This afternoon, the neighbors down in the southern end of the CD completed their first community harvest.

We picked two Italian plum trees (one donated by a neighbor and one on a lot being converted to townhomes). We gathered approximately 100 pounds of fruit, which then was offered to the harvesters and neighbors in the Colman. About 70 pounds of fresh fruit will go tomorrow morning to the Rainier Valley Food Bank.

We’re planning on another harvest this weekend and anticipate several more harvests as we move from plum to the pears and apples in our old neighborhood.

If you live within the Colman sub-neighborhood (Jackson to the Lid, 23rd to MLK) and are interested in either donating your unused fruit, helping with the harvest, or doing workshops on canning and preserving the harvest, please contact Knox at [email protected] directly.

For our other neighbors in the CD who are interested in Community Harvesting, please contact either the Seattle Tilth to donate your tree at 633-0451 or City Fruit to learn more about urban fruit and gleaning initiatives in the city.

Last night’s second Teahouse Concert was a mellow evening with a surprising sun break for a perfect way to end the weekend. Greta Matassa, her band and Susan Pascal on vibes played a couple sets with songs from her many albums including some tunes by Henry Mancini, Ray Charles and ending with a few tunes by Blossom Dearie.

The final Teahouse Concert will be Sunday, August 23 with Jovino Santo Netos Quintet playing an evening of Brazilian Jazz.

The Teahouse Concerts take place in Judkins Park at 939 25th Avenue South,  98144
www.teahouseconcerts.com

The Teahouse Concert series is supported in part with a smART grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.

Here are a few pictures from this evening’s Teahouse Concert featuring Tangabrazo playing some great old and new tangos and Jaimes Friedgen and Christa Rodriguez doing some dance demonstrations and teaching the neighbors some sweltering tango steps.

This is a very special and intimate venue to see some of Seattle’s top jazz acts, so you definitely won’t want to miss Greta Matassa’s Trio and Susan Pascal tomorrow night.

Tomorrow’s show start at 5:00 with $10 suggested donation.

939 25th Avenue South,  98144

Reservations are recommended:  [email protected]

www.teahouseconcerts.com

The Teahouse Concert series is supported in part with a smART grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.

A reminder that we kick off Teahouse Concerts 2009 this weekend with two terrific events.

Saturday is a garden tango party with Tangabrazo and dancers Jaimes Friedgen and Christa Rodriquez.   We have a stage large enough for outdoor dancing.  You can watch, listen and dance! 

Sunday, jazz vocalist Greta Matassa performs with her trio and guest Susan Pascal on vibes.  You won’t want to miss it.

As for the weather, it may be cool but we’ll be hot! Bring a blanket to sit on and a make a picnic out of it with your neighbors in Judkins Park.

Shows start at 5:00:  $15 & $10 suggested donation.

939 25th Avenue South,  98144

Reservations are recommended:  [email protected]

Hope to see you this weekend!

www.teahouseconcerts.com

The Teahouse Concert series is supported in part with a smART grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.

 

We could not have asked for better weather for the Colman Neighborhood’s Healthy Trees for Healthy Harvests walk on Saturday, May 9. Strolling between many houses, we visited a brand new orchard going in behind Parnell’s on Dearborn and several old fruit trees from when our neighborhood was known as Garlic Gulch. We got a great hands-on demonstration for caring for our fruit trees from Chris Hogan at WeDesign.

While a little knowledge can be dangerous, and I’m looking forward to calling Chris in the future for winter garden consulting, I feel like we learned enough to help others with the difference between mid-summer shaping and winter pruning, how to train the trees to be open, and the need for clean, sharp tools and we’d be happy to share what we learned.

In Colman (23rd to MLK/Jackson to the Lid), we’re gearing up for our first Community Harvest later this summer and working to get unused fruit into the hands of the emergency food system (St. Mary’s on 20th) and our own neighbors through community jam making and fruit swapping. If you are in Colman and have trees you want to get on the harvest list or want to pick fruit, you can drop Knox Gardner email at knoxg98111@gmail.

If you are interested in forming your own Community Harvest for your part of the CD, we’d be glad to pass on what we are learning. A great person to contact is Gail Savina at City Fruit at [email protected].

Pests, such as apple maggot and coddling moth, don’t travel far, but do seriously infect neighboring trees. As we work to increase our harvests, fighting these pest on your own trees as well as helping fight them on community trees, trees on empty lots, and with your neighbhors is important.

The next pest walk will be occuring further south in Rainier Valley, but CD residents are welcome. It’s next Wednesday, May 20th, FREE, and being taught by John Reardon, Seattle Tree Fruit Society, and Lacia Bailey, Serendipity Gardens. Contact Gail at [email protected] for info and to RSVP.

Though National Soup Swap day has passed, we’re a big proponent of using Soup Swap as a way to learn more about your neighbors. We’ve decided to host a soup swap for our neighbors that live in the Central District in Seattle.

We’re going to broadly define the CD so that if you live North of Atlantic, South of Madison, East of 14th and West of 30th, we’re inviting you!

You can check out more about Soup Swap and the craze that is sweeping the nation at www.soupswap.com.

We’ll be doing a pretty standard Soup Swap (details on site):

For this swap, you’ll want to bring 6 one quart containers for frozen soup. We won’t be specifying it’s vegan or meat qualities: make what you like. It’s just important to make sure it’s in quart containers and you’ve got six!

We’ll meet at 6:00 pm at our house in Judkins Park on Tuesday, February 24th, with the Telling of the Soup and swapping to commence promptly at 7:00. We’ll have snacks and mingling can go on and on, but if you’re in dash, we should be finished by 7:30.

Of course, if you want to swap soup but can’t make the time, you’re welcome to drop the soup off or send it with someone else, but proxies pick last.

Finally, we’ll ask that everyone bring some caned foods or pasta for the St. Mary’s food bank in Jackson Place.

Email [email protected] to RSVP and to get the address.