Learn How to Plant Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables in New Video Tutorials

May 1, 2020

By Gabriela Estrada, Solano Gardens Program Manager

Scott Dodson of Scotty’s Organic Gardening covers spring garden basics from prepping to planting

This spring, interest in gardening has surged with so many people staying at home. We wanted to help with what to do to get the most out of your seasonal garden beds.

Sustainable Solano has re-envisioned a lot of our programs to fit the current stay-at-home guidelines under COVID-19. We wanted this new vision of our programs to be a resource for the community, and we wanted it to be as accessible as possible. With this in mind, all the program managers began to think about tools that we could offer to the greater Solano County community (and possibly beyond).

For Solano Gardens, a program that focuses on food production in urban areas, we’ve created a series of educational videos that could support individuals getting started on their very own vegetable garden either at home or in their nearest community garden! The video tutorials are from Scott Dodson of Scotty’s Organic Gardening. Scott is the designer behind our gardens at Solano County schools, churches and other community sites. These videos focus on supporting beginners who want to grow their own annual fruits and vegetables (tomatoes, peas, watermelons, etc.), but who don’t know how to get started.

The video series begins with spring gardening (the current growing season), but thanks to generous support from Solano County, Scott will continue this video series and offer seasonal tricks and tips for year-round growing.

You can watch the videos on this page, which includes links to other resources, or in the playlist below.

 

Future video tutorials will include summer, fall and winter gardening, pruning and plant propagation. If you have any topics you think should be included in this video series, be sure to send me an email at gabriela@sustainablesolano.org.

Want to start growing at Swenson Community Garden in Benicia (where these videos are filmed and garden beds are still available)? Learn more about joining Benicia Community Gardens here.

4th Annual Demonstration Food Forest Tour a Reimagined Success

May 1, 2020

By Nicole Newell, Sustainable Landscaping Program Manager

Permaculture expert John Valenzuela shows the roof water outlet at Living & Learning garden in Benicia during the video tour

Our 4th Annual Demonstration Food Forest garden tour was very different this year, but still brought people together in new ways around the concepts of permaculture and creating waterwise, edible gardens. Permaculture expert John Valenzuela gave a talk over Zoom to nearly 100 people that included a Q&A session and a pre-recorded video tour with John in one of our 27 demonstration food forest gardens.

What also made this year unique was it opened up the opportunity for people from all over the country to be able to attend, even people from the UK and Canada! It was comforting to see all of the familiar faces and exciting to see new people as we are all adjusting to this new way of interacting through video conferencing.

We had to rethink the annual tour this year due to the pandemic and social distancing. The big vision is a community day of local people gathering to tour the gardens, get to know each other and learn about permaculture concepts that can be applied to their landscapes. The original plan was to begin the tour at Avant Garden in Benicia with John’s talk and then 14 demonstration food forest gardens would be open in Benicia and Vallejo for a self-guided tour. These gardens are open annually to educate the community on how to create beautiful and productive gardens that build healthy soil and use water wisely.

Knowing we needed to bring the tour to life in a new way this year, our Sustainable Solano team got into solution mindset. We found David Avery, a videographer that made the video of John touring Living & Learning food forest in Benicia. Then on April 25, John gave his live talk over Zoom and answered many questions on plants and fruit trees. For those who couldn’t make the live event, you can view the talk and Q&A in the video below.

 

View the Living & Learning tour video below.

 

Stay tuned for more! In May, we will record Lydia Neilsen touring The Ripple Effect and The Enchanted Cottage garden in Vallejo. At a later date, Lydia will present her Rehydrate the Earth talk in a live Zoom call. We are also creating a series of short videos on the elements that go into creating your own food forest garden. To stay on top of the latest, subscribe to our newsletter here.

Sustainable Solano Hosts Virtual Demonstration Food Forest Garden Tour, Talk April 25

Apr 3, 2020

 

Sustainable Solano is bringing its annual Demonstration Food Forest Garden tour online this year as an interactive talk and virtual tour. Due to coronavirus (COVID-19), the nonprofit organization has reimagined the tour in a way that allows participants to join the talk and experience a garden from the comfort of their homes.

About the Tour:

  • Virtual Demonstration Food Forest Garden Tour & Talk
  • 10-11:45 am Saturday, April 25
  • The event will feature a talk by permaculture expert John Valenzuela, followed by a short video tour of one of Sustainable Solano’s demonstration food forest gardens and leaving time for a Q&A session with Valenzuela at the end. The event, hosted on Zoom, will be open to the first 100 people who join that morning. Everyone who registers will also receive a link to the recording of the talk and tour after the live event.
  • Participants must register to get the Zoom link. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-demonstration-food-forest-garden-tour-talk-tickets-90835089197

The live April 25 talk from John Valenzuela of Cornucopia Food Forest Gardens will cover permaculture and explore how permaculture follows nature as a guide in the garden, our communities and beyond. He will plant ideas on what participants can do today to begin a journey into permaculture and bring these concepts into their own gardens. Valenzuela will discuss how to design a tree guild of plants that work together, the elements of a food forest garden, wise sources of water and expanding that vision to create Resilient Neighborhoods. Together, participants will watch a guided virtual video tour of a demonstration food forest garden that shows what can be done to create edible, waterwise landscapes that support communities and provide natural habitat. The tour will show how capturing rainwater, roof water and greywater from weekly laundry can support a garden that works in harmony with nature. There will be time for a question and answer session at the end.

Valenzuela is a horticulturist, consultant and educator. First introduced to the sustainable design theories and methods of permaculture in 1989, he has studied, practiced and taught permaculture in Hawaii, Washington, Costa Rica and throughout California. His special interests are rare fruit, home gardening, trees, traditional agriculture, plant propagation and ethnobotany. 

This talk and the video tour will launch a series of virtual garden tours from Sustainable Solano. The organization will post virtual tours of demonstration food forest gardens throughout the county. Each garden is a unique experience: some are compact front yards, others are on a slope, some share space with animals and small children, some are allowed to grow without restriction, while others are more manicured. They all are lush, food-producing gardens that are fed by secondary water sources (laundry-to-landscape greywater and rainwater) that offer inspiration for home gardens!

John Valenzuela’s talk is sponsored by Republic Services; the tour and Solano Sustainable Backyards program are made possible by the generous support of the Solano County Water Agency

 

Useful links:

Solano Sustainable Backyards: https://sustainablesolano.org/solano-sustainable-backyard/

John Valenzuela: https://cornucopiafoodforest.wordpress.com/about-2/

Resilient Neighborhoods: https://sustainablesolano.org/resilient-neighborhoods/

About Sustainable Solano

Sustainable Solano is a countywide nonprofit organization that is dedicated to “Nurturing Initiatives for the Good of the Whole.” The organization, now in its second decade, brings together programs that support and sustain one another and the Solano County community. Initiatives include sustainable landscaping, local food, resilient neighborhoods, sustaining conversations and community gardens.

Sustainable Solano Offers Online Farm-to-Table Cooking Classes Featuring Specialty Crops

Apr 3, 2020

 

Sustainable Solano is bringing its farm-to-table cooking class series online. The classes highlight how to prepare seasonal, local food in healthy dishes.

While classes were originally planned to start in March, best practices for addressing health and safety with coronavirus (COVID-19) mean that in-person classes have been postponed until a later date. But that has opened an opportunity to reach more class participants by offering some of the planned classes online, starting with live classes on April 9 and April 18. Participants will have the opportunity to see a demonstration cooking class for a seasonal salad made with ingredients directly from local farms in Solano and nearby counties. They will also be able to ask questions over Zoom video conferencing.

Sustainable Solano, a nonprofit organization that has been working to build community interest in local food, plans 88 cooking classes around Solano County in the next two years. These cooking classes include those for the general public taught in the community as well as those taught through employee wellness programs, and are part of Sustainable Solano’s larger vision to create an environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially just local food system in Solano County.

The classes highlight local specialty crops, which include fruit, vegetables, beans, tree nuts and culinary herbs.

Class participants will learn about CSAs, or Community Supported Agriculture. CSAs create a way for community members to buy a share of the harvest directly from local farmers. Customers pay a set amount and receive a box of seasonal produce or other farm products in return. Such arrangements help farmers receive a greater share of the money paid, bring customers fresh, local produce and promote health, community and the local economy.

Stay tuned for more cooking classes coming soon at SustainableSolano.org/events and by subscribing to the Sustainable Solano newsletter here.

 

Here is information on the first two classes:

 Farm-to-Table Cooking Class

4 pm, April 9 (Thursday)

Register for a Zoom link

Free

Join Sustainable Solano’s Local Food Program Manager Stephanie Oelsligle Jordan for a lively online demonstration cooking class that celebrates spring ingredients and supports local farmers. Learn tips and tricks for storing ingredients and cooking seasonally from a CSA box. Using Solano-grown specialty crops, Chef Steph will prepare a Spring Salad with Peas, Pistachios & Pecorino with Lemon Vinaigrette.

To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/farm-to-table-virtual-cooking-class-tickets-101807757744

 

Farm-to-Table Cooking Class

11 am, April 18 (Saturday)

Register for Zoom link

Free

Join Sustainable Solano’s Local Food Program Manager Stephanie Oelsligle Jordan for a lively online demonstration cooking class that celebrates spring ingredients and supports local farmers. Learn tips and tricks for storing ingredients and cooking seasonally from a CSA box. Using Solano-grown specialty crops, Chef Steph will prepare an Asparagus Salad with Sesame-Tangerine Vinaigrette.

To register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/farm-to-table-virtual-cooking-class-tickets-101809484910

 

Funding for promotion of specialty crops through cooking classes was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant AM190100XXXXG008. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necesssarily represent the official views of the USDA.

 

CSA Farm Spotlight: Be Love Farm

Mar 5, 2020

By Sustainable Solano

This is an ongoing series profiling local farms that have Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) available in Solano County. CSAs create a way for community members to buy a share of the harvest directly from local farmers. Customers pay a set amount and receive a box of seasonal produce or other farm products in return. Such arrangements help farmers receive a greater share of the money paid, bring customers fresh, local produce and promote health, community and the local economy.

Emma Dotta in the fields at Be Love Farm, where she lives and works

Matthew and Terces Engelhart started Be Love Farm more than a decade ago with a dedication to regenerative farming. The family-owned farm is supported by plants and animals working together to grow healthy food in a way that emulates natural systems. Fields that produce annuals one year are then returned to perennial grasses for cows and chickens for at least two years.

Terces said she and Matthew started the farm to provide food for the restaurants they own and themselves, but also to nurture young upcoming farmers and provide a space where their grandchildren could roam freely and learn about food and animals.

The farm produces fruit, vegetables and nuts and a variety of other goods, including wine. Be Love Farm has a farm stand on-site for everything from nuts and produce to pizza, sauces and other value-add products and is now introducing a CSA for pickup at the farm. Packed in baskets, the CSA could include seasonal produce, eggs, olive oil, wine, nuts and bread.

Below is a Q&A with Terces about Be Love Farm:

 

  • Be Love Farm
  • Vacaville
  • 21 acres
  • Established 2008

 

When did you start offering a CSA? Why was it important to offer?

This is our first CSA offering. We want to make food available for our local community.

What’s something that makes your farm stand out?

I suppose the diversification. We do everything from wine to nuts and sourdough.

Anything exciting on the horizon? What do you see happening and what do you want to see happen with interest in local food?

We love sharing our farm and what it produces with others. It has been a 12-year project of love to develop our small family farm. Eating local and fresh food is one of the healthiest choices a person can make.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Contact belovefarm@gmail.com for additional information.

Be Love Farm has the CSA available for pickup at the farm. Learn more about signing up through contacting them at belovefarm@gmail.com

Find out more about local CSAs here.