in other words
april20
2017
Vernonia Grange
Celebrates
Grange Month
Diggin’ in the Dirt: Crusts Crush Carrots
Watch for Vernonia’s own Spring
Garden Fair on Saturday, May 13!
The Vernonia Community
Garden Group will be putting on the
third annual Spring Garden Fair at
the Vernonia High School Commons
on Saturday, May 13 from 9:00 am
- 3:00 pm. There will be certified
organic tomato plants for sale as well
as other garden plants and garden
related items from local and regional
vendors. There will be an information
table staffed with Master Gardeners™
to answer your garden questions. Note
the posters going up around town and
watch the Vernonia’s Voice for more
information.
Crusts crush carrots (and beets,
dill, etc.)
Carrot seeds are kind of
wimpy. They don’t burst through
the ground like radishes. Rather, they
stumble to the surface over 7-14 days.
Or they don’t. If they don’t make it
to the sunlight, you have no carrots.
What is going on?
Most of us try to garden on
clay-based soils. When we roto-till
the garden plot and plant carrot seeds,
surface clay particles tend to solidify
into a tough crust. That makes it hard
for those carrot seeds to break through
before they have used up all their
stored energy. One gardening trick is
to cover carrot seed with potting soil,
not garden soil. Our grandparents
had other solutions. They placed cut-
opened burlap bags over the carrot
Mini semi-broccoli
Brassicas, otherwise known
as the cabbage family, have been
a heavily bred vegetable crop
family over their 3-5,000 years of
domestication. Two modified broccoli
types of similar characteristics are
gai lan (sometimes spelled kailann,
also known as Chinese broccoli) and
rapini (otherwise known as Italian
broccoli raab). Both feature thick,
edible stems, pungent/sweet leaves
and modest floral structures. They are
about one-third the size of a broccoli
plant.
They can be sown now in
seed flats or direct seeded where
you can keep them somewhat warm.
Neither likes the intense heat of the
mid-summer. Plant spacing is 6-10
inches within the row and rows about
12 inches apart.
They mature in about 45-60
days depending on variety. For both
rapini and gai lan, there are a lot of
varieties to choose from.
The vegetables are excellent
in stir fry, broiled, and in pasta dishes
Take excess produce to the food
bank, senior centers, or community
meals programs. Cash donations
to buy food are also greatly
appreciated.
The Extension Service offers its
programs and materials equally to
all people.
Free newsletter
The Oregon State University
Extension office in Columbia County
publishes a monthly newsletter on
gardening and farming topics (called
Country Living) written/edited by
yours truly. All you need to do is ask
for it and it will be mailed to you.
Call (503) 397-3462 to be put on the
list. Alternatively, you can sign up
for email notification of when to find
the latest edition on the web at http://
extension.oregonstate.edu/columbia/.
Contact information for the
Extension office
Oregon State University Extension
Service – Columbia County
505 N. Columbia River Highway
(across from the Legacy clinic)
St. Helens, OR 97051
(503) 397-3462
Email: chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu
Timberbound Concert is
featured event on April 27
Carol McIntyre, Master of the Verno-
nia Grange 305, announced a special event to
celebrate National Grange Month this April.
Grange Month highlights the Grange
role in rural communities and creates oppor-
tunities for non-members to learn more about
the historic organization.
Master McIntyre said Grange Month
2017 activities will include an open house.
The public is invited to attend Thursday, April
27 at 6:00 pm at the Vernonia Grange. The
open house includes a potluck and preludes
the Timberbound concert at 7:00 pm.
Founded in 1867 amidst the Civil War,
the Grange was the first fraternal farm orga-
nization in the country and served as a vital
community meeting place for “patrons of hus-
bandry” for 150 years. Today the Grange
is recognized as America’s number one rural
family organization. There are 300,000 mem-
bers in 3,400 local or “Subordinate” Granges
across 37 states.
The Vernonia Grange 305 was orga-
nized in 1901 by Upper Nehalem Valley pio-
neers. The Grange building was built in 1907
and is one of the oldest buildings remaining in
the area. Vernonia Grange is deeply commit-
ted to elevating rural community as they honor
their commitment to provide an inviting and
affordable gathering space in order to promote
the health and well-being of an aware, engaged
and sustainable community. Their quest is to
continue to serve as a vibrant hub for the com-
munity into the future. “Our Future is Youth.”
At 7:00 pm Timberbound, following
two days of delivering a Rutabaga Rhythm
Workshop to Vernonia area school students,
will perform an all ages concert at the Grange,
sponsored by The Rhapsody Project and Verno-
nia Public Library. Families are invited to hear
music, watch their children perform with Tim-
berbound musicians, and share in stories about
local logging and sawmill history. There will
also be a slide show of historic forest living by
our friend Cory Colburn from 7:20 – 8:00 pm
Then join Joe Seamons, Kate Sand-
gren, Gavin Duffy, Jenny Estrin with special
guest Tina Dietz (aka Teeny Deets) as they
sing, strum and stomp for you! We will finish
the evening with a few folk dances as fellow
Grange member Jim Buxton calls our cues to
dance!
This event is made possible by fund-
ing from the Columbia County Cultural Co-
alition through Friends of the Vernonia Public
Library. All are welcome!
Vernonia
Dental
D
OSU Master Gardener’s Spring
Garden Fair: Saturday, April 29th
The OSU/Columbia County
Master Gardener’s™ Spring Garden
Fair at St. Helens High School
Commons, 2375 Gable Rd St Helens,
OR, will be held on April 29th from
9:00 am - 3:00 pm. The OSU Master
Gardeners™ will sell roughly 5,000
tomatoes of more than 30 varieties,
provide tomato and general gardening
information, and have a number of
educational displays. There will also
be dozens of local vendors offering
garden plants and other garden related
products.
and soups. The harvested plants keep
well in the refrigerator for some time.
Food Safety or Food Preservation
Questions? OSU Extension Service
Has Answers Are you planning to
preserve food from your garden or
purchased from a farm this summer?
If so, call or visit the OSU Extension
Service office before you start
canning, freezing, or drying. Costly
and potentially harmful mistakes can
be made by using outdated canning
recipes and instructions. You can find
free publications at the Columbia
County Extension office located at
505 N. Columbia River Highway in
St. Helens (across from the Legacy
Clinic). If you have questions, phone
the office at (503) 397-3462. You
can download for free all our food
preservation publications at http://
extension.oregonstate.edu/fch/food-
preservation. An additional great
resource is the National Center for
Home Food Preservation at http://
www.uga.edu/nchfp/.
an
Oregon State University
Extension Service - Columbia County
beds. That kept the seed evenly moist
and reduced the “baking” of the clay.
Once the carrots germinated, the
bags were removed. Other gardeners
in years past planted radishes in
with carrots and those tough radish
seedlings broke the crust with carrots
following along behind.
A modern technique is to use
floating row covers instead of burlap. It
gives the same crust reduction, seems
to encourage faster germination, and
the emerged seedlings respond to
the heat and sun bathed environment
under the covers. Of course, weeds
flourish as well, so be warned.
Peter Chan, a famous Portland
gardener, used to plant carrots in
2-inch containers, four seeds to a
container. When the plants were about
two inches in size, he transplanted the
“plug” from the container with the
four carrots as one unit. He spaced
the plugs about four inches apart
within the row and with rows about
six inches apart. He didn’t thin and all
the carrots, given the space between
the plugs, seemed to do very well. Of
course, he had rich and deeply worked
ground that he planted into. That is
another carrot secret.
e rm
By Chip Bubl
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622 Bridge Street Vernonia, OR 97064
phone (503) 429-0880 -- fax (503) 429-0881
