Looking for something cool and charitable to do tonight? Check out Powderhorn Empty Bowls. It starts at 11am and goes to 7pm Friday (today) only at Powderhorn Park.

You get to pick out a handmade bowl (donated by local artists), make a free-will donation, enjoy homemade soup and leave with your bowl — now empty. It’s a reminder that there are bowls that need filling in the area, and that you’ve done something to help.

The proceeds will benefit organizations who literally fill bowls…the food shelf at the Division of Indian Work, Sisters Camelot and the Powderhorn Park kitchen upgrade.

Has anyone gone before? What was your experience?

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:

***************************************************

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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Urban Earth Cooperative
910 W. 36th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55408
www.urbanearthcoop.org
612-824-0066

It’s that time again, the most wonderful time of the year,The Saint Paul Art Crawl!

The Eastside Review reports this year has more events.

• Performers Venue: Performers in a wide variety of styles, from the Irish Uilleann pipes to classical piano, folk guitar to spoken word, bluegrass and jazz, will be performing short samples of their talents at Studio Z in the Northwestern Building, on Oct. 9 from 6:30 to 10 p.m. and Oct. 10 from 1 to 5 p.m.

• Paint Along with Tacoumba: Everyone is invited to the Union Depot lawn, rain or shine, to participate in the first public art piece featured in the Art Crawl. Artist Tacoumba Aitken will have paints and canvas available for visitors to help paint. Times: Oct. 10, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. and Oct. 11, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.

• Art Vending Machine – get an original piece of art for only $5. “Little gems” cigarette pack-sized art will be loaded in a re-purposed antique cigarette vending machine. This is open during most of the Art Crawl in the Northern Warehouse lobby, outside of the Black Dog Cafe.

Free bus transportation (disability accessible) is available to carry visitors to the various buildings and from some of the parking lots. Use lots on Kellogg and Broadway, or off of Prince Street. There is also parking by the Rossmor Building, the Everest/Hamm Building, and other lots throughout the city.

Who’s in?

Dm me on The Twitters

.

Image uploaded on September 6, 2009 by conner.mccall

It kind of feels like Fall, don’t you think?

.

The University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener Program in Hennepin County is looking for a few good gardeners!  They are looking for Hennepin County residents with a variety of gardening experiences; previous volunteer experience; good communication skills, including public speaking and leadership skills.  More information can be found on their website — www.hcmg.umn.edu.  

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

Magician, promoter and random dude MagicBrad has put together a guerrilla food drive for next month.

From the press release in my inbox:

“Nobody in America should go hungry,” says, “MagicBrad”, the coordinator of the mission. “My objective is simple. I want everyone in the Twin Cities with an email address, to email 2 other people about this project. Done. The food we collect goes to the local food shelves, so donations stay right within the community.”

Sounds easy enough to me.

The food will be collected on Oct. 17-18, 2009 at the Minneapolis Convention Center – HALL C.

Need something to do this weekend?

Well come to St.Paul and enjoy Concrete and Glass a three day music festival that is my favorite price, FREE! It has a little of everything: classical, hip hop, rock, there’s even a cello and drum quartet.

If that doesn’t float your boat you can always check out Solid Gold at the Turf Club on Saturday, I hear they’ll be playing new material.

Just to get you in the mood for some Mn music, here’s the lovely Dessa and friends.

What’s in your shuffle?

.

After last week posting my Matina Mystery about the strange green globes growing on my Matina tomato vine to the COMGAR mailing list and here on this blog and on twitter I’ve received several suggestions as to what they may be, from tomatillos gone wrong, or perhaps plant galls.  But I thought the best way to get to the heart of this mystery would be to cut into the fruit abnormalities and see what really was inside.

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?

While picking my Matina organic tomatoes today I came across two shriveled up globes that I thought were just rotten or fungally affected tomatoes but when I went to pick them I found they were hard firm fruit with an aroma similar to sage. I have never in all my years of gardening seen anything like this grow from a tomato plant.

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.

For those who appreciate community gardening and healthy food there is an upcoming two-film event at the Riverview that may be of interest.  Sponsored by Gardening Matters and Midtown Farmers market these two films are good documentaries regarding food and gardening issues that are pertinent in today’s environment.

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

****************************************

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