Sustainable Saturdays |DIY Cloning ‘roots’
Mika Shibuya, our resident nursery manager will teach a workshop on planting root Stock and propagating new plants via their roots in her talk DIY Cloning: How to Propagate Plants by Cuttings, Root Divisions, and Layering. Join us also for a delicious brunch featuring the native edible plants Agave, Stinging Nettle and Eriogonum fasiculatum prepared by Chris Stanton. After the meal, you can browse our farm stand and do some community bonding at the Middlebrook Center on 76 Race Street in San Jose starting at 10AM.

Each Saturday we explore new ways to bring nature into the city. We’ll share knowledge and invite experts to add their wisdom about restoring our local ecology, growing healthy food, and working toward sustainable solutions that improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. Let’s be inspired together and make our neighborhoods lively, healthy, and livable!

10 am: Farm Stand and Crop Sharing opens – coffee and tea are ready. Purchase local organic fruits, veggies, plants and more. Bring your own harvested food, seeds, plants, potluck item, and other things to share.

10:15 am: Garden Talk – Each week we feature different California native edible, superfood and habitat plants in our “Diet for a Healthy Planet”. Our resident nursery manager Mika Shibuya will give a tour and talk the plants of the week that are growing in our garden and will be served at our brunch.

10:30: Brunch is served -. This week our chef is our neighbor and community leader Chris Stanton who will be creating 3 unique menu items that incorporate the great tastes of our California native plants. The diet includes more than 160 habitat and food plants that grow in our garden and nursery. These plants use less energy and provide more healthy benefits for us and our planet. Gather, socialize, and exchange ideas over a nourishing meal.

Brunch Menu

Beverages

Herbal Tea
Epic Coffee
Agave Mint Nectar
Nettle Tea
Main Dishes

Spicy Sautéed Nopales Ⓥ
with heirloom tomatoes, nettle, spanish onions, garlic & cilantro
Chorizo Links
Traditional Mexican Breakfast Sausage
Scrambled Eggs
Seasoned with Native California Herbs
Herbed Quinoa Pilaf Ⓥ
with a Savory Prickly Pear Compote and Parsley
$20 SUGGESTED FOOD DONATION — $4 BEVERAGE DONATION
Ⓥ Connotes Vegan Dishes

11:30: Community discussion – Join with our local neighborhood community members to discuss issues and changes that will enable us to become a “Living Neighborhood” that can sustain the lives of ourselves and our families for many generations to come.

12:00 Talk and Demo by Mika Shibuya –

DIY Cloning: How to Propagate Plants by Cuttings, Root Divisions, and Layering

Plants have evolved a number of ingenious ways to reproduce themselves, including both sexual and asexual reproduction. In this workshop we will learn how to take advantage of asexual reproduction to start our own plants. Advantages of asexual reproduction include genetic reliability (you are essentially cloning plants, so you know what you will get!), faster time to reproductive maturity, and more reliable success rates for some species and varieties that are challenging to start from seed. We will cover propagation techniques such as cuttings, division of rootstock, simple layering and air layering. There will also be a hands-on demonstration that will give participants real world experience with some of these techniques. We discuss propagation of currants, manzanitas, buckwheat, strawberry, agave, and yerba buena, among many other native and non-native edible plants! You will also leave with a list of resources on how to find starting material, including community seed and cutting exchanges. This is not a workshop to miss!

12:30 ~ 2 pm Our garden lunch continues along with our potluck and community shared items. During the remainder of our afternoon our farm stand will be open and we will give cooking demos, tastings and more. Everyone is welcome to come and share food, share time, share insights, and socialize in our Living Neighborhood Community.



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BE A PRESENTER:
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If you are interesting in doing a talk, leading a workshop, or presenting on any of the topics listed above please contact us at: services@middlebrookcenter.com. We are currently scheduling events for the entire year 2015.


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All Sustainable Saturday events are open to the public.

We suggest the following donations:

$10~$25: Talks, workshops
$10: Food Tastings
$20: Full Garden Brunch/Lunch
$2~5 per drink or snacks
Farm Stand as marked


Follow our calendar for updates:
http://middlebrookcenter.com/elsee/event…

California Native Garden Foundation | 76 Race Street, San Jose, CA 95126, Planet Earth… | (408) 292-9993
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All money collected at these events goes directly to the California Native Garden Foundation to support event costs and partners, as well as our ongoing work in school gardens, restoration of native plants, and the enrichment of our community. CNGF is a recognized 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and your donations are tax deductible.