Healthy Summer Subscriptions, Tomato Gardening Tips, & Berry Chia Pudding Cup
#50: Summer Happenings @ Featherstone Garden
Welcome to Featherstone’s Garden Happenings Newsletter. Each week we will share a rotating variety of garden updates: from heirloom seasonal produce features, to farm fresh subscriptions, plant-centered recipes, community partners, and more. As a subscriber, you will be the first to know about our Garden Happenings. If you’re not a newsletter subscriber but would like to be, click below to signup.
Farm Fresh Subscription Updates
A reminder that our Farm Fresh Subscription are now available to purchase. We’re pushing back start date one week and want to make sure we note that in our newsletter.
Vintage Vase Bouquet Subscription
This year, we’re introducing a new bi-weekly bouquet subscription where each subscriber receives a beautiful bouquet of our seasonal blooms arranged in an up-cycled vintage vase, every other week throughout our 6-week cycle.
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Stir Fry Kit Subscription
Learn new cooking skills & tips in the kitchen while enjoying garden fresh meals by subscribing to our weekly Stir Fry Kits. Each week, you will receive prepped veggies (chopped, rinsed & ready to use), a rotating homemade vegan stir fry sauce (see menu details above), rotating grains, herbs or microgreens, and crunchy toppers as garnish. Each kit includes 2-4 servings.
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Weekly Microgreens
With our microgreens subscription, you will enjoy 32-ounces (by volume) of organically grown, nutrient-dense microgreens. Weekly microgreens include a rotation of curly green kale, scarlet kale, arugula, frilly mustards, red cabbage, sunflower shoots, radish shoots, pea shoots and more!
Tomato Gardening Tips
One of our specialties at Featherstone Garden is our heirloom tomato plants. We also sold a number of our tomato plants at local markets around metro-Detroit, so we thought we’d share a few simple gardening guidelines for anyone new to planting tomatoes in their garden.
Step 1
Plant your tomato plant in organic raised bed soil. You can find this at your local garden center. You can either put the plant in–ground, or in a 5-gallon container. If you have more than one tomato plant, space them 18-inches apart in your garden bed. Make sure they are planted in a place where you can easily reach them for pruning and harvesting. Limit each 5-gallon container to one plant. This spacing gives the plant lots of room for healthy growth.
Step 2
Add support! Support your plant by adding a tomato cage or garden stake. We suggest: (add a few suggestions)
Step 3
Water your plant daily to avoid having the soil completely dry out.
Step 4
Plant a friend nearby! Tomato plants enjoy being planted near marigolds, basil, oregano, parsley, chives and nasturtium.
Step 5
Once the plant is 10" tall, prune all leaves that are on the bottom 4" of the stem. This will enable better airflow. Continue to prune new growth at the bottom of the plant throughout the season.
Berries, Chia Pudding & Peanut Butter Vibes
This recipe makes a great on-the-go breakfast. It’s versatile enough to swap out different ingredients and flavors, delicious enough to enjoy on a regular basis, and nutritious enough to not feel guilty about having it for breakfast a few days in a row.
Recipe: Berries, Chia Pudding & Peanut Butter Vibes
Yields: 1 serving (we suggest serving in a 6-ounce glass jar)
Do ahead: Make your chia pudding ahead of time by adding 2 tablespoons chia seeds and a 1/2 cup of milk of choice (I’m using Oatly) into a jar. Stir well; then allow to sit for 20-30 minutes, until the chia seeds have absorbed the milk to make a pudding-like consistency. (Note: you won’t need all of the chia pudding for 1 serving, so you can save the remainder in the fridge for later.)
Ingredients:
coconut yogurt
chia pudding
fresh berry jam
peanut butter
fresh berries
Directions:
You can layer your jar however you wish. I began with a bottom layer of a few tablespoons of coconut yogurt followed by 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, more yogurt, berry jam, chia pudding, then topped with fresh cut strawberries.
Thanks for reading!
For more about our garden, follow us on instagram (@featherstone.garden), and check out our website. Feel free to email us or comment below with any questions or suggestions. If you’re interested in volunteering at our garden, please fill out this submission form to coordinate a 2-hour block with us.
Have a great week,
Annie, Aaron, Renee + Chili & Bean (our farm cats)
