WELCOME SPRING, talk seeds and how to plan (and sow!) your best edible garden ever with help from lead speaker Alana Chernila and other experts, at the 6th Annual Seedy Saturday, March 19, 2016 at the historic Copake (NY) Grange. Shop for organic seeds from Hudson Valley Seed Library and Turtle Tree Seed, and garden goodies from Hillsdale General Store. Each year 100ish gardeners join us…won’t you?

to benefit Friends of Taconic State Park

March 19, 2016, 1:30-5:00 PM

(plus: optional hands-on seed workshop at 9:30 AM)

at historic Copake Grange, 628 Empire Road, Copake, NY

• Shops open at 1:30 PM
• 2:30 PM slide talk by hit cookbook author and gardener Alana Chernila, on “Table, Pantry, Freezer: Make a Garden Plan for a Year of Eating” (full description below)…
• ….followed by refreshments and more shopping till 5:00.
• ALSO:  9:30-noon “Grow Like a Pro” hands-on seed workshop, with local organic farmers Jenny Elliott (Tiny Hearts Farm) and Jessica Camp (Mx Morningstar Farm); separate ticket, see below.

Not just our speaker and workshop leaders but our shopkeepers, too, are expert growers, so come prepared with your questions! 

2:30 PM lecture by Alana Chernila:

TABLE, PANTRY, FREEZER: Make a Garden Plan with a Year of Eating in Mind

HIT COOKBOOK author, farmers’ market worker and gardener Alana Chernila thinks we may be designing our edible gardens backwards, thinking about what looks good in the catalogs rather than a year of homegrown eating. She advocates that we create an eating plan instead of a garden plan: to think about what we want to eat—whether fresh, or to freeze, can, dehydrate, infuse, pickle, ferment—and create a plan from those answers, matching the best varieties to our desired end uses. Prepare to be inspired by not just lots of garden advice, but by creative, can-do recipes and kitchen techniques you’ll want to add to your repertory.

Alana Chernila writes, cooks, sells fresh vegetables, and teaches preserving and cheesemaking. She lives in Gt. Barrington, Massachusetts, where she has worked at the weekly Farmers’ Market for 9 years, helping shoppers choose vegetables and learn what to do with them. Her first cookbook, “The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making,” was published in spring 2012 to great acclaim, followed by “The Homemade Kitchen,” in fall 2015. Visit Alana at Eating from the Ground Up.

9:30 AM-noon workshop with organic farmers Jenny Elliott and Jessica Camp:

SOW LIKE A PRO: Hands-On Seed Workshop With Organic Farmers

JOIN COPAKE-based organic farmers Jennifer Elliott (above right) and Jessica Camp (left), and learn to grow flowers, vegetables and herbs from seed like the pros. Go home with insights on proper timing and the right gear, on best varieties for local success and more–plus a flat of seedlings-to-be that you sow yourself from a selection of their favorite seed.

At Tiny Hearts Farm, Jenny grows cut flowers for the floral market, plus for weddings/special events. At Mx Morningstar Farm, Jess juggles a range of vegetable and herb crops over a long season, supplying certified produce to restaurants and grocers (including Berkshire Coop Market).

In a workshop that’s part-classroom, part-greenhouse demo, part-hands-on, we’ll cover topics like:

• Success with tricky vegetables: onions, Brussels sprouts, spinach and more
• Working with fine seed (snapdragons, poppies, nicotiana…) and seed requiring special treatment
• What herbs to grow from seed (and which not to bother trying!)
• Direct sow, or start indoors: Which plants get which tactic?
• When to sow what?  Plus, mastering succession sowing for sustained harvest
• Seed-starting how-to: What flats, potting soil, when and how to water, bottom heat or not…
• Soil-blocking versus sowing in cells or trays
• Space-saving tactics when room under lights is limited
• How to store leftover seed

This is a unique chance to see how the farmers do it. Come prepared with all your questions!  Workshop schedule:

• 9:15-9:30 Coffee and baked goods at Copake Grange
• 9:30 Class begins promptly
• 10:30 Short walk to farm greenhouses, for demos and hands-on sowing of select seed varieties

This event is part of the 6th annual Seedy Saturday, co-hosted by Margaret Roach of A Way to Garden dot com to benefit the Friends of Taconic State Park.

REFUND POLICY: One week advance notice required for refund if tickets are canceled (cancelation date: noon Saturday, March 12). We will make every attempt to sell workshop tickets waitlisters if workshop tickets are canceled after that, but sometimes it isn’t possible. Thank you.

Ticket sales go to help the Friends of Taconic State Park make that great natural and historic resource in Copake Falls, NY, even more welcoming than ever. Thanks for supporting us!