composting

The first ever Carson Valley Ag Day will be held Saturday at Lampe Park in Gardnerville. This free, family friendly event celebrates the region’s rich agricultural history and provides the community a good understanding of where food, fuel and fiber comes from, how it’s grown and who the local people are making it happen.

On Sunday August 14th from 12:00 pm to 3:30 pm the Tahoe Resource Conservation District will hold the 9th annual Landscape Conservation Workshop at the Evans Family Garden located at 1383 Mount Olympia Circle in South Lake Tahoe.

The workshop will provide a unique opportunity to see demonstrations of Tahoe Friendly Landscape practices and to interact with local conservation professionals.

Capital City Farm Days returns to Fuji Park and Carson City Fairgrounds April 21 and 22. The event is free and open to youth pre K-5th grade.

Presenters explain where and how we get our food and clothing. Interactive stations engage older students about the challenges facing modern farmers and ranchers: how agriculture affects our environment and how our environment affects agriculture.

Haley, an AmeriCorps intern at The Greenhouse Project at Carson High School in Carson City, introduced me to Bokashi composting recently. It is an anaerobic (absence of free oxygen) form of composting, using fermentation to decompose kitchen waste.

Can we compost in winter? Winter composting may simply involve tossing ingredients on the pile and waiting for temperatures to warm up in spring to complete the decomposition process.

On the other hand, if you maintain a warm temperature in the interior of the pile, you can keep the decomposing microbes happy and somewhat active. With a warm center, the cold exterior temperature of the pile won’t harm them.

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Capital City Farm Days Thursday and Friday in Carson City will feature 30 presenters teaching elementary-age youth about Nevada agriculture, where food and fiber come from, and environmental issues related to agriculture.

Attendees will include public, private and home-schooled students and their families from Carson City, Storey County, Douglas County and Dayton Valley.

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils to raise the awareness of the importance of soils for food security, clean water and other essential ecosystem functions. Soils are a hidden resource that we too often take for granted.

It takes between 100 years to 1,000 years to form one centimeter of healthy soil and only one to 10 years to destroy it. This valuable, but often unrecognized, resource is threatened by erosion, natural disasters, salinization, compaction, acidification and nutrient decline.

The average carrot travels over 1,800 miles to get to our dinner plates. Processing and shipment of food accounts for 93 percent of our food cost. University of Nevada Cooperative Extension is offering eight new “Grow Your Own, Nevada!” classes at 12 locations statewide to help Nevadans who want to get on a path to more sustainable, local, healthy living by growing more of their own food.

Gardening in Nevada can be challenging. Before digging in this spring, you can get some free advice from the experts – University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and their Certified Master Gardeners.

Cooperative Extension has teamed up with Washoe County Regional Parks and Open Space to offer “Gardening in Nevada: The Bartley Ranch Series.” Classes are free and run 6 – 8 p.m. every Tuesday in March at Bartley Ranch Regional Park, 6000 Bartley Ranch Road in Reno.

Presented by the Sierra Nevada Alliance, South Tahoe Earth Day Committee and Patagonia South Lake Tahoe, the 10th Annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival South Lake Tahoe combines award-winning environmental and adventure films with the energy of local activism. Featured films will include exciting outdoor adventures, environmental battles and inspirational stories of people making a difference. The Film Festival will take place on Thursday, March 26, 2015 at the MontBleu Showroom.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Or, when speaking to gardeners that probably should be Hoe! Hoe! Hoe! What presents are you giving the gardeners in your life this holiday season? I started looking online for unusual gift ideas for gardeners and found some curious ones.

Thursday night’s 7th Annual Blue Ribbon Awards was the largest yet with over 300 guests in attendance as individuals and businesses were recognized for their exemplary services, products and programs in the South Shore community. Produced by the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce, also known as TahoeChamber, this prestigious awards program solicited nominations for six categories and eight total awards.

Over 175 nominations were received and 95 of those nominated joined their peers at the Nov. 13 awards ceremony at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s 4-H presents Capital City Farm Days 8:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., April 17 and 18. There will be 30 presenters teaching elementary-age youth about Nevada agriculture, where food and fiber come from, and environmental issues related to agriculture.

Attendees will include public, private and home-schooled students and their families from Carson City, Storey County, Douglas County and Dayton Valley.

Nevadans can learn to grow safe, fresh, organic produce at home and in school and community gardens without spending a lot of money.

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension will help show residents how during eight “Grow Your Own, Nevada!” gardening classes featuring “back-to-basics” best practices for producing bountiful harvests. Classes will be presented Mondays, 2:30 – 4:30 p.m., July 8 – Aug. 26, live in Reno and video-conferenced to Extension offices throughout the state, including those in Carson City, Gardnerville, Fallon and Yerington.

Easter is nearly here, bringing with it signs of spring. One of my favorite things on these special days is to gather my family and friends to share good food, stories and of course, add to the place in my mind that stores so many precious memories.

I find as time passes, these memories and unforgettable moments become even more priceless once a loved one is no longer seated at the table.

Silver Springs children have a new school garden, thanks to a grant received by Healthy Communities Coalition through the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). In a unique partnership, Community Roots, a nonprofit part of The Healthy Communities Coalition, is partnering with SSES and SS Boys and Girls Club to develop and maintain the new garden this spring and summer.

By Quest Lakes