Let's Visit: Red Hook Community Garden

We love living in the Hudson Valley and sharing with others some of our favorite places to visit in the area for fun, inspiration, and exploring! Today we share another Let's Visit... blog post with Amber from amberhlynn.etsy.com.

The Hudson Valley has quite a few community gardens.  Most are run by Earth To Table, a group dedicated to the slow food movement.  Community gardens hold a special place in my heart as my boyfriend and I spent part of our first date walking to the one in New Paltz (although it was dark and we couldn't see much, especially not the dragon made of tires that was the excuse for the walk). 

This summer, I finally got over my fear that anything I try to grow will die, and started my own vegetable garden!  It was an excellent learning experience, if at times frustrating and upsetting.  Once, some deer got through the fence and devastated my young tomato plants, but they mostly recovered.  I recommend everyone tries to grow their own food, or at least visits a garden once in awhile.  They're gorgeous!

The Red Hook community garden is on Route 9, just past Holy Cow if you're coming from Rhinebeck (I highly recommend their ice cream by the way!) and between two banks.  The front has quite a few small bricked flower gardens, a shed for tools, and a place for composting.

and this cool wood thing too

Inside the fence, there's a few raised beds full of tomatoes and different foods that are open to the community and are to be used for community events.  The rest of the space is free for residents to stake out and do pretty much whatever you want with it.  Just call Joseph Baldwin at (845)635-9388 so he knows who's working in the garden. 

A birdhouse in my neighbor's garden

Even if you're not going to grow your own things, feel free to stop by, smell some flowers, take some pictures, pull some weeds, and maybe even bring home a fresh tomato! They're delicious.

That's really all I have for you, but I hope you liked the info and photographs!  If you have any questions feel free to email me at amberhlynn@gmail.com or call  Joseph Baldwin, and keep an eye out for Earth To Table at local events.  Maybe you can even find or organize a community garden near you!

See you next time!

Amber

See How My Garden Grows

One of the things that keeps gardeners coming back year after year is that you never know what you are going to get.  Each spring, when you are preparing the soil, sowing your seeds and planting your little sprouts, you never know what the rain, sun, temperature, bugs, chipmunks - all the variables for the season will be.  Last year may have yielded fantastic cucumbers but this year it is the greens that are thriving.  You just never know.

A combination of factors have given me a completely different outcome this year.  The extreme weather and the monumental growth of the trees around the garden have brought me far less of the cucumbers I crave and gigantic early season collards, kale and Swiss chard.  Usually at this time we have tender greens and the large, harder leaves come in the fall.  Lord knows what will come of these super plants by October.

I am going on vacation in a week and I had picked three good
sized cucumbers over the weekend.  We ate one and when I looked in my refrigerator yesterday I panicked.  Between the
vegetables I had gotten at the farmers market on Saturday and
harvest from my own garden I felt certain we couldn't eat it
all before going to Maine.  I love to can, or as my grandma
used to say "put up", veggies and condiments.  I don't make jellies and jams but I like to pick things from my own garden and preserve them for the winter.  This, however is  really
time consuming.  When I first started canning I found a recipe for freezer pickles, tried them and loved, loved, loved them.  They require no cooking and you can make them in very small quantities.

First, you peel and slice your cukes with a small red onion or shallots into a bowl.  Sprinkle about half a tablespoon of salt for every 2 cukes over your veggies, and let them rest for a couple of hours to extract excess moisture.  Drain and rinse well, pat dry and return the onions and cukes to the bowl.  Mix 1/2 cup sugar (this is for 2 cukes - multiply for larger amounts), 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1/4 tsp. turmeric and 1/2 Tbs. whole mustard seeds.  Mix until the sugar is dissolved which can take 5 or 10 minutes.  This is the real work.  I use a canning jar and walk around shaking it until it is mixed.

Pour mixture over the cukes and onions.  Put everything into a clean freezer container or Ball jar(s) leaving 1" of what is called head space, which is space between the mixture and the lid of the container to accommodate expansion when it freezes.  These will keep up to a year in the freezer.  When you are ready to eat them thaw for about 4 hours in the fridge.

I certainly don't depend on my garden for all of the food for my family but when I am interacting with my garden I like to pretend that we do.  It causes me to see the food in a different way.  Food is a precious commodity.  We take it for granted sometimes.  Cultures all over the world, bless their food, thank their food for being there for them.  Gardening reminds you to be grateful.

From top left:  zucchini blossom, Japanese eggplant, edible nasturtium blossom, eggplant flower

Neely from Nells Belles