Newsletter: August 2012 Gardening Tips
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August 2012 EditionGardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity. ~Lindley Karstens |
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Hello Subscriber! Welcome to the August 2012 edition of Terroir Seeds Gardening Tips. We’ve been hard at work and have an information rich, fun filled, jam-packed Newsletter for you this month. Let’s dive right in!
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Planting Your Fall Garden
Many reasons appear to support gardening more than just the traditional “Spring to Fall” American garden. One of the most obvious is that the sheer amount of food that can be grown from a family garden can be doubled and in some parts of the country almost tripled by growing in the cooler season. This has some very attractive financial incentives, as more fresh home grown produce equals that much less supermarket veggies and the resulting dollars in the pocket saved from buying seed instead of the finished product. Soil health is improved, as long as rich well decomposed compost is worked into the soil prior to planting the cool season crops. Keeping the soil active by growing during more of the year increases the biological activity in the soil and boosts soil health. The two biggest factors in deciding what and when to plant is the time left in the growing season and the cooling of the soil temperature. Some varieties will really benefit from late summer and early fall planting, when soil temperatures are still warm and will jump start seed germination. To find the time left before your average first frost date, click the link. Now that you have an idea of how much time is left in your particular growing season, let’s look at some varieties that can be direct planted in warmer soil, some that will benefit from being sprouted then transplanted, and some that will really like a cooler soil a little later on.
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The National Heirloom Exposition and Slow Food Terra Madre Delegates The Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, CA is just less than a month away! We are finishing the display and getting seeds and supplies ready for another great show and look forward to meeting a lot of you, either for the first time or again. One of our great pleasures was seeing many of our customers stopping by the booth to talk and update us on how your gardens were growing. If you are attending this year, please make a point to stop by and say hello! By all accounts, it looks to be another successful Expo with attendance projected to be significantly higher than last year. There are 100 speakers scheduled from North America, Europe and Africa, along with chefs, exhibits, vendors, music and a farmer’s market right on site. The opening night’s keynote address is by Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food. As many of you know, we are US delegates to the October Slow Food Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy. It looks like Carlo will be stopping by our booth to talk and get some photos (and possibly video) documenting our work as an heirloom seed company in preserving and promoting the local, sustainable food movement. This is a great opportunity for us and for everyone who grows a garden, as we are working to bring back good usable information from other gardeners around the world to share with you! I don’t suppose that it is coincidence that the two biggest trips we will take this year – the Heirloom Expo and Slow Food Terra Madre – have begun to feed and support each other. Each reflects a different but equally important aspect of our work in gardening, local food and heirloom seeds. A quick update on our Slow Food Terra Madre progress. Thanks to a very generous donation of airline miles and some special customers’ support we are closer to our goal this month. There is still a ways to go, but we can see some light at the end of the tunnel! Here is our press release link, and our article on Slow Food Terra Madre if you are interested. Thank you all so very much for your belief in us and our work to help us make this trip possible with your hard-earned contributions and support. We truly would not be able to do this without your help.
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Harvesting Tips and Tricks
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Planting Seeds Refer A Gardener Program A good number of you have passed along our catalogs, the Heirloom Times and seeds to your friends along with your recommendations, helping us gain new customers and grow our business. We want to say “Thanks” for your trust with our new Planting Seeds referral program. Here’s how it works: When you refer a friend or family member, you will receive a $20 Gift Certificate when your referral makes their first purchase over $20. Your referral will also receive a 15% discount on their first order. The Fine Print
To get started, just click on the Planting Seeds – Refer a Gardener Program link for the form, download and fill it out and mail, email or fax it in. We will send them a catalog and a coupon for their discount right away.
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Garden Photos and Reviews
Many thanks to those of you who sent reviews in during July! Jeff from Scottsdale, AZ was the winner of the drawing and wins the $25 gift certificate. There will be another $25 gift certificate drawn this month, so get your reviews in. There is one entry per review, so the more you enter the better your chances. If you haven’t submitted a review yet, it’s easy! Go to the item you want to review and click on the item number, photo or name to get to the extended description. There you will see the review link. It will say “View Reviews | Review this item” if there have been previous reviews, and “Be the first to review this item” if not. Click on the link and enter your review. We need real, constructive reviews that will help other gardeners, not just positive fluffy ones. Please enter your state, so that others can see how it did in your area. Your name is published if you enter it, but your email is not. We need your email address so we can keep track of the number of reviews for the drawing. If you choose not to enter your email in the review, make sure to send us a note letting us know what items you’ve reviewed so you get credit for your entries. P.S. We still need your garden photos! We are in the process of creating a Customer’s Gardens section on the website and we’d love to have your garden featured.
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Two Great Recipes
Both are unusual but highly tasty and will garner you some serious accolades when you bring them out to delight your family and guests’ taste buds. Our first recipe is taking an old familiar favorite a bit further along its journey of flavor and taste. Take some sun dried tomatoes; add some herbs, a little pickling brine and you’ve got another whole new dimension of flavor, ready for some seriously delicious dishes from your kitchen. Read Herb Marinated Dried Tomatoes for the whole story. Next up is a recipe very much in honoring our commitment to highly tasty, sustainable and locally produced foods. So local, in fact, that you won’t even need to leave your property to make it. If you’ve ever used or tasted capers in a dish and enjoyed them but don’t enjoy the price tag or the overseas travel to get them into your refrigerator, this is for you. Pickled Nasturtium Pods uses the green seeds, or pods, of the mature nasturtium that grows well in just about any North American garden. After a short, easy pickling process, you’ll have an ingredient that several chefs have said has a better flavor and presence than capers. Enjoy and let us know what you think!
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Our customers are friends that we have not yet met, as you share our interest and passion for growing incredibly delicious foods, preserving heirloom seed traditions and biological diversity for the future through our own home gardens. Sharing this is possibly the most important work, as it helps all of us make a definite, positive impact in our lives and in those that we share. Thanks for your time this edition, we hope you have enjoyed it. Please let us know your thoughts and suggestions, as we are always working to improve. Stephen and Cindy Scott |
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