Rediscover Your Garden
It’s spring, so go play in the dirt!
Pollinate Farm co-founders Yolanda Burrell (pictured with Georgette the hen) and Birgitt Evans.
Photos courtesy of Pollinate Farm and Garden
In this newsletter:
● Celebrate spring at local plant sales: various dates
● Study compost with soil maven Dr. Elaine Ingham: April 13–17
● DIY supplies and a hands-on fermentation class at Pollinate Farm & Garden: April 19
● Grant funding for innovative farmers: application due April 30
● Recipes: Fermented Carolina-Style Slaw and Lacto-Fermented Vegetables
Garden Goodies
It’s spring plant sale season. You’ll find California natives, drought-resistant plants, tomatoes of all stripes, and much more at these sales, which are sure to tempt novice and master gardeners alike.
Digging Deep
GreenFriends Farm hosts Dr. Elaine Ingham’s annual Soil Food Web Intensive. The renowned soil biologist shares her extensive knowledge of soil ecology in a workshop for farmers, landscapers, ranchers, creators and distributors of agricultural products, waste management professionals, and soil and garden enthusiasts.
Dr. Ingham has helped farmers worldwide to grow more resilient crops by understanding and improving their soil. She is the inspiration behind the impressive composting program at Frog Hollow Farm, the subject of a story in our current issue.
Compost Tea & Soil Food Web Intensive
Monday–Friday, April 13–17
M.A. Center in Castro Valley
Info and registration: here
Grow, Raise, and Preserve
Birgitt Evans with onions ready for planting. Photos courtesy of Pollinate Farm and Garden
Follow the flock to Pollinate Farm & Garden, a woman-owned farm supply and urban homesteading emporium in the heart of Oakland. You’ll find the tools, supplies, and know-how to grow healthy, delicious fruits and vegetables, along with seeds, starts, and other plants. Pollinate also stocks chicks, beekeeping supplies, livestock feed, straw, soils, and soil amendments. Supplies for canning, pickling, fermenting, and cheese making are plentiful among the store’s kitchen goods.
Pollinate offers workshops and classes where you can learn skills like how to raise chickens, keep backyard bees, and maintain your garden tools. Their upcoming Hands-On Fermentation class is taught by author Alex Lewin, whose recipes are featured below. And be sure to save the dates (May 16 and 17) for Pollinate’s second anniversary celebration, a weekend of mini-workshops, food demos and tastings, tool and knife sharpening by an on-site blacksmith, and much more.
Pollinate Farm helps people to grow their own food by providing tools, supplies, workshops, and a community meeting and learning space.
Pollinate Farm & Garden
2727 Fruitvale Ave, Oakland
510.686.3493
www.pollinatefarm.com
Hands-On Fermentation with Alex Lewin
Sunday April 19, 2pm
The Dimond Rec Center Kitchen
3860 Hanly Rd, Oakland
Join Alex Lewin, author of Real Food Fermentation: Preserving Whole Fresh Food with Live Cultures in Your Home Kitchen, to learn about the theory and health benefits of fermented foods. Taste some ferments, and then move to the kitchen to make lacto-fermented sauerkraut and tasty beet kvass (fermented beet juice). Info: here
Funding for Small Farms
The Fabulous Beekman Boys of Cooking Channel and cookbook fame are giving away $18,000 to small farms with innovative approaches to small agriculture. Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge will give “lifts” of $15,000 to one farm and $1,049 to three others. The duo, who have their own goat farm in upstate New York, launched their Beekman 1802 Mortgage Lifter Pasta Sauce in 2013. The sauce is named after a Great Depression–era heirloom tomato variety named Mortgage Lifter, and the couple donates 25{94d79dd6af1e87a94e700e4c297236468333f22e27ed5757b44711974a9a4b91} of their profits to other small farms. Entries are due by midnight on April 30; winners announced May 12. Info and application: here
This book is available for purchase at Pollinate Farm & Garden.
Alex Lewin’s Fermented Carolina-Style Slaw and Lacto-Fermented Vegetables
Alex Lewin, author of Real Food Fermentation: Preserving Whole Fresh Food with Live Cultures in Your Home Kitchen, teaches a class in hands-on fermentation later this month at Pollinate Farm & Garden. He shares his recipes for Fermented Carolina-Style Slaw and Lacto Fermented Vegetables here.
