Rows of Ozette and Haida potatoes, rows of beans squash, and sunflowers (plus a few zinnias , marigolds, and a little basil)
all photos by Linda DC
Wide-angle of Land & Sea garden in its lovely field
Generous island resident Declan - skilled carpenter and craftsman - with a beautiful cedar/plexi podium to the right. That's a post hole digger and a pick in his hand - did we also mention he's a hard worker?
Our fantastic irrigation system, purchased with funds donated by the greathearted San Juan Masonic Lodge # 175, & installed by our good friend, garden advisor, and Mason, Tim McGee.
Look at those nobby, rich-smelling Ozettes!
Young garden gnomes lurking among the many flowers. Yes, they're friendly!!
And all those stakes? They're from Browne's Home Center. Thanks, Nancy!
Foggy day in Friday Harbor-town
Still life of of garden, with podiums
Garden manager Albert Strasser, with a handful of earth & some of the earliest potatoes. Potato blossoms in photo above (they smell like clean laundry) and bean blossoms, in all their purple-ness, below
sunflower leaves framing the middle school in the distance, with a ladybug nestled in the lower left there somewhere; and a squash getting more colorful and bigger by the minute.
Albert turning honey-bee before heading off to his second year at Colorado.
One more picture of a podium, and a side view of our garden plot, cleared of sod with a sod remover (like slicing butter!!) from wonderful Harbor Rental. Thanks, you guys!!
In the forefront, left, are some of the old apple and pear trees who keep watch over our garden.
Hi !
What has been going on in our Land & Sea Garden? So much!!
In June our many volunteers removed sod at our lovely plot with help from Harbor Rental, then tilled and furrowed (and found some wire worms), planted beans, Ozette and Haida potatoes, sunflowers, and winter squash, installed a great irrigation system financed by the SJ Masonic Lodge, and today, installed informational podiums to tell you all about it!
The gorgeous podiums were made for us by Declan Place - they are so beautiful! - from cedar given by Bill Maas, and plexiglass from Dave Hall at Island Glass. And now we have wood chips that we've started putting down in the aisles from Marion Melville!
We purchased our squash starts in June from Eric Ellison, who gave us a great price for those healthy little plants, we purchased our Ozettes from Baker Creek Seeds and from biologist Madrona Murphy, who sourced her starts from all over the San Juan islands and gave us Anna Cheeka and Haida varieties along with varieties grown on Sucia, and we purchased our bean and sunflower seeds from Uprising Seeds from Acme WA, and from Greenheart Gardens seeds from Lopez. The Ozette potatoes were developed by the Makah people of Neah Bay, and for years were only known by those people on the Olympic Peninsula. They are delicious and well adapted to our area. Read more about them here, here, and at our garden.
This week Linda & Maureen will be visiting the Friday Harbor High School kitchen to talk with Andy and Liz about the areas we will set aside for use by the High School for field trips for their lunch and chef programs! That is pretty great.
Our summer Land & Sea Garden manager Albert Strasser headed off to his sophomore year at college last week. He did a wonderful job getting enough water to our crops to help them look as beautiful as they do today! Albert is a Friday Harbor grad who participated in our Land & Sea Youth Club in its very first year. Now we hope to have a get together with him at the garden when he's back during the holidays later this year.
Linda has been spraying the beans and flowers with a mixture of egg and water, using a hudson sprayer from Browne Lumber (donated along with hose, and brass hose manifold) filled with water and Maureen's healthy eggs - so far it has repelled deer like a champ. It smells horrific!! Marion also has another non toxic mix the deer hate. She'll put it on the grass bordering the garden, and we will hope for the best. It's all a learning experience!
More details and earlier photos from our garden are included in our posts dated 6/7 and 7/11 - scroll down for those. We're now writing up information for the podiums so everyone who wants to spend time just enjoying the garden or volunteering anytime can read about the crops & what's happening at any given time.
NEWS ABOUT YOUNG ISLANDERS AT QUILLISASCUT TEACHING FARM
Another Friday Harbor 2010 graduate, Rowan Reitan, is currently working over at the new Quilted Pig restaurant at Rosario Resort. Rowan returned a week ago from the Quillisascut Teaching Farm. Rowan is a graduate of the fantastic Chef 1.0 and 2.0 programs Liz and Andy have developed over at the High School with the homegrown Food for Thought program.
Rowan and Pritha Golden, a young woman interning this year at Maple Rock Farm on Orcas and at Heritage Farm last year, were both sponsored at Quillisascut this August by our Land & Sea Chapter, thanks to the generous donation of a wonderful anonymous island couple. (Pritha is also featured in the documentary by Mike Hurwicz "Where is Tomorrow's Farmer?").
The Quillisascut Slow Food Youth Workshop program happens every August. Last year we were fortunate to send FH graduate Cheyenne Cook when a wonderful island philanthropist offered funds. Thanks to the amazing couple who funded Rowan and Pritha's trip, participation will be funded every year for a few years to come now for one or two deserving young islanders.
We are hearing fantastic things about Pritha & Rowan's time at Quillisascut - Rowan said it was the greatest thing he has ever done - and we're looking forward to hearing more! Here are some great photos from the school.
Thank you so much, island philanthropist, and thank you, great island couple!
And thank you, Lora Lea and Rick at Quillisascut, and Kim Bast from Lopez, for making this happen for these young people!
Linda also just visited Boston this August and was inspired by the vegetable garden at the Old South Church in the middle of the city, and the Fenway Victory Gardens, a huge public vegetable garden plot across the street from Fenway Park - almost close enough for an out-of-the-park homer to land in!:
Old South Church "Garden of Eatin" in Boston. (There are some lovely flowers, too)
Fenway Victory Gardens layout map, and info on the garden bulletin board. This garden has many, many fenced plots for many community participants, and dates back to the 1942! Isn't that inspiring?
