Wasatch Community Gardens Blog

Just when you think it is safe to rifle through your vegetable garden, another massive zucchini makes its appearance. This prolific squash takes no prisoners. It is the bully of the vegetable garden, growing atop any delicate tomato or herb plant that dares to grow in its path. I am doing my best to keep ahead of this year's crop by including zucchini in every stir-fry or salad that hits our plates, baking them on puff pastry, grilling and rolling them with goat cheese, and pureeing them with coconut milk for a silky soup. The battle is on. This version of stuffed zucchini is purely vegetarian and functions well as a side dish. However, it could easily be made into an entree with the addition of beans, sausage, or ground turkey or beef. The use of brown rice in the stuffing increases the fiber count and health benefits of the...

Week 1 is nearly over.  I've been hungry.  Don't worry, I'm not going all fundamentalist on the Eat Local Challenge.  When I get hungry and can't think of, or find, anything local, I cave and eat non-local food. The problem comes mostly from not thinking about food enough.  It takes some preparation and a time commitment.  I can't just run to the store and grab something 10 minutes before it's time to start dinner.  I have to plan ahead for the next Farmer's Market.  Or wander the local grocery store, searching for local food. I have to keep on eye on the bread and plan when I need to make another loaf. I have to carefully observe the garden and guess how quickly various items will ripen.  Or at least get close enough to ripe that I can swipe them early.  Thank goodness zucchini has the good sense to grow exponentially and...

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan depicts the start of the Organic Movement as a group of people who were opting-out of society.  The choice to eat organic was rebellious. Subversive.  It was a statement against the collective social order. Maybe Organic has been normed in 40 years, or maybe Organic has cashed in some of its values to make a buck, but either way, "Organic" is hardly viewed as subversive and rebellious these days.  In the explosive growth of the Organic Movement, much of the ideals and hard definitions of organic have been lost.  or simply tossed aside.  Perhaps that's why phrases like "Eat Local" and "Sustainable Farming" are popping up now. The thing is, eating local and supporting sustainable farming practices doesn't feel like opting-out to me.  Supporting local farmers and producers makes me feel more connected to society.  I'm thinking about the family who raises pigs on a...

A couple of weeks ago we WCG bloggers/gardeners got together for a little potluck. Sort of a get to know you/ get to know what we are doing gathering. We had a good time. We ate lots of food, talked a lot of gardening, and talked a little blogging. I tend to have a hard time with potlucks mostly because I think I am not creative enough to bring anything good. I like to think of my wife as the creative part of our team. I asked her what I should take with me. She recommended bringing my favorite salad of hers, just a simple little tomato cucumber salad. Brilliant in its simplicity I think. It got good reviews at the gathering and a request for the recipe. Now I tell you in advance, this may be the only recipe I post, as I don't fancy myself a creative cook. But...

I just finished the Tomato Sandwich Party Poster. What do you think?

Last week, Wasatch Community Gardens hosted the hottest par-tay in town: our annual Salsa Party and Competition. Our Fairpark Garden (1037w 300n) isn't really that big, but we fit about 150 people in the gates!  The community members that came either brought their homemade salsa or their stomachs ready for salsa tasting.  There was live music by the Bueno Avenue String Band as well as kids activities. I really wanted to get my face painted inside the "Sunflower House"...but I never stopped running around long enough to get that dragon I wanted painted on my forehead. I also never stopped running around long enough to try any of the salsas...which is a total bummer. There were 15 very different salsas this year competing for various prizes as well as the title of "best salsa in town". Below are the competition categories as well as the winners for 2010. Best Overall: Richard...

Most gardeners who grow summer squash usually end up with so many and so large fruits that they can’t even get rid of them in the trash pickup. We sneak them onto the neighbor’s porch at night. Our family and friends start avoiding us for fear of their obligation of taking more squash. Years ago a group of gardening friends even got together at a local pond to do zucchini boat races. We carved out those huge fruits (that somehow avoid our scrutiny to appear out of nowhere) into boats that we hoped would float. Most immediately sank; others were swamped in the waves of a light breeze; and one floated long enough to become the winner. There just has to be better ways of dealing with this dilemma. Over the years my wife, Karen, and I have come to a couple of conclusions. Eat them earlier and/or freeze them. We...

Michael is a 30-something father of two, a writer and a cook. He dabbles in gardening and is constantly wowed by people who really know how to grow. In Salt Lake, that turns out to be quite a number of people! Michael has lived in apartments, townhomes and single family homes, and his garden has been everything from windowsill herbs to a large backyard. His favorite: one of the easternmost community garden plots at the Grateful Tomato Garden back in 2002.   Michael's passion for sustainable agriculture took off when he served as Executive Director for Wasatch Community Gardens in the early 2000s. His favorite aspect of gardening is soil preparation, and he had the privilege of learning strain-free double digging from the master, John Jeavons. Michael loves to eat well, and thinks the best restaurant trend to develop in the past years is the farm-to-table movement. He looks forward to sharing his travels in the world of...

Wow.  Lame title.  And possibly more than a little confusing. Let me 'splain.  No.  Is too much.  Let me sum up.  {I'll give you a free subscription to the blog if you can name that movie!} My tomatoes are pitiful.  I am only slightly buoyed by the fact that nearly everyone else in the valley has lame tomato plants this year too.  Not that the plants are lame - no sir - they are over 6' tall!  It's the production that is pathetic.  My early girl has one orange tomato and 3 green ones. Not all is lost, however.  While searching for a screw that leapt from his hands, my husband spotted a treasure under the coop.  An EGG!  Our girls are only 4.5 months, so I wasn't expecting anything yet. But there she sat.  Green and slender and beautiful. As I walked around the coop, analyzing the best way to...

if we aren't gardening or farmers market-ing, we are out hiking and climbing I live in an apartment, but I still want to have fresh produce during the summer. I love a fresh garden tomato on my sandwich, so much better than those things that look like tomatoes you get at the grocery store. Right? Growing up we usually had something growing in the back behind the garage. Corn was a family favorite. But I was young then and I didn’t really pay much attention to any of it. My family moved when I was a sophomore in high school we created a spot in our back yard for a garden, and it gets better every year. I still don’t think I appreciated the idea of a garden until I moved to Moscow, Russia. There really isn’t much space for a garden when all you have is a 900 square foot...