Come join Playndirt's first Crop Swap

Plant, Grow, Share

JOIN US At  PLAYNDIRT’S CROPS SWAP

DATE:                             JUNE 28, 2014

LOCATION:              ADAMS CREST URBAN FARM

                                5000 Patterson Circle

                                Richmond, CA 94805

                                OPERATED BY URBANTILTH.ORG

TIME:                         2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

What is a Crop Swap?  It’s just that, a swapping of our produce with fellow neighbors and gardeners.  With an increase of edible landscapes in the Eastbay, no doubt there will be an increase of produce to share at a crop swap.  Here are some benefits of sharing your produce at Playndirt Crop Swap.

•  See what other gardeners are growing in our Mediterranean  climate.
•  Taste different varieties of your favorite fruits & vegetables.
• Exchange of gardening ideas and techniques.

 Ideal items to swap: fruits, vegetables, herbs, fresh eggs, honey and fresh cut flowers.

By participating all will enjoy eating what was locally grown and no food would will go to waste.

For additional questions please contact:

Darnell Stewart

Founder and CEO

510-255-7905 

** All produce must be grown from legal crops, cleaned and grown without the use of synthetic pesticides**

Bring Back the Natives by Dana

On Sunday May 4th Darnell and I went to a tour called Bringing Back the Natives.  It was really cool. The tour consisted of different businesses and residential houses that added or completely landscaped their yards with all native plants.  

Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour

Lime Thyme (non native)

Penstemon 'Blue Springs'

Mimulus Jelly Bean Orange

Residential before and after photos

Manzanita

Buck Eye Tree.  

This tree has a cluster of small white flowers that was so fragrant that all I wanted to do was stand there and smell the flowers and not look at anything else. Lol

White Mimulus Bifidus

Petaluma Bounty Farm by Dana

On Thursday the 24th Darnell went on a field trip which was apart of his class he's taking.  They went to this farm called Petaluma Bounty.

Darnell brought these strawberries home and they were so sweet and yummy

Green house

Petaluma Bounty Farm

Oregano by Dana

Hello all, so with all of our herbs we have in our garden I figured I could dry them out and replace what was missing in our herb rack in the cabinet.  So I decided to start with the Greek Oregano

Missing Herbs

 Fresh Greek Oregano

I soaked leaves in a little soap and water to get tiny bugs off

I let the leaves dry on a towel

I put them in a bowl so they can dry

The leaves were cut on the 22nd.  They we somewhat dried on the 24th.  At the end of the week they were completely dried

Ready to separate the leaves from the stems.

I rubbed the leaves in the palm of my hands to separate the leaves from the stems.  By the way my hands smelled like Oregano which smell so good.

I didn't have an herb grinder so I used the bottom of the glass container to crush a little more

I bent the paper plate and used it like a funnel to put the herbs in the jar

Walla a finished process

Greenstrings Farm by Dana

On Thursday April 24 Darnell went to this farm called Greenstring farm in Peteulma CA.

While he was there he learned that they allowed weeds to grow in with the edible plants to help aerate the soil

Here are other pictures of what was growing on the farm

Peyton by Dana

Yesterday at our garage/bake sale my niece Peyton helped us and to thank her we gave her one of our Strawberry Plant's, Wasabi Arugula, Purple Tree Kale and Chard.

Fundraiser to start our first Crop Swap by Dana

Yesterday Darnell and I held a fundraiser garage and bake sale. We've been planning this event for months and it finally happened.  On Friday we baked 75 Ghirardelli chocolate brownies,  we plated and wrapped them  and of course I had to sample one.  We didn't sell all of them but some of them did sell which is good.

The garage sale of course was our focus because we had a lot of stuff to be sold.  It was good to get things out of the garage.  Doing a garage sale is hard work but it pays off.  Our goal for the garage and bake sale was to raise funds for: 

• To make improvements to the Crop Swap feature on our website, Playndirt.com

• Start a Crop Swap location at: 

Adams Crest Farm 

5000 Patterson Circle, Richmond, CA 94805

Operated by Urbantilth.org