Lemon Thyme Cookies

Ingredients:
 - 1 cup soft butter or margarine
 - 1 - 1/2 cups sugar
 - 2 eggs
 - 2 - 1/2 cups unbleached flour
 - 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
 - 1/4 teaspoon salt
 - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
 - 3 tablespoons dried lemon thyme or french tarragon

Directions:
Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Cream butter with sugar; add eggs and mix well. Work in flour mixture until well blended; stir in Lemon Thyme or French Tarragon. Chill overnight. Roll into balls the size of small walnuts. Bake on greased cookie sheet about 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

These will melt in your mouth!!!

Recipe from Woodland Herb Farm, Northport, Michigan.

How nutritious is our food?

Click here for an interesting article from the NY Times about how we've moved away from a broad nutritious food supply. Makes me feel lucky that we have space with great soil for gardening, and that nurseries, big box garden centers and online sellers have been steadily increasing the variety of seeds and seedlings offered.

Side note: I am a dandelion lover. Not that I eat them myself, but we have guinea pigs at home, and dandelions (untreated by any pesticide or herbicide) are their favorite treat. Plus, dandelions are usually the earliest flowers to bloom, which brings pollinators to the area, and dandelions have absurdly long roots. These roots grab nutrients from deep soil, so if you let them grow big, then compost them, you can add nutrients back to the top of the soil.

WFCG T-Shirt Orders

We thought it would be fun to offer a WF community garden t-shirt this year. If you're interested in a shirt -- or two or three, for yourself or family members and garden friends -- click here and start the online form by clicking on the CHOOSE YOUR SIZE button. If you want a women's style shirt, please note this in the comment box when ordering. The women's style is more shaped (see second set of pictures below). All order and payments are due by 5pm on June 17. 

• Product: Gildan Ultra Cotton T-shirt
• Sizes: Men's Style YXS-4XL, Women's Style XS-3XL (no youth Women's t-shirt)
• Price: $15 for youth, $18 for adult

Questions?

Contact your group organizer:
Jen Roberts - jennifer.roberts@glenviewparks.org

How Do I Pay?

Please drop off a check or cash in the full amount by June 17th at 5pm. Make your check payable to Glenview Park District.

How Will I Get My Items?

The order will be sent after June 17th and you will be notified when the t-shirts are available for pick-up.

Rain and then some

We got quite a bit of rain this week, more than I anticipated! According to our state climatologist, we're 2-4" ahead of our usual yearly precipitation, which is a huge departure from last summer. This large chunk of rain follows our April, which was the 4th wettest April on record for our area.

What does this mean for our garden? First, it means we've fully recovered from the drought of 2012 (which bled into the first months of 2013). Second, it means our soil is wet to the point of being sticky mud at the moment.

It's a good idea to leave mud alone. Soil has a particular structure to it -- a combination of quartz particles, air and water, with organic matter and organisms. Working with soil while it's this wet threatens the proper structure of the soil, possibly reducing its health.

So let's all do a little anti-rain dance so the garden dries out over the next few days! The increasingly warm temps (all the way up to 90 by Tuesday?) should help.

Dragons and gnomes and signs, oh my

Lavender Cookies

Lavender Cookies Recipe photo by Taste of Home

Ingredients:
 - 1/2 cup shortening
 - 1/2 cup butter, softened
 - 1-1/4 cups sugar
 - 2 eggs
 - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 - 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
 - 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
 - 4 teaspoons dried lavender flowers
 - 1 teaspoon baking powder
 - 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream the shortening, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extracts. Combine the flour, lavender, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. 

Drop by rounded teaspoons 2 in. apart onto baking sheets lightly coated with cooking spray. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks. Store in an airtight container. Yield: about 7 dozen. 

Nutrition Facts: 1 cookie equals 46 calories, 2 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 8 mg cholesterol, 31 mg sodium. 

Recipe from TasteofHome

Veg plants needing a home

WF Community Gardeners --

If you want to give a tomato or pepper plant a new home, feel free to take one of the plants lined up by the south fence, near the bulletin board. (There are are more there than are in this picture.) Several people have dropped off their extra plants, and they are available on a first-come, first served basis. The plants on the first plot (the Wagner Farm demo plot) in a cardboard box are NOT available for donation -- stick to the ones right next to the fence.

Enjoy!

Welcome to our Master Gardener volunteer

Please welcome Deb Kepler to the community garden!

Deb Kepler, a Master Gardener intern, has recently joined Wagner Farm as a volunteer to the community garden, and she'll also be doing other helpful tasks around the farm.

Deb completed the Master Gardener program in 2012 from the University of Illinois Extension program and looks forward to gaining more knowledge about horticulture as she helps out at Wagner Farm. A graduate of Northwestern University, Deb has been gardening all her life. She currently has a small business in which she designs and plants containers for both residents and commercial plant containers. Deb is married with three teenagers, 2 girls and a boy. One of her many passions is to rise early with a cup of coffee and head to the garden. She also enjoys playing ice hockey and cooking. A bonus for us: she will be sharing some of her best garden recipes here on the blog, starting with lavender cookies!

Look for Deb out in the community garden wearing her volunteer t-shirt -- she looks forward to meeting all of you!

Watering lightly

Looks like tomorrow is going to be hot and lovely, so I've set the irrigation system to run lightly on Tuesday am. A little added insurance - although the soil is nicely moist 4-6" down - for the hot day coming. (The dragon sculpture agrees.)

Opening Day of the Community Garden tomorrow May 5

Let's get gardening! The community garden will officially be open for the season tomorrow morning at 9am. Short notice, but the weather and farm staff helped us out, and we all want to garden as soon as possible!

Some things to consider: There's no rush to get in. I will be around the garden as much as I can this next week and weekend, to help people get oriented and get started. The church across the street is celebrating Eastern Orthodox Easter tomorrow, so parking will be very tight -- it may be easier to find parking after 3pm tomorrow. You may briefly park in the circle drive to drop off plants & supplies, but you may not park there while you are planting  in the garden. I will post a garden map with plot assignments on the bulletin board right outside the garden -- doublecheck to be sure you're planting in the correct plot. Be considerate of other gardeners and do not walk through anyone else's plot.

Check out the blog in the next few days to meet Deb Kepler, a Master Gardener who will be volunteering with us this summer. She's helping me mark plots today, and she's looking forward to meeting all of you.

A big shout-out to Jeff and Andres, the farm staff who readied the plots by tilling and fertilizing. Another shout-out to John, Harry & Kirsten, the gardener volunteers who spent this morning pounding in the plot corner stakes. With the help of these guys and Deb, we wouldn't be able to take advantage of the nice weather coming our way.

See you in the garden!

Opening Day for the Community Garden

Folks, this has been a weird April, and May isn't starting off very differently, what with a 40 degree drop in temp over night and the rain coming our way. (But hey -- at least we're not in Minnesota, where apparently they're going to get several inches of SNOW.)

Staff here is working as fast as we can to get you into the garden. We need somewhat dry soil, some hours to till, equipment to spread fertilizer, and time/arm strength to pound the plot corner stakes. I'm thinking/hoping right now that the opening day will be May 11, but if I can get you all in any earlier, I will.

Keep an eye on the blog and on my emails -- gardening is right around the corner!