Our trip to Monticello part two and a giveaway

When I was researching our trip to Virginia, I went off on multiple rabbit trails of things to do while we were there.  Our original plan was to go to only to Williamsburg.  While running down rabbit trails, I came across the site for the Monticello Heirloom Harvest Festival.  As Thomas had written in one of the comments, 'Monticello is the mecca for gardeners'.  How could I pass up going there and seeing the wonderful gardens? 

I continued to look at the list of things to do and realized that Sharon Astyk was one of the speakers.  Sharon is someone whose blog I started to read several year ago.  She's a peak oil writer and when I first started reading, she completely freaked me out.  As time went by, what she said started to make more sense to me.  Her writing helped me to formulate more of a plan for how my gardens, preserving and many other things would impact my life. 

Her talk was on her book A Nation of Farmers that she wrote with Aaron Newton.  It is based on many of the teaching of Thomas Jefferson, so was quite apt for  a talk at Monticello.  The tent was actually in the gardens. 

She spoke about how far many of us have come in our food supply, and how far we have to go.  She talked quite a bit about the age of farmers and the fact that for the first time ever, we will have our food raised primarily by people who did not grow up on farms.  As farmers age and their kids don't take over, newbies are taking over those farms and basically starting from scratch.  Instead of having knowledge passed down from generation to generation, we're trying to figure things out for ourselves.  Starting from scratch so to speak.

Thomas Jefferson believed that we needed to be a nation of farmers.  He felt that if we weren't intimately involved in our food production, that as a nation we would be sick and out of touch. 

I wish that I could have gone to her second talk.  It was on food preservation and based in part on another of her books called Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation.  My copy is very well worn. 

When we went to Monticello, I brought my Independence Days book with me for Sharon to sign.  Somehow, I had forgotten to bring A Nation of Farmers.  We caught up with Sharon prior to her talk and she signed my Independence Days book for me.  Hubby then watched the kids as I braved the tasting tent to get some seeds.  While there, Hubby apparently decided that I needed to have both books signed, so he bought a second copy to have her sign.  So, now I have 2. 

That brings us to the giveaway. 

You see, I now have 2 copies of this wonderful book.  I decided that this would be a wonderful opportunity for my to give this copy away.  So, to enter the giveaway, please leave a comment telling me what you would love to see most at Monticello.  I'll giveaway the book next Tuesday, so please make sure that I have a way to get in touch with you. 

Our trip to Monticello part one

Monticello was amazing.   We visited on Sept 11 for their Harvest Festival.  It was a gorgeous day up on the mountain.  The garden was on a large terrace that they had carved out of the mountainside.  On it, there were beds going the width of the terrace with walkways in between.  Most of these beds had one type of plant per bed, although there were a few mixed beds.

The tomato supports were built from wood found on the property.  They had many different kids of heirlooms growing.  One thing that surprised me, was that there were tomatoes in various stages of development.  Some were fully grown, but there were several that had clearly been planted fairly recently.  I'm not sure of their growing season, but would imagine that in the mountains, they can't be far from frost.  I wish I knew why they had grown tomatoes that clearly would never make it to fruit. 

The orchard goes down the hillside from the garden.  There were multiple kinds of trees, although I'm not sure what varieties.

These bean towers looked like fun.  If I was a child, I think I would have liked to hide inside them.

More bean towers, not fully grown. 

These squash were huge.  Behind them you can see some of the herbs grown on the property.  They had many different types of herbs, both culinary and medicinal.

I wish we could get goats.  This one was a real sweetie.  Do you think Toby would like to play with her?