Goler Community Garden at the Downtown Health Plaza

04/05/2020

This is a call to action for all community gardeners! Please consider planting extra this year to share with those in need. The Forsyth Community Gardening program at Forsyth County Extension was started back in 2010 to help reduce food insecurity in our county. We know there will be a greater need this summer. Need seeds or transplants? Send me a message! Need technical advice? Post your questions and watch this space for some FB live broadcasts to answer your questions. Check out these resources as well. https://gardening.ces.ncsu.edu/2020/03/vegetable-gardening-101-3/?src=rss

03/18/2020

Dear fellow gardeners, Like all previous springs in the garden, the daffodils and tulips are blooming, the birds are tweeting and I've been receiving emails from volunteers with all sorts of ideas about composting, bee hives and starting plants. The soil is warming up and the gentle rains beckon us to get together down in the dirt. Unfortunately, for right now we've been stopped in our tracks by Covid 19 which in its mindless way is wrecking social gatherings and the sharing of food. So for right now we'll hold off on meeting in the garden until further notice. Any one is welcome to go to the garden on their own to plant and maybe dig up left over sweet potatoes and greens.

You can also just sit on a park bench and take in the plants. So for now take care of yourselves and eat healthy! Carolyn

(You can clean out beds, start seeds at home, plant seeds in the garden-just keep track of what where,
Or just straighten up after the winter ). Sissy Gamble

11/27/2019

Of course it is

The Justice Department told a court it has realized there are more internal documents that it inadvertently failed to disclose before the lawsuits over the now-blocked citizenship question ended.

11/14/2019

Dear fellow gardeners, this year the garden has been a tremendous success with our total harvest topping an all time high of 2100 pounds! We'd still be picking vegetables if it weren't for those killer frosts that brought all growth to a sudden halt and left us salvaging tomatoes, onions, peppers and eggplants this past Saturday. We owe our success to all the volunteers who kept coming and giving their time and energy even when they could be sleeping in. We had more than 120 folks working at various times, and a few individuals kept coming again and again. Zach came in first volunteering more than 20 times, followed closely by Alex, Emily, Sangho, Ella and Adarsh. The Wake Forest medical students by far led in volunteering, and we also had volunteers from the Junior League, Wake Forest counseling students, friends, family members and clinic personnel. We'll break now for the winter and have visions of okra and tomatoes dancing in our heads. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and I look forward to starting up again in March 2020. I hope to see you then. Eat healthy! Carolyn

11/14/2019

Healthy cooking classes

11/07/2019

Dear fellow gardeners, this past week we achieved a monumental milestone! We exceeded a ton of produce from the garden, actually coming in at 2024 pounds. The assorted team members, led by Beth and Zach and anchored by Adele and Jany were thrilled to have the bright eyed youth of Bennett join their ranks. In my absence they brought in 40 pounds of the ever flowing tomatoes, onions, okra, peppers and eggplants. Then this week, ahead of predicted killer frosts, I picked 27 pounds of green tomatoes and peppers. Seeing the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" I can appreciate how much our patients love these delicacies and they quickly were snatched up in the clinic. Despite the predicted cold we will meet in the garden this Saturday Nov 9 from 8-10 am for the next to the last time and we'll finish the harvest. I hope to see you then. Eat healthy! Carolyn

10/31/2019

Dear fellow gardeners, on the eve of Halloween I started thinking of how many folks who work in and attend the clinic are afraid to go out into the garden for fear that a creature like a spider or a snake might jump out at them. Fear has a way of magnifying all sensations and the wind blowing and grass clinging and bees buzzing in their minds become scary things. To allay some of these fears we placed a motion activated camera at one end of the garden to record all who enter the grounds. We saw very little nonhuman activity except for various gatherings of birds. Unless they follow Alfred Hitchcock birds can be assumed to be completely harmless and play a role in controlling insects. We can now assure folks with certainty that going into the garden is a harmless, healthy and enjoyable activity. For example, last Saturday we had a great productive time picking tomatoes, peppers, onions, okra and eggplants for a total of 116 pounds, bringing our grand total to 1957 pounds!. We are well on the way to the 2000 pound mark. We will meet this Saturday Nov 1 from 8-10 am. We hope to see you there. Eat healthy! Carolyn

10/24/2019

Dear fellow gardeners, to quote Mark Twain: " the reports of the garden's death are greatly exaggerated." On the contrary we are harvesting impressive amounts in these final weeks. Last Saturday we picked the last of the watermelons and the radishes along with other vegetables to total 74 pounds, bringing our grand total to 1747 pounds ! We still have plenty of beets, eggplants, sweet potatoes, peppers, okra, winter squash and onions ready for the taking. It's amazing how quickly the produce is now distributed by the nurses in our clinic and the patients are excited to experience new recipes. The rains are helping push us over our goal and I expect another haul this coming Saturday Oct 26 when we meet from 8-10 am. I hope to see you then. Eat healthy! Carolyn

10/18/2019

Dear fellow gardeners, as the birds are gathering to migrate and cold winds are blowing, creatures are looking for shelter and our garden plants are beginning to slow down. The tomatoes, okra, peppers and eggplants are decreasing their production and last week's harvest was just 35 pounds. While I was in the NC mountains last Saturday, a few hardy volunteers led by Zach and Sanghu showed their true dedication to the garden by showing up to pick. Despite the decrease in weight, there were still a lot of vegetables to hand out Monday and they had excellent flavor as the plants stored extra energy in their produce. You might think we won't reach that 2000 pound mark but we still have a few crops up our sleeves- sweet potatoes, onions, watermelons , radishes, beets and winter squash which will surely add to our poundage. I look forward doing some digging this coming Saturday Oct. 19 morning from 8-10 am. I hope to see you then. Eat healthy! Carolyn

10/11/2019

Dear fellow gardeners, last Saturday we had family time in the garden- Zach and mom Eileen, Megan and daughter Pate, and myself and Sangho, who is like a son, had a very successful harvest of 95 pounds. Seeing our work through the eyes of loved ones made me realize what a meaningful undertaking this garden has become. We could not contain Pate’s enthusiasm for picking and eating tomatoes. At one point we had to slow her down for fear of choking and she made me realize that young children can learn to love eating vegetables with the right encouragement. She may as well have been trick or treating going from plant to plant with glee. On the other end of the spectrum Eileen was just as enthusiastic with her picking skills of peppers, eggplant, radishes, okra, beets, tomatoes and winter squash. I felt like an agricultural expert as I fielded her many questions, finding answers that hopefully were mostly correct. After 2 hours of garden work she and Zach planned to run around Salem Lake; I’m sure they were energized by their experience. Our harvest total has reached 1732 pounds and at this rate surely will soon pass a ton! This coming Saturday Oct. 12 the group will meet in the garden from 8-10am led by the medical students. Eat healthy! Carolyn

09/26/2019

This October marks the 10th anniversary of the Goler Garden at the DHP!