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Well Hello There!
 We have a bevy of exciting news to share with you this month! We are now collaborating with San Francisco Department of the Environment on edible urban forest and food justice issues; in the upcoming months we'll have announcements for you on how you can make your city more livable, more socially just and (most importantly) more delicious!
If that wasn't exciting enough, we wanted to invite you to participate in an event with us. Our friends over at Slow Food USA are working hard to see that kids eat better at school, and you can join them (and us) at an event in your area. Check our events calender below for more details!
Finally, we want to thank all of you for telling your friends about us, we've been growing by leaps and bounds! We now have a tons of registered users, who've contributed over 7,000 trees to our map! We've been listening to your feedback, and we've made a few changes to the site to improve usability. You can now rank and comment on any public tree (our favorite so far is "ohhh I ate too many!"). Please try out the new features, and keep the feedback coming.
Fruitfully Yours,
Kaytea and Oriana
Welcome back! |
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The Early Worm Gets the Fruit  Yet another month with new fruits coming into season! If you don't hurry, your furry (or feathered or scaled) friends will eat them all before you get there! Available as a download to your desktop, or as a printable PDF, the monthly fruit monster does bad things so you don't have to!
Some users have been wondering why we have a fruit label for every month. The label lets people know you have prepared fruit for them. Finding it means that you have discovered the fruit-tastic spot: there's fruit in them thar hills! It's all about finding each other and building community!
Download the label now! |
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EVENTS: What's Eating Our Children?  This fall, legislators are going to be reevaluating how much money is going to be spent on subsidized school lunch programs. Currently, $2.50 is spent per meal per child. Kids are being fed a whole bunch of processed "food products". Diabetes and obesity rates in children are skyrocketing.
We've teamed up with our local chapter of Slow Food USA, and we're going to be helping out with the Time for Lunch campaign. On nationwide Eat-In Day (September 7), we will be at SF's Civic Center Eat-In with fruit, so join us if you like! If you don't live in San Francisco, you can find one in your area, or organize your own!
To add an event to our list, please let us know.
Check the calender for more exciting events! |
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RECIPIES: Blackberry Loquat Tartlettes  Blackberries and loquats are in season. Coming home laden with fruit, we decided to make some tartlettes with them. This experiment came out so well, we had to share the recipe with you!
| | Ingredients |
| for the topping
2 quarts blackberries |
for the marmalade
5 lbs loquats
4 cups sugar
1 1/2 packets pectin
3/4 cup dried fruit
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| for the dough
2/3 cup sugar
2 sticks butter
2 cups flour (or 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup polenta)
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract |
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Directions
For the marmalade, cut out the toxic seeds and the flower ends off the loquats. Cover with water and bring to a boil and then simmer for 15-20 min. Filter out the loquat solids. Add 4 cups of sugar 1.5 packets of pectin and 3/4 of a cup of chopped dried fruit, and then bring to a rapid boil for five minutes. Put the resultant goo into containers and let cool.
To make the dough, cream the sugar, butter and vanilla extract. Sift the flour, polenta and salt together, slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed butter. Mix it together and then chill it in the fridge before rolling it out on the counter and cutting the dough into tartlette shape. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 min (don't let them brown!).
Take the cooled tartlette shells, smear a liberal portion of the cooled marmalade on top of them, and add the blackberries. Voila! Fancy and simple!
Try our Recipes and Techniques! |
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GARDENING: In August, Keep Up The Good Work!  In August, your garden won’t require too much attention, but it will still need your help to beat the heat! When possible, water plants in the morning or early afternoon so the soil will have a chance to warm up before the evening. Water fruit trees – especially young ones – using a slow drip system such as a Treegator®, or a bag system which will deliver about 20 gallons of water directly to the roots over the space of a few hours.
Weed control is also very important. Due to the warmer weather and increased watering, weeds can quickly get out of control. By watering deeply, and aggressively pulling weeds, they can be abated before they have a chance to flower and go to seed again. To cut down on hand weeding, don’t forget to mulch around your plants (covered in the June Grapevine).
The heat can make it tough to spend time working in your garden; try to take advantage of marginally cooler days. If you planted drought resistant plants in your garden last spring, you won't have to water as often or as much, but the principle of deep watering still applies.
It’s the perfect time to start your fall and winter vegetables! Early in the month, plant starters or seeds of green onions, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, radishes, and winter cauliflower. In the unused spots in your garden, plant mesclun greens and leaf lettuce. Mixing compost or worm tea into the soil before seeding will ensure faster sprouting, and healthier plants!
Visit our gardening forum for more tips! Happy digging! |
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Thanks for reading! If you would like to let us know what you think of The Grapevine, contact us. We love hearing from you. To reward you for reading this far, we'll send you a Neighborhood Fruit sticker if you email us your address!
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