Get your summer garden started with organic seedlings!

The Neighborhood Farm Initiative will be returning toCommunity Forklift, a warehouse that sells salvaged, recycled, and donated building materials, for their third annual plant sale!  NFI will be selling veggie and herb plants at the warehouse this Saturday, May 5 and then every Saturday in May from 10am - 1pm. (Great present for mother's day!) Buy some seedlings and then shop around the warehouse for the perfect pot to plant it in. 

For pre-ordering or more information, email NFI or call 202-605-1634. All proceeds benefit NFI’s work to cultivate a resourceful community of adults and teenagers working together to engage in small-scale food production in the Washington, D.C. area.  Check out our website for more info!

Seedlings for sale: 

Tomatoes ($3-4 each):

Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mr. Stripey, Amana Orange, Amish Paste, Sungold (cherry), Big Beef, Bush Early Girl (container)

Sweet and Hot Peppers ($2 each):

Red Knight (sweet), Italian Frying Pepper (sweet), Cayenne Thin (hot), Jalapeno (hot)

Eggplants ($2 each):

Millionaire (long thin Japanese style)

Herbs ($1-2 each):

Dark Opal Basil, Genovese Basil, Sweet Thai, Cilantro, Chocolate Mint, Garden Sage, Garden Thyme

See you there! 

- The NFI Team

Workday blog- April 7: Spring Seedlings

We’ve had glorious weather so far this year, and April 7, 2012 was no different. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, we saw a yellow butterfly in the fields, ….

The three big events of the day were compost maintenance, path maintenance and planting. Yes, you heard it right, we got in a lot of cauliflower, mesclun, kale, and other things which I didn’t write down (I was on path maintenance most of the day). The photos show Danielle, Patricia, Kristin, Nicole, Michelle, Ilse, Beth, Cathy, Delia, Roger, and Meredith planting seedlings. Another good thing about the day is that Bob got the water system working – he’s apparently worked a lot of hours on this over the last week or so. This was especially fortunate, because we were then able to lavish a lot of water on the thirsty seedlings.

In the background of the first photo, you can see the row cover (white sheet) which had

been sitting on top of the black hoops over the past week. This row cover was keeping

the previously planted lettuce a little warmer this past week; it was good to see that the

lettuce had survived.

Also, Kristin had put the new seedlings under the row cover on Wednesday; this “hardened” the seedlings for the planting today. “Hardening”: the concept that, a few days before transplanting, one puts the seedlings in the trays out of doors, to get them a little more prepared for the shock of transplanting.

At the end of the day, we enjoyed some shared snacks, including some locally picked

blueberry preserves canned last year. During this, a discussion arose as to the definition

and usefulness of “pectin”.

Workday blog - April 4, 2012: Let’s Plant!

Now that the beds are created it is finally time to plant. NFI planted Red Leaf Lettuce today.

NFI's Knowledge Korner

“Hardening Off” Seedlings - The key is for seedlings to get acclimated to the different elements. For 1 to 2 weeks move seedlings from inside to outside to get them accustomed to sunlight and cooler temperatures. Seedlings can be moved into a cold frame for protection against extreme wind, temperature, sunlight, etc. Gradually increase exposure to sunlight and cooler temperatures while decreasing the frequency of watering. It will then be time to transplant your seedlings!

Workday blog- March 31: Where is the Plot?

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Where is the Plot?

Last season, cover crop (hairy vetch, rye grass, and peas) was planted to prevent soil erosion and for weed management.

Due to the mild winter, the cover crop was lush and thriving so mowing down the cover crop was necessary in order to prepare for new bed creation.

Fun Fact – Hairy vetch and rye are allelopathic cover crops.

Plot Creation – After mowing and turning the soil over vertical beds were mapped out. The choice to move to vertical plots was the result of the natural gradient of the soil. The vertical plot design should aid in drainage.

Reminder – Make sure you leave enough room between beds. It is recommended to have 18 inches between beds, so when you are working in the garden you don’t step on the bed and disrupt the soil!

NFI's Knowledge Korner

When planting make sure to follow the spacing recommendations on the seed package to give your plants room enough to grow. No one likes crowded spaces!

Fun with pectin

Last Saturday, people shared their food at snack time. One of us brought blueberry preserves, which had been picked and preserved by that person last Summer.

Several people commented on how much they liked the fact that there was very little sugar in the preserves, so that they could really taste the berry flavor. This took the discussion in the direction of pectin: what is it, how does it work, why is it important for sugar content?

What it is: From Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 7^th Edition: “pectin [French pectique]: any of various water-soluble substances in plant tissues that yield a gel which is the basis of fruit jellies.”

From Wikipedia: “Pectin (from Greek πηκτικός - pektikos, ‘congealed, curdled’) is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants.”

How does it work: “Pectin is an important cell wall polysaccharide that allows primary cell wall extension and plant growth. During fruit ripening, pectin is broken down by the enzymes pectinase and pectinesterase, in which process the fruit becomes softer as the middle lamellae break down and cells become separated from each other.”

“Apples, guavas, quince, plums, gooseberries, oranges and other citrus fruits, contain large amounts of pectin. … The main raw-materials for pectin production are dried citrus peel or apple pomace, both by-products of juice production.”

Why does it affect sugar content: Typically, most people who do home-preserving understand that a lot of sugar is needed to help the pectin cause gelling. In fact, this is not true; in the granola-head community, Pomona’s Universal Pectin (PUP, Greenfield, MA) is well known as a low-sugar pectin. From their box: “Pomona’s Univeral Pectin makes thick jam and jelly with rich, full flavor undiluted by large amounts of added sugar. Ordinary fruit pectins require your jam or jelly to be 55 – 85% sugar to set firmly. … is a low methoxyl type pectin extracted from citrus peel. Its jelling power is activated by calcium, not by sugar content.”

The recipe used: As recalled by the sharer, it’s about 8 cups mashed blueberries, 8 cups whole, 1 ½ cups brown sugar; lemon juice, pectin and calcium phosphate as directed by the PUP box, and some salt to taste (salt brings out the sweetness).

For the Summer: If NFI people are interested, we could organize a blueberry-picking and –preserving workshop (ie, a trip to the Farm) in July. Let us know if you’re interested!

Slab Redux

Blog post by Neil Zimmerman:

I will report on two aspects of the field work today:

1) Continuation of the people-vs-rocks saga: As discussed in the March 22, 2011: Humans 1, Concrete Slab 0 blog, last Summer we worked on removing some large concrete slabs from the NFI demonstration plot. This involved sledgehammers and brute force fun. This Saturday, Chris Maxwell, NFI volunteer and Mamie D. Lee Community Gardener plot holder, needed to remove a boulder from the plot that he and Bea Trickett (NFI co-founder and Vice Chair of the board) are working. With the help of another NFI volunteer, they retracted the boulder from his plot. After that, the question arose: “Chris, where do you want the boulder put?”. When his reply was noncommittal, the obvious answer was: “Let’s add it to the NFI Cairn!” The photo shows Chris placing their boulder on top of the pre-existing (concrete) NFI Cairn. As we uncover more big rocks, we hope to make our Cairn, which also serves as the volunteer meeting place, grow larger and larger.



2) The roto-tiller struggle: As we continue to prepare the NFI demonstration plot for planting, we brought out the power tool today! The NFI roto-tiller is a fairly small version, and various volunteers including Bill Brower, Karen Buchsbaum, and Neil Zimmerman took shots at figuring out how to efficaciously use the tiller.

Recap of NFI's First Volunteer Workday of 2012 Season!

The following post was contributed by long-time volunteer and supporter Neil Z:

On March 10, 2012 NFI launched the start of its 2012 growing season by kicking off the first volunteer workday of the year.

There were more people at the Fort Totten site than I have ever seen before, and that felt great! The excitement of being in the dirt in good weather, the enjoyment of new experiences and new facts, and the exhilaration of many, many first-time NFI volunteers were all palpable.

In addition to the first NFI workday, this was also the first of the monthly Mamie D. Lee Community Garden (MDLCG) garden-wide workdays.

Among the day's tasks were:

For NFI:

• Cutting and tilling under cover crops
• Weeding broccoli, chard and other patches
• Harvesting of “orphan” wintered-over crops; the broccoli, young garlic and greens were really good.

For MDLCG:

• Path maintenance
• Moving the shed/building a new shed
• Compost bin maintenance

If you missed out on the fun, no worries! You can join the NFI volunteer team by sending an email to the volunteer coordinator: kristin at neighborhoodfarminitiative.org.

Rather than write any more about the great day we had, I thought I would mostly document the day's activities by sharing photos below. If you like what you see, consider joining us on Wednesday late afternoons or Saturday starting at 9am. Hope to see you in the field!

Some of the NFI volunteers in the NFI fields

MDLCG plotholders moving the shed – cinder blocks on the ground mark the new location.

Mixture of MDLCG and NFI volunteers working on the compost bins (constructed from wooden pallets).

NFI volunteers weeding the broccoli.

More weeding to be done!

NFI volunteers turning under the cover crop (after the tall portions were cut).

Brenda Estrella (NFI Executive Director) and Kristin Georger (NFI Volunteer Coordinator) catching up on the work.

NFI volunteers at the midday snack break.