Plant Diaries: Early Summer Photo Album

The All Peoples Porch Pots and Partner Plots ministry has taken the Community Garden out into the community - way out!  Peeps Plants are growing up in their new homes on porches, in raised beds, in church gardens and home gardens, across a 3-county area.  Here are a few photos that the plants have sent us (with a little help from their caretakers) so we can see how much they've grown!

Oh Baby!  This little cucumber plant made the journey out to 
Waukesha County and is already producing fruits!  Congratulations!

Here's a message from the cucumber plant in this Waukesha County partner
porch garden:  "The tomato plants were complaining because I was
creeping around near them.  Then I felt like I was going over the edge! 
Luckily my caretaker moved me so my baby cukes won't fall to the ground
and I can crawl around as much as I please!"

And here's a message from the tomato plants in that same porch garden:
"Thank goodness that pesky cucumber plant is no longer crowding
us.  It is SO hot out here, but as long as we get the water we
need each day, we love it!  Our caretaker is doing a good job of
giving us a consistent amount of water each day so that we don't 
get yellow spots on our leaves."

We got this message from 3 happy Peeps Plants:  "Check out the 
lovely couple that takes care of us in their partner plot!  They put us
into these big buckets and we are so comfy and have room for our 
roots to grow!  Pretty soon we will give them what they
need to make salsa."

Our friends out in Rubicon made a cool logo for their 
Partner Plot program.  Many of the church members there
have big gardens and even farms!  This is their first year
of partnering up with All Peoples.

One family started a Partner Plot
near the picnic table in their yard.

Another family has a great big garden.  Can you see the
little Partner Plot sign in the garden?

Here's another friend with a Partner Plot which is growing
yummy veggies to share with All Peoples families.

The next time you visit the All Peoples Darius Simmons
Community Garden, you can look for the All Peoples &
St. Olaf Partner Plot sign!  It was a gift from our friends
at our new partner church.

Our friends from St. Olaf noticed that the strawberry farms
in their area had a lot of extra berries on the vines.  They
braved the warm weather to glean the fields so that families
in the All Peoples neighborhood can have fresh, picked strawberries!
Produce from the St. Olaf Partner Plots is usually delivered on Wednesdays
to the All Peoples Free Produce Stand in the community garden.

We hope you are enjoying the photos and the news from the Porch Pots and Partner Plots!!  Thanks to the photographers and communicators who are sharing their stories with us.  

Keep growing, Peeps Plants!!

The Plant Diaries: We've Got Mail!

We've got mail!  

Ever since our tomato plant friends, Tom & Mat O. wrote their first letter to All Peoples, we have been hoping to hear from them again.  One day, we missed them so much that we put on our masks, drove over to see them took a couple of sneaky photos.  We don't want to be helicopter parents, but gosh, they are growing up so quickly!  But never could we have guessed that they would send us this news so soon!  Here's the letter we just received:

Dear APC Friends,

We are bursting with excitement to share our big news – WE’RE EXPECTING! We’ve included a picture so you can see the beginnings of our little babies. They’re just little blossoms now, but it won’t be long before they are strong and robust tomatoes.

 

We really hadn’t planned on starting our family so soon, but there were a few days when we drank in a little too much sun. That and the healthy, organic soil we’re living in  made us decide there was really no reason to wait. And we’re not the only ones. Our neighbors in the pots on either side of us are also looking forward to the arrival of their red little bundles of juiciness.

 

Our friends, the Radishes, advise us to enjoy every moment, because these kids grow up so fast. A whole bunch of their children left to start their careers filling empty stomachs. We’ve included their last “class” picture before they were packed into bags and took off. They’re a crunchy bunch!

 

That’s news for now. Until we talk again, remember to set your roots firmly in the soil and reach high in the sky!

Peace and love,

Tom & Mat O

Tom & Mat O. sent us this selfie!

Tom & Mat O. sent us this photo of their neighbors, the Radishes.

Plant Diaries: The Babies are Growing

The Grow Room is empty!  Where are the plant babies now? 

Remember our friends, Tom and Mat O?  They are growing tall alongside
their new friends in Kingo Lutheran Church's community garden.

They are growing so fast, you can hardly find them like among all of their new friends!

Thanks to that nice lady who let Tom and Mat O stay at her house for a couple
of nights!  That really helped them to get ready to be out in the big garden!

Tom and Mat O are pretty famous.  Do you remember the first letter we received from them?  They are even featured in a new short film which All Peoples is using to help teach kids about hardening off their plants before planting them into a big pot or a big garden.  You can watch the movie too!  It's called Baby Plants.

Some of our plants went to St. John's Lutheran Church in Brookfield, where
they met their new caretakers.  The plants spent a few nights on porches in Brookfield,
Waukesha, Pewaukee and Mukwonago before venturing out into the bigger world.

Out at Holy Cross in Menomonee Falls, the youth put some effort into creating
lovely warm, rich beds for a wide variety of baby plants from All Peoples.

Baby plants require a lot of tender, loving care, and we can see that these babies
are being tucked into their new beds with gentle hands.

Meanwhile, back at All Peoples Church, many of the plants are spending a little time in the greenhouse.
Here they are getting used to their new, larger pots, which will be their permanent homes
on neighborhood porches and in the All Peoples Community Garden.

Yesterday, a small cucumber plant was spotted skipping down Clarke Street in the hands of a small boy.  Are pickles in his future?  Stay tuned for more plant adventures!!

This story is brought to you by the All Peoples Community Garden Porch Pots and Partner Plots programs.  During Covid-19, the community garden is moving out into the community in new and broader ways.  If you are a caretaker for a porch pot or partner plot, please submit your photos and stories to linda@allpeoplesgathering.org or post them in the comments.

Submitted by Linda Muth.

Savory French Toast

Savory French Toast
or What to Do with a Few Yucky Tomatoes...

Submitted by Linda Muth

We have all been there - harvesting in the garden and plucking a couple of big, red, seemingly beautiful tomatoes off the vine, only to discover that the bottom half is rotten or the top is cracked and oozy.  In the spirit of "no food goes to waste" you take these ugly tomatoes home.

My general feeling is that tomatoes with blossom end rot, tomatoes which are cracked and red on one side and green on the other, tomatoes which have endured bird pecking or insect nibbling, are a secret bounty.  Wash them.  Cut off all of the offensive parts, including hard cores, slimy cracks, bite holes and brown rotten spots, and toss the good parts into a sauce pan.  Now you are ready to make all kinds of wonderful things like sauce, salsa, preserves...

Yet, if you only end up with a small amount of good tomato stuff in your pot, you might not have the quantity or motivation to create a big tomato recipe or get out the canning jars.  This is where I found myself a few days ago...in the kitchen with a small pot of tomatoes and no idea...until...I thought of French Toast!  Why not?

Step 1
Prepare ugly tomatoes by washing them and cutting off all of the offensive parts.  Cut the remaining chunks into 1/2" to 1" pieces over a sauce pan so you can catch all of the juices. For about 2 cups of tomato chunks, add:
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1/2 medium yellow or white onion (or whatever leftover onion chunks are in your fridge), chopped
Herbs (dried or fresh) such as basil, lemon basil, lemon mint, parsley
Fresh ground pepper
Sea salt
Add all ingredients to taste - measuring is not important.
Stew the tomato sauce over medium heat, until it thickens up a bit.

Step 2
While the tomatoes are cooling, beat 2-3 eggs in a shallow dish.  Prepare the rest of your breakfast foods and get your griddle ready. Add about half of the tomato mixture to your eggs.  Start by spooning some of the tomato juice in and then add some of the chunkier parts.  Do this slowly so that your eggs do not cook from the warm tomatoes.

Step 3
Soak pieces of bread in the egg and tomato mixture.  Mop up some of the chunky parts and place soaked bread onto the griddle (I set mine at 350 degrees).  Be sure to cook it all the way through.

Sprinkle freshly grates Parmesan or Romano cheese over the top, or use any grated cheese you might have on hand.

Serve it up with a little extra tomato sauce (in place of syrup) and garnish with garlic chives or any herbs you might have.  If you are a meat-eater, bacon goes super well with this!

What do you do with a few yucky tomatoes?  Send us your favorite recipes which use the gleanings of your gardens!