Skip to main content
Category

Beet 2023 12 December

Announcing the Annual Jackson County Master Gardener™ Association  Photo Contest

By Beet 2023 12 December

 

 

The Jackson County Master Gardener™ Association Member Services Working Group (MSWG) announces its annual photo contest.

 

✦The 2024 JCMGA Photo Contest is open to all current Jackson County Master Gardener™ Association members.

Photos may be submitted from January 1st  until February 1st, 2024.  We can accept two (2) photos from each member, although there will be only one winning photo per person.

✦Photographs are limited to those taken in gardens of the Rogue Valley and the focus must be on a plant or flower – no people (for privacy issues), or garden animals or insects.

✦Please submit your photograph in portrait format, rather than landscape format to jcmgaphoto1@gmail.com.

✦All photographs must be at least 1500 x 1575 pixels (5”x5-1/2” at 300 dpi) and all submitted photos become the property of JCMGA.

In addition, since the photograph on the cover of the directory is longer from top-to-bottom than from side-to-side, photos submitted must be in portrait format rather than landscape.

Please submit your picture to jcmgaphoto1@gmail.com and include your name, phone number, email address and a short description of the flora pictured. If you have any questions, please contact Sandy Hansen, sandyhansen08@gmail.com.    All identifying information will be removed and the contest will be judged by members of the Member Services Working Group and the editor of the Garden Beet.

The winning photograph will appear on the cover of the 2024 JCMGA Chapter Directory, and four runners-up will have their photographs featured in the Garden Beet. Winners will be announced in the April Garden Beet. Four runners-up will have their photographs featured in the Garden Beet. Winners will be announced in the April Garden Beet.

Whether your garden consists of several acres or a single plant in a hanging basket, we would love the opportunity to honor the beauty you have created and nurtured.

  • All submitted photos become the property of JCMGA.

 

December JCMGA Working Groups Summaries

By Beet 2023 12 December

 

 

Community Outreach Working Group

Chair, Ronnie Budge

No meeting in November.

 

FUNDRAISING WORKING GROUP

Chair, Sandy Hammond

No meeting in November.

 

Garden Enhancement Working Group

Chair, Janine Salvatti

We are continuing to work in the gardens and are now getting them ready for the cooler temperatures.

 

Marketing and Technology Working Group

Chair – (looking for a chair or co-chair)

This group has been busy with creating videos of our Demonstration Gardens; working on the Garden Beet; meeting the technology of our organization; updating Facebook posts.

 

Member Services Working Group

Chair, Barbara Low

We received the data from the member survey that was done in November.  We will be delving into the data at our December and January meetings.

We did a recap of the 2023 Student Master Gardener Graduation/Celebration.

We will be having a Joint Committee meeting with the Community Outreach Working Group at our December 18th meeting to continue to work our the details of the Friends of the Gardens Program.

 

Program Support Working Group

Chair is Grace Florjancic

In 2024 we are bringing back our Seed to Supper classes! Seed to Supper is a 6 weeklong basic vegetable gardening class for folks in our county with lower incomes to help increase food security in our communities. This program was put on hold during the past few years but is coming back. We have a few locations in the county pick out to hold these classes, but we need instructors! The more instructors we have, the more classes we can hold next year. If you are a certified Master Gardener looking to help with this program, contact Grace Florjancic at grace.florjancic@oregonstate.edu

 

Winter Dreams Summer Gardens Working Group

chairs are Colet Allen, Susan Koenig, and Barbara Low

There will be a satisfaction survey sent out the week of November 5th and the data collected will be used to plan for next year’s Winter Dreams Summer Gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berried Treasures

By Beet 2023 12 December

“Here we go round the mul-’bry bush so early in the morning.”  While this old English song calls it a bush, Morus alba, Morus rubra and Morus nigra are actually trees. In the Moraceae family along with figs, breadfruit and jackfruit, mulberries (like quince and several other plants) have lost their positions in home gardens. However, new varieties and awareness campaigns are causing a comeback for this most valuable heirloom tree.

Mulberries have a rich history indeed. Native red fruiting trees (Eastern US coast) have been used for centuries by Native Americans. In the De Soto expedition of the mid 1500’s, explorers observed the Muskogee consuming dried mulberries and Iroquois mixing mashed dried mulberry fruit in sauces and cornbread. The Timucua in Florida consumed mulberry fruits and used their leaves and twigs for dye. The Seminoles used branches for bows.

Chinese white mulberries (wild in China, then naturalized in Europe with leaves providing food for silkworms) were brought to the US in the mid 1800’s for making silk. Though this ultimately proved too costly a venture, the trees survived.

Native Asian black mulberries, cultivated in Europe since Roman times, are still used for their delicious berries and shade. Their leaves were fed to livestock and used for medicinal treatments. They became prized in the Tudor era when 10,000 black mulberry trees were mistakenly bought instead of white for silk production. Silk making was a bust, but the black fruits became all the rage in England.

Although many see mulberries as merely an annoyance, their delicious, nutritious and versatile native red, white naturalized, and black Asian fruits have become more sought after. While mulberries can grow 50 to 80 feet tall, new smaller varieties offer options for backyard gardens. Dwarfed trees still have distinctive delicious blackberry-flavored fruits with phenomenal amounts of beneficial nutrients.  It’s like plucking super blackberries from a tree!  Mulberries are bursting with vitamins (C, K1 and E), potassium, iron and fiber.  They also have phenolic acid, antioxidants and anthocyanins found in black fruits and vegetables.

No matter the variety, mulberries are deciduous — having toothed or lobed alternately arranged leaves along long, graceful stems.  Minute flowers bloom in late spring followed by fruits in white, pink, red, purple, or nearly black, harvestable by late summer.  Self-fertile trees have both male and female (monoecious) flowers on the same tree.  Others are single sex (dioecious) requiring a pollinator.  Although red and white mulberries tend to be the biggies, dwarf, weeping or contorted varieties and black fruited tend to be the most practical size, ranging from 8-10 feet at maturity.

Mulberries grow well in most well-drained soils (preferably away from walkways, patios, and driveways to avoid fruit stains) and away from water or septic lines they’ll want to tap into. They need half-day or full sun and are somewhat drought tolerant once established.  Summer pruning maintains a manageable height.  Fruiting usually begins 3 to 5 years after planting.  It’s well worth the wait. Given its great disease and pest resistance and lovely tropical-like foliage, why not give this tree a try? Then harvest some American heritage — rounding your own mulberry “bush” of bounteous, beneficial, and delicious fruits.

 

Recipe:

 Mulberry Buckle

Preheat oven to 375°.  Oil bottom and sides of a nine-inch cake pan.

Topping:

1/3 cup coconut sugar

½ cup organic white, whole wheat, or oat flour

½ cup regular rolled oats

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ cup olive oil

Mix together all ingredients until crumbly and set aside.

 

Cake:

2 cups organic white, whole wheat, or oat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon sea salt

2/3 cup coconut sugar

zest of one organic lemon

¼ cup olive oil

1 egg (substitute 1 tablespoon gold flax meal soaked in 3 tablespoons hot water)

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup milk (soy or almond or oat milk)

2 cups mulberries, stemmed

 

In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, spices, sea salt, sugar, and lemon zest. In a medium bowl, stir together oil, milk and egg until blended. Stir milk mixture into dry ingredients. Fold in mulberries.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle crumb mixture over top. Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until cake center doesn’t stick to toothpick. Remove from oven and serve warm or cold with whipped cream or ice cream. Serves 8-10.

 

Resources:

One Green World

https://onegreenworld.com/mysteries-of-the-mulberry-tree/

Raintree Nursery

https://raintreenursery.com/pages/growing-fruit-trees-mulberries

UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions

https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/trees-and-shrubs/trees/mulberry.html

Baltimore Orchard Project

https://www.baltimoreorchardproject.org/our-blog/forgottenfruit

 

Tree Sources:

One Green world

https://onegreenworld.com/?s=mulberry

Raintree Nursery

https://raintreenursery.com/search?type=product&q=mulberry*

Both nurseries have many varieties including dwarf, weeping and contorted (this variety is more ornamental having less fruit).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JCMGA Board of Directors October Meeting Minutes

By Beet 2023 12 December

Jackson County Master Gardener Association

Board of Directors Meeting

Minutes

October 13, 2023

The Board of Directors meeting was called to order by Zoom at 9:32 a.m. with President

Marcie Katz presiding.

Present: Marcie Katz, Regula Pepi, Barbara Low, Janine Salvatti, Marcia Harris, Kathy Apple, Colet Allen, Sandy Hammond, Sean Cawley, Pam Hillers, Ronnie Budge, Keltie Nelson, Lucy

Pylkki, Trina Stout, Cassandra Toews, Dee Copley

Absent: Rob MacWhorter

Consent Agenda:  Barbara Low noted that Margaret Saydah has resigned as Membership Secretary.  Barbara and Keltie Nelson have offered to fill in until a new membership secretary is elected.  Ronnie Budge moved and Janine Salvatti seconded the board reports be

approved with this addition.  Unanimous approval.

Additions to the Agenda:

  1. Barbara Low reminded the board that the suggestion to make the Bylaws Committee

a standing committee was carried over from the September meeting.

  1. Barbara Low reminded the board that the treasurer was going to provide the meaning

of “PSP” in the financial reports.

  1. Jane Moyer asked that the Practicum funding request be removed from the agenda.
  2. Colet Allen asked that “Links from the library” be added to the agenda.
  3. Jane Moyer asked to have “Sale of the blue barrels” be added to the agenda.

Approval of Agenda: Colet Allen moved to have the agenda approved as amended.  Kathy

Apple seconded.  Motion passed.

Approval of Minutes: Ronnie Budge moved and Pam Hillers seconded the September board

meeting minutes be approved. The motion passed.

Announcements:

  1. Treasurer Sean Cawley explained “PSP” means Program Special Project
  2. Lucy Pylkki asked about the location of the hot spots. They are needed for use of

Square at the Fall Festival.  If they can’t be located, the hot spot from the Plant Clinic

will be used.

  1. Sandy Hammond announced cash boxes for the Fall Festival have been prepared.
  2. Sandy Hammond reminded board members that set up for the Fall Festival will begin

at 1:00 today.  The festival is scheduled for 9:00–2:00 Saturday October 14.

  1. Barbara Low reported that registration for the Winter Dreams Summer Gardens

Symposium has been slow.  Only 60 people have registered so far.

 

  1. Barbara Low reminded board members that graduation will be held 5:30–8:00

Saturday November 4.  Practicum mentors and GEMs are encouraged to submit

names of students who went above and beyond for student awards.

  1. Jane Moyer reported the Fundraising Working Group has sold the barbeque for $500.

 

Coordinator’s Report:  Coordinator Grace Florjancic is on vacation.

Discussion items: 

  1. Kathy Apple reminded board members that, according to the JCMGA Bylaws, elected

officers include president, president-elect, immediate past president, recording

secretary, membership secretary, treasurer, assistant treasurer, OMGA

representative, archivist, and five members-at-large, but not a vice-president.  The

term “vice-president” should not be used in place of “president-elect.”

  1. Barbara Low reported the Bylaws Committee will be meeting in November to review

Procedures and Policies along with the bylaws.  Pam Hillers had suggested this

committee become a standing committee; however, after discussion, she withdrew

her suggestion.  She suggested instead that the bylaws be included in the JCMGA

directory as well as on the website.

  1. Jane Moyer relayed a conversation with Extension Manager Heidi Gehman concerning     resuming the zero-waste effort (Policy 1.6 ” The JCMGA will move toward zero-waste.)

Jane will work with Heidi to find containers acceptable to Alec Levin.

  1. Colet Allen reported she is working with the Jackson Co. Library System to have

presentations made by Master Gardeners at any of the libraries, through the JCMGA

Speakers Bureau, recorded and put on YouTube with links on the JCMGA website.

She would also like the links to be put on Facebook and in The Garden Beet.

  1. Irving Johnson is retiring from being a GEM in the Lavender Garden. It was suggested

he be given an award for his diligent service even with health problems.  He will be

invited to a board meeting to receive the reward.

Motion Items:

  1. President-elect Barbara Low presented the slate of nominees for 2024 JCMGA elected

officers.  (See attached.)  There are currently no candidates for president-elect and

assistant treasurer.  The current assistant-treasurer commented that, since hiring a

professional bookkeeper, she doesn’t think there is a need for an assistant treasurer.

If these positions remain unfilled, the president can appoint Master Gardeners to fill

them with board approval.  Barbara Low, on behalf of the Nominating Committee,

                moved to accept the slate of nominees as presented.  Unanimous approval. The

voting will be online with paper ballots sent to those who don’t have internet access.

Ballots will be posted and Mail Chimps sent to JCMGA members by October 23, with

voting to be completed by November 4.  The JCMGA bylaws dictate “The election

tellers shall be the Membership Secretary (Barbara Low), the Recording Secretary

(Jane Moyer), and a board member appointed by the president (Pam Hillers).”

 

  1. Treasurer Sean Cawley announced Rogue Credit Union needs a letter signed by both

the JCMGA President and Recording Secretary stating the treasurer and assistant

treasurer have permission to manage the association CD’s.  Sean Cawley, on behalf of

                the Financial Committee, moved to submit such a letter.  Unanimous approval.

  1. On behalf of the Master Gardener Practicum, Jane Moyer moved the blue barrels

                previously used in Greenhouse #2 be sold for $20 each or 3/$50.  Unanimous

                approval.  They will be sold at the Fall Festival and Sean Cawley offered to advertise

them to the Land Stewards.

 

MEETING ADJOURNED: President Marcie Katz adjourned the meeting at 11:09.

 

NEXT MEETING: Board Meeting Thursday, November 9, 2023 (due to Veterans Day observance on Friday November 10), 9:00 chit-chat, 9:30 meeting

                       

Submitted by Jane Moyer, Recording Secretary