Photo courtesy of CrossFit MSP

The holidays are fast approaching, and I’ve made a plan to gorge myself guilt-free. It’s called: CrossFit MSP Boot Camp.

According to Wiki, CrossFit is “one of the fastest growing fitness movements on the planet,” combining constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity.

The Boot Camps, hosted for the first time at the CrossFit gym in St. Louis Park, incorporate the same philosophies as CrossFit, minus the complex lifting movements. Owner Michael Pilhofer says they’re for both men and women looking to get an efficient, short (15-20 min), fun workout, done in a small group environment.

I submit that the Boot Camps are also for those wishing to make a little more room in their waistband for a second helping of turkey.

Another plus is that CrossFit workouts are scalable for people of all fitness levels. Meaning even those of us who only run… after the ice cream man… will still benefit.

The six-week camps start November 2, and some discounts are available for signing up with a friend. As I learned in a similar boot camp, the best motivation to not wimp out is group peer pressure.

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
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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

The Poll is closed and there will be no recount or contest dragging this out eight months. Despite there being a tie between the top two selections (Glasu was the other winner) an editorial decision was made and as you can see, “How Green Was My Garden” has been chosen as the name of the blog and will be used going forward.  Thank you to all who voted!

If you don’t get the connection, “How Green Was My Valley” is a  book and movie and is a nod to my Welsh heritage.

The Permaculture Research Institute Cold Climate is offering a fantastic seminar series on Gardening with Insects. The Permaculture Research Institute-Cold Climate began as the Permaculture Collaborative in 2003 and has transformed from a community organization to a nonprofit group, offering unique educational and outreach programs and events.

Details for the Insect gardening seminar this fall are as follows:

Insect Management in Gardens and Edible Landscapes
Presented by Entomologist Neil Cunningham, MDA

Production Assistants: Daniel Halsey and Julianne Love

Register online for this 3-part lecture series and save over 33%!  Or attend 1 or 2 of the lectures and pay at the door.

When and Where : All lectures are 7-9pm in the Auditorium (Room #150) on the main floor of MCAD (MN College of Art and Design), 2501 Stevens Avenue, Minneapolis

Wednesday, September 9
INTRODUCTION TO INSECT MANAGEMENT
A bit of biology, a bit of ecology, basic overview of biocontrols.

• Insect characteristics and life cycles
• Plants we love and the pests that eat them
• Species identification and stages of management
• Common insect pests in local gardens

Wednesday, September 16
BIOCONTOL REGIMES FOR PEST MANAGEMENT
Specifics of solving pest problems using predator/parasitic wasp complexes and/or multispecies releases of predatory mites; the process of ordering bio-agents from biocontrol suppliers; and how alternative pesticides like insecticidal soaps, hort oils, and kaolin clays work physically on insects – in contrast to synthetic pesticides that function as nerve toxins.

• Natural pesticides, soaps, and clays
• Beneficial insect predators and parasites
  • Multi-species release and biocontrols
  • Seasonal management techniques
  • Sources for beneficial insects

Wednesday, September 23
PLANTING HABITAT FOR BENEFICIAL INSECT MANAGEMENT
A long-term view of biological control : the importance of creating habitat, and how plant diversity enables the insect diversity needed for natural control of pest populations.

• Fall and Spring garden prep for insect management
• Building habitat for beneficial insects
  • Using plant diversity for insect diversity
  • Attracting beneficial insects with Insectory Islands
  • Building an Insectory Island and insect habitat

Everyone knows the story of Willy Loman that’s been characterized time and time again, from Glengarry Glen Ross to the Simpson’s poor old Gil.

Have you ever been bothered by door-to-door sales people that refuse to take no for an answer?

Local columnist James Shiffer has the answer in “How I made a door-to-door alarm salesman vanish. What do you do?”

Is this your home?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered, antennae twitching. I noticed his gray tennis shirt had a corporate logo on it, and that he held a binder in his hands.

“How long have you lived here?”

“Who are you?” I said. I’m sure he could almost taste the hostility in the air, but he kept smiling. He said he was selling alarm systems for Pinnacle Security and that in this neighborhood –

“I cut him off. “Do you have a city solicitor license?”

Mr. Pinnacle Security, who still hadn’t told me his name, opened his binder and out came the scripted response, “Yes, I know that the city of Minneapolis requires a license for soliciting, just like many cities…” He flipped through his binder, “Okay here’s the one for Blaine.” He flipped back and forth a few times. “It must have slipped out,” he said, his grin never waning.

“You know, it’s illegal to go door-to-door in Minneapolis without a solicitor’s license,” I said. “I could call the cops on you right now.”

“But I’m in a good mood,” I lied.

“I’ll make sure I get the license before I do any more soliciting,” he lied.

I’ve been tempted to put up one of those “No Soliciting” signs, but everytime I get close to buying one I decide that they are too ugly. Although I’m sure it was kind of funny for my neighbors to watch a “home security” sales person, that had walked into my yard uninvited, be slowly backed out by two large dobermans as I rushed to stop the chaos; it’s not the kind of humor I want repeated.

I’ll usually tell them we don’t take surveys, answer questions, or accept solicitations. The few exceptions are people selling candy and/or cookies. The wife and I are always open to sweets.

How about you?
How do you keep solicitors from bothering you?

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Come on down….to Mystic Lake where you can compete for the chance to be on the Price is Right.

The last time I was in LA we were walking by the studio when the PIR crowd was let out, and it was insane to see all the crazies with their homemade shirts and giant nametags. I’m glad to see the historic gameshow is branching out for its talent.

From the Chaska Herald:

Well, come Saturday, Aug. 1, people will have that chance as “The Price is Right” will conduct a national contestant search for the first time in the show’s 38-year history at Mystic Lake Casino, 2400 Mystic Lake Blvd, Prior Lake.

Producers for CBS’ popular daytime television game show will interview contestant hopefuls in major U.S. markets.

From those interviews, three participants will be selected from each location to fly to Los Angeles and attend a taping of the legendary game show between September 2009 and February 2010. A bidder’s spot on contestants’ row will be guaranteed to one of the three participants, who will learn if they are selected to “come on down” when they hear their name called during the show’s taping.

It doesn’t say how the competition will work, but I assume points — for what I’m calling “Price Is Right Idol” — will be awarded on the basis of:

• Gaudy clothing with clever verbiage
• Bad makeup and/or perm
• Military haircut
• Shout-outs

But seriously, I wonder how many markets they’re doing this in? It kind of sucks they pick three people to fly to LA and then only have one go on stage. Sorry mom.

This year’s Minnesota State Fair is less than two months away, and we’ve started our Fair preparations with State Fair: The Great Minnesota Get-Together, a collection of photographs by Susan Lambert Miller.

Art’s Part

Ok, so why not just go on Flickr and look at pictures of the State Fair? I mean, there are over 12,000 of them. Why should you buy a book of pictures?

Well, let me tell you something. This is a coffee table book. As it’s just like Stephen Colbert said: when you’re moving, you can’t wrap your dishes in a blog. And you can’t set Flickr on your coffee table. Seriously, your coffee table needs this book. I’ll go so far as to say your coffee table is ugly without this book. UGLY.

So, let me tell you about this book. First, the puns. Oh, the puns. A two or three word caption is associated with each picture, and many of them are great puns. My favorite caption in the whole book is for the first picture, on page two. (See? Now you have to pick the book up to see it. Unless you’re a total asshole and just look it up Amazon.)

Ok, so maybe you’re one of these people I’ve heard about who isn’t totally into puns (I know! I didn’t believe it either). But you’re on the internet, so that means you love a good lol. This book (which sits on your coffee table, remember) also has a fair share of genuinely-lol lols. Also, there are some creepy (read: hilarious) chickens as pets/chickens as food and pigs as pets/pigs as food juxtapositions.

Oh yeah, and the pictures are all top-notch.

So, I swear to you, this book will make your ugly coffee table beautiful and it will make the ugly coffee table you think is beautiful actually beautiful. Anecdotal evidence: I don’t even have a coffee table and my sister picked it up and flipped through it when she came over one time.

Emily’s Part

I’m not sure how qualified I am to write about this book. After all, I’m not from here, I’ve only been to the Minnesota State Fair once, and I’ve never even been to the fair in my home state of Wisconsin. (Despite its world famous cream puffs, Wisconsinites seem to prefer Summerfest over their state fair. And while the Summerfest experience is more focused on music than food, both events feature large crowds of women in tube tops they probably shouldn’t be wearing, so let’s try to focus on our similarities rather than our differences, okay?)

Anyway, during my first summer here, I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about or why all of my coworkers were asking me whether I’d “been to the fair yet” as if it was a given that I was attending. Because I was most certainly not.

I did make it last year, though I was still a little freaked out by the whole thing. My trepidation even made me express disgust toward bacon, which is totally unlike me.

And while I definitely had a nice day at the fair (other than the fact that the fat content of the food I ate made me want to die later that night), I don’t think I’ll ever really understand or identify with the fair the way native Minnesotans do. I think it’s one of those things you have to grow up with, something you have to do every year for the better part of your childhood, to fully embrace. No amount of Pronto Pups is going to change that.

That being said, I really liked this book. I thought Susan Lambert Miller did a great job of capturing the many sides of the fair, from livestock (cute little piglets!) to food (mmm . . . corn on the cob!) to rides (vomit!) to the just plain bizarre (busts sculpted from butter?) and juxtaposes the images in a way that highlights just how weird the fair really is.

If nothing else, I’d highly recommend the book to first time fairgoers who need a preview of what they’re getting themselves into.

Oh, and there are also puns. But I’m sure the “Punsultant” has already filled you in.

It’s not too many weekends in the summer where I have some extra time to get away from family events, yard work and other obligations. I found the time this weekend to head to the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts that is taking place this Saturday and Sunday from 10 – 6.

Nestled in the shadow of the Stone Arch Bridge on the North side of the river, the festival seems to have been growing steadily each year it happens. It happens right down on the waterfront by main street and St. Anthony Main.

There are hundreds of artists displaying their work, lots of great live music, a car show and lots of other activities and stuff to do.

Me and the family plan to head down there on Bike which is not too far of a ride from Northeast. Maybe I will see you there.

Check out the full details here – stonearchfestival.com

Find yourself with little space but wanting to grow some veggies?  How about this nifty idea from Whole Foods? Take your reusable grocery bag, preferably the ones with Tyvek or some kind of plastic, not canvas kind as those will go moldy, and poke holes in the bottom, fill with loamy soil, and BAM!  a movable pot to grow some lettuce or herbs.  You could also grow a small tomato plant this way as well, or pepper plant, or even some carrots or beets if the bag is tall.

Gardeners.com sells something similar called a Salad Planting Bag for almost $20 but I like the Whole Foods idea since right now I seem to find myself awash in reusable grocery totes that everyone and their mother is giving away for free (including me!).

The idea is similar to this year’s hot garden product the Potato Bag which I am actually giving a go myself.

Potato Bag

The idea with a potato bag is that instead of digging the potatoes in the ground they are protected from pests and it is more convenient to harvest.  With the bag it can also be stored flat at the end of the season unlike a trash can or barrel, which also work well.  With the bag, you just place four or five seed potatoes cut into pieces at the bottom of the bag, cover with compost, wait for them to sprout, and when the plants are a few inches high, fill with more compost.  As the plants keep growing you keep filling with compost until the bag is completely filled.

Then you just need to keep the bag watered and fertilized (organically of course) and monitored for the pesky potato beetle.  I have had great success with K+Neem spray but one of my favorite sites for organic garden remedies, GardensAlive, recommends Pyola Spray so that is also a good solution.

At the end of the season you can simply tip over the bag to harvest all the potatoes.  I’m growing fingerlings, Yukons and red potatoes.  I’ve never had trouble growing potatoes before, but this seemed like a good way to do so in less space, with less effort and digging, which for me and my aching back, is a huge bonus!  Plus, these bags will fit between my raised beds or anywhere they can get good sun and drainage.

Looking forward to seeing how my potato bag experiment works.   Though if I was in the UK, I may think about these fancy plastic potato barrels which look like you can harvest while they are growing.  All the best gardening tools come from Britain but it usually takes a few years for them to make it stateside.

If you are looking for a local source for Potato Bags instead of mail order, my local garden store, Mother Earth Gardens, in the Longfellow neighborhood, had some left the last time I stopped by.  They are also selling some of the natural canvas grocery totes that I have made (like those pictured below).

Natural canvas grocery totes

So if you want to use some of your boring reusable bags for your lettuce, stop by Mother Earth and pick up one of these lovely ones to use for your groceries instead. And if you’re making the trip, you can also drop off your supply of plastic pots for recycling and check out Mother Earth’s fantastic selection of sustainably, native and locally grown plants and flowers.  There is a reason Mother Earth has been chosen the Twin Cities Best Garden Center several years running.

And don’t forget your reusable bags to transport your purchases, or (another shameless plug) you could always buy one of mine while you are there!