Hello Listeners, this is a concise episode devoted to encouraging our listeners to establish a fall vegetable garden Longer episodes will begin in September 2024 where we will discuss myriad food literacy and wellness issues as well as follow up on fall vegetable gardening methods.

I am having a hard time believing that it is August but alas it is! But it is fall garden and crop time, personally because of early season illness the fall season will be crucial for us as we will be planting many cool weather crops. Also, I have had several conversations with growers of all types and there is a lot of interest in growing at least a fall crop. It is the beginning of August and in terms of the traditional garden season here in Chicago is about 70 days left before the first frost date of around Oct. 15th some estimates that I have seen suggest that it may be pushed back to Nov 1st.

You never know but early frost is not a problem for many crops such as green leafy vegetables like turnip, mustard and collard greens, kale, spinach, etc. There are a lot of wonderful sites for information but one I recommend is Harvest to Table with their wealth of information. Check the show notes for more information about crops to grow in August.

On that note, we are distributing seeds for fall crops to many of our partners as part of the African Diaspora Crop Project. We are contemplating changing the name to the Ancestral Crop Project as we will be adding seeds from around the world to the distribution for 2025 to integrate our friends and neighbors from various ethnicities. Are you South Asian, Latinx, or any other ethnic background please give us recommendations for next years project. This year’s pilot program is a success, and I will be discussing how it went and changes for 2025 in an upcoming episode.

Here are a couple of videos about fall gardening Growfully with Jenna and Chicago Gardener. There are advantages to growing a fall garden such as cooler days and reduced pest pressure to name a couple. Embrace the fall and extended gardening opportunities.

We have talked about it before and will cover season extension in more detail in the September episode. Season extension will lengthen your growing season making it possible to grow into the winter and even in some cases next spring.

Bonus: The Gardening Channel with James Prigioni and the same site...

Orrin Williams contact: orrinw@uic.edu

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the OCEAN-HP, or the CPHP. The material and information presented here are for general information purposes only. While the podcast is designed to promote the development of healthy communities through food literacy, we offer no health advice and encourage our listeners to seek guidance from their healthcare providers.