Here's an April 24, 2006 posting of mine to the School Garden Project of Lane County listserv - serving garden educators in and around the Eugene-Springfield neigborhood.
Subject: Forthcoming from the SGP greenhouse
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* Nursery synergies:
farmer Ted's sweetie
* Forthcoming offerings: there's peppers and then there's peppers
* Winter gardening: deepening ecological literacy
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Nursery synergies: farmer Ted's sweetie
Last week, the SGP greenhouse sent out over 1500 starts to educators working with children. All were organically grown and in tip-top condition - no small achievement given the teamwork making it all possible. For those of you on the receiving end, thank you!
As it happens, the story surrounding this recent push is not as straightforward as first appearances might suggest. So, I thought I might lend some useful context to clarify just how your support translates into helping us help you.
Many of the plants we placed last week came to us out of the Food For Lane County greenhouse. As you may be aware, the physical infrastructure for the SGP greenhouse is hosted by the FFLC youth farm which is, in turn, hosted by the Springfield School District. The SGP and FFLC greenhouses sit in very close physical proximity and the working relationship between the two nuseries, though informal, is tight.
"Farmer Ted", the delightful chappie responsible for managing the Foo Foo La Cootie youth farm is recently married. His sweetie likes to see him on evenings, weekends and vacations, and to send him out on occasional errands - activities not wholly consistent with running a greenhouse 24/7. In essence, my role as onsite SGP nursery manager contributes not insignificantly to Ted's sweetie's bliss - because I care for Ted's greenhouses when homelife calls. As you might expect, the relationship works both ways: we tag-team raising plants for one another. As a result, when "overage" comes out of the FFLC farm/garden program (because, for example, 'the ground isn't ready') our supporting non-profit role - and our ability to 'place' them into hands such as yours, affords us ready access to these plants.
Why I'm relating these specifics is because they help illustrate how, because of the unique position and role the SGP occupies, we're able to leverage any financial support we receive in ways that far, far exceed the boundaries typically faced by most organizations. The monetary value of the starts we have distributed in the first few weeks of our first season, already exceeds our initial capital investment in our greenhouse. Put simply, because of the nature of our work, even a modest increase in funding support allows us to realize benefits that are not only large, but previously inaccessible and to then share them with you. Many such synergies are waiting in the wings.
Forthcoming
offerings:
there's
peppers and then there's peppers
As experience of local growing conditions broadens, gardeners learn, here as elsewhere, that choosing particular varieties of food crops over others can make the difference between growing a food plant that produces well, and one which produces no food at all. Having our own greenhouse not only provides the SGP with the opportunity to provide you with organically grown transplants (that aren't stressed, chemically grown, come-what-may leftovers) in a timely manner, t also frees us to focus on putting up varieties that are proven performers suited to our growing season and soils.
How we select these varieties is born from our own experience about what works, the intelligence we actively seek, and from our ability, as a non-profit, to access seed that is not commonly available or affordable. Did you know that the Southern Willamette Valley is home to some of the world's pre-eminent food crop breeders and that they support our efforts, both with counsel and with seed?
Currently, we are growing up the Aci Sivri pepper. Almost all peppers, hybrids included, have a difficult time maturing fruit in our bioregion. Aci Sivri, a little known Turkish heirloom, produces and matures fruit in quantities that leave gardeners hereabouts open-mouthed in astonishment (up to fifty 5-9 inch cayenne-shaped fruits per plant - flavor varies from mild to hot). Among those in the know, it is regarded as one of the finest food plant varieties of any type, in the world. It also happens to be open-pollinated - a great boon to those of us supporting the evolution of locally-sustainable foodsheds - and involved in teaching seed-saving. Peace Seeds' Dr. Alan Kapuler, formerly research director for Seeds of Change, now Corvallis-based, and a central figure in introducing Aci Sivri Stateside, has been generous enough to provide us with seed. We will have these pepper starts available, in quantity in 4-6 weeks.
Last year, among many other research projects, Dr. Kapuler grew out more than 40 varieties of paste tomatoes. This season, he provided us with a landrace of Amish Paste that he believes outperforms all other paste toms. We will have that available in quantity, along with Peacevine (an OP cherry tom developed by Dr. Kapuler), Stupice, Fantastic, Oregon Large Slicing Tomato, and Nile River Egyptian (my own choice as the best-tasting tom I've encountered in Oregon) and, for those of you unfussy about hybrids, Sungold cherry toms, along, of course, with a full suite of best-of-breed varieties of summer crops including basil, summer and winter squashes, pumpkins, and flowers, and more.
These brief examples give you, I hope, a fuller awareness of how the SGP's central place in efforts to deepen ecological literacy locally, afford us access to resources simply not available to the for-profit community. It's our intention, indeed, to provide a level of service to gardening educators that is simply beyond the reach of the for-profit community.
Winter gardening: deepening ecological literacy.
Did you know that the longest gardening season of the year is not actually our summer, but our winter season - and that a centerpiece of local efforts to move toward sustainability are focused on exploring how to grow and eat out of gardens year round?
Admittedly, the challenges of school schedules and the demands of putting in a winter garden appear very difficult to reconcile. However, if you're interested in pursuing this possibility further, please consider attending the 3rd annual winter gardening workshop that Farmer Ted and I are orchestrating, in late June (provisionally arranged for 3.00 p.m. on Saturday, June 24 at the youth farm). The challenges of starting winter food crop seedlings into the height of summer (a necessary timing) will be beyond most of you but the SGP greenhouse can commit to providing you with starts. Your attendance at the workshop will be a qualifier for commitment our end.
Please feel free to contact me with questions.
n.