Joy from a Cherry Tree

The Little White Bags

So this was back in the early summertime, right when we were still picking pounds and pounds of cherries off of the cherry tree in the middle of the church's garden. We had finished picking cherries off of the tree for the day and had placed a reasonable amount of cherries in little white paper bags for the community to take for free. We had to have placed dozens of those little white backs on the produce stand that sits on the corner of 2nd and Clarke St. My mom, my God brother, and I then set off to run some errands, telling a few people about the free cherries on the garden stand before we took off on our errands. As we were driving back on Martin Luther King Drive, just a few blocks from the garden, we saw a mother and daughter. Both had one of the white bags in their hands and it was so adorable to see the two of them chomping down on the cherries as they talked and laughed together. It was a great chance to see our produce in the hands of a loving mother and daughter pair and knowing that the fruit I just picked from the tree was contributing to their joyful happiness. Seeing that moment immediately became one of the many reasons why I love working in the garden year after year and made me truly realize how impactful a little garden on the corner of a block can really be!

Helpers in the garden, picking cherries

Story submitted by Tara Holty, one of the APC team of youth leaders in the Kids Working to Succeed Program.

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!!

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!