That Crazy Mad Max Vibe

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, and wow what an interesting series of events have occurred in the last two weeks. For those living in their bomb shelters we had a fuel shortage what had most gas stations out of gas, with long lines at the ones that had any at all. Surprisingly gasoline didn’t get rationed (it really should have), and an advisory had to go out to actually tell people not to put gasoline in plastic bags. Yes you read that last part right, the Consumer Product Safety Commission actually had to issue an advisory over this. Ironically the pictures everyone had seen as it turns out were several years old from an incident in Puebla Mexico where a few guys tried to steal extra gas from a gas station. Go figure, but the Hoarding was real, much like with the toilet paper panic in 2020, people lost their minds and started hoarding gasoline by putting it in every container possible. Yours truly saw antique looking plastic kerosene containers, three liter soda bottles and a bevy of not-close-to-legal containers used. It was unreal and to a certain extent it’s still going on as I write this. Of course the fuel shortage is ironically kind of good for the pollinators since fewer lawns get moved and more weeds get to bloom which means more food for the bees and such. Still if I recall right the entire Mad Max series was based on a crippling fuel shortage, and really if I start seeing weirdos about town in weird leather outfits I think we’re in some hilarious trouble. With that said this post is still a bit late, but we’re going to handle two topics. Firstly I’m going to talk about the worst tree you could ever plant and then compost, the best soil amendment you could ever produce. 

So first the photographs below were taken during that odd wind storm we had in April, the subject is a Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana). Some of you out there might groan, but I’m going to cover the history of this strange tree that everyone had a frenzy for and now it’s just an artefact of an earlier time.

So this specimen located in Downtown Fayetteville NC lost about a third of it's crown in a recent storm. We had thunderstorms and wind, but no ice and this ting just split right at the branch crotch angle. It was lucky, around the corner another Bradford literally snapped off just above the root line. Others around town shed bits like ti was going out of style.

The scientific name Pyrus is a derivative of the word Pome which refers to the shape of the fruit in the genus, the second specific epithet calleryana derives from the first person to proliferate this specific species. the second part of the botanical Latin name is derived from Joseph-Marie Callery, who sent specimens of originating stock of these plants to Europe from China in the first half of the 1800’s. These trees out nor arrive in the United states until a bit over a century later; it wasn’t until the 1960’s that a USDA facility in Glendale, Maryland introduced a cultivated form of the tree and they became popular with landscapers afterward because they were cheap, could handle being transported and grew fast. In 1966 though the tree gained extra popularity when Lady Bird Johnson planted one in Downtown Washington D.C.  The New York Times got in on the action when they published the following; "Few trees possess every desired attribute, but the Bradford ornamental pear comes unusually close to the ideal." This was good and well because the trees added more accessibility to those who wanted to beautify their properties. Bradford pears had some key advantages over other trees, they grew fast, in spring their white flowers absolutely covered the plants in color making them look like they’d been snowed on. There was the fall color to consider as they turned a decent shade of red before dropping their leaves in the autumn. Bradford Pear leaves as the organic crowd knows are really good compost (Don’t all good plant stories involve compost?) fuel they break down  fast and the resultant soil is ready sooner rather than later.

If there wasn't a picture you would not have believed me. This Bradford was seriously growing roots into it's own branch crotch probably because there was a pocket of dirt or consistent moisture. Bradford Pears might be the idiots of the tree world.

 

But the story of the Bradford Pear isn’t all cookies and sunshine, this tree had problems, it wasn’t the perfect candidate for use everywhere that everyone thought it was. The first problem came from the flowers, which smelled kind of bad, some have likened their smell to rotting fish, cement gone bad and some even said it smelled like semen. I don’t know about that last one or what exposures it takes to authoritatively judge that, but yes the flowers smell bad.

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2015/04/24/401943000/whats-that-smell-the-beautiful-tree-thats-causing-quite-a-stink

You can see where the branch angle was weak and the wind sheared it right off, though it's news to me that Bradford Pears come with a cup holder.

 

But this isn’t all; with flowers which do help the pollinators in spring but with it comes the problem of fruit. Bradford pears produce tiny inedible fruit that only become edible after they have been hit by a frost or two. Realistically the fruit are about the size of a large pea maybe and the birds get at them making a bigger mess. Where the fruit falls can make a mess and pose a slip hazard, then there’s the issue of the seeds coming up where they are not supposed to and the plant escaping cultivation. Did I mention that Bradford Pears are currently considered invasive? Well as it turns out this garbage-tree is considered invasive in the eastern and Midwest regions of the USA because its fast growth allows it to out-compete native species. It is known that this tree has escaped cultivation in at least 152 counties in 25 states in the United States and the escaped types are all wild interbred types that may have even reverted enough to regain their thorns and fruiting spurs. But wait its worse, as it turns out Bradford Pears are impressively short lived as street trees because their average life span is twenty-five years. This is assuming their other greatest weakness does not come into play and end them sooner. You see without proper pruning to cut out forked branches and crossover branches, the fast growing speed comes at the price of weak branch-crotch angles and weak wood in general. As if this wasn’t bad enough after storms like the one we just had Bradford Pears are the most likely tree to have been wrecked especially in high wind conditions, torrential downpours or any weather with ice involved.  This makes them susceptible to ‘shattering’ which may or may not be a biological evolution to asexually reproduce. If one of those branches lands the right way it ‘might’ survive and take root. I wouldn’t bet money on this happening but it could explain the strange proclivity of these trees to fall apart at the slightest of storm winds. There is supposedly an ‘improved’ form of Bradford Pear called the Cleveland Select Pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Cleveland Select’) which realistically still has the same kinds of problems and is literally a terribly false hope for a crappy street tree.

A close up of the foliage and unripe fruit of a Bradford Pear.

Enough about failed street trees, let’s get down to the nitty gritty, the straight dirt, that’s right compost. Compost is as individual as the gardener’s preferences are. There are composting systems that are incredibly diverse ranging from models that spin on a specialized rack to make turning easy to those that roll on the ground, and then there’s the cone shaped ones that can compost bones, the standing bin types and let’s not forget the ones that are designed to handle dog feces. It’s all a very diverse field of options that all have their benefits and disadvantages. Today I’m going to talk briefly about the unit in the Test Gardens which is a standard bin type composter made of black recycled plastic and has a capacity of 80 gallons or roughly about 12 cubic feet. Well due to a conversation in the Sustainable Neighbors Text chat I thought I’d talk about the process I use with some pictures to show what I mean. The basic rule of composting is that you need four things, moisture, soil, green material, and brown material.  The soil which ideally should already be moist introduces the soil borne organisms that will break down the green and brown stuff to make nutrient rich compost. The soil also forms the core basis of the final compost but still should always be about a third of the mix. The soil part can be up half if you are using some especially fast decomposing green material such as grass clippings, or very fast decomposing items like spoiled fruit or leaves like those from spoiled produce, Bradford pear, or a Mulberry.

 

The first few shovel fulls of compost always tells you what the rest is going to be like. Although there is a bit of an Ant issue, the compost is light, airy, dark in color and clearly full of remaining bits of the process like the eggshells you can see in the lower center of the pile.

 

This is my finished product, due to the use of potting soil instead of regular soil my compost has a lot of perlite in it and weighs a lot less than conventional compost but it's no less useful and nutrient dense.

 

            Greenery as noted before are typically grass clippings from moving the lawn, but can be any green material, such as spoiled produce from your kitchen, soft clippings left over from pruning or even crop plants that are effectively spent for the purposes of food production. The greens tuff is essential because it introduces nitrogen based compounds that can accelerate decomposition of the brown materials and will draw in decomposers to the pile.

 

I had to turn the composter over to get at the remaining chunks of compost so that the materials can be turned and the bin re-seated on it's pad of cardboard and newspaper.

 

The brown stuff is typically materials like fallen leaves that have turned brown and are usually crunchy in texture. Brown materials can include limited amounts of pine straw, wet newspaper, wet cardboard, wet tissue paper, and vegetable scraps that are not high in sugar. The brown materials are the longer-lasting food source for decomposers and will often be the last things to break down in a compost pile. Some of the brown materials may even be recognizable a year later, for instance Pineapple skin and tops can persist in the compost for a year plus.

 

The remaining half of the material in this been has been put back in to form the basis of the next 6 cubic feet of compost. For note under the bin is a layer of cardboard and newspapers that keeps root intrusion to a minimum.

Now that we've covered the compost here's some photographs from the gardens.

Alabama Blue Collards overwintered nicely and are about to go gangbusters.

On the left you have store-bought spinach leaves, on the right are homegrown ones from the test gardens, there is no doubt which is better.

This is the first frog seen in the test gardens this year, and it's always a good sign when our amphibian friends are about since they eat a LOT of bugs that might otherwise be a problem.

Coreopsis pubescens 'Sunshine Superman' This coreopsis effectively escaped cultivation, but isn't really invasive and the cheery flowers are always delightful.

 

Speckled Chestnut Mushrooms, I bought these from another vendor at the FFayettevilel City Market. Your read that right folks we now have a Mushroom vendor!

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

Summer Veggies & Herbs: ($3.00 each)

Sungold Cherry Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Chocolate Cherry Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Lemon Drop Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Sweet Hundreds Cherry Tomato (Sale $2.00)

San Marzano Improved Paste Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad (Sale $2.00)

Paul Robeson Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Cherokee Purple Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Walla Walla Sweet Onion

 

6" pot Sungold Tomato (Sale $3.00) 

6" pot Chocolate Cherry Tomato (Sale $3.00) 

 

Pepper, Sweet Banana

Pepper, Poblano/Ancho

Pepper, Habanero

Pepper, Golden Bell

Pepper, Ghost ($4.00)

 

Wonderberry (Limited Quantity)

Ground Cherry (Limited Quantity)

Cotton, Erlene's Green (Limited Quantity)

Okra, Jing  (Limited Quantity)

 

Basil, Emerald Tower

Basil, Dolche Fresca

Basil, Rutgers DMR Devotion

Oregano

Mountain Mint

 

 

Ornamental Stuff: 

Zanzibar Castor Beans

Mexican Sunflower 'Fuego Del Sol'

Flowering Tobacco 'Saratoga Lime'

 

Coming Soon: 

Comfrey (Mid summer)

 

We have a new place to share information and work on groovy sustainable stuff!  You can look for Sustainable Neighbors in our own Nextdoor.com group under the name “Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville”. You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join but it is a private group so feel free to request to join us if you are signed up on the Nextdoor.com site.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still mucking up the works in terms of meeting in person. The good news is that Sustainable Neighbors does have a Discord Server. You can request access through our Meetup.com page or you can request access via our Nextdoor.com group. The meetup.com page is below for anyone looking to join us.

 

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

 

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to buy anything or maintain any sort of attendance standard, you can come on in and join the meetings. When this Covid-19 mess calms down we may be able to resume normal in-person meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the tenth LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 28^th of May. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

Questions From The Neighbors; Part II

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, and here we are with part two of a brief discussion covering questions sent in by the Sustainable neighbors crew regarding the how’s and why’s of growing things. This is the second part of a two-part series which answers the other five questions. This post is early by one week so that the readers can get all their information sooner rather than later.

 

“When are my radishes ready to harvest?”

 

This depends on the variety you are using, the fastest maturing Radish I’ve ever seen takes just 21 days (Rover and D’Avignon). So the ready to harvest part firstly relies on when you planted them, when the seed visibly emerged and if or if not you thinned the seedlings or properly spaced them in the first place. Another factor is what you intended to grow the radish for, since there are types where you eat the leaves, the seed pods and of course the root. On a standard Icicle Radish you can eat the leaves and the root, though you’re really in it for that root. Since most people only really grow radishes for the root it’s typically pretty visually obvious when a radish is desirable for eating because you can see the swollen part of the root. I should note that home grown radishes normally are not as perfectly round as store-bought ones and won’t often have a uniform a size either, but they will have more flavor and some varieties retain the peppery bite that radishes used to be known for. So this question summarizes to ‘It depends’.

 

“When is garlic ready to harvest?”

Garlic is crop that requires more than one season to mature. Typically you would plant viable individual cloves in September or Late August and mark where you planted them since they won’t immediately show any signs of activity. As the green parts emerge, and those are called ‘Scapes’ you let them grow, mature and they can get up to a foot or more tall. If your garlic tries to bloom and you will be able to tell what the flower stalk looks like since Garlic is in the Allium (Onion) family and most onion blooms look alike. You snap off the flowering stalk which forces the garlic to try to go to seed via producing cloves. Basically without the flower stalk the garlic can’t try to reproduce sexually so it tries to do it asexually via the cloves. Typically your garlic will be ready for harvest in the second year roughly in April or May, but this may vary based on growing conditions and the specific variety. For instance, Georgia Crystal is a hardneck procelain type of garlic, it takes a bare minimum of 240 days from planting to produce a full garlic bulb. Softneck garlic such as Silver Rose takes as long as hardneck the difference being that it’s stems can be braided to make those neat garlic braids. Also as an added note here because I am growing this, Elephant Garlic (Allium ampeloprasum) has two options, it can be grown as a fast spring herb and in 90 days you can harvest a single large bulb, or, you can grow it for a bit longer and get something resembling garlic by the second growing year.

 

“Something ate the root of my carrots, what did it and how do I stop it?” 

Despite what you might think, the culprit here isn’t Rabbits or Squirrels, since squirrels would have dug up the entire plant and either left it to die or dragged it off or left partial remains. Wild rabbits don’t really bother carrot roots and only eat the greens if really hungry and there is nothing better around. It’s kind of a weird storybook myth that rabbits go after carrots in general, and yet they are blamed for the real critter that does. What ate the root is probably a Vole, Voles are effectively herbivores and they will eat the sweet root of a carrot if they encounter it. Voles are not to be confused with Moles which are carnivores specializing in eating worms and insects. If your carrots aren’t too damaged what is left of the taproot will actually keep growing and just be weird shaped. If the voles are doing significant damage you can apply a product called VoleBloc or Permatill, which you add to the soil to make it less pleasant for them to burrow in and thus they go looking for easier places to make tunnels and burrows.

 

“How long can I keep frozen harvests in the freezer?”

The average amount of time to maintain frozen vegetables is 8-12 months assuming no freezer burn happens. Now freezer burn is basically when frozen food suffers the effects of dehydration and oxidation which creates dry areas in the frozen foot that lose pigmentation and may be tougher. Freezer burn can change the flavor of frozen food in general which can be a problem for vegetable storage. You can prevent freezer burn by vacuum sealing things or using quality freezer bags with as much of the air pressed out as is possible. In general I keep fresh harvests in the freezer for no longer than 12 months, though for extremely seasonal things like Alabama Blue Collards, these greens are only eaten on New Year’s so twelve months or longer might be possible but these greens do get double-wrapped.

 

 

“How do I save seed?”

 

Sesame Seeds are of that 'let them fall out of their pods after they dry' type and as you can see here from last year, a lot of pods but the seed is small and needs a glass dish with sloped sides to catch what comes out.

            This is a very open question. The issue is that for every single plant there is a differing way to go about collecting seed and a different set of methods for determining when to harvest seed for drying and storage. For instance, with Cow Peas, you want the pod to be completely dry and then you open it and extract the beans that are undamaged and set them out on a tray to dry for about a week after which you inspect them for insect damage or deformities and pick the best ones to go in storage under plastic. This is not the same process as harvesting tobacco seed where you tip over the little seed capsules and let the black powder-like seed pour into whatever container you have. After this you then let that Tobacco seed sit a week making sure to stir it a bit to ensure even drying and then put it under plastic when the seed is a grayish-black color. The topic of saving seed is VERY nuanced and as I said before varies per plant, in some cases it’s straight forward, and in others like with tomatoes, it involves letting the fruit ferment which is incredibly ‘aromatic’ bordering on the neighbors wondering if you’re hiding a decomposing corpse.

Castor bean seeds are easy to harvest if you can get through the spiky pods and air try them properly for storage.

 

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

This Week's Market List:

Summer Veggies & Herbs: ($3.00 each)

Sungold Cherry Tomato

Chocolate Cherry Tomato

Sweet Hundreds Cherry Tomato

San Marzano Improved Paste Tomato

Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad

Paul Robeson Tomato

Cherokee Purple Tomato

Ghost Pepper ($4.00)

Canary Island Sage (Larger Size, $4.00)

 

Ornamental Stuff:

Zanzibar Castor Beans ($3.00)

Special Perennials

Spearmint 5" pot ($5.00)

Bristol Cross Oregano 6" pot ($6.00)

 

Coming Soon:

Comfrey (Mid summer)

Pepper Assortment (More to come as they mature)

Mountain Mint

Oregano

Walla Walla Sweet Onion (Plants)

Lemon Drop Tomato

Wonderberry

Ground Cherry

Chia

Cotton, Erlene's Green

Okra, Jing

 

 

We have a new place to share information and work on groovy sustainable stuff!  You can look for Sustainable Neighbors in our own Nextdoor.com group under the name “Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville”. You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join but it is a private group so feel free to request to join us if you are signed up on the Nextdoor.com site.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still mucking up the works in terms of meeting in person. The good news is that Sustainable Neighbors does have a Discord Server. You can request access through our Meetup.com page or you can request access via our Nextdoor.com group. The meetup.com page is below for anyone looking to join us.

 

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

 

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to buy anything or maintain any sort of attendance standard, you can come on in and join the meetings. When this Covid-19 mess calms down we may be able to resume normal in-person meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the ninth LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 14^th of May. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

Questions From The Neighbors; Part I

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, this episode is a bit late but the production time of a two-part post tends to take a bit longer. The post due on the 30^th of April will be on time though because both parts are being worked on at the same time. What is this complicated topic you ask? Well I spoke to the Sustainable Neighbors folks and said ‘what garden questions do you have’ and the response was pretty detailed. For this two-part series I’ve distilled the questions posed into five simplified questions per post, this week we have a nice range of stuff, and you can expect more of the same next week.

 

Questions from the Sustainable neighbors:

 

“Is there a schedule of when to plant”

Of course there is! The NC Cooperative Extension has a lovely PDF chart covering all of that right here at the link below.

Planting Schedule

 

“How much do I plant per person”

The eternal quandary for any person seeking to feed themselves is summarized by this question. There are many garden guides that suggest things and then there is what you find on the internet. What you end up with is a lot of information that often conflicts itself and is at best confusing and at worst flat problematic for a simplified answer. For instance it is consistently published that it takes ten crowns of asparagus in a 4 foot by 8 foot bed to supply a family of four with a good spring harvest of asparagus for several meals. Other crops make things far more complicated. The chart below covers the basics of most food crops, the area they need and how many individual plants are required to feed a set number of people.

There is however some hairs to be split with that chart. When it comes to peppers, there are two differing types that have to be considered food peppers like bell peppers require slightly less individual plants to produce a pound of food when compared to seasoning peppers such as Chiles and Ghost peppers. You almost need two to three times as many mature plants to produce the same amount of goods so the number listed is an average between the two.  From my own research, I find that, for Sweet potatoes, you need about 6-10 starting plants per person on the estimation that you will start with just a few ounces of plant material per plant, and the expectation of producing three to five pounds of finished tubers per plant and enough cuttings to repeat the process next year.

 

 

“How do I get my Calla Lilies to bloom?”

 

There are a few things you can do here, firstly test your soil for pH, it needs to be between 6.0 and 6.5, if it’s not add either lime or a soil acidifier to change that. Second, make sure the plant is receiving adequate light. Calla lilies are a full sun kind of plant and don’t take kindly to shade. Make sure the soil does not stay too wet and that’s about it really.

 

“When and How do I harvest my vegetables?”

 

This hinges on the specific vegetable, and what you intend to do with your produce really. For instance you can harvest a bell pepper at any stage of development, but you’d prefer either when it’s at full size or has matured to whatever color it’s supposed to mature to to get the best flavor. The carrots in the picture above are small by supermarket standards but perfectly sized for use in a salad and have full flavor. Leaf greens are a pick the lower leaves kind of deal across the spectrum until the end of their growing season when you harvest the whole head. Knowing when they are ready is something you have to practice at and work up a method that is best for your individual growing conditions. How to harvest also varies too but a universal rule is unless you’re harvesting the whole plant, you want to pick your crops gently as not to cause excessive damage.

 

“When is an eggplant big enough to harvest?”

Whenever it has full color that matches what color it is supposed to have at maturity. Black Beauty eggplants will be a dark purple that is almost black, at this point they are not bitter. However you might want to avoid green eggplant or any eggplant fruit that is past the mature color stage, for instance Black Beauty eggplants eventually turn yellow (see above), and then orange and are inedible at this stage because the seed has developed. If you let this progress you will have seed for next year once the fruit has fallen off or dried out naturally.

 

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

This Week's Market List:

 

Spring Veggies: ($2.00 each on SALE!)

Black Magic Dinosaur Kale

Red Russian Kale

 

Summer Veggies & Herbs: ($3.00 each)

Sungold Cherry Tomato

Chocolate Cherry Tomato

Sweet Hundreds Cherry Tomato

San Marzano Improved Paste Tomato

Cherokee Purple Tomato

Canary Island Sage

Ornamental Stuff:

Zanzibar Castor Beans ($3.00)

Special Perennials

Spearmint 5" pot ($5.00)

Bristol Cross Oregano 6" pot ($6.00)

 

Coming Soon:

Ghost Pepper (Available on the 1^st of May!)

Paul Robeson Tomato (Available on the 1^st of May!)

Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad Tomato (Available on the 1^st of May!)

Pepper Assortment

Mountain Mint

Oregano

Walla Walla Sweet Onion (Plants)

Lemon Drop Tomato

Wonderberry

Ground Cherry

Chia

Cotton, Erlene's Green

Okra, Jing

 

We have a new place to share information and work on groovy sustainable stuff!  You can look for Sustainable Neighbors in our own Nextdoor.com group under the name “Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville”. You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join but it is a private group so feel free to request to join us if you are signed up on the Nextdoor.com site.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still mucking up the works in terms of meeting in person. The good news is that Sustainable Neighbors does have a Discord Server. You can request access through our Meetup.com page or you can request access via our Nextdoor.com group. The meetup.com page is below for anyone looking to join us.

 

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

 

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to buy anything or maintain any sort of attendance standard, you can come on in and join the meetings. When this Covid-19 mess calms down we may be able to resume normal in-person meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the eighth LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 30^th of April. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.