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Welcome to Our Garden!
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| I'm getting hungry! |
We are growers of "our~ganic" (not officially certified organic -
see below) fruits and vegetables in Catalina, AZ, slightly north of Tucson. Our aim is to be a source of freshly
harvested local produce for the Catalina/Oro Valley/NW Tucson area. This web site mainly functions to
let everyone know what we are currently harvesting and what the current hours are. I update on Tuesday or Wednesday,
and answer mail. If there appears to have been no update, the veggies are the same as last week.
Directions to Our Garden are on the "Location" page (see links above
or click on the tomato picture below) and hours are posted farther down this page, along with the current harvest.
See the "Contact" page to get in touch.
PS: please try to remember to BYOB (bring your own bag), but I have
a few for those who forget. I forget sometimes too!
| Jenny (the variety) has tomatoes! |
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Hours:
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday
~9AM to Noon~
Now Harvesting:
Lettuce
Spinach (also a quick mover)
Artichokes
Chard
Arugula!
a green leafed Raddichio
Carrots
And Freddie's Honey at last!
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| the plant sale area |
Garden news:
This is the time of year when I have to update the veggies
almost daily. Things disappear and reappear that quickly. The steady ones right now are artichokes, chard, arugula,
raddichio, and lettuce. The carrots and beets are playing hide and seek, carrots being caught today and beets are home
free until ...next week? But on any given day there is no telling what unspoken treasure you will find. There
are some absolutely gorgeous beet greens in the wings. I peeked at them under the row cover yesterday evening and will
try to liberate some from Wayne's grasp today.
Well I warned you about the lean times at the end of last
week, didn't I. Apologies to anyone who went away empty handed last Saturday. Jesse said they were about
sold out of all but chard and arugula by 9:45! (This week we even had left over beets yesterday.. and we ate them!)
We are looking at how we can fill this gap when the spring veggies slow down and the summer ones have yet to produce,
and of course the answer is always to grow more, and we do, but then so does our customer base! That's okay. It's
only temporary. Artichokes have replaced asparagus, and this coming week Jesse says the lettuce should be coming on
strong again. Meanwhile the zucchini have very small squash already, so it won't be long before it seems like summer.
Of course that means those 100 degree temps are not far away as well....
Mr. Terry's honey has been flying off the shelf as usual.
He said the prospects were good for a bountiful harvest this year so long as the wind stayed away. Uh oh... not the
case today (5/12)! But maybe he's already harvested plenty of fairy duster honey, which is what he was about to do when
I talked with him last week.
We are so grateful to Jesse for holding down the fort while
we've been in NM these past weeks trying to get our building out of the ground. It feels like a look into the future
to see him taking over the garden business while we semi retire in NM, although right now it's hard work we are doing there!
But we'll take a week "off" this week and stay here to help in the garden. I'll look forward to seeing all of you I've
missed lately.
Wayne and I have been working on our place in NM as we have
some volunteer help from two of his high school buddies. We're still in the foundation stage (picture is below), and
the words of our old friend Keith P. when he was building his house, ring in our ears... "if I can only get out of the ground"!
I truly miss you all, but while I'm not there to chatter away I'll try to keep on writing here.
And thanks to Tiana for taking care of the register while
Jesse is out in the garden. Tiana can be a bit shy, but she wants to develop people skills, so jump right in and get
her talking. She likes to cook, does it well, and has used all the food we sell so probably has some helpful hints.
Also, you'll love this, she does roller derby and aikido, and is interested in the Japanese culture.... A fun girl to
get to know.
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I've been trying out our gardening supplies from
Down to Earth out of Oregon, many of whose products we have used before, and I believe I'm seeing good results. Whether
it's just a beautiful spring or the benefit of micronutrients, my geraniums and nasturtiums are the best I've ever seen them.
Many of the products have live ingredients and need to be stored accordingly, but it's all explained in the free handout
they include. I tried to choose things I hadn't seen elsewhere, and have been experimenting with them at the house,
in planters and in pots. I really like the BioLive, and the MicroNutrient Blend, but it could be the Liquid Bloom that
got the nasturtiums going. I've just tried it on some day lilies that have resisted flowering for several years
now, so I'll let you know what happens.
And I'm excited that we now have
Chico Bags, which are washable, reusable nylon (not plastic!) shopping bags that fit into a small stuff sack, with a
clip that you can attatch to your purse or belt loop or whatever. I've found that if I put them in my purse I forget
them like any other bag, but with them attatched on the outside there is no forgetting. We have a new shipment and wide color assortment.
We're also looking for some sort of non-plastic bag to offer for
the veggies in place of the food store bags we currently use. Those would be offered for a small bag fee to those who
forget to bring their own from home.
Along with Freddy Terry's honey, we have his cd's for
sale. They are the ones I frequently have playing in the garden shed to keep me in a happy frame of mind in
the 100 degree heat. And we have more Growly Bear soap from Oracle too,
as well as some soap from the Tucson Herb Store. If you ever make it to 4th
Ave. (not quite the other side of the earth) between 11am and 5pm check out the Herb Store, right next to the Food Coop. There
is different soap every week and they are all worth trying.
For other similar locally made body products, check out Blue
Jewel across from Southern AZ Community Bank (who we love too) in the Bed Bath and Beyond
shopping center, Oracle at Orange Grove. Lynnie started out at Body and Soul in the Tucson Mall some 20 plus years
ago. Many of us were sooo happy when she moved north and out of the mall. More recently she has moved into
local and organic products serving those of us on the far northwest side. You can Google Blue Jewel in Tucson for her
web site, which is under construction at this writing.
Jesse's chickens have started laying
like crazy after their winter siesta. These sweet birds are fed with organic lay pellets as well as garden leftovers,
and are free-ranging around his house. It appears to be the garden leftovers that make the yokes so very orange and
the eggs so delicious, so when you leave the turnip greens behind you know you are doing some good.
What's soon to come:
more carrots, more spinach, more lettuce, more green onions, and eventually corn
and tomatoes!
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| Cement at last |
And you can click on this water color prickly pear to see some of Rebecca's art work. If you
are interested in purchasing any of her work, or contacting her for mural or other art-related work, just let us know.
Also, the San Pedro cactus below is a reminder that we also have native and climate-adapted plants
available, both ornamental and food producing, under the shade cloth in the garden. Jesse is the one to seek out
there for info.
Each winter break we focus our energy on an aspect of the whole Our Garden operation, while also
taking care of the regular crop maintenance. Last winter we managed to get the shade structure built for the plant area,
and this winter's goal was to get the floor done.. weed control! Another part of the goal was to build some benches..
that wooden spool just is not big enough. But that was all sidelined in order to enlarge the garden shed so our customers
wouldn't bounce off of each other on a busy day. We've done a lot of general clean up too, and the plant area looks
better but is still awaiting the above mentioned improvements.
We now will have a second table space between the building and the garden, a nice enclosed little area that will be in
the shade come those toasty days. No more looking out the window at the pile of plastic pots and the old broken down
rototiller. I think this space will draw people to sit a while.
And another new feature, I've got some sales help promised! That may be more exciting to me than it is to you,
but we all know that anything that keeps me from being crabby is a good thing! Once when I told Al I was originally
from back east he said, "Oh, that's what it is!" Hmmm, a little discrimination from the northwest possibly?
Everyone knows easterners have sugar sweet personalities.....!
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| My Blooming San Pedro |
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| Zurik drives over from next door. |
News from inside the shed:
It's okay if you forget to bring your bag. Zurik
just loaded his veggies straight into his trunk. I forget to take my canvas bags into the food store more often than
I'd like to admit, so I also have paper bags available. We used to take in your excess bags, but I really don't
have the space to store them. And mainly, I'd like to encourage the idea of personal reuse so that we can all waste
fewer resources and try to clean up our world.
From time to time we are asked if we can save some veggie for someone who
will be in at a later time. I appreciate the idea and would love to accomodate everyone, but we've been there/done that.
You never know when something will come up and prevent you from coming in altogether, and then that item that could be in
someone's evening meal is now wasting away in our frige. So we are sorry but we have to stick with first come, first
served. Really that is only fair to those who do make the time to come over when things are available.
Zurik is linking you to another Catalina web site, OurCatalina.com. This site
keeps up on local issues and interests, things to do, resources, etc., and is well worth checking out.
So put your pointer on Zurik and he'll take you there.
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| Pistachio Flowers |
"What are those trees?" When we first started doing this we thought people would enjoy driving through the orchard.
I took this picture of the flowers in early April one year, so they will soon be flowering again. To learn
about the orchard's history and odds and ends about us, click on this picture.
We had a pretty good harvest last year, with much volunteer help. The machinery to do it all ourselves is cost prohibitive
unless we win the lottery, so we'll continue to do it all "by hands" for several years more anyway. The crops
are generally heavy every other or every 3 years, with light ones or next to nothing in between.
If we are harvesting while you are here, please go over and check out the operation. If you volunteer some time you
can even leave with some fresh pistachioes, not to mention an idea of the time involved in harvesting from just one tree.
Often this answers the question, "why don't you do anything with those nuts?" Don't worry, we will some day, with machinery.
Meanwhile, take advantage!
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| today's harvest |
We call it "Our-ganic"
Just a word or two (okay, I'm a wordy person) about the word "organic" here. Finally we have a government definition
for a term that's been tossed about loosely for years by gardeners. Some gardeners probably still don't know the meaning
of 'organic gardening', and some may dispute the definition adopted by our wise public servants. My feeling on the subject
is you are best informed by asking the grower how he gardens. This means you need to know what your own priorities are.
Wayne and I have always considered organic to mean without the use of chemical pesticides (commonly known as 'spraying')
and without the use of chemical fertilizers such as ammonium phosphate, sulphate, etc. We
both feel that the main issue is the spraying of chemical pesticides, insecticides, which are very harmful to us
and the environment. However, chemical fertilizers are not exactly harmless and it is possible to do without
them as well. While we are not certified organic, we are honest about telling you that the food we sell is grown
organically in the true sense of the word, thus "our-ganic". However, there is a lot to be said for the nutrition in
fresh local food however it's grown compared to that coming in by truck from who knows where.
I recently saw a sign on a contractor's truck that said "Unlicensed by Choice". Right on ~~ me too. A license
doesn't automatically mean a good job done, and a lack of one doesn't mean a lack of quality or honesty.
If you are really looking for organics, ask the grower not only if his crops are sprayed with pesticides, but also what
he uses for fertilizers. Don't count on our government to protect you (think 'mad cow'). Really it is up to each
of us to take the responsibility to be as well-informed as we possibly can.
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| corny sunset |
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And, a tiny little word about pricing. So many new callers ask about our prices,
and I say it how it is- priced according to the local market (Wild Oats and TJ's) for organics. What we have over Wild
Oats and Trader Joe's (both of whom I really appreciate, don't get me wrong) is the freshness. Where else can you get
organic vegetables out of the garden the very same day unless you have your own garden? And if you have had your own
garden, you understand one of the major expenses. It's the water bill, isn't it! For us the water bill is
electricity to run a big enough pump to irrigate, not to mention the occasional thousands of dollars on repairs. Don't
look for bargains here. Look for quality.
What Wayne always says, and he is not a wordy person, is, if you have to ask about prices you don't
want to come here.
Personally I believe in paying a fair price for the effort put out. We are trying to eventually
make a living doing this. We are not big enough to sell tons of veggies on the commerical market and then roadside stand
the leftovers at bargain basement prices. If it doesn't work this way, we'll go back to just growing our own food...
which is definitely the economical route for those who can't afford to pay someone else to grow it for them.
Again and again, it is a matter of priorities. Ourselves, we don't even have a cable TV bill.
Just a matter of priorities.
Live well.
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