Hancock and Washington Counties Master Gardener Volunteers News – November 2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Webinars offered | Monthly Project Highlight | FEDCO ORDER | Good Read| | Help Wanted! |Reporting Hours
UPCOMING DATES TO REMEMBER
November 11 Veteran’s Day – Office Closed
November 17 Recipe to Market is it for ME? (Zoom)
November 17 Educational Update for the Agricultural Industry (Zoom)
November 25 & 26 Thanksgiving Break – Office Closed
December 1 & 2 Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training (Zoom)
December 6 Winter Garden Design (Zoom)
January 19 & February 9th Adv MGV – Horticulture Therapy Training (watch for details)
March 9, 16 & 23 Climate Change for Gardeners (watch for details)
COVID Protocols
We will keep you updated on any future Covid Safety protocol changes. Watch your emails. Thank you all for being so patient and cooperative!
Webinars Offered
Recipe to Market: Is It For ME?
Fee: $25.00
November 17, 2021
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
REGISTER HERE
Deadline to register: November 12, 2021
Cooking for the Holidays with your Electric Pressure Cooker
Fee: $5.00
Thursday, November 18, 2021
6:00 – 7:30 PM
REGISTER HERE
Educational Update for the Agricultural Industry via Zoom 
Fee: $5.00
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
7 pm – 8 pm
REGISTER HERE
Winter Garden Design
Fee: $0-$10 sliding scale
Monday, December 6th
6 pm – 7:15 pm
REGISTER HERE
This workshop is put on by UMaine Cooperative Extension and UNH Cooperative Extension
“Designing for Winter Interest and Wildlife” will explore how to design and maintain a landscape that provides visual interest while benefiting wildlife. Emma Erler, UNH Extension landscape and greenhouse horticulture field specialist, and Matt Tarr, UNH Extension state wildlife specialist, will lead the workshop.
Registration is required; a sliding scale $0–$10 fee is optional. Register on the event webpage to attend live or receive a link to the recording. This is the second in a six-part winter gardening webinar series offered monthly through March for Maine and New Hampshire gardeners. For more information or to request a reasonable accommodation, contact Pamela Hargest, 207.781.6099; extension.gardening@maine.edu.
Additional Workshops and Opportunities
Advanced MGV Training Opportunities (Zoom) Sliding Scale Fee
Watch your e-mails for registration details
Horticulture Therapy Training
January 19th & February 9, 2022. 12:00 – 1:15 PM
Climate Change for Gardeners
March 9, 16 & 23, 2022. 12:00 – 1:15 PM
Cooking for Crowds (for MGV’s)
Dates TBD
https://extension.umaine.edu/food-health/food-safety/cooking-for-crowds/
Winter Gardening Webinar Series:
–https://extension.umaine.edu/gardeningwebinar-series/
MGV Project Highlight ~ Hancock and Washington County
Each monthly newsle
tter will highlight a MGV Project. For May we are pleased to introduce:
Apple Gleaning
On a dazzling, sunny picture-perfect October morning, 51 volunteers gathered at the Johnston Apple Orchard on Branch Pond Rd. in Ellsworth for several hours of camaraderie and apple gleaning. For over 10 years, Brett Johnston has opened the orchard for gleaning to benefit area food pantries and food service projects.
This year 19 organizations from all over Washington and Hancock Counties received Cortlands, Macintosh, and Golden Delicious picked from overflowing trees. It was a bountiful harvest this year and a total of 7,655 pounds were gleaned. Eighteen MGVs were on hand for the picking, catching up with old friends and being introduced to new MGV’s
MGV Fedco Group Order…
for Trees, Shrubs, & Perennials happening again this year! Great chance to add fruit, berries and nuts to your landscape, or to work on pollinator support and re-wilding. Save up to 5, 10, 15 or 20% – depending on size of total order.
You must use Group Order # 490023 to get the discount.
Our group name is: Hancock Washington County Master Gardeners.
Here are your directions:
- Access their inventory at https://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/#. Or go to their “Trees” ordering page. Log in using your ownemail address.
- When you review your order prior to checking out, click the “Part of a Group” checkbox. Then go to “Checkout” and type in the group order number where indicated: 490023.
If you are prompted to enter a credit card number, stop. Back up. You did not choose “Part of a Group”. - You will receive a confirmation email at the address you used to log in. Until your coordinator finalizes the order, however, Fedco cannot confirm receipt of your order.
Our MGV deadline to get orders in is Jan. 12th. (You’ll see the 14th for Fedco, just setting local deadline a bit ahead in case there are any snags to smooth out as the coordinator).
Once the order is finalized, I’ll let you know our full discount. When the order ships, I’ll let you know your actual final amount due to me (they charge my credit card, you reimburse me), and directions to pick up. Pick up site is in Ellsworth.
Last year we were able to tap the 20% discount! Happy planning and dreaming.
Good Garden Read
It wasn’t inheritance but years of hard and smart work that enabled Sarah Frey to purchase and rescue the family
farm in Southeastern Illinois and build it into Frey Farms. Check out freyfarms.com to learn of the amazing accomplishment, or better yet check out Sarah Frey’s book, The Growing Season, at your library or from MGV Nancy Adams (nadams23@roadrunner.com ). It’s a good garden read according to Nancy who remains impressed by the ingenuity and success of America’s pumpkin queen.
That Ms. Frey survived a most difficult childhood is testament to the truth in Nietzsche’s, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” Her strength combined with commitment to values which include ending food waste and creating opportunities for rural residents are enacted in the family business. Spread across 7 states, today’s farmlands produce millions of watermelons and pumpkins along with a wide variety of other produce. Quite likely we’ve sampled some of the fruits of her labor. As Maine’s gardening slows, you’re likely to enjoy sampling Ms. Frey’s accounts of one astounding experience after another.
HELP WANTED:
*No sign-on bonus.
*Does not pay minimum wage…or any at all.
*No health insurance, retirement plan, or sick leave benefits.
Yet the job boasts:
*Flexible hours that count toward MGV’s annual volunteer requirement and work from home option.
*”Poetic” license with a good-natured smile.
*Possibility of fame if not fortune.
Become a MGV newsletter reporter to engage, educate, and entertain your gardening friends and yourself too. Just let us know you’d like to write about a:
*Master Gardener Volunteer or MGV project.
*Gardening idea or book related to garden interests.
*Issue of concern to gardeners.
Please contact one of us in the MGV newsletter group or e-mail us at MGVnewsletterinput@gmail.com . It’s a great way to help all of us stay in touch with one another while following health guidelines.
Thank you from:
Jane, Wendy, Linda, Holly, Mary D., Mary H., Rita