Just fill out our quick, THREE question survey, and enter your email to win! Raffle closes June 11th!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZXFMQ2S

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!

Thank you to everyone that came out for Snow Day! The benefit at Barley’s Taproom was a huge success with a silent auction, soup-off, live music and beard pageant.

For the silent auction, we had over 100 items from local businesses and crafters. Thank you to everyone who participated! If you have won an item and haven’t yet picked it up, please come to the LT Ross CAC building at 2247 Western Ave. to collect your winnings!

Finally, our 2nd Annual Beard Pageant was a huge success with even more participants than last year! Our “homemade” category was the most competitive yet! This year’s winners were Shelagh with a locally grown human hair beard, Angie with a local and organic kale beard, and Trey with a bird’s nest beard complete with eggs and a bird! The “homegrown” category included over a dozen men with the first place award going to fellow-Americorps member Adam Bean with a Lion’s Mane Beard. You would have to see it to believe it. Thank you to Barley’s Taproom for donating the Beard Pageant prizes!

Lastly, we also have several gardening calendars left! The calendars are now available for a reduced price of $20. Each month’s page features suggestions specific for East Tennessee with information for which crops to start indoors, transplant, direct seed, and harvest. Every month also includes season specific tips for improving your garden and has ample room for taking notes—whether they are about your garden, or just everyday events. For more pictures and more information on the calendars click here.

Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria, 200 East Jackson Ave.

Admission: $7   |   Soup Tickets: $3

Snow Day is CAC Beardsley Community Farm’s largest fundraiser of the year! Snow Day will feature live music, a “soup-off” between local restaurants, a homegrown and homemade beard pageant and silent auction.

Featured musicians: The Hotshot Freight Train, The Lonetones, The Theorizt, Yunglife, TimLee3, Kelsey’s Woods, and Kukuly and the Gypsy Fuego

Soup with Bread: A soup-off featuring some of Knoxville’s finest restaurants including the reigning champion Coolato Gelato, Bistro at the Bijou, Just Ripe, Plaid Apron, Harry’s Deli, and more!

Beard Pageant: Come participate in Beardsley Farm’s 2nd annual Homegrown and Homemade Beard Pageant! All participants, both men and women, are welcome to strut their finest beards before a panel of beard and hair connoisseurs.

Silent Auction: In past years our silent auctions have included a cabin rental in the Smokies, CSA shares to local farms, a YMCA household membership, musical instruments, and gift certificates to local restaurants and businesses.

Last year 900 people attended Snow Day, helping us raise 20% of our operating budget for the year. Don’t miss out this year!

Sponsors for Snow Day include: 91.9 WUOT, 90.3 WUTK, 89.9 WDVX,  Metro Pulse, and Three Rivers Market

Snow Day will be at Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria in the Old City and feature live music, a “soup-off” between local restaurants, Beard Pageant, and silent auction. In past years our silent auctions have included tickets to Bonnaroo, CSA shares to local farms, musical instruments, and gift certificates to local restaurants and businesses.

Last year 900 people attended Snow Day, helping us raise 20% of our operating budget for the year. We will announce the music line-up very soon, so stay tuned and join us in January to help make this year’s Snow Day even better!

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 calendar also features many stunning photos of Beardsley Farm, many of which were taken by our own Daniel Aisenbrey—Russell Printing Options in Fort Sanders really did a fine job with making the colors vivid and beautiful. The calendar is printed on 11×17” cardstock, and is available for $25. It would make a great gift for anyone who appreciates gardening, local food, and the outdoors. Each purchase of the calendar will also support Beardsley Community Farm. To purchase a calendar, contact us at beardsleyfarm@gmail.com.

Check out a couple sample pages below!

Raindate will be Thursday, December 1st. Same time and location.