Vegetable Sculptures

A little bit of the garden's produce became art at Austin's first annual Arts in the Park community event. Cabbage leaves, banana peppers, and heirloom beans combined with cherry tomatoes and toothpicks to make faces, puppets, aliens, airplanes, robots, and animals. The event was featured in the local news:

Austin News

Event lets the arts come out and play

8/31/2009 8:15:02 AM

By Jim Troyer
Post-Bulletin, Austin MN

While art may remain an elusive unknown, it was clear Sunday afternoon that Austin's Arts in the Park was a big hit.

Billed by its planners as a "first annual" event, the activities dominated Veterans' Pavilion and surrounding Community Bandshell Park from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Music, storytelling, drama and dance entertained the crowd from the outdoor stage, while marionettes, stories, readings and Kindermusic captivated kids and quite a few adults inside.

Twenty-one exhibitors showed off, and sold, a variety of pottery, jewelry, sculptures, quilts, crafts, stained glass and tie-die creations. Paintings included watercolors, oil, line drawing and digital art.

Bountiful Harvest

Fairgoers at the Mower County Fair (Tuesday, August 11-Sunday, August 16) can see the garden bursting with cabbages and many green tomatoes this week. With busy fair week underway, the string beans that needed to be harvested were donated to Austin's Salvation Army food shelf. However, last week, some youth gardeners sold organic jalapenos, banana peppers, peas, lettuce, and beans at the Austin Area Farmers' Market in downtown Austin. Yum! Thanks to parents and volunteers for coordinating and supervising this sale.

Dakota County Gardeners

The Junior Master Gardeners in Rosemount "meet every Tuesday through the summer to tend to their 6 x 6 plots and to learn about gardening. The group started meeting May 26 and will continue through early September.

At the beginning of the summer the group of kids, ranging in age from 8 to 13, learned about raising plants from seeds, composting and other valuable growing tips. As the summer has gone on the group also has learned about nutrition, which is this year's theme."

Click here to read the article about their group.

Zucchini Bread

Special thanks to Daryl Franklin for donating a big zucchini to our baking project. We used a recipe in Tummy Ticklers II (cookbooks are 2 for $10 from the Mower County Extension Office).

ZUCCHINI BREAD
Anni Mills, President, LeRoy Wide Awake

MIX:
3 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. Crisco oil

ADD:

2 c. grated zucchini
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Pour in 2 bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

Today Extension.org, a national site, featured a link to this blog:
Click here to check out the story and other news from the U of M and university extension programs across the country.