Around a hundred people attended the Winter Organic Garden Tour of Elly and Bill Stavarek’s backyard raised bed garden in Sierra Vista last month. Bill took 5 batches of folks through the steps he takes to create the black and crumbly compost and leaf mold the couple use to fertilize their crops. The Stavareks also periodically plant green manure crops such as clover that take fix nitrogen from the air into the soil through their roots and add organic matter when tilled in. Their raised beds, covered for winter with row cover over PVC hoops, were packed with lettuce and chard and different members of the bok choi family.
 Vegetables as art Beautiful cabbages, ruby and gold chard, deep green kale and red leaf lettuce are ready for picking in Jim Woodruff’s raised bed garden. |
Jim catches rain water from his roof in two 2,500 gallon tanks to water a 16 tree orchard consisting of plum, nectarine, peach, cherry, apricot, pear, fig and pecan trees as well as seedless grapes, blackberries and just planted raspberries. He has built 40 raised beds with concrete block that can be protected from frost with row cover over PVC hoops. On Thursday some of them were filled with gorgeous cabbages, rich green kale and brilliant red and yellow chard. Three handmade cold frames were filled with carrots and onions and there was also a large ground level garlic and elephant garlic bed.
Jim now feds friends and neighbors and is entertaining the idea of growing more to sell at the farmers market. His extensive and well organized garden is the result of only two and a half years of work. He admits to no growing background except a single season of gardening in San Diego and raising tomatoes in pots on the patio. Asked why he grows so much he said it was “because he couldn’t fish any more when he moved here.”
Another treat is in store for local gardeners tomorrow when Suzanne Nelson, the director of conservation at Native Seeds/SEARCH (NSS) will present “Going Native: Planting Native Seed” at the monthly Cochise County Master Gardeners meeting. This presentation is free and open to the public from 5 to 6 p.m. in the public meeting room of UA South. Suzanne will talk about NSS’s mission to conserve and promote the agricultural diversity of the arid Southwest. She has done this work with native plants and traditional crops within the Sonoran Desert bioregion for more than 20 years.
Organic gardening classes for those that want to start a garden of their own and learn to make raised beds and lasagna gardens will begin on March 11. Classes taught by veteran grower Pearl O’Neil will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. for four consecutive Tuesdays. Pearl has a wealth of information after raising her own food all her life. Call 456-2550 for more information and to sign up.
This Week at the Sierra Vista Farmers Market
Stop by Baja Arizona Sustainable Agriculture’s booth for free NSS and other organic seed catalogs. Anyone with organic vegetable catalogs is also welcome to drop off their old catalogs. You can also get a membership form to help Baja Arizona bring more local organic food to southern Arizona. Donations are fully tax deductible and those joining at the $100 level at the market will receive a set of sustainable agriculture note cards.
Fresh greens: Crisp heads of baby buttercrunch lettuce will be available at the backyard growers table at Baja AZ’s booth from Worm Woman, Judy Goodenough who raises greens year round in Hereford. She will also be taking orders for worms. Worm customers will receive a handout with info on the size & type of bin needed to get started raising these hard working soil improvers, sources of bedding material and maintenance instructions. Corky and Carol Berty will also have chard, spinach and lettuce as well as farm fresh eggs from the Garden of Eat’n.
Grass-fed Meats, Natural Pork & Pastured Poultry and Eggs will be brought to market by two ranchers this week. Ask Nathan Watkins of San Ysidro Farm what were the highlights of the Organic Farming Conference in Albuquerque he attended last week. Rancher Anya Owens of San Simon will make her monthly appearance at the market with grass-fed beef and grass-fed cookbooks.
Dozens of large brown eggs from McNeal Eggman, Don Smythe will go home with customers treated to photos of his chickens on his Coyote Corners Farm. He welcomes egg cartons for reuse.
The warm weather means that plants will take off in your garden. Get frost hardy veggie and herb plants starts from Fiesta Growers who also has the rare and unusual such as Vitamin Green plants that desert tortoise owners buy as a treat for their pets. Grower John Swanson also has a nifty self serve seed store where you can purchase spoonfuls of the seeds to grow your own seedlings.
Get your pets ready for spring with new fast acting homeopathic allergy remedies and snake bite kits from Helen Hayes with Azmira pet food created by a Tucson holistic vet.
The Hallsteds will bring two kinds of pecans they raise perfect for a healthy treat when paired with organic dates from Jenn Vallier who also carries locally blended teas from the Maya Tea Company. Jenn says she will start bring iced tea for sampling. Many of the herbal teas she carries make great iced and sun tea.
River Organica will bring delicious and nutritious baked goods made from emmer grain as well as elderberries she collected and dried in Washington which are great sprinkled over cereal or made into a tea as well as a mix of air dried wild mushrooms.
Paul Smith has packages of sulphur dioxide free dried black figs, mangos and apricots as well as three kinds of trail mixes and Dr.Hummus pita chips and dips.
Simmons Honey Ranchito will be back at the market with honey, comb honey, creamed honey, beeswax candles, preserves & pickles. Strawberry rhubarb jam and prickly pear jelly are very popular. The new beeswax candle votives are a great value. Please call ahead (364-2745) to reserve gallon jars of your choice of honey.
Mama Llama, the empanada lady, will return to share a booth with Max the fish guy with his wild ocean fish market.
Healthy desert foods (prickly pear nectar, mesquite meal and chia) as well as organic foods from Mexico (fair-trade Just Coffee and agave nectar) will be offered by Katherine Zellerbach. She also has NSS unusual dried beans and Southwest Soup Mix.
Grammy’s Garden will have heirloom and grape tomatoes as well as green beans, bell peppers, Arizona citrus, Yukon gold potatoes and certified organic mangoes, pineapple from Mexico. I really enjoyed the kabocha winter squash I got last week which you can eat, green skin and all baked until soft with butter salt and pepper.
The Sierra Vista (Co-op) Market will be manning its first Thursday of the month booth offering information about the natural foods store to be brought to town with members’ help. The co-op plans to sell local organically raised produce and animal products.
Local red chile powder and chile pastes are now available from the Dragoon Marketplace along with home-style chutney, jellies and BBQ sauce. Stop by to try out the fragrant and effective Planet Earth Remedies.
Recipes
The just-picked, organically grown spring lettuce now available from several small growers deserve simple but healthy dressings with high quality oils and no additives.
Basic Salad Dressing
? cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tblsp unrefined flaxseed oil
2 tblsp apple cider or wine vinegar or lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon-type mustard
salt and pepper,
1 tsp herbs of provence to taste
combine all ingredients in a jar and shake until blended.
For Garlic Dressing add one peeled and mashed clove of garlic.
For Creamy Dressing add ? cup sour cream or yogurt to ? cup of basic dressing with or without the herbs.
(Adapted from “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon.)
Pink Salad Dressing
1 tblsp or more honey
6 tblsp olive oil
4 tblsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
? cup red onion, chopped
1 tsp poppy seeds
Puree all ingredients in a blender.
Blue Cheese Dressing
1 ? cups mayonnaise
? cup yogurt
2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
salt to taste
Blend all ingredients until almost smooth. For a milder or stronger flavor adjust the amount of blue cheese used.
(Adapted from “Lucy’s Specific Carbohydrate Diet Cookbook” by Lucy Rosset.)
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