Hello , my name is Gail Mills and I am the Director of Project Worth Outreach and Project Coordinator of the Grow Appalachia Garden Program at Project Worth Outreach. We are located in beautiful northeastern Kentucky.

As Summer winds down and turns into Fall our thoughts go back to Spring. We wonder where the time has gone. It seems like were just had our organizational meeting for 2014 and now we have spent the last week or so working on our July-August report. I guess the old saying is true “time flies when you’re having ful”. Most everyone in our program has a fine organic vegetable garden this year despite a couple of dry periods, lots of wet ground with all the storms that produced lots of wind and rain and a July and early August with lower than normal temperatures. Our gardeners collectively had a few problems with tomatoes and had enough green beans to feed an army. Now, as we move into September several of our gardeners have planted their fall garden. A few of our first year gardeners are excited about having a fall garden for the first time. Most of gardeners have planted cabbage, collard greens, mustard greens, kale, turnips, spinach and a few herbs just to mention a few. Some of these gardeners have beat the rain and have some plants just breaking through the ground. The two biggest problems with late gardens are that weeds are harder to control and if we have an early winter some plants might get frozen before they mature. As it stands now it seems that all workshops have helped the new gardeners as well as some of the more experienced gardeners. Some of these workshops include, but not limited to , were garden planning, garden maintenance, raised bed gardening {especially good for fall gardened because it makes it easier to cover in case of early frost}, experimental fall gardening and fall gardening instruction. Have a great week. Happy Fall gardening .
Please find this week’s recipe below.

 

Au Gratin Vegetables

 

1 and ½ lb total of fresh cauliflower, broccoli and/or Brussels sprouts
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
2-3 tbsp. Butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
½ cup or more cheddar cheese, shredded
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated, optional
Bourbon smoked paprika
1 cup reserved cooking liquid
salt and pepper to taste
Cut vegetables into bite size chunks, halve large Brussels sprouts. Cook, covered about 5 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid or add enough water to equal one cup. In a small saucepan, cook onion in butter until tender. Stir in flour, add liquid. Cook until bubbly. Add cheddar cheese and cook 1 to 2 minutes more. Add seasonings. Combine with cooked vegetables and pour into a 8×8 glass baking dish. Sprinkle with paprika and Parmesan cheese. Broil 4” from heat until lightly brown.

 

Elaine Brown