Rooting DC was today

Rooting DC is a FREE, all-day gardening forum that aims to provide education about urban food production and consumption, to cultivate health and preserve the environment. 

I learned where to get free compost (delivered!) for the community garden--it is made with biosolids from the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant. Yep. Biosolids are what you would expect. As they say, Everybody Poops. I am a microbiologist so I'm perfectly willing to use compost made from human waste. I know that heat and time completely destroys all pathogens, and soil bacteria are really good at breaking down other molecules. I also find it an interesting full circle, early modern London was fed by the plentiful truck gardens maintained by night soil collected from the city and here we are 500 years later coming full circle again and finally making compost from sewage once more.

I spent so much time talking and learning from the great sessions that I skipped lunch. When I got home this evening I peeled a butternut squash (from my garden! they keep great) with the excellent Rex peeler from Zena Swiss (great tool, a guy sells them at Eastern Market), chopped it up, and roasted it. Wow! Amazingly sweet. They are so good when you grow them yourself and give them time to fully ripen on the vine. Along with that I had sauteed Brussels sprouts with shallots, toast points, aged Gouda, and a glass of chardonnay. I eat well even all by myself!

Follow ups from Rooting include:

• help Rachel prune the trees at RockStAr Community Garden
• connect with Rudy, the folks at Kid Power DC, Dreaming Out Loud, and Independence Avenue Garden to see if we all want to get a big load of compost and share it
• sign up with Anna's DC Sustainable Agriculture google group and attend their next happy hour
• talk to Julie about her work with the Appalachian Regional Commission (did I mention that many of my grantees at work are Appalachian states?)
• learn more about organizing a farmers market from Sally (no I am not going to run one but it would be great if we had more here in Southwest)
• send Chris (Dreaming Out Loud) info for the March 22 garden kickoff day
• put Kate Fox in touch with Ally at Fiskars to share the garden building history
• let our gardeners know about the classes taught by Hilary of Sacred Roots on herbs and container gardening
• Get a picture frame for my new kitchen picture! It's a print by Marcella Kriebel. 

This is the card version. I bought a 19x13 print version of this picture.