WONDERFUL, WIGGLY WORMS! 

The Joys of Vermicomposting

May's Santa Barbara Organic Garden Club presentation will be fascinating not only for adult gardeners who want to experiment with worm composting but also may have special appeal for kids and their families -- especially since all who attend will get FREE WORMS!

Worms are our friends! They eat our garbage and turn it into food for our plants!

Featured speaker will be Michael Thompson, who has 40 years experience as an Organic Gardener and "Worm Herder."  Dr. Thompson holds a BA in Zoology 
from UCSB, plus BS and DDS from SCSF.  He'll describe the various types of 
worms, teach us how to make or get vermicomposting bins, talk about how worms 
can help us compost ALL kitchen wastes.  Best of all, he'll provide FREE WORM 
SAMPLES FOR ALL ATTENDING! 

When: Wednesday, May 16, 2001, 7 p.m., 
Community Environmental Council/ Gildea Center
930 Miramonte Dr. in Santa Barbara. 

Directions: from downtown Santa Barbara take Carrillo up the hill towards the 
Mesa.  At the top of the hill turn left onto Miramonte Dr. Continue for 
approx. 1/2 mile and watch for the sign for the Gildea Center on the left. 
Park on Miramonte and walk down the short driveway to the Center. For more 
info on directions call the center at 963-0583.

Many of you planted fava bean seeds last fall and have a wonderful crop in your gardens now, just begging to be eaten.  Others may have seen the fat-podded fava beans now showing up at the Farmers Market -- by all means pick some up!

Favas are a wonderful, very easy annual crop -- they're Mediterranean, so they like our climate.  Also, they add beauty to any part of the garden, as they look like a cross between pale delphiniums and bear's breech, with pale whitish flower spikes up to 4' tall (even taller if they like your manure!).

A couple of things to know about favas: 1) some people of Mediterranean extraction are said to be allergic to them, so start with one or two beans to see how you do.
2) The outer coating of the beans can be bitter, especially on mature beans.  Many recipes suggest that you boil water, put the shelled beans in it for a minute on simmer, then drain and douse with cold water.  At that point you can pierce the outer coating of the bean with your fingernail and squeeze the inner beans out.  This is a lot of fussy work, so some people only do it with really mature beans.  They kind of like the flavor of the outer coating once it's been boiled for a minute or two.  

The easy thing at this point is to just pour some vinaigrette over the beans, and serve warm or cold.

Recipe:

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add beans that have been prepared as described above, a clove of minced garlic and some rosemary chopped fine.  Cover and cook until beans are tender, 5 minutes for young beans, more for older ones.  Stir in a little lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.