Waving in the breeze is the trellis which carries the birds nest squash plants, up one side and down the other. Tomatoes are barricading the pathway so you have to alter your stride. Rutabagas and turnips are growing larger. Uninvited invader Cabbage Lopper butterflies and their larvae have chewed up the kale and other brassica vegetables.

Peppers, cucumbers, beans, thyme, sage, oregano, dill, fennel, pumpkins, watermelon, kohlrabi, and lettuces are producing their feast of taste and fragrance.

This years harvest again goes to Dakota Woodlands. Including this week, we have donated over 95 pounds of fresh vegetables to enhance the Wednesday evening meals at Dakota Woodlands.

The plan is to keep up deliveries until the very end of the season, hopefully into October.

Stop by anytime and enjoy the growing greenery of the gardens at Valley Natural Foods.

Join us this Saturday, August 6th from 11-2pm here at Valley Natural Foods! We’ll meet in the Co-op Community Garden area for our co-op’s first ever participation in Gardening Matters’ Community Gardening Day.

Over 50 Twin Cities community gardens are on the tour and everyone has fun, with different activities available at each site! Valley Natural Foods will be serving free cold beverages, Fair Trade coffee and glad corn snacks for all Co-op Community Garden visitors. Be sure to check out the official map of all  the garden locations and  festivities available.

Cool off after the tour by visiting our Valley Natural Foods Juice and Java counter! Check out our online coupons and save $1.00 on a refreshing fruit smoothie of your choice. Coupon good through August 9, 2011.

From gardening advice, to free facials and bone scans, there are a lot of fun educational events happening at the demo kiosk this weekend and within the coming weeks.

Make sure to take advantage of these wonderful opportunities and mark them on your calendar!

Complimentary MyChelle Facial Demos: Saturday, May 28th, 11am-2pm

Licensed esthetician, Zi Ata, will be giving free, 20 minute facials in our wellness department using MyChelle products. She will access your skin condition and utilize the MyChelle products that will best help. Sign up in the Wellness Department.

MyChelle treatments smooth the look of wrinkles, unclog pores and clear the way for other products to work more effectively. Cellular turnover is enhanced, helping skin to kick its own innate self-rejuvenating and repair mechanisms, allowing your skin to act younger, healthier and more vibrant.

FREE Ask a Master Gardener Session! Wednesday, June 1st, 3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

This could be a good time to ask a real pro! There will be a FREE Ask a Master Gardener session at the Valley Natural Foods demo kiosk on Wednesday, June 1, 3:00-6:00 p.m. Dakota County Master Gardener John Zweber will here to answer your gardening questions, whether you are a beginner or an advanced home or co-op community gardener. He will also be promoting his upcoming Square-Foot Gardening class too. Be sure to pick up a new Education at the Co-op booklet for June-September in-store. All new classes are also listed on our co-op calendar.

Coming Up:

Square-Foot Gardening
Saturday, June 11th, 2011
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Instructor: John Zweber
$5.00/members, $8.00/non-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 and can effectively utilizes small spaces.

Free Bone Scan Sponsored by Rainbow Light: Thursday, June 9th, 10am-3pm

Valley Natural Foods is hosting  free 20 minute bone scans; sign-up in the Wellness Department. Rainbow Light is offering free bone scanning opportunities via “Mobile BoneIQ”  Centers” to consumers nationwide in leading retail locations such as Valley Natural Foods. Bone scans can help detect early risk for bone loss and fractures, and gives consumers the tools and information to intervene and prevent bone loss.

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!

An assortment of flower and vegetable starter plants have arrived at the co-op! Check out our first shipment of Pansy’s, Snapdragons, Zinnias, Marigolds and a few others fresh from Green Earth Growers and Gardens of Eagan.

Cool weather plants including onion starts and greens such as kale and lettuces, and warm weather veggies like heirloom tomatoes are all from Gardens of Eagan. There will be a second shipment of these items and more around mid-may.

A note from Gary Johnson, Community Relations Developer at Valley Natural Foods:

As the interest in gardening is increasing so are the offerings of information. Sources range from books, magazines, online sources, personal experience, master gardeners, and gardener friends and acquaintances. Hopefully you can locate information easily so as not to delay your time at other meaningful tasks (such as enjoying your gardening and garden). If you are involved in a community garden in the area or at our co-op community garden, your fellow gardeners may be willing to share their experience and knowledge. Stop by our co-op gardens anytime!

Check out some of the current gardening books we have in stock here at Valley Natural Foods:

Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening – Pauline Pears
How to Grow More Vegetables – John Jeavons
One Magic Square, The Easy Organic Way to Grow Your Own Food on a 3-Foot Square – Lolo Houbein
Carrots Love Tomatoes, Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening – Louise Riotte
Grow Great Grub, Organic Food From Small Spaces – Gayla Trail
Gaia’s Garden, A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture – Toby Hemenway
Four-Season Harvest – Eliot Coleman
The New Organic Grower – Eliot Coleman
Food Not Lawns, How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community – H.C. Flores

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.

This spring look into ways to improve your mind, body and spirit along with eating some good food!

We have gardening, cooking and health and wellness classes beginning in April at Valley Natural Foods. Take some time for yourself this spring and join us at the co-op!  Sign-up for all classes by stopping by customer service or calling 952-891-1212 ext. 221. Sign-up  early to ensure all classes will take place (all classes need to have a minimum amount of  participants).  Check out a full listing of the classes online.

Attend our cooking classes to discover  fresh spring and summer recipes for grilling, picnics and graduation parties. Many of our classes are catered toward those who are gluten/dairy free. Our gardening classes focus on design, layout, seed starting, healthy soils, and best growing practices. We have a little bit of everything for this year’s gardener! Health & wellness sessions will teach you how healthy dietary changes can have a positive impact on your physical and emotional health. Also, discover the ease of eating healthy on a budget.

WEEKLY CLASS FEATURE: Sign-up for this class!

Urban Chicken Farming 101
Wednesday, April 6th, 6:30-8:30pm
Instructor: Albert Bourgeois
$20 members / $23 for non-members
Minimum: 6 people

Are you  interested in raising chickens?  If so, you will be embarking on a fun and exciting journey! Yes, it is possible to raise chickens in the city and Al will show you the basics. He will go over where to get chicks, how to care for them in the first 60 days along with general care instructions for after 60 days.

Why Raise Chickens? 
Here are a few of the most frequently expressed reasons people raise chickens:  

• Easy and inexpensive to maintain (when compared to most other pets)
• Eggs that are fresh, great-tasting & nutritious
• Chemical-free bug and weed control
• Manufacture the worlds best fertilizer
• Fun & friendly pets with personality (yes, you read that right)

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.

With the approaching Daylight Saving Time (2:00 a.m. March 13), what a great time time to start thinking about your garden! And why not start early by planting your seeds indoors with an easy-to-use Jiffy Professional Greenhouse seed-starter kit. Stop by our produce department and pick-up a kit or two. Then check out our colorful display of  High Mowing Organic Seeds. It won’t be long before Spring arrives (official date is 12:00 a.m. March 20)!

No space for a garden? Come garden with us by leasing a plot right here at Valley Natural Foods. If you are interested in community gardening, please visit: Want to Get Healthy? Get Dirty!

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!