Montrose, SD

The community garden is thriving again this year.  Our beets, carrots, cabbages, tomatoes, beans, sweet potatoes, red, green and yellow sweet peppers, jalapeno’s, onions, lettuce, dill, red and Yukon gold potatoes, and pumpkins are doing great but because of the abundance of rain our cucumbers, buttercup squash, melons and sweet corn aren’t doing as well.

Because of all of the rain, we have had some difficulty getting in the garden to weed but the last two Tuesday nights (which is when we gather at the garden) we believe we finally got ahead of them.  A huge thank you goes out to Fiskars for supplying the tools we needed for the garden.  The gardening tools sure made our job of gardening a lot easier.  What a difference having the right tools have made.

We are kicking off our farmers market this weekend.  We will pick the harvest that is ready on Friday night and we bring it up town on Saturday morning, July 11th from 9:00 – 11:00 to give it away.  Some of the vegetables that are ready are cabbages, beets, carrots and onions. Donations are appreciated.

We are still looking for more volunteers to work the garden.  We gather every Tuesday (weather permitting) at 7:00 p.m. at the community garden.  Don’t worry if you can’t make it on Tuesday evenings, please feel free to go down to the garden at any time and just dig in.  The community garden is located directly behind the Farmers Elevator or south of the softball field at the east end of Main Street.  The garden is some work but it is A LOT OF FUN. 

Want to feel really good about yourself and about helping others?  If so, please considering joining us at the garden.  You’ll find that the smiles are plentiful and the rewards are endless.

See the most recent photos here.

Montrose, SD

- Project Orange Thumb Grant Gardens
Now that June is here it really feels like summer. School is out, the pool is open but the temperatures remain cool here in the 70’s. The garden is looking green. Volunteers have been meeting once a week to work together weeding and caring for the garden. We have obtained a new shed to hold all of our wonderful tools from Fiskars. My camera is out of commission at the moment so pictures will come later this month.
Plans are in the works for the annual Spud Fest in August. We are planning a ribbon in the afternoon. We have also been talking about having sweet corn and apples and maybe even fried potato chips at the farmers market this year YUM

Volunteers meet on most Tuesday nights to maintain the community garden. It is currently planting season. We’d love to see you down there. Come anytime to help out. We have already planted potatoes, onions, carrots and beets. Can’t you taste them already?
 

Our tools from Fiskars arrived safe and sound. It was pretty exciting seeing the delivery truck pull up! The driver was kind enough to drive to the elevator so we could load the tools into Ray’s pickup. The tools will be put to good use as we are planting potatoes soon. Thanks, Fiskars, for the perfect timing! If you would like to view the Montrose community blog on the Fiskars site here is the link http://grantgardens.projectorangethumb.com/?p=214 If you look closely you will see that the banner is a photo of the quilt that was submitted as our creative project. I will be blogging twice a month on the Fiskars site so add it to your favorites!

dsc08518.JPGMontrose Community Garden volunteers will be using $1,500 worth of high-quality Fiskars gardening tools in the community garden this year. They will also be able to spend $1,000 on garden-related materials (i.e. green goods) for use in the garden or other beautification projects in Montrose.

Since 2003, Project Orange ThumbSM has funded over 100 community projects with more than $200,000. Project Orange ThumbSM is a grant program that provides community garden groups with the tools and materials they need to reach their goals for neighborhood beautification and horticulture education. This year there were over 1,000 applicants.

Montrose was one of 20 recipients selected nationwide. The application process included a written portion submitted online, and a creative element. Volunteers worked together to submit a quilt wall hanging. Some of the quilt’s squares were made from photos of the town’s community gardeners either working in the garden or distributing vegetables from the garden to Montrose-area residents. It was felt that the photo quilt strongly represented the sense of community we experience while gardening together.

The Fiskars organization will, in the upcoming months, organize a ribbon-cutting ceremony. They will also ask recipients to participate in a blog with photos and updates.

A list of the recipients from 2009 and previous years is available at the Project Orange ThumbSM web site www.fiskars.com. The Montrose Community garden was started in 2007 as part of our town’s participation in the Horizon’s program. Located just east of the Central Farmers elevator in town, numerous residents volunteer their time and sweat planting, weeding, and picking produce which they make available to the community for free-will donations during the growing season.

Montrose, SD

The Montrose Community Education Program is excited to announce two more classes in March focused on providing information that can assist area residents.
The first class is ‘Money Matters’, a one-evening session on basic financial information to help residents better navigate through these tough economic times. A complimentary dinner is included in this class. The second class is ‘Basic Internet Searching’ to help those who want to become more proficient on using the Internet.

Money Matters Tuesday, March 24
‘Money Matters’ will be Tuesday, March 24, at the Irish Pub. It will begin with a complimentary dinner at 6:30 p.m. followed by a presentation by Donna Bittiker that includes helpful information on basic budgeting, digging out of debt, saving for the future, and credit card basics. The evening will wrap up about 8:30 p.m.
Bittiker, a Moody County-based Extension educator in Family Consumer Sciences for the past seven years, has developed a course called Money Matters which she has presented throughout the area. Her specialty is family resource management including personal finance. She is a graduate of South Dakota State University and is working on her Master degree, currently doing research on college students and credit card debt.
“My typical audience includes a wide range of people who just want information that can help them better manage their personal finances,” says Bittiker. “It’s great to have couples attend the class so they can understand the importance of educating family members on the basics of budgeting and good credit.” She adds that the information would also be helpful to older teenagers. Bittiker would also be able to arrange one-on-one assistance in developing strategies for better financial management if any participants are interested.
There is no charge for the class. Due to money available through the Horizons program, the evening will include a complimentary roast chicken dinner with baked potato, vegetable, roll, one beverage and dessert. This class will be limited to the first 30 people signing up and priority will be given to adult heads of households. If you are interested in your teenage child attending, you can indicate that when you call. If there is room, you will be notified.
Please share information about this class with others who you feel may be interested. You must sign up for this class by Monday, March 16, by calling Connie Smith at 363-5097 or Rani Gordon at 363-3934.

As part of the Horizon’s visioning project last year, participants said they’d like to see a community education program in Montrose. Results from a community survey taken during the summer indicated that learning computer basics would be high on the list of course priorities. Our community took action last night and held its’ first education class.

This first class,called Learning Microsoft Word, teaches computer basics and will continue next Tuesday as well. Last night 12 participants, 4 volunteers and one instructor met for over 2 hours in the high school computer lab. The instructor used versions of Microsoft Word 2003 and 2005 to show participants how they could utilize the version they had on their home personal computers.

None of the participants had used Microsoft Word before. Kim Petersen, the instructor, had prepared step by step ‘cheat sheet’s’ to illustrate the process of making a birthday invitation and a Christmas letter. The participants were eager to learn and all created their own documents using a border, a picture, and some text. Each participant followed along as Mrs. Peterson used an overhead and handouts to show the steps. Every ’student’ was able to use a computer to practice the skills, hands on.

Participants and volunteers ranged in ages. One participant said to a volunteer, “Can you believe that I was teaching you how to work in my office when you were in high school and now here you are teaching me how use a computer?”

Homework was assigned and a floppy disk was given to every participant to save their work on. Much anticipation for the next class was voiced. There were questions for learning how to use email and internet that may lead to another class being designed for more experienced learners.

If you are interested in taking or teaching a community education course, please contact Connie Smith (363-5097), Rani Gordon (363-3934), or Kandi World Turner (605-940-4453).

Hi,my name is Natasha Combs. I’m going tell you about the fun I had on the day of the Spudfest. On Saturday, August 23,2008. We had the second annual Spudfest. I was in the bike race and I also jumped on the inflatebles! Thank you to all the people who helped make this day so fun! I hope I can help more next year!

NC

Hi, my name is Brooke and I really like Spud Day. It was fun because I got to see my friends. There were many events taking place. My favorite part was the dunking tank. I got to dunk my mom and it was funny. I had a very fun time. I can’t wait until next year. Thanks for all your hard work.
BW

My name is Katelyn Condon. I went to the Spud Fest. The Spud fest is where everyone has fun toghther. There were inflatables, kickball, food, dunk tunk and a big parade. It was really fun that day. At the end of every thing there was a band that was really cool.