A Feast at the Fall Fest

Thank you to our volunteers, garden founders, planning committee, donors and community! We had a nice evening of activities, mingling, and relishing garden food against the backdrop of a blue sky and corn rows. We feasted on breads, soups, chili, enchiladas, ratatouille, salsa, quiche, melon, cookies, muffins, pies and home made ice cream. The Picky Kid Award went to 1st) bread intended for a veggie appetizer 2) my spinach quiche and 3) Nicole's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. 850 hours of work have gone into the garden this season (600 from 31 regular volunteers, 150 from service groups and 100 from 50 other community members). We have the community garden because of Ralph and Scott Steenblik, the Rose Park Community Council (former fiscal sponsor) and Tesoro. This year's harvest wouldn't be here without Ralph and Scott, who put in their own time and money to guarantee water delivery. Because of serious family obligations, they were unable to attend the event. We hope to pay them back soon, double our community participation in 2013 and get your help finishing out this season and preparing for next.Your support will help community members continue to learn, nourish themselves and their families, and grow their own gardens and community connections.

Fall Fest Potluck Event

please join us for our first-annual

F A L L   F E S T

on

Saturday, September 22nd 5-7pm

871 N. Cornell St. (1525 W.)

Garden Potluck, Activities for Kids & Volunteer Recognition

If you answer yes to any of these questions, this event is for you:

_I love fruits and vegetables

_I hate fruits and vegetables

_I have helped in the Community Garden

_I have not helped in the Community Garden

_I like to eat real food

_Food and culture are important to me

_I enjoy living in Rose Park

_Rose Park needs a lot of improvement

_I enjoy gardening

_I don't like gardening 

_I (and my family) want to grow our own food

_I like trying new things 
_I didn't know we had a Community Garden
_I knew about it, but didn't get around to helping

Help us Grow! Donations are appreciated as well as your help (in 2013).

Circle of Service

Have you ever experienced "coming full circle?" Yesterday was one of those moments for me. On Saturday, September 8th, 2001 I volunteered at Wasatch Community Garden's Tomato Sandwich Party. How did I learn about it? A professor who later became my boss and friend at the University of Utah suggested it because we had been studying community gardens as part of a course in environmental psychology. A component of our grade was service learning. In 2 hours I learned to love pesto and tomatoes, know the difference between homegrown and Health Food store tomatoes, and I also saw what community gardening could do for struggling youth, neighborhoods and families. Three days later much of the world would watch helplessly at the destruction by a few to an international community. It doesn't feel like coincidence that eleven years later, on Saturday September 8th I stood in awe as 50 students from the University of Utah's service learning program descended cheerfully onto our community garden, a member of Wasatch's network. They accomplished in 2 hours what would have taken our regular crew 6 weeks to do. They weeded, harvested, hauled leaves (prep for next year's garden), and harvested alongside 17 members of Rose Park. I stood and watched, not helplessly, but humbled by what a few could do for my community.

We still have tomatoes, squash, beets, cucumbers, beans, corn, egg plant, chiles and onions. Our Fall Fest is Saturday September 22nd at the garden, 5-7pm. Bring a garden potluck to share and if you can, give a little "green" to help us grow.