Flourishing Garden Produce

As we get nearer and nearer to the end of the summer, it is incredible to see the garden continuing to grow and flourish - tomatoes are ripening daily, eggplants and peppers continue to thrive, and we even still have strawberries ripening!

Today is my final working day before I start a 12-week maternity leave, so I thought it was important to post some garden update pictures before I leave the garden in the knowing and able hands of our volunteer corps.

So far this year, we've harvested over 20 pounds of food from the garden - including two pounds of basil leaves that went to Purple Door Ice Cream (our neighbor on the first floor!) for their basil ice cream. Delicious!

Cooking from the Garden

Today we hosted our first CORE/El Centro Healthy Cooking class, in partnership with the Art Institute of Wisconsin's International Culinary Arts program.  The focus of today's class was "Cooking Seasonally - Market to Table Recipes" and featured eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and herbs from the Edible Skyline.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we have an abundance of eggplants on the roof, thanks to our windy conditions and ample water source. So eggplants were the centerpiece of today's recipes - Eggplant Pizzas (using sliced eggplant as the pizza dough), Ratatouille (using all ingredients from the rooftop and/or the local market), and Veggie Skewers.

What produce we didn't have on the rooftop, I picked up at the Walker's Square farmers market - held three days a week, four blocks from the Clock Shadow building.

This first class was a huge success and we'll be sure to keep you posted on future classes!

How to turn eggplant flowers into fruit

When you think of 'pollination' do you picture bees or paintbrushes?  When it comes to eggplant, pollination has nothing to do with insects - and all to do with wind!  Eggplant flowers, unlike nearly ALL other vegetable flowers, are self-pollinating; that is, each flower has all that it needs to grow into a beautiful, purple fruit - if given the correct circumstances.

Many gardeners have frustratingly tried growing eggplants to find that they have an abundance of the beautiful purple flowers and see NO harvest!  In order for eggplants to self-pollinate, the plants need to be far enough apart for the wind to jostle the flowers so that the pollen can fall onto the pistil, pollinating the flower.  This can also be a problem in very humid conditions, when the pollen is too sticky to go anywhere.

Fortunately, on the rooftop we have no shortage of wind, so our eggplants are in full production!  If you're trying to grow eggplant and not sure that your plants will get enough wind, you can pollinate the flowers yourself by taking a clean paintbrush and moving it around inside of the flowers.  This will ensure the pollen gets to the pistil.

Also, don't forget that eggplants like a lot of water - 2 inches a week, in fact. So if you're still having problems with flowers falling off before they fruit, try upping your watering and see if that helps.

Rooftop Garden Brunch

On June 24th, we had our first private event on the rooftop - a Sunday Brunch!  This was actually a Silent Auction item that was won at CORE/El Centro's fundraiser in May.  It was a beautiful day for a delicious meal and the 10 guests who attended are eager to be back for more rooftop revelry!

(Pictures are courtesy of Nancy Rubly)

Children in the Garden

As part of the Community Health and Fitness program, CORE/El Centro offers children's activities during most of our movement classes.  We are excited to start engaging some of these kids in garden planting, watering, and tasting!

This week we had some of the kids come up and plant tomatoes.  We'll have a group of kids come up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to water the garden while their parents are taking zumba classes.  We'll also have the kids make some good signage for the garden - and, of course, enjoy the "fruits" of their labor!

Lettuce Harvest!

Thanks to volunteer Stephanie, we harvested over 5 pounds of delicious leaf lettuce this week.

We washed and bagged the lettuce which was given out to staff and volunteers of the building tenants.  Until we have our policies in place to sell, we're just enjoying the abundance amongst ourselves.  As the harvests grow, we'll continue to give out samples to clients, visitors, staff and volunteers.

Come visit during the Open Hours to enjoy a sample from the rooftop gardens!

Grand Opening Celebration Pictures

Amidst 25 mph winds (gusts were DEFINITELY stronger!) and below a clear blue sky, over 60 people gathered on the Edible Skyline rooftop today to celebrate the opening of CORE/El Centro's rooftop garden.

A group of volunteers came earlier in the day to transplant tomatoes, peppers, onions, tomatillos, strawberries, marigolds, zinnias, basil, mint, sage, parsley, cilantro and 1 squash!

We had an abundance of gardening resources and information, including the opportunity to try out some adaptive garden tools (for those with arthritis or wrist injuries).

The rooftop is officially open for the public 5 hours a week - Monday 3:30-4:30, Tuesday 10:45-12pm, Wednesday 8am-9am and 5pm-6pm, Thursday 5:30-6:30pm.  Stop by and see our plant progress, sit and read a book or ask our on-staff Garden Ambassador if they need a hand!