ORGANIC GARDENING MEANS:

• Working with, rather than subduing, nature
• Building soil fertility for healthier crops, rather than applying artificial fertilizers
• Minimizing pollution and damage to the whole environment
• Avoiding artificial chemicals:  no chemical fertilizers, fungicides or pesticides and keeping pests at bay using natural methods
• Protecting and enhancing the whole garden environment and its genetic diversity, including protecting wild plants and wildlife habitats

Garden jobs for January & February:

• Sow onions and cover with straw
• Sow carrots, radishes, peas, broad beans, spinach and parsley under light cover
• Plant garlic and horseradish
• Pot up mint roots to bring in for the windowsill
• Cover rhubarb for forcing
• Clean and sort any seeds you have saved from last year, putting them in packets and labelling them, ready for use.  Keep in a cool, dark, dry place
• Dig in green manures where you can
• Sow mustard and winter tares for green manure
• Dig out perennial weeds
• Sow broad beans, onions, peas, lettuce, cabbage parships, radishes and spring onions in mild, less exposed areas

Yummy food graced the table at the January 2009 co-op meeting held at Donia’s house in Canon City. New faces once again. The co-op now has 31 members. Donia reported that we are still awaiting review of the bylaws by a lawyer in order to move forward on the organization’s status. The group spoke about the Winter Crop Share Program and how we could get this up and running again. If you are interested in participating in the Winter Crop Share Program (natural /organic produce delivered to your area) please contact Donia at Canoncoop@gmail.com. Donia spoke about her experience with the Jersey Girls Farm. Donia gets raw milk, homemade bread, and eggs from the Jersey Girls Farm. Donia is very happy with her service and their food. Corine, from Jersey Girls, even threw in a cheesecake once. Donia encouraged the group to visit the Canon Connection Forum if they want to participate in community conversations.  Donia also mentioned that it would be great for the group to get involved in a couple of projects. One might be to start a community garden. Judy thought that partnering with other organizations (like 4-H or other entities) might help distribute the workload. We will put this on the agenda for the next meeting. Another possible place to advertise the co-op is at the weekly business meeting held each Thursday in Canon City at the Wells Fargo Bank. There will also be an opportunity to market the co-op at the Golden Age Center on February 7th at the Business Expo. Cynthia Nichols has offered to print up post card type material to distribute at this event. Donia and Cynthia will work on this.
Amy, from the Mother Nature Health Food Store, spoke about her local products available to the community. Amy said her shipments usually come in on Fridays. Amy can get bulk orders for grain and a few other products if the group wanted to order and then divide. The Costco food store was also mentioned as a possible place to get organic food. Donia, who has a membership at Costco, offered to pick up products or to accompany members of the co-op if they want to shop at Costco.
The meeting was adjourned, and side conversations started over homemade pizza, squash soup, delicious warm buns, crackers, pesto, homemade grape juice, cookies, and carrot cake. Now are you interested in belonging to the co-op? Please contact Donia at canoncoop@gmail.com.
Respectfully submitted,
Judy Van Acker

The next meeting of the Canon Co-op is next Sunday, Jan. 11^th at 4:00 pm.  It will be held at the home of Donia Knapp at 322 N. Diamond Ave.  Please bring a friend; everyone is welcome.

 Amy Williams of Mother Nature’s Health Foods store will be at the meeting.  She has agreed to host a Q&A session for us to learn more about what her store has to offer.  She currently has organic produce from local farmers and discounts available for bulk purchases.

 Unfortunately we’ve had to cancel our Winter Crop Share Program, but we haven’t given up on our mission to provide organic and natural alternatives to our members and community.  We are brainstorming on ideas and potential projects that desperately need people involvement.  Our website has been updated recently, so check it out, especially the “Who We Are” and “Local Producers” tabs.

 We are still looking for one more board member.  We’ve decided to leave it open to a volunteer as opposed to an “appointment,” so anyone interested in becoming involved and making a difference, please come to the next meeting and let us know.  Kieran Hixon did just that at our last meeting.  Welcome Kieran!

 Hope to see everyone at the next meeting!

Check out the newest website added to our Great Website List.  http://www.sustainabletable.org

Sustainable agriculture involves food production methods that are healthy, do not harm the environment, respect workers, are humane to animals, provide fair wages to farmers, and support farming communities.  But rather than focus on the problems, Sustainable Table promotes the positive shift toward local, small-scale sustainable farming.

“Eat the View!” is a campaign to urge President-elect Obama to replant a large organic Victory Garden on the First Lawn with the produce going to the White House kitchen and to local food pantries.  Check it out at http://www.eattheview.org/.

“Eat the View” is coordinated by Kitchen Gardeners International, a Maine-based 501c3 nonprofit network of 10,000 gardeners from 100 countries who are inspiring and teaching more people to grow some of their own food.

WISCONSIN MAN TO RIDE A BIKE FROM COAST TO COAST IN 40 DAYS WHILE EATING ONLY RAW DAIRY PRODUCTS

Check out the Ride 4 Raw Milk party at http://www.therawmilkparty.com/index.asp