The Garden Goddess CSA

Last spring, while visiting with Korena Mewaldt one morning, she told me abut her plans to start a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or farm subscription in Fallon. It was something that she had wanted to start for quite some time, and was very passionate about. The produce for the CSA would come from her farm, Mewald't Organic Produce, that she operates with her husband Bill. Most years they have been taking most of their produce to the gourmet restaurants in Reno, 4th Street Bistro http://www.4thstbistro.com/and LuLu's, and occasionally at Farmer's Market up there also. This year she wanted to try and stay a little closer to home, while also bringing something new to the community. Most CSA's that I have researched provide baskets of produce and maybe eggs on a weekly basis on a subscription type service. You sign up for a month/week/season and the produce, whatever is in it's peak at that time, is delivered to your door. Korena had dreams of taking it a step further, and she has. Here is what she wrote for the introductory letter:

"I intend to cater to the gourmet, gourmand and culinary cool! Let's travel this summer right here at home, with garden menus/themes from around the world. Our weekly baskets will feature veggies, recipes and tips. We'll experience Greek Week, Tastes of Tuscany, Menus from Mumbai and other exotic destinations for your taste buds....recipes and ideas are always welcome!"

"Here are the details, each week, baskets will be filled and delivered to the drop points. We'll start once our produce is available (near the end of June) and continue until our garden closing in the fall (after the first hard frost), Recipes, culinary tips, and notes on what's happening in the garden will be included" Price: $25.00 per week, payable weekly or monthly.

With this letter came a list of the produce that we might expect during the season, 3 columns, including everything I eat, plus so much more! and also non-fertilized eggs, and edible flowers.

After gathering up names of people that might be interested, she started planning all the logistics. Baskets were purchased, newsletters developed, and menu's planned. With an initial list of 10 people that were committed to her for the season, she was up and going. Then the surprise hit.....all of us!

The first week that the baskets arrived at the nursery, drop off point for 4 people, we watched as Korena got out of the car, a true Garden Goddess! dressed in a beautiful flowing dress, sun bonnet on her pretty head, she opened up the back of her car and viola! there was an amazing assortment of produce, eggs and even a vase full of cut flowers to grace each basket. We stood around the gift shop ohhhing and ahhhing over each item, all individually carefully pruned, washed and wrapped, our newsletters standing at attention on the sides of the baskets. I couldn't help myself, and started picking through everything, already planning out my menu for that evening. There was even a full garlic braid, included! WOW!!

So it has been every week.....each week better than the last as the season's bounty has come into full harvest. We have had beets, blackberries, cantaloupe, carrots in 5 colors, swiss chard, tomatillos, watermelons, lettuce and mixed greens, cucumbers and squash and on and on and on! The newsletter is filled with the most delectable of dishes, most easy to prepare. We have traveled the world from France to Greece, Japan to Spain. I look forward to the newsletter that comes with the produce as much as the greens themselves. Filled with tidbits of her travels around the world, families suggestions and memories and did I mention the recipes! This has been a gift, to myself, that I have looked forward to every week.

Next year she plans on expanding her business to include 20-30 people. I strongly suggest emailing her at korenakorena@hotmail.com if you are interested. She will put you on the list and let you know if she is able to include you next year. I'll be there, right at the top.....I don't want to miss another week. She will also be at the nursery this coming Sunday, September 14th as she demonstrates the Solar Ovens that we sell at the store. She will be making Ratatouille Provancale with fresh produce from her farm and serving it at 3pm when the Vermiculture class is over. YummYumm.

And Korena, if EVER there was a true Garden Goddess....it is you! Thank you from all of us, Susan

The Giant Pumpkin Returns

Many of you may have seen the giant pumpkin that we had at the shop last year for our Harvest Festival. It was grown by Scott Goodpasture here in Fallon and it was over 400 lbs. when we announced the winner for the "Guess The Great Pumpkin's Weight".

Michelle took our giant beauty home and carved it for Halloween, and it graced her home on Center Street for the holiday. She then saved the seeds and dried them, and we gave them away to anyone that wanted some. One of our favorite gardeners, Melinda Clifton, took some home and gave them to her class at Cottage School to take home and start. She also started some plants that we gave away here at the store. If you purchased one here at the store, it was grown by Scott for us to allow others to TRY and break his record.

This is Tucker Stritenberger's giant pumpkin!
You guessed it...grown from the seed of last fall's famous Flower Tree giant pumpkin.
Move over Scott, I think we may have another champion pumpkin grower in Fallon on our hands! And make sure and stop back in the River Garden when you are at the store, Michelle's entry for this year is coming along quite nicely also. See you soon, Susan

And The Winner Is.........

If you were at the nursery today you might have seen this adorable little girl out front selling lemonade. Her name is Jenna Spencer, she is 10 years old, and she decided that she wanted to do something for CAPS, our local no-kill animal shelter. With the help of her parents, she constructed a wonderful lemonade stand, lots of great signage and then set out to make some sales. This morning she set up in front of Berney Realty during the Fallon Labor Day parade, and then she came down to the store at noon to see how sales would be at the nursery. Today at 3pm was the drawing for the 15 gallon Raywood Ash that we had donated for the raffle for CAPS so she thought it might be a good idea to do it at the store on the same day. We watched as she worked her magic smile on all that entered. When 3:00 rolled around we gathered all the tickets that had been sold for the tree, put them in a big glass bowl and I asked her if she would like to draw the lucky persons name. She happily said yes, a big grin on her face.

And the lucky winner is............................

Lorena Sanchez!

Thank you to each and every one of you that bought a ticket. Our next raffle will be for a gorgeous Living Christmas Tree, a beautiful spruce or pine for the holidays.

Thanks to Jenna too, she donated her proceeds from her lemonade stand, $15.00!! I know the dogs and cats at the shelter will appreciate it.

More Chicago

Faux Pas moment. Here are Melissa and I at the Top 100 luncheon that was put on by the publishers of Nursery Retailer. Well..........you may remember.....The Flower Tree won an award last January for Top 100 Revolutionary Garden Centers. When we were walking around the convention center we kept seeing signs for Top 100 luncheon, so we decided to check it out. We walked into the room with music playing, crystal and china glistening on the table with champagne being poured. Naturally we thought that they meant us............turns out....they didn't. After sitting through the announcement of all the garden centers that HAD WON, we started getting a little queasy feeling when we not only didn't see our name up on the screen, but the ones that they were listing were THE BIG BOYS, THE 10 MILLION $$$ a year nurseries. Oh THAT TOP 100!!!! After having wonderful conversations though with everyone at our table, we just slowly sauntered out when it was time to pick up their plaques. Wow, talk about a faux pas moment. But at least it was an honest mistake, and a fun one at that.

One of the best ways to see the Chicago Skyline at night, the 96th floor of the Hancock Building.

Giselle in front of a beautiful Chicago night skyline.

These were globes from Thailand that were for sale at City Escape. The entire garden center was filled with artwork from all over the world.

Julie, Melissa and I enjoying a rest for a moment.

I didn't realize that they burn so much birch in the winter....until we started seeing it at every garden center that we visited. Seems to be in plentiful supply. I loved the textures in this shot.

Chicago - More " Fashion in Bloom"

I am not really sure why these have fascinated me so much, ok, yes I do know why. I love it when people take ordinary every day items and turn them into original artwork like these. There are at least 20 of these up and down Michigan Avenue, and every time you encounter one it seems like it is better than the previous one. So creative! Watch out Michelle, I think I have a new event for the garden center next year : }

This one is made from what appears to be old shower curtains and the green tree tape that we use at the nursery!

This one is one of my favorites. It is old coke cans, and the necklace is made from the pop tops.

Chicago Day 3

The problem that sometimes arises on one of these “working vacations” is that you start to see so much in such a short period of time that it all becomes somewhat of a blur. On Monday morning, we set out on the Garden Centers of America Chicagoland tour. We met the bus early, coffee cup in hand, anxious to get started. There were now four in our immediate group, as we are joined by Giselle from Dr. Earth/Kellogg’s and Julie Ruf of Greenhouse Garden Centers in Carson. The first stop on the tour was Alsip’s Home & Nursery Super Store, http://www.alsipnursery.com/ a very large facility that was established 39 years ago. While their location was extremely diversified, they sell everything ….plants..hardware….PETS, as in adorable little puppies and kittens, it was not applicable to the type of center that we have. I did have a great chat with a man about updating our website, and that short amount of time brainstorming with him was worth the cost of tour to me. Stop # 2, Sid’s Home & Garden Showplace http://www.sidsonline.com/ was more of the same in that it felt more like a very large home & hardware center, with a plant selection added on. I did pick up some great info on signage options though, and the mascots were adorable. Back on the bus, and our tour guide, Shanan, has now delegated our bus #3, The Fun Bus! During the approximately 45 minutes in between each stop she has been walking up and down the aisle with her portable microphone, asking questions and gathering ideas from everyone on the bus and we have started networking and getting to know each other. There are 4 buses total, almost 200 people on the tour from all over the country, so the networking with peers is a big benefit to something of this sort. Stop # 3 is Henri’s Fountain facility, http://www.henristudio.com/ where we tour their artist’s rooms and learn how original pieces are created. This was one of the highlights of the tour as we watched their master artist Rong Xou create new selections for the spring of 2009. After the short tour, I took the opportunity to go back and speak to him about his creations and learned that Henri’s had assisted him 11 years ago to acquire his employment visa. He was part of a very large group of artists in China that sculpted the tribute to Chairman Mao in Tiananmen Square www.artistribe@blogspot.com , and was involved with creating replicas of the 2000-year-old Terra Cotta horses that were discovered in China. He was an extremely animated man and took me over to his laptop to show me his website where I could find more information about his creations. Stop #4 blew our socks off! We pulled up in the parking lot, and everyone on the bus was anxious to get out the door to the bus and hit the ground running. Now this was a garden center! Platt Hill Nursery http://www.platthillnursery.com/ was established 28 years ago First impressions really are critical in our business, and this location receives 5 gold stars in my book. It was lush; it was immaculate, creative and filled with knowledgeable and passionate plant people. We spent the better part of 90 minutes here trying to take it all in and visit every corner of the facility. Back on the bus, we headed from the suburb area of Chicago to the heart of the city. How four huge tour buses managed to wind themselves down the extremely narrow side streets of downtown Chicago was amazing in itself. We started to wonder how we could possibly be in the right area when we turned a corner and tucked under the elevated train tracks was an eye popping, color infused final stop of the day, City Escape Garden Center, http://www.cityescape.net/ . It is so hard to describe this stop…art filled every space where there were not plants. I have included some photos of the different locations….and will post more when I get back home.

The day ended with an amazing meal, once again. George Bowman with Laguna Ponds took us Bistro 110, a culinary explosion. Tucked into the side street that aligns the famous Water Tower building, we sat at a street side table and recapped our day for him. We finished our evening with a nightcap on the 96th Floor of the Hancock Tower, and then it was back to our wonderfully comfortable hotel for good night’s rest. The trade show opens early Tuesday morning and we want to hit the ground running. Till then, Susan

Day 2, Chicago

Day 2, August 17th

When we got up this morning we decided to see about renting some bikes down at the Navy Pier. We got online and found the vendor, reserved everything and off we went. They fitted us to some real comfy bikes and locks and gave us a great map of all the bike trails along the lake front. When I was in Chicago last year with Sara we managed to figure out the public transportation pretty well, but we were still walking a long..long way to get to anything. We thought it might be easier to cover a lot more ground on two wheels and boy where we right. We set out North on the lake path only to run into more people than I have seen in a long time.....this weekend happened to be the Air & Water show that the city has put on for the last 50 years. If you have ever been to the NAS Air Show, multiply that amount of spectators by 500 and that is how many people it seemed like we were trying to dodge...and did I mention that Melissa hadn't been on a bike in at least 15 years. We turned around and headed south instead...smart move. We traveled on a wonderful bike path, extra wide right along the beauty of Lake Michigan. Even though there were still a lot of people, it was manageable and easy going. This city really planned out it's bike paths, and the best part, no hills. We traveled over 25 miles during the 4 hour rental, and we were on sensory overload with the abundance of flowers, people, sailboats, skyscrapers, flowers, flowers, flowers! One area that we rode along was just east of Soldier Field and was filled with acres and acres of planted prairie wildflowers. We were riding along, just the two of us on this beautiful path, and up from the flowers came these beautiful sculptures. Truly breathtaking, the flowers in bloom, the sailboats in the lake, and these magnificent pieces of art lifting their wings to the sky.

After covering the entire museum area and Millennium Park we headed west on some of the back streets where the historical district is. Somehow we rounded a corner and happened into a park where we met a lovely women who actually tried to get us to volunteer some of our time in the garden until she found out we lived thousands of miles away. We were talking tomatoes, cabbage and peppers with her - she was tending part of the community garden - when we asked her about the house that was sitting in the middle of the park. Turns out the house was the oldest standing house in the city of Chicago, The Clarke House, and we had our own private historian as she filled us in on all the efforts to save the areas homes. Turns out Mayor Daley lived right down the block, and she told us to look for the police car out front, which would signal to us that he was home. http://www.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/C/ClarkeHouse.html

After a light lunch, we traveled back to the Millennium Park where I got these shots of "The Cloud", one of the, what seems like, hundreds of pieces of artwork and sculpture that fill the city. We sat and put our feet in one of the many water areas set up for just that reason, to take time to relax and contemplate all the beauty in the park.

After turning the bikes back in, we ventured back on foot to our hotel and a nice relaxing evening finished out the day. Tomorrow we start the first day of our true reason for being in Chicago, the trade show and a bus tour of the areas premier nursery. Melissa and I are both excited to see what they specialize in, their displays and ideas for merchandising. Our other friends have arrived, Dave and Julie Ruff from Greenhouse Garden Center in Carson City, and Giselle from Dr. Earth Organics, and we are excited to share the day with them tomorrow before the true hustle and bustle of the trade show starts on Tuesday.

It's off to bed, a big day is ahead. Till then, Susan