Sunday, February 15, 2009

Minutes of the February 14th Meeting

What a great meeting! 19 people attended, including three from Uvalde and one from Sabinal. At the beginning of the meeting, Sage A. led a brief session on blogging. Using computers at the library, several members learned about creating a Google account which enables people to make comments about blog entries. Sage explained that our group will be using the blog to communicate and that members should read the blog entries regularly to learn about group activities. Everyone is encouraged to make comments, ask questions, and generally participate in the Healthy Harvest blog!

The first agenda item was evaluating the Saturday morning seminar and planning for our second seminar. The general opinion was that it was an excellent seminar. It was agreed that our next seminar would cover appropriate varieties of fruits and veggies to grow in our area, planting schedules, including phases of the moon, and seed starting techniques. This next seminar will be on Saturday, March 7th.

Next on the agenda was the Farmers Market. We formed a committee to plan for the market. Committee members are Rick A., Sage A., Leah B., and Catherine T. The committee will study issues including liability insurance, pricing, and legal regulations.

Next we discussed the Community Garden. Pat and Don W. agreed to ask the Garden Club if the Community Garden could be located on their property. We agreed that site selection is very important. We don't want to invest time and money in land that later will not be available to us.

Rick A. talked about the idea of a Local Food Festival in conjunction with World Food Day on October 16th, 2009. The group agreed that the date of Saturday, October 17th would be a good one. Anyone wishing to help plan this event should contact Rick.

Our visitors from Uvalde indicated that they would like to join forces with us. They described their project of reviving a large garden in the Chalk Bluff area. A possible Healthy Harvest field trip to see the property was suggested. Leah B. also mentioned an organization called WWOOF - World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. The focus of WWOOF is matching volunteers with farms that need workers.

Members also agreed that we should plan something for Earth Day this April. This will be put on the agenda for the March meeting. If there are any comments or additions to these minutes, please click on "Healthy Harvesters Said" below to give us your input. Thanks!

4 comments:

  1. I hope we can have future meetings "plein air" as we painters say. I really want to see Jim's garden and see what Sage and Rick have planted and the facilities at Chalk Bluff!

    There are only so many days in a month, maybe we can combine tours and meetings(?)

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  2. Good idea. Touring each others' gardens would be great. We are waiting for more of our garden to come to fruition, and then we'd love to have the group over.

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  3. Setting up a tour of gardens and Chalk Bluff would be so helpful to a beginning gardener like myself. The two times we have gone by Jim R. house, I doubled my knowledge about soil, composting, etc. And it doubled again after the first seminar. GREAT!
    Pat

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  4. Being new to the Frio Canyon and a first time gardener. I am delighted to have found a group with gardening experienced individuals like Jim, Sage and Rick kind enough to share their knowledge and experiences with everyone. Am really looking forward to future meetings, seminars and field trips and most especially the first Healthy Harvest !

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