I follow the Kitchen Gardeners International webpage (http://www.kitchengardeners.org/).  Their 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 some of their own food.” 

And there’s more:  “With the world in the grips of intersecting food, fuel, financial and environmental crises, it is clear that we need to make a shift in the way we eat and live. Kitchen gardens, food gardens, Victory Gardens – whatever term you prefer – have been an important part of our past and will play an even more critical role in the future as we work to feed a growing world population using a dwindling and increasingly polluted natural resource base. Over the past 100 years, we have lost a great deal of cultural knowledge about the production, preservation, preparation and enjoyment of healthy, whole foods. The good news is that we can bring it back and help those who would like to have a healthier, closer relationship with their food to do so.”

That’s a tall order, but I’m an optimist, so I think these societal changes are possible.  I am encouraged by the interest we’ve seen this year in edible gardening – it is obvious that our customers are interested in being more self-reliant when it comes to feeding their families.  And please remember that Farmington Gardens is here as a resource to help you along in this venture.

Kitchen Gardeners International has marked August 23 as Kitchen Garden Day — an annual celebration of food produced on a human-scale. It is an opportunity for people around the world to gather in their gardens with friends, family, and members of their local community to celebrate the multiple pleasures and benefits of home-grown, hand-made foods.

So, here are our suggestions for activities for the day:

• invite your friends or neighbors together for a backyard feast from your collective gardens – it feels great to feast on the bounty of your own garden!
• organize walking tours of the neighborhood gardens, so that you can see how each gardener incorporates edibles into the landscape
• arrange for a vegetable exchange with your neighbors – trade surplus produce over the fence.
• visit the terrific display garden at the Washington County fairgrounds which is maintained by master gardeners
• take the beautiful drive to Champoeg State Park and visit their pioneer kitchen garden and apple orchard with heirloom varieties; and bring your bikes, because there are some great bike trails!
• stop by Farmington Gardens to see how our demonstration vegetable garden is producing – the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are loaded with ripening fruit; the cucumber trellis has vines clambering up its sides; the Red Russian kale is billowing in the breezes…come check it all out!

And remember, NOW is a great time to stick some seeds and starts in the ground for your fall and winter harvest.  Refer back to our earlier post on appropriate fall veggies….

Here’s to self-sufficiency!!