Hosting a "Green day" plant swap and Makin' it Monday

Photo Credit

This past monday, I was invited to an event at our local church called a "green day". I'd never heard of one, but I heard there would be plants. I thought this would be a good time to glean some knowledge from some more experienced gardeners. Plus, lunch was provided. :)

Have you heard of a "green day"? My first thought was of the 90's band, but this was an event hosted by our senior citizens, so that couldn't be it.

You see, a green day is when a group of gardeners get together to share their extra plants. There were a lot of passalong plants like aloe and ferns, but there were also seedlings for tomatoes, peppers, and various herbs. After the swap and the meal, a local Master Gardener shared some planting tips.

It was so neat! I think it's a great idea, and I'll plan to be a part next year. Most backyard gardeners have leftover seeds or seedlings after they do their spring planting, and I know I have plenty of plants that grow and reproduce. I hate that I didn't find out about it until the day of, or I would have had plenty to contribute. It's definitely something to plan ahead for.

If you're reading from a colder climate, now would be a good time to start planning for a green day, as everyone's getting their gardens started, or planning to. You really don't need anything other than a few gardeners and a place to put all the plants.

I bet this would be a good time to swap other farm and garden bounty, such as extra eggs, preserves, and such. Later in the summer when everything starts producing, you could do a produce swap.

What fun!

Have you ever been to a swap like this before?

The link-up 

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Garden time!

I've been working on getting my garden in, and it's looking pretty good! We got a great hookup on some plants from the high school here in town. The kids in the ag. class start the seedlings, then sell them as a fundraiser. We got our whole garden stocked (about 7x16 feet) for $10. Oh, and some tomatoes I started from seeds went in there, too. This is a really great opportunity to help out the high school ag class, too!

I don't have pictures, yet. I'll try to include some on Friday, to prove that I'm not just making all this up... I know my blog is sadly short on photos.

We had plenty of compost built up to "feed" the garden, so the only cost was the plants themselves.

As we were planting the garden, I couldn't help but think how indebted we are to our next door neighbor, Mr. Jesse, for helping us get the whole thing up and going last year. He used his truck to haul in the dirt, and helped with a lot of the other set up, too. Mr Jesse passed away two days ago, and we already miss him greatly. Working out in the garden this week has been great therapy for me as I work through his loss. He's also the one who gave us our chickens, so our little backyard homestead really owes him a lot, and is a testament to what a giving spirit he had.


Newbie Tips
As a new gardener, I am constantly asking friends at church for advice on what to grow, how to grow it, and when to plant it. I just read a really great blog post over at Stacy Makes Cents full of advice for the new gardener. Go on and check it out.

To her list, I'd also add these:

If you're working with a small space, think about yield/area. When we planted our winter garden, we planted waaay to much cauliflower and carrots and much too little spinach and chinese cabbage. The broccoli and cauliflower were slow to produce and didn't produce as much food as the leafy greens. Of course, you want to be sure and plant your family's favorites, too. No sense having a bumper crop of a veggie your kids and hubby won't touch.

Also, I found this neat little chart called the most profitable plants in your garden. If one of your biggest gardening goals is to save money, you'll want to use most of your space growing produce that costs a lot at the grocery store, and just continue buying the cheaper veggies. For example, fresh herbs are cheap to grow, but really pricey and the grocery store. Carrots, on the other hand, are cheap and the grocery store and don't give a high yield for the space they take up.

For me, I have one goal this year, and that is to have enough tomatoes to eat off of and preserve some sauce, salsa, and diced tomatoes to get us through the winter.

For you more seasoned gardeners out there, what are some beginner's tips you wish someone had shared with you when you were first getting started?

Don't forget!
Guys, don't forget about our March challenge, drink your water! I've been doing pretty good, I must say, especially considering that I've been traveling a good bit. We've got a week and a half left, and then I'll be announcing our next challenge. Prepare yourself, this one's a doozy!

Agriculture slaves in America (Why my backyard garden makes me feel like a hero)

In our house, we try to be very conscious about what our money goes to. We do not want to support any business that does not treat its employees fairly. This task can be so discouraging sometimes, when we have so little information about where what we buy comes from. It really seems impossible, too, when almost everything I buy was made far far away from where I am.

There was quite a stir over Halloween about the immoral practices that Hershey knowingly supports in North Africa. Apparently they find it cheaper and more convenient to buy cocoa beans that were harvested by child slaves. I'm not a huge fan of their chocolate, so that's an easy boycott for me. I do try to shop Fair Trade when it comes to buying coffee, chocolate, tea, and a few other luxuries that are commonly known to be produced by immoral practices. I've also heard of Rainforest Alliance Certified products and Direct Trade products which sound pretty good. I'd like to do more research on the different terms to know which is the best option. I'm willing to pay a little more for these items and have the peace of mind knowing that I'm supporting something good. I have yet to find an affordable option for Fair Trade sugar, though. To be honest, I go back and forth on the sugar because I tend to use a fair amount of it making kombucha and water kefir. I need to either start using less sugar or be willing to fork over another few bucks, I guess.

Also, I have a really hard time buying brand new clothes because I know that many major clothing companies  have their clothes made in sweatshops all over the world. I haven't found a great alternative, though. There are options online and occasionally at Whole Foods Market to buy fair trade clothes, but the prices are steep and there aren't many options. At our home, we choose to buy second hand. This doesn't change how the clothes were made, but it changes the hands our money goes into. Especially if we shop at Goodwill or The Salvation Army, where they hire people who are in need and give some of their proceeds to charity. Not to mention that the prices are great and it's like a treasure hunt every time we shop! Of course, we do end up buying brand new clothes occasionally. It's hard to get around that one all the time. I'm NOT buying second hand underpants...sorry.

Now, the thing that inspired this post was an excerpt from a book I found over on the Mother Earth News website. I never knew that even buying U.S. grown veggies can support slavery. The book is called "Tomatoland." Short name. Life changing message. If you want to read the entire excerpt, go here, but I'll summarize the main points for you in the remainder of this post.

In the book, Author Barry Estabrook investigates the practices of tomato farming in Florida. First of all, most of us can tell the difference between a grocery store tomato and a vine ripened tomato with our eyes closed. The flavor and texture just doesn't compare. It's like apples and oranges almost. Or tomatoes and....icky red balls of mush. So that's no fun, anyway.

Estabrooks tomato journey began when his windshield was almost smashed by a tomato flying off of a truck in Florida. He says the tomato did not burst when it hit the highway, it bounced. Odd. This led him to study these freak tomatoes. He found that modern mass produces tomatoes have far less nutrients than vine ripened locally grown ones, and they are routinely sprayed with at least 100 herbicides and pesticides. Even worse, he discovered that it is not uncommon for illegal immigrants to be the ones harvesting these tomatoes without proper pay or any legal rights whatsoever. Their pay is usually so low that they cannot afford a vehicle and they are forced to live right next to the farm in housing often owned by slumlords. They are charged exorbitant prices to live in trailers we probably wouldn't put our dogs in. I (Sarah) have actually done some migrant missions, and I've seen these trailers. Ten or eleven men in a single wide trailer thats only source of running water is a water hose run through the window. Estabrook says that is not the worst of it, though. He quotes Douglas Malloy, chief assistant United States attorney in Fort Myers as calling South Florida's tomato fields "ground zero for modern day slavery." He says that, in the past 15 years, over 1,000 men and women being held and forced to work against their will have been freed in South Florida, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. There are cases of men and women being locked inside buildings at night with armed guards outside the doors. Some were even in chains. This is not what I think about when I think of a tomato sandwich. This is not something I want to support with my money. Of course, it'll be hard to not buy canned tomatoes or tomato sauce all winter. I'll probably be buying a few. And then, of course, there's ketchup. I know one thing for sure. I'll be growing and canning as many tomatoes as I can next summer now that I know they taste better, they're more nutritious, and no one had to be forced to work in my garden and be chained up at night.

I'll leave you with a few quotes from the end of the excerpt:

"When I asked Molloy [the attorney] whether it was safe to assume that a consumer who has eaten a fresh tomato from a grocery store, fast food restaurant or food-service company in winter has eaten a fruit picked by the hand of a slave, he corrected my choice of words. “It’s not an assumption. It is a fact.”

"It’s a world we’ve all made. And one we can fix."

I don't know about you, but my backyard veggies just got a little tastier.


This post was shared at Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday, Traditional Tuesdays, Simple Lives Thursday, Fight Back Friday and Sunday School.

Our Fall Garden

It's official, Dennis and I are hooked on gardening.

I was a little unsure about all of the time and energy it took to set up our vegetable bed. I was doubtful that we would get much of a return for our efforts. I watched those vegetables and thought they were growing way to slow for my liking.

Then, we started harvesting.

It is so much fun to be able to walk into the backyard and gather veggies to be eaten less than an hour later. I would never have believed how much a difference it makes in the taste without experiencing it. So far, we've only harvested our "greens", some collards, spinach, lettuce, and chinese cabbage. Oh yeah, and one jalapeno pepper. We've got a few more veggies that should be ready soon.

 Our cutest little veggie... yeah, she'd been eating dirt.

An eggplant getting ready. I'm actually not a fan of eggplant; we're growing them for our neighbor.

Squash flower.

Tomatoes ripening.

I'm letting my basil grow wild and free, and I think it's quite lovely that way. That vine is a sweet potato vine. This particular type doesn't actually grow sweet potatoes, but it grows like crazy!

Here are our peppers!

I know we've just got a few more good weeks before most of these plants will need to come up and be replaced with some more "wintery" veggies. I think we'll get some produce off of them before then, though. I feel lucky to live in a place that seems to avoid frost for quite a while.

We've also got carrots (which grow way too slow for my tastes), broccoli, cauliflower, and the aforementioned leafy greens. Oh yes, and garlic.

Next year, I'll plant less broccoli and way more chinese cabbage. I was pretty disappointed when that stuff ran out. I never knew I liked it so much!

I'm pretty excited about our coming addition to our mini-homestead - 4 chickens! I think our neighbor's wife gave him one of those "It's them or me! One of us has got to go!" ultimatums. So, he's offered to give them to us in exchange for eggs each week. Pretty sweet deal!

What do you like to plant in your winter garden? How long does it take to grow a carrot, anyway?

Don't tell anyone my kid eats dirt, k?

This post was shared on Monday Mania and Fat Tuesday.