the joy of growing up next door to the Dowling Community Garden all my life, and while my own backyard is large enough that I do not need the space of a community garden, I enjoy walking by every day and watching the crops and flowers grow, and my neighbors tending to their plots.  I speak with many of them at Mother Earth Gardens each spring about what they are going to plant and during the summer we commiserate about the lack of rain.  Community Gardens are a most wonderous thing and there are not nearly enough of them in the Twin Cities, though we are fortunate that there are far more here than other cities,  as the Parade will attest.   Each year it is such a thrill to see how many more have been added to the Parade.

Community Gardens are not just enjoyable for me, there is research that more and more people are enjoying them. The makers of Scotts Miracle Gro (they do make an organic product now at least, and their research was insightful), sponsored a comprehensive white paper on gardening in America.   In it they state  “Among households that don’t currently participate in food gardening, 3 percent would be extremely interested and 4 percent would be very interested in having a plot in a community garden located near their home. That translates to an estimated 5 million households that would like to garden in a community garden in the future, compared to the 1 million households that are current community gardeners.”

Five million additional people could be joining the community gardening movement if we could only find safe and clean spaces for them.  And not only could this be helpful in creating a further sense of community, providing safe, healthy produce, and an enjoyable activity for the family, but according to a 2006 study by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University & the New York School of Law:  “The opening of a community garden has a statistically significant positive impact on residential properties within 1000 feet of the garden, and that the impact increases over time.  We also find that higher quality gardens have the greatest positive impact.  Finally, we find that gardens have the greatest impact in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.”

Community Gardens can increase your property value,  more and more people want to participate, they provide an economical source of fresh produce that is good for the environment and on top of all that, gardening is good exercise and is one of the most enjoyable activities imaginable.  So if you can, please go to your City Council meeting, or send your regards to your representative in support of National Community Gardening Week and Community Gardening Day. Because with more support from our government, perhaps more of those 5 million people nationwide can have that chance to participate in this great activity known as Community Gardening.  Maybe one of them is you!

For more information on how to start a Community Garden, the American Community Gardening Association is a wonderful resource as is of course, Gardening Matters mentioned above.  The City of Minneapolis also has the specific details on rules for starting a Community Garden on their website.