Discover what’s growing, the practices and techniques behind permaculture, along with the beauty of Valley Natural Foods’ Co-op Community Garden on August 11th.  The Co-op Community Garden will be open for free self-guided tours from 10:00 a.m.- 1:00 p.m. as part of Community Garden Day, a statewide community garden open house event. Over 55 participating community gardens across the State of Minnesota, 13 of which are in the Twin Cities south metro, will host events and activities that are free and open to the public. The goal of Community Garden Day, organized by Gardening Matters, is to allow the general public the opportunity to learn more about the benefits of these community spaces directly from the people who steward them.

Established in 2011, Valley Natural Foods has two mandala community gardens with 51 plots and 40 gardeners.  Community Relations Developer at Valley Natural Foods, Gary Johnson, will give guided tours at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. of the community spaces, the edible landscaping and the artfully designed teaching garden alongside the store.  Refreshments will also be available.

Also, down the road from Valley Natural Foods, the Partnership Garden at the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley will also be open for tours from 9:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. Their address is: 12155 Johnny Cake Ridge Rd, Apple Valley. Tour their circular organic community garden, their wind turbine, solar panels and other sustainable features. Meet with other gardeners, try food made from garden vegetables and enjoy kids’ art activities. View Valley Natural Foods’ south metro Community Garden Day flyer listing all the tours and activities in Dakota County.

For a complete listing of the gardens participating in Community Garden Day, the event times and activities offered, visit www.gardeningmatters.org.

Eat Local, America! starts this August. Hosted by natural food co-ops nationwide, including Valley Natural Foods, this initiative highlights the great taste of local food while celebrating our communities’ farmers and other food producers who make it all possible.

As you know, the first-ever Eat Local! Farm Tour, sponsored by 9 Twin Cities Co-ops, including Valley Natural Foods, will kick-off this initiative on Saturday, July 30th.

Continue the eating local  celebration and the lazy days of summer in Valley Natural Foods’ Co-op Community Gardens on August 2nd for the Night to Unite and on  August 6th for Community Gardening Day!

On August 2nd, from 6-8pm, come to the co-op and experience our garden tours. Discover our edible landscaping, our mandala gardens and our container gardens. Also enjoy FREE watermelon slices and cold lemonade.

On August 6th from 11-2pm, come and meet our community gardeners in our co-op’s first ever participation in the  Gardening Matters’ Community Gardening Day. Over 50 Twin Cities community gardens are on the tour and everyone has fun, different activities available! Be sure to check out the  official map of all  the garden locations and  festivities available.

Our festivities include getting a chance to meet and talk gardening with our community gardeners along with enjoying a live garden recipe demonstration and FREE samples with local gardener and healthy food instructor, Loris Sofia Gregory. We will have FREE fair-trade coffee, cold beverages and glad corn available too.  Loris will be starting a new ‘F.R.E.S.H. and Local Class Series at Valley Natural Foods every third Tuesday of the month from 6:30-8:30 p.m, starting August 16th through Novemer. Cost is $15.00 for members and $18.00 for non-members. Sign-up at customer service or by calling 952-891-1212, ext. 221.

These interactive coaching classes will focus on creating and enjoying seasonal local economical meals every day, including exploring the produce department and beyond, new and featured local foods, farmer-partner profiles, simple prep ideas and recipes, menu planning, storing and preserving tips. These classes are for YOU and will respond to what you need and ask for related to fresh local eating.

Don’t forget that we have a wonderful class line-up this summer at Valley Natural Foods including $5.00 gardening classes (for members) amongst many other fresh cooking and gardening classes! Sign up at customer service or by calling 952-891-1212 ext. 221. Sign-up early! Speaking of gardens, check out our online coupons for great savings on plants, seeds and worm-castings fertilizer!

Also, don’t miss our Ask a Master Gardener! session at the demo kiosk today (June 1) from 3pm-6pm with Dakota County Master Gardener, John Zweber.

Preview of upcoming classes within the next few weeks:

Click here to view our complete class listing.

Cooking with Herbs 101
Sunday, June 5th, 2011
1:00-4:00 p.m.
$38/non-members, $35/members
Minimum: 6 people
Herbs are a delicious way to add flavor to food without adding extra calories! This class will help you pair various herbs with your favorite foods to make some amazing dishes that add nutritional value and health benefits to each meal! Be prepared to taste some very flavorful dishes and walk away with easy, fun recipes to make at home.

Raving about Raingardens
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
6:30-8:00 p.m.
Instructor: JoAnne Sabin
$8.00/non-members, $5.00/members
Rain gardens are a great way to add beautiful landscaping to your yard and protect overloaded urban streams at the same time. A rain garden is a garden of native perennials, grasses and shrubs planted in a depression which captures rainwater runoff from your roof, driveway and patio. Rain gardens significantly reduce the amount of storm water runoff and surface water pollution leaving your property. In this class, learn how to assess your site to determine the best location and size, how to calculate impervious surfaces, determine soil suitability, choose appropriate plants, and how to maintain your new rain garden.

Square-Foot Gardening
Saturday, June 11th, 2011
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Instructor: John Zweber
$8.00/non-members, $5.00/members
Learn the basics of Square-Foot Gardening, the practice of planning small, but intensively planted gardens. Attend this class to understand how to select a proper site, construct a square foot garden, determine the right amount of plants, maintain proper plant care, along with learning harvesting and other methods to extend the growing season. Square-Foot Gardening is less work, it saves water, creates less weeds, is pesticide/herbicide free, is easily accessible

Gardens of Eagan and Green Earth Growers each have just shipped us their next round of bedding plants! More varieties of heirloom tomatoes, flower packs and interesting herbs are all here, just waiting to be planted into your garden. There are even a few artichoke plants out there but we’ve been told artichoke plants must get in the ground NOW as they can take about 100 days until harvest! There’s a fun selection of herbs as well, including stevia plants! Beautiful geranium plants are available in 6″ biodegradable pots made with rice-hulls.

All bedding veggies, flowers and herbs are displayed storefront during regular business hours. Check our online coupons for $.50 off your choice of one single or one 4-pack of bedding plants this week!

Free for the taking! The sod from our co-op community gardens has been rolled up and placed on pallets at  the east end of our Valley Natural Foods parking lot. Perhaps you need to patch up a few places in your yard after our long winter. If so, please help yourself! Just stop by customer service and let them know you will be taking some sod. You may take as much sod as you like.

Co-op Community Garden Update: For those of you who have leased a plot in the smaller garden mandala, feel free to begin your gardening. For those of you awaiting plots in the larger mandala, look for a future e-mail announcement about an upcoming work day for completion of those plots.

The garlic is, that’s what! Last fall, Gary Johnson, now serving as our community relations developer planted northern-hardy Chesnok and Krasnodar hardneck varieties of garlic last  November.  We noticed the garlic shoots poking up through the straw right after the snow receded!

Throughout the growing season, we will learn through this garlic demonstration how to harvest scapes (the flower stem that shoots up from the center of the plant before the plant matures), the final harvest of garlic bulbs and how to dry and store them.

The Valley Natural Foods garden classroom is located on the south side of our building and will serve as a teaching platform for various gardening techniques, styles and plantings. It ties into our Farm to Market education—a belief that we should know where our food comes from. The Garden Classroom also supports our mission of a healthy community.

Slowly, the snow is melting away around our Co-op Community Gardens. And slowly, our garden plots are being leased out to future community gardeners. As things begin to heat up in the garden area, so will the leasing of our plots! Currently we have 6 keyhole gardens and 18 field crop areas available for lease.

If you are interested in getting dirty and participating in co-op community gardening, please stop by customer service to reserve your spot. For more information read our brochure. If you are ready to register, download a copy of our Agreement Form and our Health and Safety Policy. Sign and return the Conditions form with payment to Valley Natural Foods. Members of the co-op receive a discounted price.

If you want more gardening education, be sure to check out our current class schedule.

Finally, if you have questions, please contact our community relations developer Gary Johnson, here at Valley Natural Foods. He can be reached at 952-891-1212, ext. 236, or community@valleynaturalfoods.com.

For more insight, read Gary’s Latest Gardening Thoughts.

7th Annual Community Garden Spring Resource Fair

at the Sabathani Community Center, Minneapolis
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
(doors open at 8:30 am)

The 7th Annual Community Garden Spring Resource Fair Offers 15 exciting workshops!

Keynote: 9:00 a.m. Frogtown Farm – The Power of Collaboration

Morning Workshops: 10:40 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.

Eliminate Erosion – Increase Productivity, MetroBlooms Landscape Designers

Tell your Garden’s Story! Working with Media, Margo Ashmore, Northeaster and NorthNews Newspapers

Garden Together! Communal Gardening Panel, Gardeners from Celeste’s Dream, Jardin Paraiso Comunidad and St. Cloud Community Garden

Fruit Tree Orchards: Planting for the Long Term, Midway Greenspirit Community Gardeners

What’s the Hoopla about Hoop Houses? Extend Your Growing Season! Starr Carpenter, Market Grower, Rebecca Harnik, Minnesota GreenCorps

Afternoon Workshops (Session 1): 1:00 p.m. – 2:10 p.m.
Doing More with Less: Superabundant Small Gardens, Susan Reed, Dowling Community Gardener

Environmental Justice and Soil Mitigation, Representatives from Environmental Justice Advocates of MN and the Women’s Environmental Institute

Share Your Produce! Gleaning and Food Shelf Donation Panel, Panelists from Emergency Food Shelf Network, MN FoodShare, and Guardian Angels Community Garden

Understanding the 2012 Farm Bill, Mark Muller, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Adam Warthesen, Land Stewardship Project
Sticks and Stones Garden Art, Nancy Ward, Artist and Community Gardener

Afternoon Workshops (Session 2): 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Community-Based Problem Solving, Jay Clark, U of MN Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA)

Join the Local Food Economy, Collie Graddick, The Co-op Project, Starr Carpenter, Market Gower

Employer Sponsored Community Gardens Panel, Gardeners from the Haberman Group, Blue Cross and Boston Scientific

In-Ground Mushroom Cultivation, Jeremy McAdams, Cherry Tree House Mushrooms

How to Eat More Veggies Everyday,Tracy KS Yue, Healthful Cooking Coach

Saturday, April 2, 2011
9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. (doors open at 8:30 a.m.)

Sabathani Community Center
310 E. 38th St, Minneapolis (near 23, 18, and 11 bus lines)
More information, complete schedule, and pre-registration online at www.gardeningmatters.org

As food prices rise, communities and families are looking for options to assist with their household budget. Community gardens are neighborhood educational centers for growing your own food, deepening roots in the community, & beautifying the neighborhood. Community gardens are a hands-in, feet-on green space bridging generations & cultures.

Presenting Sponsor: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
 

Event Sponsors: Edible Twin Cities, JobCorps, Linden Hills Co-op, Sabathani Community Center, Specialized Environmental Technologies, Inc., Valley Natural Foods
 

Grassroots Sponsors: Barbette, Bryant Lake Bowl, Egg/Plant Urban Farm Supply, MN Institute of Sustainable Agriculture, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum – Education Department, MN-NRC-SARE, MN State Horticultural Society, Mother Earth Gardens, Red Stag Supperclub, Seward Cooperative Grocery and Deli, University of Minnesota Extension

Snow may still be on the ground outside but the excitement happening on our window sill is a true reminder that Spring is close! In mid-February, we used a Jiffy Professional Greenhouse kit (see last week’s post) and planted seeds from a Bhut Jolokia pepper, otherwise known as the Ghost pepper. The first seedlings started emerging just last week on our upstairs south-facing window sill, right here in the marketing department!

So what’s the big deal about Ghost Peppers? According to The Chile Pepper Institute, ”The Bhut Jolokia pepper remains the hottest commercially available pepper.” The big deal here at Valley Natural Foods is taking on the challenge  to successfully grow Ghost peppers right here in Minnesota—not the ideal place to grow them, we’ve been told, because of our short growing season and climate. However, there’s strong staff interest in this very fragrant, very tasty pepper. According to our produce manager, Kim Dvorak, customers have been asking about the Ghost pepper as well.

The actual seeds used for our initial planting were saved from 1 single Ghost pepper that was purchased two seasons ago from one Minneapolis Farmer’s Market grower who did have success! Our community relations developer, Gary Johnson, has started a second round of seeds that were purchased online from The Chile Pepper Institute. 

Gary will be overseeing our Garden Classroom and our Co-op community Gardens, and, along with staff, will be transplanting the seedlings as soon as our soil has warmed up. Stay tuned for future postings about the progress of our Ghost Peppers!

Discover the benefits of gardening in a safe, educational and community setting!

As a cooperative, member-owners of Valley Natural Foods expressed interest in the co-op developing community gardens as part of our expansion.

We now have 24 key hole garden beds and 24 field crop areas available for lease!

Lease rates for members:
Key-hole $18.00
Field crop area $5.00
Lease rates for non-members:
Key-hole $22.00
Field Crop area $7.00

The Co-op Community Gardens are to:
*Be an open growing space for our community
*Provide home-grown produce for healthier eating
*Mentor and develop tomorrow’s gardeners
*Connect children, youth, adults and seniors
*Share gained gardening knowledge through classes
*Provide education and outreach to Dakota County schools
*Promote and demonstrate environmental stewardship
*Encourage gardening as a fun and enjoyable activity

Registration information:
Forms available online (print out and bring in with your payment)
Forms available by e-mail (contact the coordinator, Gary Johnson at: community@valleynaturalfoods.com)
Forms available at customer service

Take a look at our Co-op Community Gardens brochure!