Distribution #10 - Almost Finished

We started off this Saturday like last week with donuts, not a very healthy breakfast but it makes working on a Saturday morning a little sweeter. :) We were working with a reduced crew today (only 3 youth), but managed to to get everything picked and distributed in record time. This yield was a smaller one, with all the tomatoes picked and distributed last week. However, we still managed to get lots of peppers (green, banana and jalapenos) and finally ...GREEN BEANS. To be fair there wasn't a lot of them but after a little taste test they were confirmed to be delicious! This was our second last distribution, with next Saturday October 1st being the last. In the following weeks we will be cleaning up the gardens and putting them to bed for the season. Everyone at Veggie City is looking forward to our wrap-up celebration on October 6th in partnership with the London Training Centre and their Local Food Skills course.  We are looking forward to celebrate a successful first year with our youth, shareholders, mentor, donors and partners!!! 

So many tomatoes!!!

It was a really cold morning when everyone met at the storage bin. Unfortunately we were hoping that everyone would show up, but at last there was Eric, Angel, Derek, Tosha, Katie and I. Katie bought each of us a donut to start our day and then everyone split into teams of 2 and went to the gardens. I teamed up with Eric and Angel and Derek went together. Katie took the farthest gardens. We picked plenty of vegetables....it was incredible! There were green peppers, banana peppers, and a whole load of tomatoes and cherries tomatoes! After picking everyone was glad to see the beautiful sunshine coming out and bringing us some warmth. We each took a box of vegetables and delivered them. After a long day we went home to enjoy the rest of the beautiful day.

Our First Saturday Distribution

On Saturday Sept 4th we had an amazing distribution, instead of the share holders coming to the market we delivered the veggies to their homes.We were also at the community market talking about Veggie City. The market went well not just for Veggie City, but everyone else that was selling their goods that day.   We had tons of cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, banana and jalapeno peppers. Most of our herbs have finished for the season. As usual we got into our teams and we got right to picking the veggies. At one of the houses we had a lot of tomatoes and it took three of us to bring back the baskets. When we got back to the market we started counting so every share holder has the same number of veggies in each bag.  After counting we all went to deliver to the share holders, and when we were done we headed back to the storage bin to put our bikes and the bins back that was our Saturday.

From the Kipps Lane Market we hope to get new share holder's and keep the share holder's that helped with veggie city this year. Our goal is to expand veggie city into different parts of the city.

Jasmine

The Great Tomato Blight Of 2011

It appears that all of the tomato plants in every garden has developed Late Blight Disease. This disease is basically a fungus that destroys the plant and spreads very quickly. Late Blight is brought on by the cool damp weather, and spreads by wind, water and transfer of dirt. Unfortunately once you see the symptoms of blight it is too late, as the disease will spread and take over the whole plant. We picked all the tomatoes that had not been affected yet and be distributed them. There were lots of green tomatoes that we had to take, as the disease would have killed them off within the next few days if we didn't.

FYI:
Options for ripening green tomatoes indoors include:

• Placing them on a sunny window sill. This is a hit or miss solution. You’ll have much better luck ripening mature green tomatoes. Although the tomatoes are more stable sitting on their stem side, they will rot less readily if you can place them blossom side down.

• Wrapping individual green tomatoes in newspaper and layering in a box, no more than 2 layers deep. Place the box in a dark, dry spot and check weekly for progress. It usually takes 3-4 weeks for the green tomatoes to ripen, but check frequently and remove any fruits that show signs of rotting.

• Placing the green tomatoes in a paper bag with a ripe apple. The apple gives off ethylene gas, which speeds up ripening. Check the bag daily. 

The research we have done and the info we have received is that if you compost the diseased plants/fruit, the blight could stay in the compost as well as the soil it was planted in. The blight may not get killed off in the winter and the soil could still be contaminated.

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/lateblighthg.htm    

Fried Green Tomato Recipe!!!

Best Fried Green Tomatoes

Prep Time: 5 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes Ready In: 20 Minutes Servings: 4

"You can also fry up red tomatoes with this recipe but make sure they are not over ripe or they will be mushy. Serve these tomatoes outside with a glass of iced tea one summer night and enjoy the sunset with someone you love."

Ingredients:

4 large green tomatoes 2 eggs 1/2 cup milk 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup bread crumbs 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 quart vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

1.	Slice tomatoes 1/2 inch thick. Discard the ends.
2.	Whisk eggs and milk together in a medium-size bowl. Scoop flour onto a plate. Mix cornmeal, bread crumbs and salt and pepper on another plate. Dip tomatoes into flour to coat. Then dip the tomatoes into milk and egg mixture. Dredge in breadcrumbs to completely coat.
3.	In a large skillet, pour vegetable oil (enough so that there is 1/2 inch of oil in the pan) and heat over a medium heat. Place tomatoes into the frying pan in batches of 4 or 5, depending on the size of your skillet. Do not crowd the tomatoes, they should not touch each other. When the tomatoes are browned, flip and fry them on the other side. Drain them on paper towels.

Derek and Katie's Week #2

Hey Everyone!!! So this was our first week of working from the ground up, literally! :) We had a great week of weeding and watering, plus a great Wednesday Harvest.. Yet, another week with plenty of hot peppers and cherry tomatoes. If we top 1360 cherry tomatoes next week I will be surprised! Only half of our shareholders came to pick up their bounty on distribution night, so we were able to donate the extra veggies to the Life Resource Centre. They were so happy to see us on Thursday morning. They said that they were going to use all the extra veggies for their upcoming seniors lunch. During the week Derek spent some time becoming the bicycle repair man. This proved to be more challenging that expected. As one problem was fixed three more would arise. So, we are looking for a REAL repair man. This week was the last week where our wonderful youth worked throughout the week, so on Thursday afternoon we had a end of summer soiree. The youth made a salsa using veggies from our gardens! We will really miss getting to work with all the youth on a day to day basis, but are excited to get to see them every weekend for our upcoming weekend distribution days!!! Thats about all for week 2 for us, so sighning off, stay classy London!!!

Katie's Awesome Week 1

My name is Katie and this is my first time blogging!! It has taken me forever to get this blog finished because I wanted to make sure my first entry into the blogging world was perfect..I hope it turned out o.k. So this blog is about my very first week at VEGGIE CITY!!

I knew a little bit about the Veggie City project before getting hired as one of the new Community Development Workers, but I can honestly say that I had no idea what was in store for me the first week on the job. The first person I met was my also newly hired co-worker Derek. Our first day consisted of meeting with all the youth who took us around to all the different garden sites. When I say took us, I mean on foot...walking...4 hours in total of walking to be exact. Now I'm not exactly a couch potato, but I can say that it has been a long time since my primary mode of transportation has been by bicycle or on foot, so I got a great cardio workout and a glimps of what I had gotten my self into. As this is a green initiative project I found out that all the travel to the gardens to water, weed and harvest is done by bicycle or walking. The first week was an adjustment for me in that department, but I am getting used to it, and actually look forward to my daily bike rides... plus I'm being friendlier to the environment! Getting to know the youth this last week has been awesome! Everyday I come into work I know that I'm going to have fun... which not a lot of people can say about their job. One of the first things that I noticed about all the youth is the pride they take in the gardens they care for, and that they really believe in the Veggie City project and vision. Another thing that I noticed is the great response from the community. People like what they are seeing and are really taking an interest in the project and the positive impact it has on the community, which includes the shareholders!

Week one went by really fast, and I feel that I've already learnt a lot about my community, gardening and the people I work with. Stay tuned for my second's week blog.. which is where you will find out if I actually remember the locations of all the gardens and can make it a whole day without getting lost :)