Dear Kitchen Gardener,

The envelope please!  We're delighted to announce the winners of our second annual "Grow-Off Show-Off".  We were impressed with the quality, creativity, and diversity of entries which came from gardeners big and small on five continents.  Among them were home gardeners, seed savers, school gardeners, community gardeners, garden bloggers, garden podcasters, garden YouTubers (which is a very different species from the plain 'ol garden tuber) and even a video entry from a Japanese man for whom the term "home-grown broccoli" is literally music to his ears. 

It was a challenge narrowing the field to five winners.  In fact, we didn't manage to do it and ended up picking six with two tying for first place.  So, here they are:

1. Centro Escolar Los Gramales (The Gramales Scholastic Center); Gualococti, Morazan, El Salvador (Grand Prize Tie, $250 donated by Mother Earth News).
Gargy Shiksha Sadan; Kathmandu, Nepal (Grand Prize Tie, $250 donated by Mother Earth News).
2. Jennifer Hill; Danbury, Conn. (2nd Prize, a portable tiller/cultivator donated by Mantis).
3. Christopher Brandow; Pasadena, Calif. (3rd Prize, eco-friendly gear from Patagonia).
4. The Hills and Plains Seed Savers; Adelaide, South Australia (4th Prize, a $100 gift certificate to Johnny’s Selected Seeds).
5. The Children’s Garden at Kachina Country Day School; Paradise Valley, Ariz. (5th Prize, organic fertilizer from Neptune’s Harvest).

Many thanks to our partners at Mother Earth News for their support and help in getting the word out about the contest.  We'd also like to thank our sponsors for chipping in some great prizes.  We're hoping to make this year's contest bigger and better, so keep your eyes and ears open for information about that later this spring when we announce the launch.

One touching footnote to last year's contest came in the form of an e-mail from Kate Flint of the Hills and Plains Seed Savers of Australia who won 4th prize.  Kate and friends were so moved by last month's newsletter about KGI's school garden project in Buenos Aires that they donated their gift certificate to the people carrying out the project so as to give them some seeds to go with their brand new gardens.  It makes for a nice story when a group of Australian gardeners can donate seeds from an American seed company to help out some Argentinian gardeners just getting started with a school garden.  

Speaking of that, KGI is looking for other projects where we can put our network to good use.  We mentioned in our last newsletter that we're working to become a "gardeners helping gardeners" network.  We would like to be in touch with groups in need of assistance (or people who are aware of such groups). To be clear, we do not have wheelbarrows full of money, but we do have technical expertise in garden and project planning and would be willing to work with project partners to help develop their projects.  I've included some criteria below for the types of partners and projects we have in mind. Don't hesitate to contact us if you know of a project or a group that you think could be a good fit for us.

I'll look forward to updating you next month through our usual eclectic mix of topics including a look at gardening during hard economic times.  We'll also tiptoe into US presidential politics by giving some suggestions to the remaining candidates on how they can secure the powerful "garden vote" :-)

Until then, happy gardening (or seed starting) and bon appétit,

What we're looking for in project partners:

- Some type of track record, previous experience, references
- Has the minimal technical skills and knowledge needed to carry out and maintain project
- Is able invest own resources - financial and/or inkind - in project
- Has capacity to communicate and provide information as needed
- Is willing to share the grant in some way (i.e. by sharing the knowledge gained with others in their community)

-Can be located anywhere in the world

What we're looking for in projects:
- Fits with KGI mission of empowering people to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance

- Project proposal demonstrates community interest in and need for partnership (demand driven)
- Results in sustainable change (community willing and able to sustain, project is designed for sustainability)
- Generates learning which others can replicate
- Is cost-effective
- Enables KGI to learn about community needs and provides feedback for future projects

Posted by at 4:28 PM | Permalink

These straightforward tips come courtesy of Charlie Nardozzi, senior horticulturist and spokesperson for the National Gardening Association. Follow them and you're sure to have great results this season.

1. Find the Right Spot. Like real estate, a successful organic garden is all about the right location. Find a spot in your yard with full sun (at least 6 hours), well-drained soil, and one that's within easy reach of the house.
2. Beef Up the Soil. Add organic matter such as grass clippings, leaves, compost, manure, hay and straw each fall. In spring, apply a 1/2- to 1-inch-thick layer of finished compost on beds before planting.
3. Raise it Up. Create raised beds (8 to 10 inches high, 3 feet wide) by mounding the soil and flattening the top. Soil in raised beds warms up and dries out faster in spring and is easer to work. You can reform the beds each spring or make the beds permanent by framing them with rot-resistant wood, plastic or stone.
4. Grow What You Like. Although it may seem obvious, grow crops you and your family love to eat. While bush beans, lettuces and tomatoes are some of the easiest vegetables to grow, if your family doesn't enjoy them, why grow them?
5. Select the Right Varieties. Grow varieties of vegetables and fruits adapted to your area. Check with local garden centers and fellow gardeners to find the best varieties to grow.
6. Start With Transplants. For the beginning gardener, purchase as many vegetables as possible as transplants from the garden center. Seeds are necessary for root crops, such as carrots and radishes, but transplants of most other vegetables are more likely to be a success.
7. Design Properly. Design your garden with a mix of flowers, vegetables, fruits and herbs. A mixed planting is less likely to get completely destroyed by insect, animal or disease attacks.
8. Plant Correctly. Follow package directions and plant at the proper spacing and depth. Thin seeded crops to the proper distance. Crowded plants become easily stressed and don't produce well.
9. Mulch. Maintain constant soil moisture and keep weeds at bay by mulching. Mulch cool-season crops such as strawberries, broccoli and lettuce with a 2- to 3-inch-thick layer of hay, straw or grass clippings. Mulch warm-season crops such as tomatoes, melons and cucumbers with plastic mulch to heat the soil.
10. Check for Insects. Inspect plants every few days for any insect activity. Handpick destructive insects and drop them in a can of soapy water.

Text credit: The National Gardening Association
Photo credit: Keeeps

Posted by at 11:21 AM | Permalink

For those of you who are fans of Michael Pollan and his latest book, "In Defense of Food, this online interview is the next best thing to sitting down with him yourself. It comes courtesy of our filmmaking friends at Cooking Up A Story. Enjoy and be thinking about how you can "defend food" in your own family and community.

Posted by at 2:17 PM | Permalink

By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, February 14, 2007 in The Washington Post

Nature's gifts come in fancy wrapping. "Look at me!" the tomato shouts. "I'm red, I'm sweet, I'm juicy." The banana makes no less flashy a pitch: "Check out my E-Z-Peel skin!" It's a marketing strategy designed to lure creatures to eat fruits and thereby disperse their seeds.

You wouldn't think these goodies needed help selling themselves to us, but advertising by the ultra-processed food industry is a big distraction. Even recent boosts from science, trumpeting the nutritional value of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, seem to derail nature's mission. No sooner do we learn that a plant food is a package rich in disease-fighting antioxidants than somebody tries to take that complex package apart. Witness the beta carotene debacle of the '90s. On the strength that beta carotene, found especially in bright orange foods, might protect us from diseases such as cancer, suddenly beta carotene supplements were hot-selling items. Then studies found that the supplements might cause cancer instead. The conclusion: Get your beta carotene from carrots.

That's the central message of Michael Pollan's latest book, "In Defense of Food." In his usual clear, hit-the-nail-on-the-head style, Pollan traces our country's sorry journey to a less healthful diet, and he offers good, simple solutions -- the most noteworthy of which is to "eat food." Real food, that is, not a collection of cheap, dubious makeshifts assembled in a lab. Basic to his argument is the idea of food synergy, that a food "is more than the sum of its nutrient parts."

The trend toward medicalizing vegetables (breeding them to be higher in the flavonoid of the month) is perhaps better intentioned than turning food into pills, but to my mind it still smacks of what Pollan calls "nutritionism." Is it necessary to pack extra lycopene into a tomato and more carotene into a carrot, or vice versa? If you eat a diet rich in lots of different fruits and vegetables, grown organically and picked fresh, you will get all the nutrients you need.

One of Pollan's maxims is to choose food at the edges of the supermarket if you must shop there at all. The center aisles are a swirling nucleus of ever-changing fake foods with unpronounceable ingredients. Pick up something from the outer walls instead: an honest red cabbage or a fat beet. Then break through those walls to the fields and gardens beyond.

Granted, February is not the garden's best season, but in my pantry there are red paste tomatoes that I put up in summer, pink applesauce I made in fall, and even, in the cold greenhouse, a few last sweet winter carrots. And that's what I'll serve my valentine.

Article copyright of Barbara Damrosch. Reprinted with permission.

Posted by at 11:08 AM | Permalink

Description:
Kitchen Gardeners International is a 501c3 nonprofit founded in Maine, USA with friends from around the world. Our mission is to empower individuals, families, and communities to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of kitchen gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems. In doing so, KGI seeks to connect, serve, and expand the global community of people who grow and prepare some of their own food.

Goals:
-To provide a structure, virtual and real, for kitchen gardeners worldwide to: meet up with each other; share their passion for food, cooking, and organic gardening; and further their skills and knowledge in these areas
-To introduce new people to the joys and benefits of actively participating in one's food production and preparation
-To inform KGI's supporters and the general public about the many ways of participating in and contributing to a sustainable food system and planet
-To help individuals and communities to achieve higher levels of food self-reliance through education, garden promotion, technical assistance and charitable giving
-To promote fellowship, cultural exchange and international understanding via a shared love of kitchen gardening

Main Activities and Achievements in 2007:

1) KGI website and newsletter
The KGI website and electronic newsletter continued to be our main outreach and education tools and both showed signs of strong growth in readership. Traffic to our website averaged 74,000 unique visits per month, up from 56,000 for the previous year. Our newsletter readership rose from 2800 people to 4800 or an increase of 70%.

2) Media and public outreach
KGI continued added to its media portfolio in 2007 with coverage in more than 50 newspapers and magazines. We were accepted into the YouTube’s new nonprofit program and reached thousands of new people with “food for thought” messages and educational videos that way. KGI was also invited to attend and be represented at various food and garden related events, both near and far. These included participation in the “Maine Fare” food festival, presentations to garden clubs in Maine and New England, participation in the Kellogg Foundation’s annual “Food and Society Conference” organized last year in Traverse City, Michigan.

3) International Kitchen Garden Day
KGI coordinated the fifth annual International Kitchen Garden Day on August 27th. The day was recognized and celebrated by a number of groups and individuals from different parts of the world, both large and small.

4) Grow-Off Show-Off
KGI launched this activity in 2006 to increase the visibility of kitchen gardens and gardening in various communities, rechristening it the “Grow-Off Show-Off” contest in 2007. The contest drew a wide range of entries – pictures, PowerPoint presentations, blogs, podcasts, videos - from four continents and was co-sponsored by Mother Earth News.

5) KGI Mini-grants program
KGI launched its mini-grants program in earnest in 2007 through a $1000 grant to the nonprofit group, Vanastree, of southwest India. Vanastree is using these funds to help women gardeners of theWestern Ghats region to get more food and value out of their gardens while protecting biodiversity. As part of the grant, Vanastree is setting up seed-saving groups in nine villages and offering training in bee-keeping, farm journalism, and adding value to gooseberries.

Staff and board updates:
KGI’s board consisted of Jan Maes, Roger Doiron, David Buchanan, and Maya Howard. Roger Doiron continued to staff KGI in 2007 on a part-time basis.

Financial Report:
KGI made considerable strides in its fundraising in 2007 thanks to a growing number of individual donors and the generous support of the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust, Fulbright Academy, New England Grassroots Environment Fund, Lawson Valentine Foundation, and Helianthus Fund.

Revenues, Gains and Other Support
Foundations and project grants 17,050
Individual donors 5,922
Website-related revenues 626
Total revenues 24,048

Expenses
Program-related costs 20,346
Fundraising costs 2,193
Administrative costs 728
Total expenses 23,266

Change in Net Assets 782

Net Assets, Beginning of Year 4362
Net Assets End of the Year 5144

Report Approved by KGI Board on Feb 11th, 2008

Roger Doiron
Jan Maes
David Buchanan
Maya Howard

Posted by at 3:28 PM | Permalink

Urban and suburban chickens have a buzz about them these days that hasn't been seen in several generations. It makes sense that if people are looking to shorten the distance between field and fork, some of them will also want to shorten the distance between fork and omelet. This "fair and balanced" video presents the two sides of the backyard chicken debate as it is playing out in Missoula, Montana and in many other parts of the US.

Posted by at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ingredients
1 clove garlic
4-6 anchovy fillets
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 egg
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
4 slices bread, cut thin
2 tablespoons butter
2 heads of romaine

Procedure
Mash the garlic in a large wooden salad bowl, rubbing it well around the sides. Let it stand thus for a few minutes, then scrape out and discard the garlic pulp. Put the anchovy fillets and cheese into the bowl and mash them to a smooth paste. Add raw egg to the anchovy-cheese mixture and work smooth. If you are concerned about the quality of your eggs for raw use, you may coddle it by cooking it in fast-boiling water for one minute, just enough to cut the edge of rawness. Blend in the oil and vinegar. Neither salt nor pepper is needed.

Make croutons by buttering the bread on both sides, cubing it small, and browning the croutons in the oven until crisp.

Wash the romaine well, dry and crisp it. Break it into the bowl, sprinkle on the croutons and toss lightly in the dressing until every leaf is coated and the dressing absorbed by the croutons.

Serves 4 to 6.

Recipe source: adapted from House & Garden, June 1956

Photo credit: Michael Newman

Posted by at 3:04 PM | Permalink

By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, February 7, 2007 in The Washington Post

Finding the ancient origin of a popular food is always intriguing, especially if it leads to a new adventure in the kitchen. Take ordinary lettuce. The oldest lettuce type is the upright, long-leaved Romaine, its ancestor on full display in Egyptian bas-reliefs from the third millennium B.C. The French name Romaine, a reference to its presence in papal gardens, merely points to a step along the journey to modern times. Its other common name, cos lettuce, links it to the Greek Island of Kos. But that, too, was a way station, according to William Woys Weaver in "100 Vegetables and Where They Came From."

"Those large, long, stiff-leaved sorts," Weaver recounts, "were consciously selected by Syrian gardeners so that the leaves would develop strong ribs and spoon-shaped foliage. The reason for this was simple: the lettuces were used as an edible scoop or spoon when eating tabbouleh-like foods." Still an excellent reason to grow Romaine.

Seed catalogues list many tried-and-true Romaine varieties. Parris Island cos, bred in South Carolina in 1952, is large, crisp and mild-tasting. I also like the ruddy-tipped, chill-tolerant Rouge d'Hiver and the red, carnival-like speckles of Flashy Troutback.

Like all lettuces, Romaine is a cool-weather crop. In Washington, where summer heat can arrive in May, you could sow lettuce seeds indoors now, so as to have robust seedlings to transplant outdoors in early March. For a later spring planting, the Israeli-bred, heat-tolerant Jericho is the best choice. Lettuce plants should be set out 10 to 12 inches apart in a fertile, moisture-retentive soil that is rich in organic matter.

Romaine's robust texture makes it a versatile salad lettuce. It has nearly the firmness of the iceberg type but with better color and more nutrients, especially vitamins K, A and C, as well as folate. Cooks love the way it holds up well to heavy dressings such as creamy blue cheese, warmed anchovy and garlic or the classic Caesar with egg and Parmesan cheese. To use it as a dipping scoop, I'll choose the smaller inner leaves.

But the tabbouleh test will have to wait for the first tomatoes. This wonderful dish of bulgur wheat dressed with olive oil, parsley and garlic requires the presence of chopped tomatoes picked vine-ripe. (It'll also be good with the first fall Romaines.)

Meanwhile, I'll try a lettuce-scooped Provencal tapenade with black olives, capers and tuna, or the Greek htipiti, a puree of feta cheese, olive oil, lemon and roasted red pepper. Or an ultra-garlicky Middle Eastern hummus with sesame tahini, chickpeas and olive oil, fit for a banquet in ancient Mesopotamia.

Article copyright of Barbara Damrosch. Reprinted with permission.
Photo credit: Joi

Posted by at 2:37 PM | Permalink

Cooking lessons will be made compulsory for youths at British schools starting in September as a way to counter obesity, the government announced. Boys and girls ages 11 and 14 will have to attend the classes and will learn to cook eight classic healthful British favorites, including roast chicken and shepherd’s pie. Education Secretary Ed Balls, who made the announcement, has asked the public to suggest other dishes students could be taught to cook. According to a government-commissioned study last year, in 25 years half of all Britons will be obese if current eating trends are not halted.

Source: Agence France Press

Posted by at 2:13 PM | Permalink