Sprout
Good Food Project Garden Newsletter
 November 2016 Sprout  
 
Winterizing Your Garden
Left: Compost bin - Top Right: Row planted with a cover crop of sugar snap peas - Bottom Right: GFP Staff, Dellen Ross watering a raised garden bed planted with cool weather crops
 
Now that cooler temperatures are finally coming to Central Louisiana, with some beautiful fall days finally here, it's time to think about winterizing the garden. The last of those great peppers and tomatoes are looking pretty good right now because they made it through the heat of August, September, and October this year! But they will only last until that first hard freeze. Leave them as long as you can. For everything else, here are a few tips to help guide you.
1.  Clean out all the old annual plants.
2. Although the vines and bushes will eventually die over the course of the winter, cleaning them out now can be a good start to a good compost pile whose organic matter will give you a good garden start in the spring.
3. The heat from a compost pile will help kill harmful diseases and pests that have been so plentiful in our neck of the woods because of the mild winter we had last year. A good mix of "greens and browns" makes for a good compost pile.
4. Leave the soil on the plants you pull out. There are microbes in this soil that can help jump-start the decomposition process in your compost pile.
5. There are still things you can plant, even now (check out the cultural recommendations listed below). A vegetable such as collards has a long planting time.
6. Consider planting cover crops to protect bare garden soil that may get lost due to erosion. Buckwheat, red clover, and legumes (like sugar snap peas) and even turnips are all good cover crops. Legumes are great because of their nitrogen-fixing nodules.
7. Leaves, and or hay are good to mulch garden rows and to protect tender vegetation during those cold winter days to come. 

For information about partnering with the Good Food Project, or for other GFP program opportunities, contact the Good Food Project staff at 318.445.2773 or via email: fboudreaux@fbcenla.org, or cbaker@fbcenla.org,  and on the web: www.goodfoodprojectcenla.org    
Recipe of the Month
"Turkey" Fruit Fun 
The women and children of Hope House of Central Louisiana and the kids at Pineville Youth Center had fun this month with their turkey creations made of fruit and other snack foods.
Did you know?
  • Children need at least 2 servings of fruit per day
  • Kids will consume more fruit when it is washed, cut up, and served in appetizing ways
  • Whole fruit has some natural sugar, but also has vitamins and fiber that can help you fill fuller longer
Ingredients:   
1/2 a small gala apple or 1/2 pear ( for turkey body)
Halo or Cutie slices (mandarin oranges)
Slices of bananas
Strawberries halved
Apple slices
Blueberries
Dried raisins
Pretzel sticks
Broccoli Florets
Yellow pepper slices
Baby carrots
Assemble "turkey" using toothpicks and pretzel sticks - Enjoy!

 

In November plant:

  • Beets
  • Broccoli (Plants)
  • Brussels sprouts (Plants)
  • Cabbage (Seed, plants)
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower (Plants)
  • Celery
  • Chard, Swiss
  • Chinese Cabbage
  • Collards
  • Endive
  • Garlic
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce
  • Mustard Greens
  • Onion, Leek (Seed or sets)
  • Parsley
  • Radishes
  • Rutabaga
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Snow Peas, 
  • Shallots (Sets)
  • Spinach
  • Turnips

In December plant:

  • Cabbage
  • Mustard greens
  • Onion, Leek (Sets)
  • Peas, English
  • Shallots
  • Spinach
  • Turnips

 

  

 
Elizabeth Pate Merien and her Bolton High School CBT class in their newly installed garden. They've already harvested enough vegetables for a nice size salad!

                               

 
Garden News

Early in the month of November, the Food Bank of Central Louisiana holds its annual volunteer recognition banquet. As a program of the Food Bank, Good Food Project also recognizes our program's fantastic volunteers of the past year. This year we were honored to award the following selfless volunteers with a token of our appreciation. Our heartfelt thanks goes to:

Top: Tioga High CBT class - GFP Volunteer Group of the Year

Bottom: Donna Swisher - GFP Demonstration Garden Volunteer of the Year (Frances Boudreaux - GFP Director) Diane Tracy - GFP's Children's Programs Volunteer of the Year , Kitty Wynn, Resource Volunteer of the Year

 

 

 

 

For more information about how your organization can partner or volunteer with Good Food Project contact us at goodfoodproject@fbcenla.org or call 318-445-2773 
Workday Wednesday

 

Join us any Wednesday at the Good Food Project demonstration garden at 3223 Baldwin Avenue  from 7:30-11:30 AM for WORKDAY WEDNESDAYS! Come out and harvest with us and learn new things about gardening and make new friends!

If Wednesdays aren't good for you, call us to set up another volunteer day! 318-445-2773 

 
Pineville High Senior, Justin Fairchild is volunteering at GFP as his senior project. GFP Community Gardens Manager and he are shown putting out inspirational rocks around the demonstration garden and the Food Bank Client Services Center

 

 

 
Garden Tips:
Consider using large containers to seed leaf lettuce. Leafy vegetables like leaf lettuce and greens can be planted at 2-3 week intervals to lengthen the harvest period. Harvest often by pinching lower leaves.
Patrice Parker of Natchitoches Council on Aging helped harvest some beautiful leaf lettuce from their newly installed and growing garden!
 

Volunteer of the Month

Beth Hebert

 
Beth Hebert harvesting  broccoli at the raised garden beds of the Food Bank of Central Louisiana

 

What a delight! Beth Hebert came to GFP as a volunteer this month because she is interested in the local food movement. Beth immediately fit right in, helping harvest and process produce on Workday Wednesdays that is distributed to Food Bank clients. She's quite a talented young woman, who formerly worked as a fashion designer for a major clothing company and for films. Beth has traveled around the world, but she returned to Louisiana to be near her family and is currently a yoga instructor at a studio her sister co-owns.  Beth says she wants to learn more about growing her own food using sustainable practices; she's already teaching herself to make some of the things she needs using organic methods. Beth has been a welcome addition to our roster of fantastic volunteers; we look forward to a long working relationship with her!


 

GFP welcomes  individual and organizational volunteers at our community gardens and at the Good Food Project on Wednesday mornings in the demonstration garden, 3223 Baldwin Avenue - Food Bank of Central Louisiana 71301 - 318-445-2773.

 
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