All sorts of goodies...

I’ve been saving up a lot of wonderful links to share with you, my avid readers! But first, a little news.

The garden beds are looking a bit bare, all our wonderful summer veggies were hit hard by that killing frost last weekend. Thankfully we checked the weather just in time and were able to harvest a great bunch of tomatoes to finish out our donations to the Food Bank. Despite its late start, the Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign was an overwhelming success. Between the community garden and local Winnemuccan gardeners, 347 pounds of fresh produce were donated to the Food Bank–and we are not just talking giant squash. From the children’s garden we donated 9 pounds of snap peas and 8 pounds of lettuce. Now that is a lot of food! Thank you to all who donated; the food you gave was truly appreciated. If you’re planting garlic and onions right now, throw a few extra bulbs in the ground for those who need it most!

The Harvest Festival is coming! Please join us Saturday, November 8 from 12 to 4 for Pumpkin carving, Scarecrow stuffing, Harvest Bowling and more! We’ll have games, snacks, prizes and facts to share rain or shine, at the Garden or in the cafeteria of Sonoma Heights if the weather doesn’t cooperate. Either way, we can’t wait to celebrate another successful season with you! If you’d like to volunteer, please leave us a note on this post or email winngarden@yahoo.com. And don’t think you’re off the hook if you can’t make it November 8th, we need plenty of help before that too. Drop us a line to see how you can help today!

And now, for all those links I’ve been saving for you:

One of my favorite authors wrote an incredibly interesting article for the New York Times about the industrialization of food in America and why neither of the presidential candidates are talking about such an important issue. It’s lengthy, but trust me, it is so worth it: The Food Issue: Farmer in Chief

And… I joined Raley’s mailing list and now they send me all these great recipes! The most recent strand is about how to feed a family of 4 on $10, and they have some very tasty (and thrifty!) looking recipes. I’m just linking this week’s recipe for Beef and Barley Harvest Salad, but the website has a really good recipe finder including searches for quick meals (under 30 minutes), vegetarian entrees, and my favorite, “squash, anyway?”.

Speaking of food… (this is the last one, I promise!) here’s another good article from the NYTimes (yes, sorry all, I am an east-coaster through and through) about picky eaters and how to feed them. If you’ve got a young one in the house, this is a must read: 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make

Now, if you’ve made it all the way to the end, reward yourself by going outside! Off with you! Shoo! and ENJOY THE SUNSHINE!