Blues for Food 2013

Good music. Delicious food. Great friends. Enthusiastic gardeners.

Really, what could be better?

Enjoy live music by some of the finest blues bands in the Northwest, fresh, tasty food from local vendors, a fabulous auction of luscious, homemade pies, and children’s gardening activities at the 7th annual Blues for Food Fest on Saturday, August 31.

The Blues for Food Fest raises money and awareness for the people and organizations in Seattle that grow and donate 28,000 pounds of organic produce each year for the hungry. Proceeds from the festival go to Seattle’s Giving Garden Network.

Lettuce Link will be there manning our favorite booth -- Beet Hunger -- where you can donate your homegrown produce and non-perishables. After the festival we will deliver all donations to a local food bank or meal program.

---

2013 Blues for Food Fest
Saturday, August 31, 12-9pm
Magnuson Park Amphitheater and P-Patch, 7400 Sand Point Way NE (free parking)

2013 Lineup:

• 12:00: Kenova, featuring Billy Stoops, Nick Vigarino, and Hambone Wilson
• 1:30: T-Town Aces, featuring Steve Bailey and Tom Boyle
• 3:00: Polly O’Keary and the Rhythm Method, featuring Seattle Slim
• 4:30: Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble
• 6:00: The Delgado Brothers, featuring Patti Allen
• 7:30: Fat James and Fatback

Buy tickets - $20 for adults (early bird price), free for children under 12. $25 for adults, free for ages 16 and under. Dogs on leashes welcome. Tickets available at the door.

Bring your extra backyard produce for donation!

The Blues for Food Fest is organized each year by Deb Rock -- stellar Interbay P-Patcher and food bank gardener extraordinaire. Deb and Jude from the Interbay P-Patch coordinate efforts to grow and donate over 5,000 pounds of produce each season!

A Lifetime of Gardening: Learn Once, Get Forever

Yao Fou Chao, preparing to weedwhack, and Sue McGann at Marra Farm

At Lettuce Link, one way we engage community members in growing and sharing fresh produce is by supporting the work of Giving Gardeners across the city.

A Giving Garden can take many forms. It may be a garden plot dedicated to growing food for donation in a P-Patch or other community garden. It may be a group of volunteers who glean from their garden plots for donation. Or it may simply be a community of people that grow and share produce together.

Yao Fou Chao works with all types of Giving Gardens. As a Mien immigrant and Washington State University Extension garden educator, Yao Fou primarily works with Mien, Lao, and Hmong gardeners. At the Mien Community Garden at Marra Farm and three other P-Patches in Seattle, he teaches gardeners how to grow food in Seattle, where the climate is very different from the highlands of Laos.

Yao Fou has been a farmer his whole life and is eager to share his knowledge. Sometimes Yao Fou has to tell someone "you can't grow that here." But he’s quick to help that person find a different vegetable to grow instead.

He also shares resources widely. If he gets bitter melon seeds that won't grow here due to the cooler summers, he then finds a garden in Yakima that will take them. There's no reason to waste good seeds just because they won't grow here!

Yao Fou knows his community, and he knows what they like to eat! He serves his community by donating from his own garden and encouraging the gardeners he works with to donate their extra produce to the Beacon Ave Food Bank and the ACRS Food Bank in the International District. People that visit these food banks delight in the familiar varieties of Asian greens, cucumbers, beans, and squash.

Yao Fou also serves his community by teaching and sharing his knowledge. He is particularly concerned that Asian youth learn not just the skills, but also the importance of growing food. "Learn once, get forever," he says, expressing his conviction that learning to garden is a skill that lasts a lifetime.

The Mien Community Garden and the P-Patches Yao Fou works with are lucky to have his expertise. At Lettuce Link, we’re lucky to work with him, too!

~ Mariah Pepper, Harvest Coordinator

Growing and Giving: A Gratifying Experience

Meet Pete Lawrence of the Queen Anne P-Patch.

Pete is one of those amazing people who seem to have boundless stores of energy. He is quick to volunteer for large-scale projects at the garden, such as pruning and spreading woodchips, and puts in many hours each season caring and tending the Giving Garden plot.

Last year, under Pete’s leadership, the Queen Anne P-Patch Giving Garden donated over 1200 pounds of produce! The vegetables go to The Lord's Table, a local meal program that serves hot dinners on the streets of downtown Seattle.

After growing up in Seattle, Pete moved to Oregon for work, where he became certified as a Master Gardener through the Oregon State University Extension program. When he moved back to Seattle in 2003, he got a plot at the Queen Anne P-Patch and became involved with the Giving Garden.

When asked why he grows for giving, he responds simply that it is satisfying. It's satisfying to grow the vegetables. And it’s satisfying to share the vegetables he grew with people who really need them.

Pete finds his work in the Giving Garden a gratifying experience. The Lord's Table meal program feeds up to 200 people per night, so Pete knows that the produce from the Queen Anne P-Patch is definitely going to good use!

Over the past ten years, interest in the Giving Garden at the Queen Anne P-Patch has ebbed and flowed, but Pete has returned year after year and is always happy to see new gardeners take up the cause.

Many young couples and families garden at the Queen Anne P-Patch. The community created around the Giving Garden allows for different generations to work together, growing food to share with those in need.

Thank you to Pete and all of the amazing Giving Gardeners out there!

~ Mariah Pepper, Harvest Coordinator

Why We Give: Reciprocity

When asked why she thinks growing and giving is important, Sally, a gardener at the Hawkins P-Patch has an elegantly simple answer: reciprocity.

“One summer, an unidentified neighbor left a bag of potatoes on my porch. It was a gesture that made me inexplicably happy, and I thought ‘why wouldn't this make other people happy?’—especially those who don’t have access to a garden, or healthy food.”

And so, for the past four years, Sally and her co-gardeners Hope and David have coaxed three raised beds into productivity; a bounty of kale, cherry tomatoes, beans, and chard going to The Food Bank @ St. Mary’s in the Central District.

Sally is not alone in her motivation for growing and giving. Reciprocity is a concept that resonates deeply within the food bank and gardening communities, and can be observed profoundly at the Providence Regina House Food Bank in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood. On any given distribution day, dozens of neighborhood volunteers—young and old—mill about helping unload trucks, bag peppers, make signs, and wash produce. They joke with each other as they work, talking with friends, and entertaining children.

As Paige Collins, director of the Providence Regina House Food Bank explains, many of her volunteers are current or past clients. They are both the people the food bank serves and those doing the serving. The South Park community has taken ownership of their food bank—they have made it a comfortable, fulfilling place to volunteer, valued by the community.

In food banks and at gardens across the city, reciprocity is a driving force. Whether it’s a bundle of kale, a bouquet of chard, or a bag of potatoes, Sally, Hope, David, Paige, and countless others know the personal value of good produce, and are doing what they can to share it with others.

After all, what is happiness if not a sun-ripened tomato?

Sharing Your Backyard Bounty

The sun is shining, the rain is (almost) gone, and plants are finally growing at an alarmingly fast rate. This time of year, we know exactly what all you gardeners are wondering:

What in the world am I going to do with all this zucchini??

We at Lettuce Link are excited to remind you of the perfect solution:

DONATE IT!

Food banks across Seattle have a continual need for fresh, nutritious produce, so what better way to cull your garden of those delicious but over-producing squash, greens, beans, and tomatoes than to share them with families who need it most?

And if your garden is not yet overflowing with excess veggies, consider growing an extra row for your local food bank as you plant your fall crops! It can be as small as a row of greens, or as big as a backyard committed entirely to giving (à la the Seattle Seedling). Big or small, every donation is appreciated!

To help you, here are a few pointers we've developed on growing and giving, and a list we've compiled on where to donate your veggies as well as the types of produce most popular at local food banks and meal programs. Thank you in advance for your time, work, and veggies, and believe us, there’s no such thing as too much zucchini...

If you need help, let us know!

Contact Jessica Sherrow, the Lettuce Link Summer VISTA with any questions, concerns, or requests for help with harvesting and/or donating! jessicas@solid-ground.org 206.694.6746 x2

Tomatoes & Peppers & Eggplants, OH MY!

Update: At the end of May, the Marra Farm community came together for food, celebration and planting. See photos of the day here.

The rumors are true, folks: we are now the proud stewards of a grand new greenhouse, to be used and enjoyed by all who grow food at Marra Farm.

Stretching 60' x 25', it looks impressive and feels even better 
Come visit the steamroom soon!

In a greenhouse, incoming solar radiation (light) enters through clear glass or plastic walls and becomes trapped, creating heat. Greenhouses help farmers in many ways - allowing us to extend the growing season, control weather conditions, and grow delicious vegetables that thrive in climates warmer than Seattle. The greenhouse, like almost everything at Marra Farm, has already been been adapted for unforeseen purposes, serving as an 'indoor' garden classroom for the young farmers from Concord International Elementary who came on a rainy day.

Sue McGann, who coordinates Lettuce Link's Giving Garden at Marra Farm, has been dreaming and scheming about this project for years. The greenhouse wouldn't have come to fruition without the extremely generous support from our friends at the BDA Corporation. Over the past ten month, these fine people not only provided funding and materials, but volunteered their time and labor to move existing garden beds, level the ground, and finally build the greenhouse.

We are also grateful to Eddie Hill of Seattle Tilth, who used his skills and expertise learned from Growing Power to oversee the construction procress. José Basilio and gardeners from the Marra Farm P-Patch, Yao-Fou Chao and other Mien community farmers, Marra Farm beekeeper David Feinberg, and many others came together to raise this project up from the crabgrass.

Day 1: Leveling the ground

Measuring the site

Sawing the pipes, which will become the support beams

End of Day 1: the skeleton is up!

Day 2: Wrangling a gigantic piece of plastic

Eddie secures the plastic

And voila! A greenhouse is born.

2011 and Beyond: Joys, Challenges and New Directions

Welcome to 2012! On these gloomy January days (when we are rather glad to be warm and dry indoors rather than out in the garden), it's a good time to pause and take stock of where we've been and where we're going.

So, without further ado, here are a few of our accomplishments in 2011, made possible by the help of our generous volunteers (over 9,329 volunteer hours!) and financial supporters:

• Provided seeds, plant starts and gardening information for 3,695 food bank clients at 23 different locations

• Supported gardeners at 49 P-Patches to grow and share over 17,000 pounds of organic produce for food banks and meal programs (with only half of the gardens reporting)

• Distributed seeds, starts and resources to 13 community gardens at schools, low-income apartments, food banks and churches

• Despite a chilly spring and summer, grew 18,594 pounds of organic produce in the Lettuce Link Giving Garden at Marra Farm to donate to the Providence Regina House and Beacon Avenue food banks 

• Helped develop and provided seasonal vegetables for South Park’s first Community Kitchen 

• Held community meetings and garden classes (in 5 languages), built a shed, fences and tables, planted, tended a grew 3,023 pounds of vegetables for the Rainier Valley Food Bank and community work-trade participants in our inaugural season at the Seattle Community Farm! 

• Taught nutrition, organic gardening and ecology at the Seattle Community Farm and Marra Farm, reaching over 170 children

• Harvested 4,605 pounds of local fresh fruit that would otherwise go to waste for food banks and meal programs across the city

• Held events to raise $20,000 in needed funds. Thank you Friends of Lettuce Link!

• Partnered with Clean Greens, Delridge Neighborhood Development Association, Just Garden Project, Seattle Tilth, UW Department of Urban Design and Planning, Seattle Works, King County Food and Fitness Initiative, the Community Alliance for Global Justice and many others on projects that will increase access to healthy foods for everyone

And yet, as we catch our breath this winter after a busy year, we've found ourselves at a bit of a crossroads. Fewer grants, budget cuts and belt-tightening measures provide an opportunity to reassess our work - what are our program's strengths? What do we do that's unique? How can we continue to grow and change our program to meet community needs, provide wrap-around services for Solid Ground participants and further our anti-racism work?

These are not easy questions, but we're committed to working through them with your support. Here are a few exciting projects to keep an eye out for in 2012:

• Building an overhead structure at the Seattle Community Farm, which will allow protection from the elements and make the space more conducive to community gatherings

• Continuing our work with the Healthy Foods for South Park project, partnering with the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle, Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, Eat Better Feel Better and Concord International Elementary to develop and implement school wellness policies

• Expanding our CSA at Marra Farm, to both raise funds for our program and offer a sliding-scale subscription to our neighbors

• Advocating for just food policies on the city, state and federal level. Watch this space for details in the next few days! 

Thank you for your time, resources and support both this past year and as we boldly stride into 2012 - pushing a wheelbarrow and wearing our rainboots!

The Lettuce Link team - Michelle, Sue, Scott, Robin, Amelia, Mariah and Blair

(with much gratitude to Molly, Kate, Andrea, Sophie and Alice, our staff, AmeriCorps volunteers and interns who have moved on to new adventures)

Picardo Glean-Out

photo by Julie St. George

What better way to say goodbye to short-season gardening at the Picardo Farm P-Patch than with an unseasonably warm and sunny Glean Out Day?

For decades, Picardo has stood out not only as Seattle's oldest and largest P-Patch, but also as the only one with short-season plots. Glean Out Day is a tradition tied to these plots, which until now have occupied the southern half of the 2 ¼ acre P-Patch. Each year P-Patch gardeners, community volunteers, and a Lettuce Link crew have gathered on the last day of the short-season to glean produce for donation before the area is rototilled and planted in cover crop for the winter.

photo by Julie St. George

This year's Glean Out on October 15th showcased the very best of P-Patches: plenty of delicious fruits and veggies, lots of enthusiastic volunteers, and great company! While some folks moved across the field filling wheelbarrows with greens, searching for forgotten squash, and even unearthing a few potato plots, others worked to keep up with washing, sorting and weighing the bounty. We have pages and pages of data to get through before we'll know exactly how many pounds were harvested, but there was enough produce to keep us busy from 9am until 3pm! The North Helpline food bank, Silvercrest Senior residences, and the Seattle Union Gospel Mission all received carloads of vegetables.

But what does next year hold for Picardo? The planning process is ongoing, but there's talk of an increased number of food bank plots, an expanded children's garden, and of course, the opportunity to grow food year-round for many current plotholders. So while there won't be a big Glean Out day next year, we are confident that Picardo gardeners will continue to uphold their legacy of Growing and Giving thousands of pounds of produce each year!

If you have extra home-grown veggies, please see our Where to Donate sheet for food bank hours and donation guidelines. If you'd like to volunteer with a P-Patch in your neighborhood, please contact Molly at mollyw@solid-ground.org. 

Don't forget: Our friends at Homegrown Sustainable Sandwich Shop have created a tasty Seasonal 10 sandwich, Turkey + Red Pepper Relish, and 10% of the proceeds from the sandwich will go to Lettuce Link. Stop by one of their shops in Fremont, Queen Anne, or Capitol Hill this fall for a delicious treat, and thank them for supporting Lettuce Link! 

Giving Gardeners: Evanston P-Patch

The iconic Evanston gate

Tucked into the Greenwood neighborhood, the Evanston P-Patch is a delightfully surprising lush green plot of land. Established in 1974, this P-Patch has had many loyal gardeners over the years. There are 69 designated plots, and over 20 more additional co-gardeners. Helen has been around the longest, since 1975, and many still look to her plot as an example. The P-Patch is full of raspberries this time of year, and many of Helen’s flowers seem to have made their way around the garden as well.

There is a proud tradition of donating to the food bank from the Giving Garden and from individual plots. Cath, Cyndi, and Carol are the co-coordinators of the Giving Garden at Evanston.  They organize monthly work parties that usually involve around 20 people. In addition, they keep a task list in the shed so that gardeners always know how to help out when they are in the garden. They also encourage gardeners to email the coordinators about their vacations so that their produce can be harvested for the food bank instead of going to waste.

Evanston has donated over 1,300 pounds of produce every year to the Volunteers of America food bank. In 2009, they donated a whopping 1,750 pounds! This year, their biggest crop has been lettuce—they donated over 200 pounds over 3-4 weeks.

The sense of community amongst the gardeners has certainly contributed to the success of Growing and Giving at Evanston. New gardeners are immediately welcomed and encouraged to participate in Giving Garden activities to get to know the other gardeners.

Thank you Evanston for all you give!

Helen's red dahlias and some neighbors enjoying the evening sun

Giving Gardeners unite!

Even in a region where you can grow vegetables year-round, it’s hard to resist the call of spring as a new beginning and a time to celebrate. As the birds build their nests and the peas begin to sprout, P-Patches come to life and traditions abound as gardeners reconnect at gardener gatherings and work parties.

Here at Lettuce Link, we like to start our spring by bringing together Giving Gardeners from all over the city to talk about food bank gardening. When I go to meetings like this, I’ve learned to keep two columns of notes in my notebook—one for official meeting business, and one for advice I want to try out in my own garden. When you get a group of dedicated, passionate gardeners together, good ideas sprout immediately. Here are some of the highlights from the 2011 Giving Gardener Gathering:

• Waste not. We talked quite a bit about gleaning surplus produce from individual garden plots, and the consensus seemed to be that patience and a light touch will get most gardeners on your side. Good communication ensures that none of that beautiful organic produce will go to waste!

• Greens are glorious. Sure, if you’re tracking pounds donated they might not weigh as much as squash, but you get many harvests from one plant, which means less time spent planting and replanting. Our gardeners recommend looking beyond kale and exploring the wonderful variety of Asian greens available.

• Make it fun. Growing, harvesting, and delivering fresh, nutritious food can be hard work. And with one in seven Washington households struggling to put food on the table, it’s incredibly important. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun! P-Patchers rave about evening work parties filled with delicious food and drink, good company, and when the weather cooperates, stunning sunsets.

• Feed the soil. Okay, so maybe you didn’t fall for our April Fool’s joke about drinking compost tea. But your garden will love it! And did you know that the P-Patch office maintains an excellent list of Organic Gardening Resources and Tips, full of ideas about where to find compost, wood chips, and even elephant manure?

What was especially exiting about getting all of these giving gardeners together is that they represented the entire spectrum of experience, from new gardeners to about the greenest thumbs you can find, and they were from P-Patches that ranged from decades old to not-yet-built. Yet everyone had something to share and to learn, and thanks to a little cross-pollination, I think we’re in for a great year of growing and giving!

Want to get involved with your neighborhood’s Giving Garden? You don’t need to have a P-Patch plot to volunteer! Just contact mollyw@solid-ground.org.

Giving Gardeners: Hazel Heights P-Patch

(L-R): Shanelle Donaldson, Jen Thompson, Carol Edmonson, and Beckey Sukovaty. Not pictured: Rosemary Ferrentino and Mia.

The Hazel Heights P-Patch, located in Fremont, officially opened on March 21st last year and though the gardeners there may be new to food bank gardening, they grew and shared over 350lbs with the Family Works Food Bank!  This is a significant amount for a first year garden with only 18 gardeners. 

With an innovative approach, amazing community support, and a dedicated volunteer team led by co-coordinators Jen Thompson and Rosemary Ferrentino, they will surely grow and share even more in 2011.  Much of this success comes from high gardener participation in a form of gleaning they call “light picking.” Almost every plot holder at Hazel Heights has agreed to let the food bank team harvest small amounts from his or her plot. Individual gardeners may not notice the absence of a few leaves or a handful of cherry tomatoes, but those small amounts from each plot add up!

Light picking supplements the harvest from the food bank plot and two community herb beds, but it also serves another purpose: preventing food waste. Not a bad idea, considering the fact that about 40% of all food in the US gets wasted. As giving garden co-coordinator Jen Thompson points out, “there’s no need for organic, fresh produce to go to waste.” At Hazel Heights, even the produce that is too unappetizing for the food bank gets put to use, whether it’s in green tomato jelly or the good old soup pot.

Of course, this style of harvesting can be time-consuming, and good communication is crucial. The gardeners at Hazel Heights use email to stay well connected. Gardeners alert coordinators to their vacation plans, so that volunteers can water their plot and harvest for donation. This year, the goal is to increase communication and education about year-round gardening. Over the past winter, there were enough overwintering greens to allow for monthly harvests for the food bank, but the food bank team sees room for improvement.

And perhaps the final ingredient in Hazel Heights’s recipe for success is community participation. Their 8,000 gallon cistern fills with water from neighboring rooftops and several key volunteers don’t even have plots. Their weekly work parties, which feature food, drinks, and socializing, have attracted several passerby. Some of these neighbors go on to offer plant starts, backyard gleaning opportunities, or even yard space for plants that would overwhelm the small food bank plot!

If you live nearby and would like to volunteer at Hazel Heights, please contact Carol Edmondson at edcatlick AT yahoo DOT com. Helping out at Hazel Heights offers not only the chance to do good, learn about gardening, and have fun with your neighbors. If you stay long enough in this hillside garden, you’re sure to catch a fabulous view of the sun setting over the Olympics. 

Thank you, Giving Gardeners!

A Giving Garden sign at the Magnuson P-Patch

As P-Patch Giving Gardeners from around the city reported back on their food bank gardening efforts this past growing season, it wasn't hard to spot some recurring themes. Some described "disastrous" crops. Others experienced sudden, inexplicable plant deaths. Many were overwhelmed with green-and only green-tomatoes. Almost everyone blamed the weather.

But all of these gardeners grew something. And when you put all those harvests together, even if they seemed small or not worth recording, they add up. In 2010, those harvests from 37 P-Patches across Seattle added up to 20,889 pounds of fresh, organic produce grown locally for food banks and hot meal programs around the city. That's a lot of high quality, nutritious food!

So thank you for all the gardeners who worked with Lettuce Link to grow, harvest, and deliver food for low-income families this past year.

This year ten P-Patches donated 500+ lbs of produce:

But that doesn't mean there aren't other ways to measure success!

To see how all 37 reporting P-Patches contributed, check out the full set of charts here. And if you'd like more information about food bank gardening, check out our Giving Garden Tips or email mollyw@solid-ground.org.

Not a P-Patch gardener? Food banks can still use extra produce from your garden. No amount is too small! Click here for a list of food banks in your neighborhood and their favorite crops.

Lettuce Link in 2010

This was the year the City of Seattle declared the Year of Urban Agriculture and for us at Lettuce Link it certainly was a year planting, harvesting, delivering, planning and community engagement around the possibilities of growing and sharing food in the city.

It was also a year for developing and strengthening partnerships. As our economy changes and resources contract, we see the continued need for linking together the strength and momentum of all of us working towards a more just and equitable food system. It is only in solidarity that we will be able to accomplish our goals.

In 2010, with the help of our generous volunteers (over 7,947 volunteer hours) and financial supporters, we:

• Provided seeds, plant starts and gardening information for 2,120 food bank clients at 24 different locations.
• Supported P-Patch gardeners at 45 sites to grow and share 11,000 pounds of organic produce for food banks and meal programs (with only one-third of gardens reporting).
• Grew over 22,383 pounds of organic produce at Marra Farm to donate to the Providence Regina House and Beacon Avenue food banks (a 37.5% increase from 2009).
• Shared local fresh fruit with food banks and meal programs across the city, despite a poor fruit year.
• Taught nutrition, organic gardening and ecology to Concord Elementary students and children from several other schools, reaching over 510 kids.
• Hosted over 90 community members speaking seven different languages in designing the Seattle Community Farm at Rainier Vista and moved 14,000 pounds of concrete blocks to create a retaining wall that survived the early December rains.
• Held events to raise $20,000 in needed funds, thank you Friends of Lettuce Link!
• Partnered with Creatives 4 Community, Spring into Bed, Seattle Tilth, Clean Greens, Delridge Neighborhood Development Association, the University of Washington Department of Urban Design and Planning and School of Social Work, Environmental Coalition of South Seattle (ECOSS), King County Food and Fitness Initiative, the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and many others on projects that will increase access to healthy foods for everyone.
• Marked a year of program blogging by including information about food policies and opportunities for advocating for large system changes.

Thank you everyone for helping us work through our challenges and making this a great year!

The Lettuce Link team - Michelle, Sue, Scott, Robin, Amelia, Molly & Teresa

(with much gratitude to Sadie, Jamie, Leslie, Kate & Isobel, our AmeriCorps volunteers and interns who have moved on to new adventures)

Blues for Food Fest

Music. Food. Friends. Gardening. Labor Day weekend. They're all available at the Blues for Food Fest!

The fourth annual Blues For Food Fest is an "all-day celebration of good food, good friends and good music". This celebration features local blues bands as a fundraiser for the P-Patch Trust and the Washington Blues Society Musicians Relief Fund.

The event raises awareness about hunger and celebrates the P-Patch giving gardens that donate over 28,000 pounds of organic produce to food banks and meals programs each year.

The festival also features one of our favorite booths - "Beet Hunger", where you can conveniently donate your homegrown produce! After the festival Lettuce Link will deliver donations to a local meals program or food bank.

Blues for Food Fest

Saturday, September 4, 12pm - 7:30pm.

Magnuson Park Amphitheatre and P-Patch, 7400 Sand Point Way NE

photo by Lettuce Link volunteer, Steve Tracey

What else to do at the Blues for Food Fest?
-Enjoy Creole soul food from Where Ya At Matt - Seattle's latest food truck sensation
-Bid on delectable pies and an Art of the Pie cooking class at the homemade pie auction
-Enjoy family fun: worm bin exploration, bug hunts, seed saving, nature art sculptures, and veggie harvests in the P-Patch
-Learn how P-Patch gardeners are educating and inspiring all age groups about the joys of organic gardening

And of course, music!
12:00 - 1:00 Kim Archer
1:30 - 2:30 Red Hot Blues Sisters
3:00 - 4:00 Junkyard Jane
4:30 - 5:30 Randy Oxford Band
6:00 - 7:30 Patty Allen All Star Band

The Blues for Food Fest is organized each year by Deb Rock, stellar Interbay P-Patcher and food bank gardener extraordinaire. Deb and Jude from Interbay P-Patch organize efforts to donate over 5,000 pounds of produce each season.

Buy tickets! $15 in advance at Brown Paper Tickets, $20 at the door. Kids: $8 and $10

The Blues for Food Fest is a collaboration with the Washington Blues Society.

Giving Gardeners: Diane Brooks, Delridge P-Patch

Lettuce Link works with gardeners all across Seattle, helping them grow fresh, local, and organic produce for Seattle food banks. In 2009, P-Patch gardeners donated close to 28,000 pounds of produce, coming together to get good food to their neighbors. Through these Giving Gardener spotlights, we’re celebrating the work of P-Patch Giving Gardeners.   To read previous Giving Gardener spotlights, click here.  To learn how you can donate garden grown produce to a food bank or meals program click here.

Diane Brooks began gardening as a child, “I remember thinning carrots on Memorial Day,” she says as we admire the Delridge P-Patch. Diane came to garden in Seattle over twenty years ago, finding a strong and diverse community with her fellow P-Patch gardeners in West Seattle. With food and flowers, “we found a way to communicate.” 

Gardening across cultures continues today as a strong theme among Delridge P-Patch food bank gardeners. Delridge has two food bank plots, one for the West Seattle Food Bank and one for the White Center Food Bank. In the West Seattle Food Bank plot, gardeners plant green beans, spinach, tomatoes, and lettuce among other crops. In the White Center Food Bank plot, Diane focuses on three client favorites- Daikon radish, mustard greens, and snow peas. For both plots, gardeners communicate with the food bank about what’s popular among their clientele. 

“I spoke to the food bank director and asked him to choose the top three vegetables for us to plant,” says Diane. Last season, “people could not believe how good the peas were.” 

Diane learned about Daikon from other Delridge gardeners. This long white root vegetable is popular among some Asian cultures where both the roots and the greens are used. In order to space the radishes correctly, avoid thinning time and reduce seed waste, Diane used a roll of toilet paper and a sheet of sticky spots for this do-it-yourself seed tape:

The Delridge Daikon Design – Make your own seed tape! 

You’ll need:

1 roll of 2-ply toilet paper

Round colored stickers

Seeds

Un-roll the toilet paper and peel the 2-ply to make a strip of 1-ply

Place the seeds in a line on the toilet paper at exactly the spacing needed  (see seed pack for spacing of seeds)

Stick a colored sticker on each seed

Re-roll the toilet paper 

Label and store for planting day

Roll out the seed tape on your garden bed and lightly cover with soil 

Water immediately to secure seed to soil  

Weed and watch grow 

With depleted soil,  heavy shade and no one to garden it, a corner plot at Delridge P-Patch went underused. “It was a shame to see it just sitting there,” says Diane. She contacted the P-Patch program and was able to secure the plot for the food bank.  It’s taken a lot of effort to work the plot into production, but “shade and lots of water grow great greens in the summertime!” Thanks to Diane’s efforts, Barbara, Naoko, Phillipa and the rest of the Delridge Giving Garden team are able to grow food for both the White Center and West Seattle food banks. 

Giving gardens offer a place for gardeners to learn and grow together. This season, Diane is hoping to encourage more Delridge P-Patchers to garden in the food bank plot by gathering together on Tuesday evenings. This is a way for new gardeners to learn more about gardening while planting, tending, and harvesting together. Diane has met many community members walking through the garden. They often stop to help weed or haul compost.

When asked why she grows for the food bank, Diane thoughtfully replies, “I like giving people fresh produce, and I like eating fresh produce myself… I think I’m a farmer at heart. If I have an open space I’ll plant food.”

Lettuce Link also works closely with the Food and Fitness Initiative in Delridge as part of a larger effort to improve access to healthy food and safe places to play. Visit the diverse and vibrant neighborhood of Delridge this summer during the Refresh SouthWest (formerly Delridge Days) on June 5^th. 


-Sadie Beauregard, Lettuce Link

Brianca and The Picardo Farm on KUOW

Our friend Brianca Delaney-Yemoyali, a Solid Ground Advisory Council member and Lettuce Link volunteer and supporter, was recently featured on KUOW.

Listen to her story and be inspired!

Sending Out a Start

Starts grown by Wallingford's Growing Food, Growing Community are going out to P-Patch Giving Gardeners this week: lettuce, pac choi, spinach, and peas!

Giving Gardeners: Christina Cummings, Judkins P-Patch

Lettuce Link works with gardeners all across Seattle, helping them grow fresh, local, and organic produce for Seattle food banks. In 2009, P-Patch gardeners donated close to 28,000 pounds of produce, coming together to get good food to their neighbors. Through these Giving Gardener spotlights, we’re celebrating the work of P-Patch Giving Gardeners. To learn how you can donate garden grown produce to a food bank or meals program click here.

Surrounded by native plants and bursting with thoughts of spring, Judkins P-Patch is home to 21 individuals plots and one ever-growing Giving Garden.

Christina Cummings coordinates the Giving Garden at Judkins P-Patch. “It’s a good reason to be outside and to garden,” says Christina. “I’m always learning.” Christina began gardening three to four years ago, and her recent years in Seattle have been ripe with gardens, P-Patches, and community. At Picardo Farm P-Patch, Christina and her partner delivered produce to Silvercrest Senior Residences. Christina was also instrumental in founding Spring Street P-Patch in Seattle’s Central District, now in its inaugural season.

With Christina’s help, Spring Street P-Patch opened with an invested community behind it. “The community has really taken hold of it” says Christina, “and it’s great to see.” Spring Street also has a plot dedicated to food bank gardening, and they’re excited to grow and give lots of greens to the C.A.M.P. Food Bank in 2010.

Last year, Christina moved closer to Judkins P-Patch and got involved with the giving garden, planting onions, kale, and chard for the food bank. Judkins P-Patch donates to the Food Bank at St. Mary’s, less than a mile away. St. Mary’s distributes food to over 4,500 people each week, making it one of the busiest food banks in Seattle.

A directed effort to donate fresh, local produce from Judkins P-Patch allows gardeners to share with their local food bank and presents the opportunity for more gardening and community building. The importance of community, health, and nutrition, along with a love of gardening and vegetables, motivates Christina to grow for the food bank. “More people than we know use food banks” Christina notes, “it’s great to be able to connect with them through gardens and vegetables.”

Peas are sprouting up from the food bank plot at Judkins and onions are on the way. Be on the lookout for a new sign marking the food bank plot at Judkins. And if you see Christina, take a moment to say hi and help her dig in the dirt.

-Sadie Beauregard, Lettuce Link

Growing in the greenhouse

Volunteers from Wallingford's Growing Food, Growing Community are growing 100s of starts for giving gardens this season. Little sprouts are coming up in the greenhouse. Once they have their "true leaves" they'll be transplanted into 4" pots, grow a little more, and make their way to the garden.

little spinach.

The "true leaves" are just coming out on this spinach. After a plant has its true leaves, the "seed" or cotyledon leaves will eventually turn yellow and fall off.

baby pak choi.

tomatoes getting ready to go.

Seeds start out on the heating pads. Once they sprout volunteers move the trays to other shelves to make room for more.