The volunteers Kelly and Sergio hang out with urban Heidi and her goats

Freedom Gardens Swap n Trade table featuring Dan’s lovely chard

The local chow line

Full of delicious food

Freedom Gardens Swap n Trade table filled with homegrown goodies

Getting ready to watch the film

Nearly 90 people gathered on a grey, slightly chilly and overcast day to enjoy a local foods potluck, soil block making demo, Freedom Garden Swap N Meet, a locavore’s documentary and goat petting!

Certainly a jammed packed evening of food, fun and fellowship!  Of course, Blackberry and Fairlight were so pleased to be around people – they love people!   Jordanne told me that Fairlight practically adopted a kid (human kid that is) and followed him around, acting very attentive.  So cute!

Being spring and planting time, it was suggested we have a soil block making demo, which we did and will hopefully encourage more folks to get their hands dirty.   While I was putting together a flyer on soil blocks , I did a bit of research and found out an interesting tidbit that soil blocks were used in Mexico over 2,000 ago.

The principle of soil blocks is to provide a growing medium for your starts that does not use a container, that allows the small seedlings to have just a tiny amount of space to germinate and begin growing and be easily and safely transplanted (absolutely NO transplant shock).

Bottom line.. saves time, space, resources AND money…

We had an interesting problem crop up at this event which required quick action and even spurred a really neat idea for the next gathering.

Normally at these events there would be enough food for everyone – even for a second helping.  But this time around, it was not to be the case.  The food table was demolished at the first serving, leaving little leftovers and really no food for the hosts.   Unfortunately, we never got a chance to taste any of those amazing dishes.

Anyhow….

Having arrived at the table and seeing it pretty much decimated, Farmer D said “go get some of Dan’s chard and make it into a salad.”  Now Dan’s gorgeous chard was located on the amazing Freedom Gardens swap table along with Sergio’s delicious oranges.   Sure, I thought, with these two veggies I could whip up a simple salad.  So Justin ran across the street, got me a bowl, cutting board and a knife and I grabbed a jar of salad dressing (about the only thing left).  In less than 5 minutes I was able to produce a salad right then and there.

Such  quick thinking and creative ingenuity got Farmer D, Dan and Sergio in a spirited chat and, from that, an amazing little idea developed that we’d like to incorporate at our next event.   It’s a super cool idea so stay tuned!

Enjoy more photos from the event

In April we have some exciting workshops, lectures and events on tap.  Stay tuned for the April calendar of events!