Welcome to the new gardening season! Please follow CDC and city public health guidelines when you come to the garden. Wear a mask when others are around, and bring your own tools if you have concerns about sharing.

If you have received a garden assignment from us, you are welcome to begin as soon as you complete your registration form, and we receive your plot fee. All gardeners must complete the registration form each year.

The Welcome email includes:

• Important dates
• Registration form
• Link to membership guidelines
• Plot fee information
• Storage bench lock combinations

2021 Garden Changes:

• Use social distancing whenever at the garden.
• Bring your own tools if you are concerned about sharing
• Consider becoming a leader for the garden this fall. We need all the help possible to make sure the garden continues in 2022!

Sending health and ease your way,

Crowley Station Community Garden Leadership Team

Hi gardeners!

As you are plotting your new garden this spring, it’s great to think about long term projects.  Planning plants that you can preserve later is a great way to use your bountiful harvest and reduce waste! There are three primary methods to preserve your harvest later on: canning, freezing, and pickling/fermenting.  If you have a preferred method, think ahead of time about what produce will do the best with your method of choice.

Today I’ll discuss fermenting 101.  My favorite vegetables to ferment result in fun takes on the traditional sauerkraut.  First, what goes into traditional sauerkraut?

Traditional sauerkraut:

• green cabbage
• salt
• caraway seeds

In my opinion, the best sauerkraut requires a little bit of invention and pizazz! Think: beets, carrots, pink cabbage, ginger, radish, garlic.  In order for the sauerkraut to preserve optimally, you should add spices. Think: turmeric, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, cumin, curry powder, and even seaweed!  The spices help to control the bacteria levels – inviting the good ones in and keeping the bad ones out.  From an aesthetic perspective, keeping all of your ingredients in the same color palette will result in vibrant colors in your kraut.

We will host a workshop to address the process of making sauerkraut, but here a brief run down once you harvest your produce:

1. give your produce a light rinse
2. chop, shred, and mince your vegetables
3. add spices and flavors (garlic, ginger, turmeric) and salt!
4. massage, squeeze and beat your mixture until the juices from the vegetables are oozing out
5. transfer to a large mason jar or sauerkraut crock (nothing plastic).  Pack down the kraut tight, so all of the liquid rises to the top (leave at least 2 inches on top of jar)
6. cover jar with a cheesecloth (any mesh will do), place in a bowl to catch overflow and put in a dark cupboard
7. “burp” each day for the first week of fermenting.  Burp: using (clean) hands or a glass jar to press down on your kraut, bringing the air bubbles to the top
8. let ferment as long as you’d like, tasting along the way until you like how it tastes.  In cold weather, I ferment for 3-4 weeks.  In warm weather, I ferment for ~2 weeks.  Add a lid and place in your refrigerator to enjoy!

Back to the garden: for fun sauerkraut, think about planting your spring produce…beets, carrots, radishes, and cabbage. Choose a new variety or a different color.  Golden beets make a wonderful tasty addition to sauerkraut.  Or get creative and try something new!

We’ll keep you posted on plans for our sauerkraut workshop, and in the mean time get planting. We can’t wait to see those beet greens pushing out of the soil soon!

Hi gardeners!
About a month ago we had our opening day at the garden. I apologize for not having a post up sooner about it, but it’s been a busy month. We had great turnout and it was great to meet so many new people.

New and returning gardeners at Opening Day

A few people planted their gardens that day and since then more and more plots are getting filled in.

Sprouts are beginning to show in some beds and established plants are flourishing.

The great news is that all our plots are filled this year and we even have a waiting list! It sounds like Crowley Station is becoming more known in the community which is a great thing.

We had our first workday this past Saturday. We did some maintenance and added a cork board to the bulletin board. We also fixed the rain barrel funnel so it will fill up with water more efficiently.

We also made put laminated name cards in every garden plot.

After the last few days of rain, there is finally a significant amount of water in the rain barrel. Remember to use the rain barrel before using the water spigot. Thanks!

Hi readers,

It seems like after the crazy snow and rain of last week, spring might finally be here! We are ready at Crowley Station Community Garden to start planting. Our opening day is coming up on Saturday, April 16. Stop at the farmer’s market for some fresh veggies and then come on down to the garden to plant your own. We’ll be there between 10 and 2 taking registration info and payments and having a nice little social to kick off the planting season. We’ll also be decorating name plates for our garden beds to let the community and garden visitors know who we are. I can’t wait to see everyone and meet my fellow gardeners.

It’s finally feeling like spring! We shall hope that this warm weather continues and we get lots of spring rain to fill up our rain barrels, which will be going out in a few weeks.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Emma and I’m the new Communications Director for 2016. I’m excited to be in this role and have lots of ideas for the coming planting season! I’ve been gardening since I was small and loved to eat dirt-covered carrots right out of my family’s garden. This is only my second summer as a gardener with Crowley Station but I’m happy to be a part of the leadership team.

The leadership team have been meeting to plan this season and we are all looking forward to opening day. The date for opening day this year is April 16th from 10-12. We’ll be taking deposits and registrations and making name plates for our garden plots.

We met last week to discuss our goals for 2016 and this is what we came up with:

• We are working with various people at the city and water utility to finalize our new lease of the Garden space. Our goal is to have that finalized soon. We will have more details on that as the lease terms get worked out.
• There are so many community gardens in Madison doing great work. This year we’d like to develop a deeper relationship with some of them. Keep an eye out for volunteer opportunities and jointly-hosted events with other gardens this summer.
• Last year we had some problems with theft of our produce. This year we would like to minimize that, by making our gardeners more visible and increasing neighborhood awareness of Crowley Station Community Garden.
• We would like to update some of our policies and make the handbook the best it can be. Since Crowley Station has such an interesting history, we’d also like to document that in some way.
• We decided that a 5-year goal for the Garden will be to increase the number of raised beds in the space.

Our next meeting is March 24th at Barriques on West Washington, from 7:00-8:30. We’d love for anyone to join us!

You’ve grown all the vegetables in your garden or just been to the farmer’s market, but there is too much to eat all at once. What do you do? Well, you put it away for the Winter, of course. Join our Educational Director, Danni Niles, as she shows you the basics of Water Bath Canning. Topics will include safety, easy recipes, ways to use products, and resources.

Date: 9/20/15

Time: 2PM

Location: Danni’s Apartment by the Vila’s Zoo (those who sign up on the Eventbrite page will receive directions the morning of)

Suggested Donation: $10 Non-Garden Members, $5 Garden Members