Sugar Cane in the Greenhouse

Someone left this cool-looking sugar cane in the greenhouse, which would be a first for the Center Ave Community Garden, I believe.

It will be fun to see what comes of it - I found these notes on line about planting sugar cane.

I'll keep you posted on where it ends up!

Anyone have any experience growing sugar cane?

What's Growing in the Garden

A weed is a plant whose virtue is not yet known - Emerson

While we get the beds and various areas of the CACG ready for the Spring and Summer months, there are a lot of vegetables taking shape right now!  Feel free to look around next time you're driving or walking down Center Avenue.  Here are a few things you might find:

Giant artichoke plant (transplanted from a previous spot near the lounge).

Kale (you might want to try Karen's recipe from this highlighted post last year)

Chard

Green onions, fava beans, and kale.

A lot of vegetables are growing nicely together in the garden beds.

The herb spiral prepares for the coming season.

Anyone know the name of the plant to the right of the face? David told me, but I can't remember!

Red Leaf Lettuce

Chard and Red Russian Kale

Cactus!

Calendula

Thanks, Annie from the Pennsylvania Street Gardens for identifying this as forage! Sorry, David, that I forgot the name. I know you told me!

broccoli

Beets and Broccoli Progress

Here's an update on the beets and broccoli we have growing in the greenhouse, starting with the day we planted, January 19th.

January 19th

January 30th

February 4th

February 9th

February 19th

February 26th (they were ready for some water after a warm weekend!)

Adventure Walk at Hidden Valley Park

I mentioned this in a previous post, but the Hidden Lakes and Hidden Valley Park connection in Martinez is one the best places to play in the East Bay.

Along with the 'Green and Yellow' play structures, there are just a ton of nooks-and-crannies to explore.

Karen, the kids and some friends mapped out an adventure walk recently, and the kids showed me the way this time.

Here are a few pictures of the park. It's kid-approved, if anyone is interested in checking it out.

Good-looking Soil at the CACG

Brenna and Colin did some digging around where last year's corn, beans, squash and pumpkins were planted (now occupied by some kale and fava beans).

Although the top ground cover looks a little dry, an easy scrape with some garden tools reveals the lush, damp soil below.

This spot is primed for good planting this year!

There were plenty of worms enjoying these comfortable confines.

Here's another hole we dug in the middle of the kale patch.

And what we found beneath.

Two Roads

    Here's a classic 'fork in the road' in Hidden Lakes Park, which has some of the most underrated single-track trails in the East Bay for runners.

  The 'road' to the left (seen again below), is the much easier route. It travels fast, downhill, towards home.

   The road to the right (here below), is the tougher chore.  It ascends uphill (which we named Brenna's Hill years ago), and is unforgiving on a cold morning like this one.

  I chose to the 'road' less traveled, just like the poem, and was rewarded with a crisp, clear view of the neighborhoods around Hidden Lakes Park. It's a good message for me.

Saturday Workday at the CACG

There were a lot of old and new faces down at the Garden this weekend, and a ton of activity on a beautiful Saturday morning.

David, Nathanael, Erin, Ben, Jenn and Garden Mike planted a variety of new fruit trees in the West end of the Garden, while others weeded the beds and planted some new seeds in the greenhouse.

It was great to see a ton of kids from different families marching around the beds and exploring the kids area - the garden is a great place to play and learn at the same time!

Here are some pictures from Saturday.

Here's Marsha doing some weeding in the raised beds.

Chives were planted in the chair pot located in the lounge.

There are lot of veggies and herbs starting to grow in the greenhouse, including broccoli, beets, sage, cactus, chives, carrots, peas, and romaine lettuce.

Nathanael, David, and Ben preparing holes for new fruit trees.

Hard at work!

Karen's Valentine's Day Baked Sunchoke Chips

We went big tonight for dinner, and tried some sunchokes from the CACG for the first time.  They have a similar taste and texture to potatoes - a little sweet and earthy.

Here's how it went down today:

The sunchokes were pulled from sunflowers like these shown above, and David left them out near the chalk board to be taken.

We washed them off...

And chopped them up, almost like little potato chips.

Karen drizzled them with olive oil, and sprinkled them with salt, then went into the toaster over for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees. A recipe we read called for less time than that, so just keep an eye on them until they get brown and crispy. 

We popped them out of the oven, and served them with chicken drumsticks, peas and carrots.

Colin liked them, which reminds me of a certain cereal commercial from the 1970's.  He ate a few handfuls, and called them "David Mudge Chips"! Thank you, David, for encouraging us to try new foods!