Vanderbilt Educational Garden Initiative

VEGI is creating a HEALTHY COOKBOOK, and we need your help!

The cookbook, which is set for a December release, will contain many healthy recipes and an extensive section on food nutrition. For every cookbook sold, another one will be given to a resident of the McFerrin Park Community. Therefore, the cookbook will serve as a fundraiser to support and expand VEGI’s efforts by providing healthy cuisine ideas to local households.

We want YOU to submit your favorite healthy recipes to be included in the cookbook! We are taking submissions of all varieties (appetizers, main dishes, breads, desserts, etc).

Please email your recipe(s) to nashvegi@gmail.com with “Cookbook Recipe” in the subject line. If you would like to be recognized in the cookbook next to your submission, please indicate so in your email submission; if you want to attribute the recipe to someone else, just let us know.

The deadline for recipe submissions is FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9th.

We look forward to seeing all the wonderful submissions, and thank you in advance for your contribution!!
Please contact lauren.mioton@gmail.com with questions.

A pre-production copy of The VEGI Cookbook cover:

Finally, some respite from the summer heat! We had a small problem with a beetle infestation of our leafy greens, so we took those out of the ground and replaced them with some new crops. If the problem persists, we will experiment with some organic pest eradication techniques. But as you can see from the pictures of our open house a couple weeks ago, everything else has been growing very well!

When: Saturday, August 8th, Noon-4pm

What: Come check out the garden!
There will be snacks, and a hands-on cooking session using herbs and vegetables from the garden.
If you like, help plant the fall harvest.

Where: 225 Berry Street
Behind the Salvation Army Chapel, across the field from Shade Tree Clinic

Peppers, okra, squash, zucchini, eggplant! Parsley, basil! The garden is producing some delicious vegetables for the McFerrin Park Community. A big thank you to the group from Gateway Church of Franklin who helped with some much needed weeding and harvesting last weekend. Here are some pictures:

These pictures were taken at the community garden tour last weekend. As you can see, the garden is verdant and luscious!

VEGI is proud to announce that the McFerrin Park Community Garden is a featured garden on a city-wide community garden tour this Saturday June 13, from 9am to 12pm. For more information and a map of the garden sites, please visit http://sites.google.com/site/nashvillecommunitygardentour/
We hope to see you on Saturday!

The Nashville weather has been good to the garden. Plenty of sun and rain in the past few weeks has resulted in a lot of growth!

On Wednesday, VEGI went to Lowe’s on Dickerson Pike and got carloads of plants and fruit trees donated to the garden – a big thank you to Gary at Lowe’s! Groundbreaking is tomorrow 1pm-5pm, rain or shine. Although the forecast for tomorrow predicts some precipitation, the meteorologist at News 2 thinks that “we might get a break on Saturday.” So come out and garden!

We are getting excited for groundbreaking day this Saturday, May 2nd, 1-5pm! In preparation, several students and community members laid down the first of the planters last weekend. Although we had hoped to use new wood, it proved to be quite expensive, so we quickly shifted to plan B – recycling! As VEGI grows, we hope to improve the quality of wood used so that the garden will last for years to come.

We hope you can join us for groundbreaking this Saturday! Here are some pictures from last weekend: