Yolo team in running for Sunset magazine contest honors

A group of gardening loving Yolo staff members have been competing all summer in a contest sponsored by Sunset magazine which concluded with a mandatory “feast” featuring recipes using products they grew or raised in their own backyards. Members of the team known as No Gardeners Left Behind included, from left, John Paiva, Karen March, Anne Rhoads, Mark Malmberg, Elsa Juarez, Cheryl Beaty and Verna Cheevers. Steve Roberts and Katie Wilson were not available for the photo.

NEWMAN – A team of Yolo Middle School staff members with an affinity for gardening will soon learn if their collective green thumbs have landed them in the winner’s circle of a national contest sponsored by Sunset Magazine.

The local group, dubbed “No Gardeners Left Behind,” was one of the 10 teams selected from hundreds of applications submitted last spring to participate in the magazine’s One Block Party contest. Their challenge: Grow a summer garden and then throw a block party-style feast using only what they had raised or made.

After a productive summer of gardening, the Newman team proudly held their feast after school on Sept. 12.

Their table was filled with a variety of freshly prepared dishes showcasing the fruits of their labor, including sourdough potato onion bread, butternut squash lasagna, pesto pasta, peach cobbler, chive cheese, fresh salsa, zucchini cake, berry ice cream, fresh lemonade with lavender and deviled egg (yes, one of the team members raised chickens).

Escargot was initially on the menu as well……but one ambitious team member found that raising snails was easier said than done, so that may be a challenge for a future menu.

All in all, the feast was a success all around in both providing a plentiful table of delicious home grown home made food and the feeling of accomplishment the group celebrated as a team.

Team leader Karen March said she knew from the time she heard about the contest on the radio, it would be a good fit for the group at Yolo. “We talk about gardening all the time in the staff room and I thought this would be fun to do together,” she reflected.

It didn’t take long for the enthusiastic group to commit and send in their application which was chosen as one of the finalists to compete for the $500 prize and a feature an upcoming issue of Sunset.

They decided to donate the money to a student group on campus if they win. “It could possibly help in the ongoing effort to build a green house on campus,” March mentioned as an example.

Regardless of the outcome, the team has savored the experience. Their personal accomplishments in their back yard gardens have been rewarding, and the opportunity to share their progress with one another throughout the summer has been an added benefit. “The staff at Yolo is very close but normally we don’t talk much to each other during the summer break. One of the benefits of this contest for us was being in communication with each other while school was out,” March explained.

Part of the contest was periodically submitting photos, videos and reports to be posted on the contest site’s blog. Contestants shared their stories, gave demonstrations and shared recipes throughout the planting, harvesting and cooking stages, leading up to the end goal of the feast.

Visitors to the blog can watch team member John Paiva’s demonstration on how to make his sourdough potato onion bread made using potatoes and onions he grew in his own garden. They can read about Anne Rhoads’ indoor garden of lettuce, learn about a variety of raised beds used for planting vegetables by both Rhoads and Cheryl Beaty and follow March’s attempt at growing tomatoes upside-down. Photos of many of the gardens are featured.

Most of the team members are active gardeners, and said the contest gave them an incentive to try something new.

Verna Cheevers has been gardening most of her life, she said, but this summer she decided to plant more on raised beds or pots which allowed her to better utilize her yard space. A new experience for her was growing cantaloupes on a trellis. The challenge, besides the unusual weather in the valley during the early part of summer, was the weight of the cantaloupes as they grew. Her clever solution was to put them in nylons which gave them the support they needed while also the freedom to continue growing. “Looked pretty funny, but it worked,” she happily reported.

Elsa Juarez took the contest as an opportunity to try gardening, something she’d wanted to do for a long time.  She has fond memories of helping her grandfather in his garden and looked forward to working with the soil again. She found the experience something her whole family enjoyed. “My kids loved helping in the garden, even pulling the weeds,” she said. They also enjoyed cooking with the vegetables they grew themselves especially all the tomatoes and peppers. “We barbecue all summer and I didn’t have to go to the store to buy vegetables. We just picked them fresh from our own backyard,” she proudly noted.

That’s the goal of the contest as explained on the Sunset website……growing and raising food, learning how to cook with fresh produce and sharing the outcome with friends and family. No Gardeners Left Behind reached that goal and they did it in grand style. Their feast was a true celebration of a shared summer experience they will not forget.

After the feast, the team submitted a final written report including recipes and photos. The rest is up to the judges. The contest results are scheduled to be announced on Oct. 2.

No Gardeners Left Behind members include Paiva, Steve Roberts, Katie Wilson, March,  Beaty, Juarez, Rhoads, Mark Malmberg and Cheevers.