The Master Gardener Demonstration Gardens

Tucked behind the big red barn in Derwood, Maryland is the Montgomery County Master Gardener Demonstration Garden.  I like to choose a quiet afternoon to visit this favorite spot of mine and I leave with lots of great ideas.  The Master Gardeners who maintain all the well-loved bits and pieces of this demo garden are always trying new things and planting different kinds of vegetables. It's an excellent place for gardeners of all levels of experience to visit.  My last visit was on the day of their bustling open house when I gave a talk on growing and cooking Asian vegetables.  Good thing the speaker before me was running late because I got to take a quick tour led by my friend Erica who blogs at Rogue Eggplant and also on the Grow It Eat It blog.  Check out all there is to learn:

In this African Keyhole Garden, made with the free compost bins our county provides, a central tower is continuously fed with kitchen scraps.  The compost that is created provides nutrients for the plants growing around it.  

Below: a lush headstart on spring vegetables using hoops and row covers.

The cute Children's Garden below is filled with plants with animal names.  

Straw bales, pallets, and plants growing inside!

Above: a lovely little pond.  Below: a theme I somehow missed, but it sure is well-marked, isn't it?!

A beautiful, colorful salad table!

Below: one of several beds maintained by special groups.

The annual spring open house is a wonderful event with plant sales, casual tours of the demo garden, experts on call to help with plant issues, workshops, crafts and activities for kids and tons of giveaways like seeds and this adorable popsicle stick pre-labeled and stuck with seeds below - ready to just push into the ground and grow!

Microgreen Smoothie Recipes

Recently, I was a guest speaker at the Library of Congress. My talk was about how to grow and add microgreens to your diet.  After the talk, one gentleman asked me if one could add microgreens to smoothies.  The answer is you certainly can! In its raw form, microgreens have been found to have from 4 to 40 times the nutrients found in their mature counterparts, so definitely a great addition to a smoothie.


I think I expressed my opinion that it would be "sort of a waste" to add microgreens to a smoothie, which as soon as the words left my mouth, I realized was a dumb comment.  I said this because 1) I personally love to eat microgreens in a salad, especially the more substantial greens like sunflower greens, and 2) I like to hide veggies I don’t love in smoothies and juices, thus adding microgreens would be a waste. Plus, I'm just not a really big smoothie maker.


This gentleman said he likes to make smoothies all the time.  Well, I hope he forgives my comment because adding microgreens to smoothies would be an absolutely delicious, nutritious, and convenient thing to do! For him, I have found several microgreen smoothies recipes to try. There are many out there (try Google and Pinterest), and a reliable way to use them would also be in your existing favorite green smoothie recipe.


Superfood Warrior by urbanhydrogreens.com

 ¾ cup chocolate almond milk

1 banana

1-3 teaspoons cacao powder

1 tablespoon almond butter

½ cup ice

1 handful kale microgreens

3 shakes cinnamon

Tropical Broccoli Breeze by urbanhydrogreens.com

 ½ cup pineapple juice

½ cup unsweetened coconut milk

1 banana

1 handful broccoli greens

1-2 tablespoons coconut shreds

6 ounces ice

Avocado Smoothie by sproutpeople.org

1 avocado

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup milk (any kind)

Dash cayenne

Dash salt, if desired

½ cup sunflower greens

1 tablespoon fresh basil

1 tablespoon honey

The Cure-All by urbancultivator.net

(makes a large amount)

¼ cup beet microgreens

½ cup pea shoots

1/8 cup oregano

¼ cup radish microgreens

1 banana, frozen

½ mango

6 cups orange juice

1 cup plain yogurt

Squeeze honey

Anti-Oxidant Smoothie by urbanhydrogreens.com

1 cup vanilla almond milk

½ frozen banana

½ cup blueberries

1 handful kale microgreens

 

My segment on WUSA

I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to be on WUSA, news at noon with JC Hayward, anchor extraordinaire.  In this segment (click to watch), I talk about food preservation.  It's not perfect and 3 minutes goes by very quickly.  I only got to talk about 20% of what I wanted to, but ah well...I'm not complaining!  The TV set is so cool - you can see in the photo above, the view from the kitchen looking out.  Look through the ladder and you see the weather guy, doing his segment against the green screen.  I was very pleased with how my segment looked below.  I was in pajamas about 9pm the night before thinking - should I go to Whole Foods and pick up some additional props?  Thank goodness for a sudden spurt of energy because the set would have looked pretty sparse without the fresh vegs, flowers, etc.  The morning of the segment, I cut a couple of pumpkins, which helped with the autumnal feel.

On librarians...(and my talk at the Library of Congress)

I used to think librarians were weird.  I've said so many times, getting others to laugh at their expense.   Librarians are at the very least mean and rigid.  Am I right? Once, I tried to check out a book and since the librarian was available, and since there were no people in line, I smiled and walked straight up to the counter.  She told me to go to the front of the line and pointed to the red arrow hanging from the ceiling.  She watched me walk the 8 steps there.  Then she called me up.  WHAT?!  Plus, those librarians...they're always shushing you.  

View from the Library of Congress

In my gardening/food speaking engagements, I've talked with many different groups of people and after speaking at the Library of Congress twice now, I can say that hands-down, my favorite audience is comprised of the group there.  And most of them are librarians!  I'm not quite sure where that OCD librarian I encountered in my past came from.  And all the mean ones from my childhood must have retired because this group of people was excellent.  Intelligent, excited, eager to learn, eager to share their own knowledge, polite, and just an overall joy to meet and talk with.  Among the participants were several librarians and one kind woman brought to share about 40 copies of a booklet comprised of resources on the topic of food preservation.  Leave it to a librarian to show up to a presentation with a freaking bibliography!  Jokes aside, it was really awesome and I so appreciated it.  

Also, what a wonderful place to work.  Each day, there are numerous events going on at the Library of Congress, with programs of a ridiculous range of topics planned throughout the year - many of them open to the public.  These programs are often held during lunch so employees can participate.   It's quite an agency that is based on knowledge, thrives on sharing knowledge, and encourages further knowledge.

My amazing day with WUSA 9

I have a great friend Sandy who is so kind and helpful and hooked me up with WUSA news, our CBS news affiliate. Recently, I got to visit the station for their live News at Noon show.  I worked on a news set in college - was the Technical Director of our college news show - meaning I literally pushed buttons 1 through 5 when someone told me to.  Not too fancy, but I had seen TV sets before.  Still, there is a lot of magic behind the scenes, and that was super fun to see!  JC Hayward was friendly and so cool under pressure and was the ultimate professional.  She sits on the media throne in the photo above. See those robocams? They move around themselves.  When one of the producers started calling out "30 seconds!", I swear I starting have a little panic attack for JC, but she was cool as a cucumber.

Especially cool as a cucumber when during a commercial, one of the people in the control room above heard of some breaking news on Twitter about the US Consulate in Italy.  He told her he was still checking things out, but to prepare for breaking news.  Later in the show, the news was confirmed and it was magically put on the prompter and a "breaking news" graphic was ready to run.

There was a lot of changing gears in a newscast.  From a 4 year old boy who was murdered in DC, to the guest from A Chorus Line, to the cooking segment above by one of my favorite restaurants - La Tasca - JC had the audience with her all the way.  I don't get to watch TV news a lot, but I can see how people would be loyal to a great news anchor.  

Above, JC thought a couple of plates needed to be moved.  The producer called out "40 seconds!" while everyone was madly rearranging things.  Again, I almost had a panic attack.  Everyone was cool though, and I got to see the chef begin an amazing dish of scallops and crabs!

Oh, and one of highlights of this day?  In the end, I got booked for a September 2 segment!  I'll be on that set talking about food preservation.  Ahhhh!!  Now I'm really having a panic attack!