The Gateway Gazette, March 2021

Gateway Garden to Grow Hot Peppers for Bang Bang Hot Sauce

They’ll send us free seeds. We’ll grow the peppers and harvest them, then send the peppers with pre-paid mailers to the Small Axe Pepper Company’s co-packing facility in New Jersey where they will be made into hot sauce that is sold in more than 200 stores. We get back a piece of the profits.

That’s the deal that Small Axe Pepper has figured out as a way to help community gardens like Gateway become a little more self-sustaining. The sauce is named after the song “Bang” by Indie Pop band, AJR, who are collaborating with Small Axe. The sauce comes in a variety of styles described as fiery, bitter, hot and umami and sells for $6.99 for 5 ounces, or less for two- or three-bottle packs.

Small Axe has given back more than $44,000 to the more than 75 community gardens it partners with around the country. If we grow the peppers successfully, experience at other gardens suggests we may earn about $200 toward garden expenses.

Want to plant some hot pepper seedlings in part of your bed and take part in this project? Contact Barbara Wildfeir. (Bwildfir@gmail.com) Note that you will need to use a part of your bed where you have not recently grown tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant or other peppers, which are all members of the nightshade  family.

Gateway Receives Grants from Townwide Fund, Seed Money.org

The Townwide Fund of Huntington has continued its support of Gateway Community Garden this year with a $2,300 grant that will be used to support our donation beds, cost of seedlings, tools, Zoom account, and more.

            Another fund-raising effort, Seed Money.org, has brought in $1,500. Seed Money matches contributions up to certain limits from individuals–gardeners and others. That money will be used this coming year for new hoses, wheelbarrows and repairs to garden beds that are deteriorating. Many of the raised beds were built in 2010 and 2011, and we understood they had a lifetime of about 10 years, so repairs have been expected.

            Our fund-raising effort is led by Gateway Trustee Carmella Stevens. Should you want to help with fund-raising contact Carmella at biolady1157@yahoo.com

Virtual Spring Gardening School set for March 20

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County is offering a virtual Spring Gardening School on Saturday, March 20, starting at 9:30 am, for either $75 for all sessions, or $50 for the keynote address and 1 program from each session during the day.

The keynote speaker will be Doug Tallamy, the author of Nature’s Best Hope, a new book that explains how our own backyards can play an important role in supporting nature. The following sessions will cover a variety of topics including Gardening for Birds, Tomatomania, Edible Landscapes, and the Benefits of Bees. For a brochure and to sign up, go here.

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