Friday Forecast: Atomic Studio Harvest

Photo of Carved into Wood ring from Nested Yellow on Etsy
[Charles] There are some benefits to not working every weekend during the Christmas season like we have for the last few years, and this weekend brings one of those to the forefront - holiday shows! Tonight we'll kick off the weekend at the West Tampa Center for the Arts over on Armenia with an open studio at Studio 313 and the Bay Area Art Collective Party. This will be your best opportunity to meet Anna from Nested Yellow and see the gorgeous jewelry she has created this season. Her jewelry is so unique and amazing that it eclipsed everything else we sold last year for Christmas. If you are looking for something special for a loved one, you really can't go wrong with her designs. I'm hoping to see in person some of her men's designs as well that I've only seen in photos so far.

Forecast: 95% chance that something will end up under our Christmas tree after this show.

To keep this weekend from turning into one long shop-a-thon, I'd like to put in a shout out here for the Seminole Heights Community Garden and their work on the first ever - Harvest for the Hungry in our neighborhood. At 9 am on Saturday, you can get down to the lot next to Sherry's Yesterdaze and join up with a roving band of fruit pickers that are going to well... pick fruit and deliver it to Metropolitan Ministries. If you have fruit that needs to be picked, we need your help too - let them know where it is and they'll come get it! Email robin@greenerpixels.com if you want to get involved. Let's make this one a success and a positive event for the neighborhood!

Forecast: 60% chance they'll be having fresh squeezed orange juice and grapefruit for breakfast at Metropolitan Ministries this week - IF we get it together! C'mon neighbors!!!

After that, we'll have to pop up tomorrow afternoon and head south to the Atomic Holiday Bazaar in Sarasota. Unfortunately interesting craft and art shows are few and far between in Florida. Sure there are plenty of country basket/manatee/dachshunds made from old metal shows, but not many fun, edgy, crochet/scrap/recycle/goth/alterna-shows. I work in Florida and don't go to the beach every weekend and sure as hell have no desire to decorate my house with shells and beachery so I'm really looking forward to it. I'm excited to see what unique screenprint art group Clothesline is up to this year in addition to being one of the sponsors. It'll probably have some "strange goth stuff" as my co-workers say, but it'll also definitely have some really cool and beautiful things. This is exactly where I'm happy to do my Christmas shopping and support great artists that are not just local but include people from all over the country.

Forecast: 65% chance that you'll be rubbing elbows with hipsters, youngsters, and goths alike and having a fantastic time!

Can I Avoid BPA While Canning?

Photo from Treehugger
[Charles] I've never canned anything before. Heck, I am just now getting good at growing things in the garden. We recently got one of those free mags that the big box stores ship out to inspire you to come in and buy some stuff and "change your life". This one had an "article" (read - wordy advertisement) about canning your own vegetables and fruit from the garden. Well actually this is something that was on my mind lately because the discussion around the garden often centers on what is available each season. Canning allows you to take things like those awesome tomatoes from summer and bring them out in winter for tomato soup. So anyway, basically all of the traditionally canned stuff in the store has BPA lining the can, yep even the green beans that we eat almost every week!

So canning avoids that with the glass jar right? But wait... what's on that metal lid ? You guessed it! Friggin BPA again! Until our government and all of its corporate arms get rid of this stuff, we are going to have to be dilligent to avoid it. So here you go. I found some lids that don't have them so you can avoid the nasty stuff when you finally get around to storing those awesome strawberries that will make the most amazing pie for Thanksgiving.

One place is called Lehmann's which doesn't come out and say it's BPA free but according some they might be - I'm not convinced yet. The option that most people seem to agree on is called Tattler which is very vocal about its lack of BPA. There are also some jars called Weck that are apparently more expensive but might be found at yard sales. So good luck folks on all that canning (here's the how-to), it sounds like a lot of work but just like gardening the rewards are well worth it.

Some good news on Mulch not Methane!

[Charles] Way to go folks! By signing petitions, faxing letters, and writing emails to the Governor's office without relenting we have all helped stop the ridiculous HB 569 that was slated to force mulch into our landfills. Thanks to everyone that helped out and did their part. This is truly the best way that we can make a difference for our world. If there is one thing that we have learned from this, it is the power of our voice when we work together. Now let's turn that energy to getting our politicians to work on alternative energy and stop destroying our world with greedy grabs of fossil fuels. The oil is only miles from Pensacola and the corporate rats that spilled it certainly aren't spending all their profits to protect our beaches. We are the ones we've been waiting for. Keep up the fight!

In related garden news from our neighbors in Tampa Heights...

Help Tampa's next community garden win $25,000 in startup funding! Click here to vote for Tampa Height Community Garden in the Nature's Path Gardens for Good Contest. The Tampa Heights Community Garden is a collaboration between the Tampa Garden Club, Metropolitan Ministries, Tampa Heights Junior and “senior” Civic Associations; and Tampa Heights Neighborhood Plan Stewardship Team.

"Manure" Photo from Green Florida

Memorial Day Weekend Plans

[Charles] So judging by the trickle of traffic on Florida Avenue, we will assume that everybody that isn't already out of town will soon be heading out the door. Tampa Street Market will be closed from Friday to Monday for a much needed long weekend. In order to help you fine folks find something else to do besides come visit our little shop this weekend, I've assembled a list of things that could be worth doing this weekend with help from many of the media outlets available from my little computer here.

How about....

Music and Art with Heart

Friday, May 28

Music and Art with Heart benefits Mote Aquarium and clean up efforts for the Gulf Coast Oil Spill. Live music and live painting from local artists and a silent auctioned of all created works.

Contact:

Dean Johanesen
(941) 730-5322
djohanesen@yahoo.com
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120862691269952&index=1

Venue:

The Back Alley

121 bridge street

bradenton beach,, FL 34217

Phone: (941) 778-1800

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I'm just gonna guess that the crowd will be thin this Saturday at the Seminole Heights Community Garden Saturday morning so if you are in town, bring gloves and a hat!

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From Creative Loafing's Green section

Proper Composting Workshop- Saturday, May 29; 12-2 pm. Join us at Twigs and Leaves Nursery for a unique two-hour composting course. Attendees will learn proper composting methods for quality and safety. Composting is an integral part in remediation of waste and reusing of vital nutrients. Topics to include: proper composting, composting manure and meat, creating a home compost, worm composting (vermiculture), and the future of composting. The course will take place on Saturday, April 24 from 12-2pm. Course fee is $35 per person or $100 for a four-course series, Student fee $20 per course or $75 for four-part series. For further information or a class schedule, visit www.FireofHope.org or 727-793-5766. Twigs n Leaves Nursery- 1013 Dr. Martin Luther King St. South in St. Petersburg.

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Sweetwater Organic Community Farm’s Sunday Market- Every Sunday (through May 30); 12-4 pm. Our on-site market features organic produce harvested fresh from our own farm, as well as organic fruits and veggies from other farms. Every week you can enjoy native plants, organic vegetable transplants, and unique products from green vendors and artisans including; fresh baked goods, local honey, homemade soaps, handmade jewelry, organic coffees, veggie burgers and fruit smoothies. You can also enjoy our wonderful ‘Sweetwater Sunday Music Series’ featuring some of the best local musicians and our popular open mic. So come check it out! Shop for your produce and environmentally-friendly products, have a picnic lunch, meet like-minded individuals, and enjoy our orchard and gardens under the trees all while listening to some great live music! Bring your friends, family, and leashed dogs. It’s a great way to support local programs, agriculture and business. Last Sunday market for the season and “clean the fields” harvest bonus share, first come first served. 6942 W. Comanche Ave, Tampa.

Do Florida politicians understand waste at all?

Photo from Robin Milcowitz of SHCG

[Charles] I've received a couple of emails and faxed a few protest letters this week against a bone-headed bill called HB 569, as in "569 ways to waste mulch". Let me be clear, I'm not a very good gardener or protester, and my cop-out answer is the same for both, because I'm soooo busy! Right, I know, everybody's busy, and that's why this year I resolved on Earth Day to do more letter writing and email forwarding on environmental issues. (I decided that this year I would make an Earth Day resolution as my contribution to the celebration, but that's a different post)

So anyhow, these people, we'll call them "legislators" for lack of a better term, have decided that one of their very favorite ways to champion alternative energy is to use something we call waste to energy. I like to refer to it as "wasted energy" because honestly it's sort of like saying well, "I'm going to burn tires for heat this winter to cut down on all those nasty emissions from the coal plant." So "waste to energy" is the darling of waste management folks in many places including Florida because you can avoid making a new landfill and burn bad stuff and make energy, and who wouldn't like that? Well, what if the fuel in your fire was say... dollar bills? That's not something I'd want to make a log out of, but what do I know right? That's silly anyway, nobody advocates burning dollar bills for energy do they? Well... If you are one of the thousands of gardeners and landscapers and farmers that uses the mulch that is generated in our system right now that is exactly what you are talking about.

Wasted money - You see, in Tampa I can put out a separate can of yard waste - leaves, limbs, and grass clippings and those travel separately to a mulch maker like Mother's Organics out in Seffner that upcycles them into mulch and compost that they can sell back to customers like gardeners and farmers and me. This is apparently a waste of a perfectly good source of methane though. Yep, if we could just get this stuff into our landfills and let it ferment then we could make one of the most noxious greenhouse gases around. Wait, what?! Yep, that's right we can make good ole clean burning methane (except it's not so clean and pretty hard to capture). On top of that in Florida, they don't really want to tap methane, they just don't want to have to send two separate trucks and deal with two separate waste streams.

That means that all of that useful organic material that we work hard to harvest from our yards will go right in the pile of stuff to burn. How about this for a protest? How about let's all pile up our leaves and sticks and go right back to burning them in our yards like we did in the 50's? That way at least I don't have to buy back the energy from them after they burn it for me!

Okay, now that you are as annoyed as I am, please take sixty seconds and follow the link below and pass along how you feel about this bill to those folks in Tallahassee that know so much more about what's good for Florida than you or me...

Mulch not Methane...

or link here...

http://greenflorida.wufoo.com/forms/mulch-not-methane/

This easy link was setup by the amazing folks at Green Florida that have been instrumental in projects that we proudly support like our Seminole Heights Community Garden as well as all of the community gardens that they have helped grow. For additional info on Green Florida

For more information, the original letter from Green Florida is here:
http://green-florida.org/uploads/Veto_HB569.pdf

Also, to get involved with our Community Garden here: http://seminoleheightscg.ning.com/

Earth Day Party at Tampa Street Market

Earth Day is Thursday the 22nd and that gives us an excuse to have a little get-together at the Market. We'll be on the lookout for some organic wines and beer and some snacks for everyone. Also, in the spirit of community, we encourage anyone to BYOOB (bring your own organic bottle) to share with friends and neighbors.

We want to encourage all of the people that haven't been able to check us out yet to take a few minutes and stop by. We'll be open late - until 9:00 - to give everyone a chance to celebrate Earth Day with friends - new and old. We love meeting neighbors and just hanging out at our second home (we practically live there anyway!) We will work on some cool raffle prizes and will definitely spin some excellent tunes for after work relaxation.

To show our thanks for three and a half years of amazing support, we will be offering 20% anything in the store as a way to say thank you for spending part of your Earth Day with us (with the usual exclusions of local consigned art).

We are also extending a special invitation to all of the members of the Seminole Heights Community Garden to help celebrate their first year of community based organic gardening! Come by and talk to Garden members if you've always been curious about urban gardening or throw a couple of bucks their way and get a bumper sticker for the Garden to show your support! We are happy to give the folks at the Garden a place to congregate that doesn't involve sweating in the sun for a few hours...

Charles and Amy

Tampa Street Market

Community Garden Membership Meeting This Week

Photo from Robin Milcowitz

I visited the Seminole Heights community garden last weekend with my nephew to do a little sweaty volunteer work. It actually ended up being one of those extremely sweaty, change your shirt twice kind of days. Kyle was up for helping, so we went down and did some mowing and trimming. We also got to move some huge piles of horse manure for compost creation. We offered to do general labor because we are pretty new to gardening and can't really be trusted with actual edible plants at this point. However, our tomato and pepper plants in our little garden at home are starting to show early signs of food production.


We had a good time at the garden and shot some photos when it was all done. I always come away from the garden with some new knowledge from the seasoned folks that are consistently working there. Thanks Cindy and Piet! The horse manure apparently has lots of nitrogen but needs to be converted to something a little more user-friendly for the plants to accept it (my limited understanding). So they planted a lot of black eyed peas in this manure heavy compost to do the work. They intend to plow under the peas and use that newly bountiful soil to generate a fall harvest. I hate to see some of the sad poolies (what they call the kiddie pool container gardens) in such a poor state, but summer gardening is tough. I've seen plants wilt in one hot day without watering. The poolies with the peas look amazing though! Huge chia pet mounds of green just shooting for the sky! I hope that this meeting can help re-energize us all and get us back in the garden starting with the big Labor Day planting coming up.


We're not gonna let our first tough summer beat us down! See ya at the garden. Check out the meeting if you're in the hood.





-Charles

This was sent from Robin, the organizer of our local and new community garden in Seminole Heights. Details from her email follow below.

Hello! We have some new things happening! Be sure to check out all the events and take a gander at the front page too! We're adding gardening tips & Green News & Stuff blog entries daily. C U Soon!

Time: August 5, 2009 from 7pm to 8:30pmLocation: Seminole Heights United Methodist ChurchOrganized By: Robin Milcowitz
Event Description:Our first guest speaker is from the USF Engineering Department and they'll be talking about a program they'reworking on that converts trash to energy.Our second speaker is Willow Lamonte! She'll be giving an in-depth talk about organic gardening and she'llalso be answering your questions and helping you with basic trouble-shooting advice. She'll also be bringingin her books and some additional items to show us that she uses in her own garden.We'll have some drinks available. Please feel free to bring some light snacks to share.We'll have our T-shirts available to purchase and bumper stickers too!Don't miss out on this great event!This meeting is also a way for us to reconnect with people we don't get to see at the garden very much and allow people to come in and let us know how you think we're doing. Things we could do better and even some new things we aren't doing yet. We hope you'll join us.


Thank you!

Rainbarrels Get Back to the Garden

This morning a sunny plot on Violet Street in Seminole Heights saw some much-needed optimism that probably won't make the headline news. The street was lined with cars and people parked around the block to get to a morning meeting. Bikes were laying on their side just inside the gate. Why all the commotion? The county Extension Service came to us! That's right, you've heard of all those meetings and waiting lists to get a free rain barrel from the county. It looks like our Community Garden just jumped the line for us and got nearly forty people the information and vouchers to make a difference. The rep from Tampa Bay Water did a basic talk about how to make a rain barrel, why they are needed, and how they work. An hour later, this group was ready to do a rain dance and collect some gallons! I would love to think people were clamoring for rainbarrels after reading my article in New Heights magazine. It's probably got a lot more to do with our awesome community organizers. Thanks to Robin of Greener Pixels and her troops at the Community Garden for putting this together. If you haven't been getting in the loop on the garden updates, you should hit the site at http://www.seminoleheightscg.org/ and sign up. Now I just need to get them a bike rack...