Jerusalem Artichokes - Harvested!

Its insane to think we would be harvesting this morning after a few inches of snow, but it makes sense when you think of the Jerusalem Artichokes that we've been nurturing all summer. We had to make sure to get them out of the ground!
 
Jerusalem artichokes have nothing to do with artichokes or Jerusalem. In fact, they are native to North America and belong to the sunflower family.  They look like ginger root and their flavor will remind you of artichokes, water chestnuts, jicama, or apple. Sometimes they are called "sunchokes" and they are great addition to your fall menu. 
 
Jerusalem artichokes can be eaten raw, boiled, roasted, steamed or pickled. You can use them just about any way you would use a potato. They are great added to soups and  salads. Steam them and add butter and sage. Mash them like potatoes or celery root. Slice them raw and make a salad with beets, diced apple, carrots tossed with vinaigrette dressing. Make fries by cutting them into strips, tossing them with oil, sage, salt and roasting them for about 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

A cup of Raw Jerusalem Artichokes contains these power-packed healthy nutrients:

- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B1, Thiamin (Good Amount)
- Vitamin B2, Riboflavin
- Vitamin B3, Niacin
- Vitamin B5, Pantothenic Acid
- Vitamin B6, Pyridoxine
- Vitamin B9, Folate
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Choline
- Protein
- Calcium
- Iron (Good Amount)
- Magnesium
- Phosphorus
- Potassium
- Zinc
- Copper
- Manganese
- Selenium
- Omega 6 Fatty Acids
- Natural Sugars
- Dietary Fiber
- Carbohydrates
- Calories
- Natural Fats 
 
We have harvested an abundant crop of Jerusalem Artichokes - our first time growing them! They were really easy to grow, so try them in your back yard next summer. The plants grow like sunflowers and provide a beautiful flower toward the end of summer into fall. Enjoy!

Pumpkin painting and other plans

Cool, rainy days have us in the garden less frequently, but there is still plenty of garden-related news to share. Red wheat and oats are ready to be prepared for cozy autumn meals and we are still waiting for the Jerusalem Artichokes and sweet potatoes to be ready to harvest. We are looking forward to pulling and drying many of the herbs in the medicinal garden and we'll post more about all of that as it happens.We were so sorry to cancel our Fall Festival last weekend, but some of our garden members still had a chance to get together for a little pumpkin painting and lots of fun.

And if you are interested, here is a nice news item discussing how a garden is a great idea for communities struggling in a rough economy.

Click here for link.

Hope you stay cozy and warm but still make time to get outside to enjoy nature everyday. Have a great week!
~Marykaye

Festival in the garden cancelled for 9/24

We are so sorry but we'll be canceling tomorrow's festival due to a 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms in the garden. We hope you have a great weekend and that we see you next time. ~Marykaye

Join us for our Fall Festival Saturday September 24th from 1-5 pm!

Our Children’s Rainbow Garden
a community garden project for children and adults

Fall Festival & Vegetarian Potluck
Saturday, September 24th
1 to 5 pm

Dauphin County Parks and Recreation Community Garden
Elmerton Ave & State Farm Rd. Harrisburg, PA

This event is open to the public & free of charge
Free parking is available
Look for the signs and bring a lawn chair!


For more information, please email karenhunsberger@msn.com
or call 717 574-2654

Hope to see you there!

Grateful that it's just another day in the garden

Like so many people affected by the local storm, a few of our garden members experienced minor flooding and disruption but we are blessed that everyone is safe and working on cleaning up at this point.  I'm sitting in the shade of the garden house taking a little break from weeding and realizing how great it is to be under a clear, sunny sky!  Also feeling how precious it is to be out here enjoying the space in nature that we've created together.

The garden still looks pretty good for what blew through, closing streets and roads not far from us. The garden house took a hit but we were able to prop it back up again; the tomato frames and pole bean stakes are also cleared away after blowing down. The rest of the plants in our medicinal and high yield pepper gardens look good, the marigolds are gorgeous and bright and we are looking forward to our Fall Harvest festival coming up in a couple of weeks. Trusting that all is as it should be and that all will be well. We may have experienced chaos the last few days but today is just another day in the garden (and what a gift!).

Here are a few of the sweet things we saw throughout the day:

It's been inspiring to experience positive attitudes from so many who have lost so much, and seeing those who reach out to help a neighbor or just continue to do what is in front of them with peace and a sense of trust.  Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone recovering from this week's storm and flooding. We hope you are safe and well.

Please save the date for this year's Festival in the garden: Saturday, September 24th from 1-5 pm. We'd love to see you there to take a break from all of the work to celebrate and come together. :)

The Patriot News Captures the Essence of the Garden!

Click here to read the article online at http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/08/childrens_rainbow_garden_grows.html

Our Children's Rainbow Garden was featured on the front page of the Community section of the Patriot News on Friday. We loved the article because it truly captured the essence of the garden and conveyed our mission so clearly. If you haven't had an opportunity to visit the garden, our Fall Festival takes place on Saturday, September 24 from 1-5pm. It will be our last event of the season!

What's going on?

Cooler days and sweeter nights are upon us.  The summer may be winding down, but things are still going full-swing in the garden.  What's been going on?

Melons are filling out:


Grain's been a-threshin':




Kids are learning and exploring:



The garden house is thriving:


Beauty is everywhere:



And we are honored to have been able to be sharing: we are up to 43 pounds of produce donated so far to Channels food rescue with more on the way.  Sometime wouldn't it be neat to be able to do what this man came up with to help his inner-city community gain access to fresh, local food even with few resources: click here for a link to a great article first seen in the September 2011 issue of Oprah "Food Drive".  There are so many ways to create something amazing just by looking around for the need and jumping in with a passion.  (Anyone got a food cart we can roll up 2nd street in Harrisburg to share fresh healthy eats and gorgeous produce?). :)

Next up in the garden: we'd love for you to join us next week for our last children's class this season:
Saturday August 27th at 9am - Children's Gardening Class : Gardening by Colors and Shapes.  Children will learn to eat vegetables of every color of the Rainbow and discover the health benefits of vegetables by looking at their shapes.  Please RSVP if you and your favorite kid would like to stop by!

Have a great week.
~Marykaye

a rainbow's rollin' in!

Hello!  Hope you are enjoying some of the rainbow of treasures we are finding in our garden these days.  We were pleased with our first large harvest last week and picked a variety of items including some of the grain (oats, red wheat and ruby red corn), some cabbages, beets and carrots and plenty of tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, cantaloupe and even some early watermelon!  Throw in some onions and red potatoes and we were ready to celebrate with a feast!  Garden members have been enjoying the delicious fresh produce but we are grateful to begin to have enough to start to donate as well.  (If you have a hankerin' for some of these please come on down and pick some to enjoy!). Very high temps alternating with heavy rainfall are a challenge but things seem to be thriving pretty well so far.

Here are some nice pictures (thanks, Angie!):

Some of the gorgeous ladies responsible for this year's garden

a good evening's work

What's for dinner? Yum!

wheat

oats (cut and tied into shocks to dry)

Better than a bouquet of flowers!

a small watermelon that was turning black on the underside, so we cut it open and enjoyed it!

a bounty of beautiful peppers

caterpillar friend relocated from the carrot patch

Sigh, such a wonderful time of year for delicious food!  Here's your weekly dose of recipe inspiration; check out these links for some more creative (and yummy) ideas for preparing the veggies on your table:

Click here for Pomodori-al-forno (tomato appetizer recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine) or

click here for some more great tomato recipes from Bon Appetit

Have a great week!

~posted by Angie and Marykaye

a little fun in the sun

Whew!  We are making the best of the recent heat wave and were happy that some children showed up for our 2nd class in the garden this weekend: Garden Detectives.  Garden member Kristen did a wonderful job, sharing a fun activity where the kids explored the garden with their magnifying glasses and jotted down pictures and names of what they found.  We also read some lovely books and had a snack; another great class and an opportunity for the kids to take part in the garden!

Here are some pictures from this weekend's class and the previous one in June:

sharing some fun stories about insect friends in the garden

picking out nature journals and magnifying glasses 

on the hunt for some bugs

found some!

a lovely honey bee, a beneficial insect

making a list of the things we found

and sharing the joy of discovery

some of the great books we read

And some picture from June's class:

discussing an introduction to gardening and how our garden has grown

planting some new seeds and seeing some previously planted ones  

reading some more lovely books

Thanks to our talented teacher Kristen for all of her work with the children's classes!  We love you! :)

We also love to share current studies and news items supporting a healthy diet including fresh local fruits and veggies, so here's a nice one.  Researchers highlight how infants who are fed homemade baby food made from fresh fruits and vegetables are significantly more likely to include them in their diet when they get older as compared to infants that consume standard jarred, prepared baby food.  (Even babies can taste the difference and seem to remember it!).  It makes seeing the really little ones in the garden even more exciting! 

Click here for link to story.

Hope you stay cool and enjoy your week.

~Marykaye

a little inspiration

Do you ever feel like you could use some new ideas to get cookin' with all of the season's fresh produce?  We sure do.  Well look no further for today; see what we came up with for this week's first tasting in the garden.

It was a wonderful evening and everyone enjoyed the appetizers before, during and after time spent watering and harvesting.  (Our time together in the garden usually consists of as much fun as work but this takes it to a whole 'nother level).  :)

Here are some of the pictures from our evening:

 a gorgeous spread of garden-fresh appetizers

some of the yummy appetizers
(fresh pesto, garden fresh salsa and lettuce wraps with lemon ginger dressing)

iced mint tea is so cooling on a summery day
(we love Numi Moroccan Mint)

and there's nothing like some irresistible
rainbow garden refrigerator pickles 

potatoes and vegetables were our harvest this particular evening

happy veggie tasters

If you are looking for some more ideas for great ways to prepare your local, seasonal produce, stop by the garden and be sure to check out some of Karen's fabulous recipes from the evening:

click here for a link to our "Recipes" page

or click here for a printable version of our appetizer extravaganza.

You can also check out these sites for more inspiration: 

www.smittenkitchen.com

or 

www.101cookbooks.com

Have a great weekend!

~posted by Karen and Marykaye