Help Wanted: Blogger

comments (6) October 11th, 2009

Vegetable Gardener, editor

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Photo: Krista Hicks Benson

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VegetableGardener.com is looking for a Southwestern or Southern blogger, someone with a strong interest in vegetable gardening who can write engagingly, take decent photographs, and post to our site at least twice a month.

To be considered for this position, which pays a small stipend, please do the following:

1. Post a sample of your work on the site. For guidance, see Write About Your Garden.

2. Email us at vg@taunton.com with a link to your post, along with a short note describing yourself and your gardening interests and expertise.

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Comments (6)

Scarlett007 writes: Nice posts,I hope y'all got zee msg, and entered the correct way, you are all GREAT!!! Now, I can only hope they'll ask for a writer/grower on cacti/succulents, someday soon! Happy Landings, from Tucson, AZ
Posted: 11:52 am on October 19th

Ruth writes: Just a reminder to all to read our post carefully. Comments on this post are nice, but not what we are looking for. If you want to be considered for the blogger position, you need to create your own post, with text and photos, then email vg@taunton.com, as stated above.
Posted: 9:21 pm on October 17th

SkyGardener writes:
I just spent an hour in the garden gathering what may be my last tomatoes, zuccini and green beans of the season. After earlier than usual rainstorms for the past few days we have Santa Ana Desert dry winds blowing in with such heat that the ground and plants bathe us in their steam. Such is a gardening day in Los Angeles.

Despite the exhausted appearance of the summer crop plants, I am eager to strip them down and return to till the soil. With the warm weather for the next week we'll be able to plant a bit more late season crops and begin to lay out our winter season beds. The dead vegetation will be a boon to the steaming compost pile and perfect supplement to the soil in Spring, moving full circle.

Our gardening efforts over the past few years have been a great learning experience--about seasons, soil and the particular micro-climates around our garden. Now I see it all as just a warmup to some major changes I hope to make. We are moving from the high bounty of the summer garden to our first ever all-season garden.

Blue sky, full sun and warm humus can keep me occupied for hours but in the evening I take to cooking and books, a number of which I hope to review for you. One, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle written by novelist Barbara Kingsolver and members of her family, is their story of trying to eat mostly their own home-grown food and/or food available from others living locally. The story is inspiring because it engages you to think about eating seasonally and locally--meaning, creating meals based on what is growing now--mixed in with whatever you or others have been able to preserve.

This was a wake-up call to me; despite being a sustainability wannabee for a long time I remained perverted by the complete access to the remarkable variety of food available at my trusty Von's and Trader Joe's.

My first step has been to become aware of the origin of my food purchases. For instance, that sale on those beatiful fat asparagus spears in August is a dead giveaway of a Chilean import-check the label. Whether those spears were organic or not, they entailed the expenditure of an enormous amount of oil in their transport to my local store.

The beauty of becoming aware is that you rarely revert to the old way of thinking. That's why this fall we will be putting in our first crowns of asparagus, although we won't have much of a yield from them until Spring 2011. Never mind, just knowing I've planted them makes me feel proud!
Posted: 9:31 pm on October 16th

gardendiva writes: Last Spring, I was so proud of my newly expanded flower garden area planted in a narrow strip along my driveway. So much so that I decided to expand it all the way to the fence. In the midst of my expansion plans, I took a few trips to the grocery store and became increasingly aware of the rising cost of food in just a few short months. At the same time I noticed that gas prices at my local stations were steadily creeping up – sometimes at a pace of twice in the same day! I began to wonder, “What’s up with this – is there a connection between the rising cost of food and the rising cost of gasoline?” After further investigation, I discovered that so much of our food crops and other products are connected in some way with corn production. In response to the increasing demand for ethanol, which is made primarily from corn, a large quantity of corn production was being diverted to ethanol production rather than for food production. Therefore as markets would dictate, supply and demand caused the overall cost of corn and corn related products to increase. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/alternative-fuels/ethanol-facts.htm Screech, I had an epiphany – I may not be able to change the world but I can change the plans for my own little strip of land. I decided to plant food instead of flowers. It took me the better part of a couple of weeks to weed, level and move wheel barrels of richly composted soil from one area to my established garden to the new strip. In the end, I was rewarded with a beautiful and productive mini-garden filled with several varieties of tomatoes, basil and peppers. I even painted a sign to express my sentiment and installed a brightly outfitted Scarecrow to watch over the garden and greet guests. I christened the new area as the Community Basil Garden since it grew so prolifically and invited the neighbors to stop by at any time to take what they wanted. Several did and made delicious Pesto, Tomato Basil Soup and Tossed Salads. All in all this change in plans for the tiny strip along the driveway turned out to be “A Very Good Thing”!
Posted: 5:33 pm on October 16th

Aligardens writes: From chef to gardener

I moved from my mountain town to the city with the intentions of getting culinary certifications, an associates degree, and to consume my life with my passion for food knowledge and growth. Until I met my husband. A house, two kids, three dogs, and a life postponed I still loved food.I just didnt have the high end job to play in fresh produce all day. But I have tapped into a whole new amazing side of being a foodie that excites me more than eight saute pans burning with five foot flamings shoot up through the hood vents from all the alcohol I had just lit on fire. Do you love food? Do you want the best? How do get the best? I asked myself.
I can be a food snob with all the bells and whistles but felt completley naked when someone asked me how to grow it. I had to know.
I spent my first winter researching. By spring I was clearing the yard, raking, digging, and dreaming. Drawing designs, building flower beds, and finally digging my first vegetable bed by the following spring. Being on a tight budget, I started growing many things from seed in my kitchen. I loved it, having a year round science project! I took in a tomato plant for the winter and had read nurseries sell tomato plants from taking cutting, I immediatley began cutting up my tomato plant and sticking them in soils, water, and seed starter to see how it was done. I had also started seeds just in case I killed the plant. Needless to say,I did succeed. Root a tomato cutting with two or more healthy leaves and three inches of stem in water. When the roots are about an inch long, plant into a peat pot with seeds starter that has organic fertilizer mixed in. A week later, puit a layer of compost on it, pot up as needed into soil, brush your hand over the plant twice a day or put a light fan near by, and POOF! I had twenty seven strong healthy tomato plants, and a lot of other sprouts I was desperatley trying to find space for!
I love being a foodie, and I now have a deep respect for the produce I use to toss around in restaurants. Creating an amazing dish in my kitchen now comes from the food I have grown. There is so much pride far beyond anything a chef can teach you when you walk out into your backyard and pick amazing vegetables, herbs and fruits you have grown from seed, water, and all the curiosity of a child. So many possibilities are right infront of you. So grab them with both hands and start digging!
Posted: 3:23 pm on October 16th