Well, Well, Well

It would only seem fitting that the year we put in a large garden/produce stand would be the year that we experience one of the worst droughts.  It hasn't rained for months and the water bill for the museum was off the charts.  In fact, when the water meter reader (is that even a job?) came by he actually did a double take. And the water company sent us a letter letting us know we were using an large amount of water and to make sure nothing was wrong.

So Jim decided we needed a well.  However, wells are very expensive and the museum doesn't have a lot of money just sitting around.  Once again, a community member came through and donated the money for us to get the well dug.  If it wasn't for this wonderful friend of the museum we probably wouldn't have been able to get this done.  And wouldn't you know it, the moment the well started being dug, it rained.  The Smallie family actually sat in the rain to watch.

We have water!!!  Actually, lots of water.  An underground creek runs about 40 food under the ground and we were able to tap into that.  YAY!!!!!

Community Involvement

There has been a lot said in recent years about giving back to the community.  Churches, schools, Girl/Boy Scouts all have individuals who volunteer their time to make their surrounding area a better place to live.  We at the Community Gardens are also helping to contribute to the process of making Granite City a better place to work and live.  Not only are we working against neighborhood blight by turning empty lots into neighborhood gardens but we are also giving produce to the local food pantries.  Two organizations that have benefited from our produce are the Community Care Center and Salvation Army.  Today Jim took a box of cucumbers to the Salvation Army and they were extremely excited to get the food.  When a box of vegetables was taken to the Community Care Center, the people there we so grateful and happy to get fresh food that it was all gone before Jim and Sharon made it to their car.

 By taking our extra produce to these food pantries we are ensuring that food will not be going to waste.  We would rather our produce look like this...

Than this.  Luckily we don't have too many rotten vegetables laying around.  But when they are left on the ground we leave them there to decay and add nutrients to the soil.  We also compost all of the food that has gone bad from being in the sun too long.  We will add this nutrient rich soil at the end of the harvesting season so the soil will be ready next year when are ready to plant again.

O is for Okra

Okra, a vegetable that is found mainly in southern dishes is being grown in the Old Six Mile Community Garden.  This little sucker is pretty crafty.  Just when you think you have picked all that is on the plant, boom, there is a huge one hiding next to the stem.  And when it comes to okra, bigger is not better.  Which goes against everything I believe in in terms of gardening.

Okra can be fried, steamed, baked, grilled, or pickled, but the most common way is fried.  In the South okra is a main ingredient in gumbo. The okra plant can grown between 2-8 feet so if you stop by the garden and see a ladder in the middle of the plants, you will know why. Luckily for us okra does well in drought conditions and since we haven't seen rain in almost 3 months it is doing pretty good.  It is best to harvest the pods when they are between 2-4 inches long.  If they get any longer than that they become tough and no longer any good.  Again this goes against my grain but my mom makes sure that they get harvested on time.

These okra are to large.  You may be asking yourself why I let them get so big.  My answer is, because I don't see them until one day I look down and BAM there they are.  Then I get a look from my mom or a smart aleck comment from my nephew that emphasizes that I just wasted an okra pod.

 The okra pod on the right is about the size you want them to be when harvested.  A word of caution about harvesting okra that my mom told me, and that I learned when I didn't listen to her.  Wear gloves!!  If you don't there is a very good chance that you will get the "okra itchies".  There is also a very good chance that I made that phrase up, but you get the idea.  I scratched and scratched and heard "see, I told you" many times before I learned never to pick the okra plant without gloves on.

 As you can hopefully tell from these pictures, okra are very good at the art of disguise.  The bigger they get the more they look like plant stems.  I consider it a game of hide and seek that I will not be losing!

If anybody knows any great okra recipes let me know, I would love to try some out.  I do know that Cracker Barrel and Lambert's serve fried okra.  And before you ask, that was not a paid endorsement, I am just passing on information  : )

HAPPY FRYING!!!!!

Birth of an Eggplant

egg·plant

   /ˈɛgˌplænt, -ˌplɑnt/  Show Spelled

noun

1.

a plant, Solanum melongena esculentum,  of the nightshadefamily, cultivated for its edible, dark-purple or occasionallywhite or yellow fruit.

2.

the fruit of this plant  used as a table vegetable.

3.

a blackish purple color; aubergine.

And we are growing them.  Lots and lots of them.  And they are fascinating to watch.  Are you wondering what makes them fascinating?  Let me show you what I mean.

 At first these pretty purple flowers bloom.  They grow and then they droop over.  At first you think that that is it, goodbye flower.  But no....

As the flower is hanging upside down a little eggplant starts to emerge.  WHAT???  That's right, they just bend right over and start turning into a large beautiful purple eggplant.

 Was this my pretty delicate little purple flower?  Why yes it was!!  It will keep growing and growing until we harvest it.  I think I have a new favorite veggie.  

 Another wonderful surprise was our okra.  We have never grown okra before so we didn't know what to expect.  Many people requested that we plant it, so we thought sure why not.  This little veggie also has a beautiful flower growing on it's branches, but we have no idea why.  And those little green sprouts above the flower, NOT the okra.  Even though that is what we have been watching and waiting to pick.  Haha tricks on us.  The okra actually grows on the bottom of the plant.  Who knew...

 These pumpkins came from a rotten pumpkin we just threw in the dirt last year.  We never planned on growing pumpkins, but here they are, ready or not.  Cool!

A wonderful June

June has been a wonderful month for our garden.  We are so excited to see the result of the hard work that was put into planting all of the crops.  The vegetables are doing better than we could have expected and we have learned many things already that will only help us next year

Our banana peppers are starting to ripen.  We also will have Serrano and Jalapeno peppers soon.

 We have a lot of people stop by our stand everyday and ask us when the tomatoes will be ready.  I wish I had an answer for them, instead I just ask for patience.  Our tomato plants have a lot of green tomatoes, but none have started to ripen yet.  But when they do, we will have a bumper crop!

The size of our zucchini is crazy!  These little suckers grow like crazy overnight.  Just when we think we have picked all that there are, we find more.  I am mystified everyday by the amount we are picking everyday.  

 A huge garden THANK YOU to Jim McDonnell for donating a wagon to the garden.  It has made hauling the vegetables and water much more enjoyable, if hauling buckets of water can be enjoyable.  All of us at the garden are extremely thankful to Jim for this addition.

 Who says vegetables are pretty???

Our little cabbage.  

We currently have zucchini, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, garlic, corn and cantaloupe for sale.  We will soon be adding tomatoes and watermelon!

The first harvest

The veggies are in!!!  We had a wonderful spring which put our vegetable garden ahead of schedule.  So far we have harvested zucchini, cucumbers, radishes, shallots, and garlic.  We sold those and some zucchini bread at the Melting pot last weekend.  The bread was a huge hit so we will be making more for next time.

Please stop by and pick up some vegetable.  We should be getting Relleke corn in next week.  Keep checking back for updates!

A little help from family

The Old Six Mile Community Garden is very blessed with all the help that we receive.  Not only has our family gotten involved by also neighbors and friends.  It has also helped people connect to their childhood.  Recently a father of one of our Jr. Gardeners came over and started talking to Jim.  He said as a child he would come over to the very spot his son has a garden plot and help garden with Mr. Whipple, the owner of the home that we turned into a museum.  He donated some wood which Jim turned into some raised beds for watermelon.  He also explained that their used to be chicken coops on the property, which explains why the land is so fertile.

At the beginning of spring the museums lawn mower broke.  We were asking people for donations when my Aunt Colleen donated her parents, who recently passed away, lawnmower to the garden.  This donation came at a perfect time for us and we greatly appreciate them doing this for us.

One of my favorite things about having this garden is the way it has brought my family closer together.  Our entire family works in the garden, but nobody works harder than my nephew Brady.  He rides his bike over first thing in the morning, sometimes beating Jim and Pete, and starts working.  He has learned, much to his grandmothers dismay, how to drive the lawnmower/tractor.  I won't lie, I laugh every time I see him drive the mower all around the yard just to get a shovel from the garage.  Brady is probably one of the hardest working kids I have ever seen.  Today when I was there he was laying down burlap bags between the rows of plants.  By watching him you can see that he really enjoys being out there.  And I know Jim loves having him there.  These are memories Brady will never forget.  And we have the garden to thank for this.

 Brady explaining to me what is planted and where.  He knows where everything is and exactly what to do when he arrives.

 The Jr. Garden clubs lettuce is coming in great. I was pretty nervous when I watched those kids place the seeds in the ground.  I know they will be excited to see how well their plants have grown.

 The radishes are ready to be picked!  One of the girls from the club already come over to take some from her plot.  

 The zucchini is starting to bloom.  Won't be long till we will be making some fresh zucchini bread.

Our new cherry tree