For any questions please email us at beardsleyfarm@gmail.com or call us at 865-546-8446.

*Indicates heirloom, organic, and/or open-pollinated varieties.

Further descriptions will be available at the plant sale.

Tickets can be purchased at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/238903

Skill Share will also feature our plant sale. Choose from a wide variety of herbs, heirloom tomatoes and peppers, raspberries, strawberries, ornamentals, and more! For a full list of plants, view the blog post here.

Activities will be provided for kids, too! Bring the whole family for this spring community event.

Schedule of Events

10:30 AM – Tour of CAC Beardsley Community Farm

11:00 AM – Foraging Wild Edibles and Medicinal Plants with Jeff Ross of Blackberry Farm and Rachel Milford

Participants learn about urban foraging on our edible walk around Malcolm Martin Park and Beardsley Community Farm. Depending upon what is foraged, participants will have the opportunity to cook the harvest and make a medicinal vinegar to take home.

Brown Paper Ticket Cost: $5

Walk-in price: $7

1:00 PM – The Art of Growing, Drying, and Using Hardshell Gourds with Jackie and Mike Hardin

Gourds have been used for centuries as birdhouses, containers, musical instruments, jewelry, toys, and more. Learn about the wide array of different gourd varieties, their various uses, and how to correctly grow and dry a hardshell gourd. Participants will create a hanging planter made from a gourd and receive a gourd plant. Kids are encouraged to attend this workshop!

Brown Paper Ticket Cost: $10

Walk-in price: $12

3:00 PM – Shiitake Mushroom Logs with Bob Hess of Everything Mushrooms

Fun and casual hands-on workshop to understand the process of making mushroom logs and growing mushrooms from log culture. Learn how to select appropriate wood and gardening sites. We will inoculate logs with mushroom spawn and discuss care and maintenance. Workshop will last approximately one hour and you will make your own shiitake mushroom log to take home to your garden. Workshop fees cover material costs per log; participants who wish to share a log can pay a combined price. There are only 24 logs, so sign up early!

Brown Paper Ticket Cost/Individual: $20

Brown Paper Ticket Cost/Pair: $25

Walk-in price/Individual: $25

Walk-in price/Couple: $30

Tickets can be purchased at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/238903

Annie’s Heirloom Seeds – Annie’s has a solid selection of a variety of vegetables and flowers. Can’t pick just one? Check out “Annie’s Collections” for seed blends. Trying Annie’s for the first time? Use the “TryAnnies” coupon code when you order to get 5% off your first purchase.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds – This is the kind of seed selection we can spend hours looking at–from the common to the obscure they probably have it. Their seed catalog is one of the most beautiful we’ve ever seen with about 30 pages devoted to just tomatoes alone. Be sure to check out their winter squashes if you want to grow something really unique this year!

Sand Hill Preservation – The small seed company that could, Sand Hill has best variety of sweet potatoes around. Sand Hill is committed to preserving rare heirloom sweet potatoes and if you have the space to grow them, consider buying your slips from Sand Hill. They also have an excellent and well priced selection of tomatoes, as well as a wide variety of heritage poultry.

Seeds of Change – They have a solid selection of vegetables, with several varieties of heirlooms. They also have live plants, including over ten varieties of apple trees, asparagus, rhubarb, and horseradish. You can pick up Seeds of Change seeds right at Three Rivers Market if you want your seeds ASAP.

Seed Savers – Excellent variety in a wide range of vegetables, especially for beans and lettuces. Be sure to check out their watermelon for unparalleled selection. Become a member and receive a 10% discount on all purchases.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange – Perfect for the East Tennessee gardeners, Southern Exposure offers many varieties of heirlooms unique to the south. Southern Exposure reintroduced gourdseed corn into the heirloom market in the 1980s, and if you have the space to grow traditional flour corn it might be worth a try. They are also one of the few places that offers several varieties of peanuts, and also have an excellent selection of garlic, tomatoes, and peppers.

Sow True – If you are interested in locally sourced seeds, be sure to check out Sow True in Asheville, NC. Sow True also offers a variety of southern heirlooms, including an “Appalachian Native Garden” collection.

While it can be easy to get lost in the delightful diversity of seed collections, try to make a list of important qualities in the vegetables you are looking for. For example: do you want big juicy slicer tomatoes, or tomatoes for making a thick canned paste? Do you want a pest-resistant squash, a heat-resistant lettuce, or a particularly hardy variety of peas? If you think carefully about what you are looking for in new vegetable varieties, you may be able to navigate the maze of seed cataloges easier.

Be sure to remember one thing however– the joy of getting a new seed simply because it is something worth marveling over. A black radish? A yellow strawberry? A pole bean from pre-1860s? Grow varieties that you can’t find anywhere else, especially not in the supermarket. And then save the seeds and share the riches!

Good luck in your search. Happy Seeding!

We have made important steps towards this goal:

- The great folks at Elizabeth Eason Architecture have designed a beautiful building to meet our needs. Please see the design below.

- Former Mayor Victor Ashe has generously pledged $5000 towards a building at Beardsley Farm. Beardsley was started during Victor Ashe’s tenure as mayor with support from his team at the City of Knoxville, and we are honored by his continued generosity.

- We have set up a Donation Pay button on our website to generate community support.

Last year, Beardsley Community Farm attracted over 2,000 people of all ages to visit, volunteer, and learn. A building not only would help us better organize, but it would help provide a facility for our many visitors to use the restroom, a sheltered area for workshops and classes, especially during times of extreme temperatures, and an ideal environment to store and preserve vegetables. We are so excited about the prospect of a facility that would help us better serve the community. Please support Beardsley’s goal and make a contribution today!

The exhibit will be on display throughout the month of November; afterwards the show will move to The Tomato Head in Maryville for December.

Print of the artworks are available for purchase: $45 for a 16×20 and $15 for a 8×10. Please preview thumbnails below and click on the image to view in full.

A few tips for cool season crops:

– Interseed carrots and radishes in the same row–the radishes will grow first and open the soil, so that when you pull the radish it will leave an open space for the carrot to grow.

– Don’t let your radishes and beets get too large–they are ready when the tops are prominently raised above the soil. (Here is a good example)

– Make sure that you check for cabbage worms on your broccoli and cauliflower plants in their early stages because they are more vulnerable to bugs when young. If you see a pest, the best remedy is to simply take it off and squish it!

– For greens of any kind, harvest the outside leaves first. This way you don’t have to wait to harvest the whole head and you can harvest more. Also, break off the leaves as close to the ground as possible and leave at least 2/3 of the leaves on the plant so that it can continue to grow healthily.

– When planting turnips make sure that you know which one you are planing, whether it is the root or the green.

– You can leave large veggie roots, like carrots and turnips, in the ground for a long time. This way, you don’t have to harvest until you are ready to eat them.

– The majority of fall crops tend to taste best after the first frost because lower temperatures bring out the sugars, giving them a better taste.

– Create a row cover, in order to extend your growing season. You can do this by putting a hoop house over the veggies or by building a cold frame box. Check below for links on how to make your own or stay tuned for Beardsey’s Cool Weather Gardening workshop at the end of October!

How to Build a Hoop House

An Example of a Hoop House

How to Build a Cold Frame Box

During our first few weeks at the farm we have also prepared for and harvested honey from our three healthy hives. Honey extraction is a process that requires a good deal of patience. We had to cooperate with the bees when taking the frames full of honey, and then had to work closely as a team to ensure a successful honey extraction. All in all, we harvested seventeen gallons of honey and are looking forward to having our honey available to the community.

We are learning that we work together very well as a team and have areas of expertise that complement each other. Daniel is excellent at constructing things; so far, he has built sturdy teepees for our pea plants, and has put hinges on storage boxes. Karina is a compost expert and helps keep our compost piles going strong. Kat has been enthusiastic about saving seeds for next year. We all look forward to working with Khann, and are glad to be with Beardsley Farm for the 2011-2012 term.

This summer there were also very many volunteers who worked on a regular basis.  Some of them include Angie Flemmons, Chris Gurecki, Louise Fry, the WOW Youth Ministry, Cherilyn Lootens and her family, and the Thomas family.  We can not thank them enough for all the sweat and joy they brought to the farm!  Beardsley Community Farm depends on our many volunteers to make our work possible.

We had a very bountiful summer with over 750 pounds of food harvested in the month of July alone.  Now we are looking ahead to the arrival of the new AmeriCorps team and cooler temperatures.  We will miss the summer bounty, but welcome the comfortable weather!

WDVX is a listener-supported community radio station that plays Bluegrass, Americana, Classic and Alternative Country, Blues, Old Time and Traditional Mountain Music, Rock-and-Roll and more!  WDVX brings the very special Blue Plate Special to Knoxvillians and listeners from all over the world.  The Blue Plate Special is a live musical performance by local and regional artists.  You can enjoy these performances every weekday at noon from their downtown studio at the Visitor’s Center.  For more information about WDVX, visit www.wdvx.com

Meet Red Hickey…

BCF:  Describe your work and what you do at WDVX.

RED:  I am the Host of the WDVX Blue Plate Special, a live radio show with 2 acts in front of an audience weekdays at noon. I also am the afternoon DJ.

BCF:  What lead you to work at WDVX?

RED:  I was a volunteer for years. I enjoyed the music and diversity of the station. Eventually, I was asked to work here. I started out doing a classic country music specialty show called Hillbilly Fever.

BCF:  Where did you grow up?

RED:  Knoxville

BCF:  How long have you lived in Knoxville?

RED:  Most of my life…I also have lived in Atlanta, Miami and London England.

BCF:  At Beardsley Farm, we strive to bring people together through gardening.  Can you describe how local music influences a community?

RED:  Every day the community comes to us here inside the Knoxville Visitor Center to see new music experiences. We also broadcast worldwide therefore we are able share our local music with the world!

BCF:  What all did you do during your visit to Beardsley Community Farm?

RED:  PIcked Chard, tied up tomatoes, watered, picked strawberries, dug up potatoes…

BCF:  Did you learn anything from your visit?

RED:  Add the fish solution to the watering cans to fertilize, there CAN be potatoes underground – even if the plant above ground looks dead, and chard is pretty enough to grow in a planter and you can eat it too!

BCF:  What was your favorite part about the farm?

RED:  When it was thought the potatoes were all dead and that we should pull up the plants…and then there were potatoes! Everyone was so excited about the potatoes.

Knoxville’s Leading Women is a group that fulfills everything promised in its title. The ladies of KLW are not only leaders in Knoxville’s business and industry, but are community leaders and mobilizers as well. Several of these wonderful women came to CAC Beardsley Community Farm as a group of celebrity volunteers in one of our recent Saturday workdays. They helped out around the farm weeding blueberries and working in the raspberries, and they learned a thing or two about chickens at our chicken workshop.

After their time on the farm, we asked their founder a few questions about the group and the time they spent with us.

Beardsley Farm: When did the Knoxville’s Leading Women group begin?

Rena: Our group began about 3 years ago and initially we called ourselves Women in Networking (WIN).

Beardsley Farm: How has it grown and changed since its inception?

Rena: Our group began with about 8 networking professionals, grew to 18+. Then the group thought of splitting into 2 separate networking divisions–Business to Business/Business to Consumer. Eventually the group began to again grow (primarily B2B), and we have recently surpassed the 30 mark! We now meet for almost 2 hours, we charge nothing, and many of KLW have formed wonderful, personal friendships and connections.

Beardsley Farm: What sort of businesses and organizations are represented by the women in KLW?

Rena: Banking, mortgage, debt collection, general contractor, financial planner, corporate lodging, office leasing space, advertising, web design/internet marketing, office furniture sales, life guide coach, to name a few.

Beardsley Farm: The current team of CAC Beardsley Community Farm, as well as previous and probably future years’, consists of a high percentage of women. What advice can you give to young professional women, especially those working in predominantly male fields?

Rena: I am probably a good example to use with this question. I work in  a predominantly male field–general contracting–and I have no hesitance to enter the male arena of construction. I grew up with 4 brothers and was quite a “tomboy.” I find it a fun challenge!

Beardsley Farm: How does the work of KLW relate to Beardsley’s model of sustainable practices and community involvement?

Rena: All of the KLW members are in one group or another involving our community. We often bring up events such that Teresa did about Beardley, KARM, National Kidney Foundation, etc., and support functions in town.

Beardsley Farm: What was your favorite part of your visit to CAC Beardsley Community Farm?

Rena: Mine was seeing all of the beds of veggies and things they grow. I enjoyed the fact the an open space was being put to good use for the area in a healthy and giving way.