URI Master Gardeners open house set for this Saturday

Posted 8/14/14

Every two years, URI Master Gardeners hold an open house at their Demonstration Garden at East Farm and with the rising interest in growing one’s own food, they expect a sizable turnout when they …

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URI Master Gardeners open house set for this Saturday

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Every two years, URI Master Gardeners hold an open house at their Demonstration Garden at East Farm and with the rising interest in growing one’s own food, they expect a sizable turnout when they hold the 2014 version on Saturday, Aug. 16.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature a variety of activities, including cooking demonstrations featuring vegetables, children’s events, Ask A Master Gardener booth for dispensing information, soil testing and informal tours of the East Farm complex.

Unlike other Master Gardener events at East Farm, there will be no plant sales. The only items to be on sale are the URI Master Gardener cookbooks in a booth that will feature samples of foods prepared by Master Gardeners using the recipes in the book. The books, now in limited supply, will sell for $20.

Three professional chefs, Normand Leclair, founder of the Red Rooster Tavern, cookbook author, caterer and culinary instructor; Branden Read, chef and part-owner of The Celestial Café in Exeter, and John Sweeney, chef at the University Club on the URI Campus, will give one-hour demonstrations each. Each demonstration will include sample tastings.

The demonstration schedule is: Read, 10:30-11:30; Sweeney, 11:30-12:30; and Leclair, 12:30-1:30.

The vegetable garden includes children’s stations where they can observe a rainbow garden, vegetables growing in a glass display, and enjoy garden-related games.

Master Gardeners will have a kiosk where people can get their gardening questions answered.

In the 5,000-square foot garden, Master Gardeners will demonstrate different growing techniques and new trends in growing vegetables and herbs. Information will be available on preventing plant diseases and pest damage. Irrigation experts will explain the garden’s unique drip irrigation system, which saves water and helps prevent diseases.

Tours will be available of a new Giving Garden focused on producing high volume vegetables for local food pantries.

There is no admission fee and parking is free on the interior of the farm. There is no rain date.

While the open house is being held, the South Kingstown Farmers’ Market will be in operation from 8 a.m. until noon at the front of the farm.

URI’s East Farm is located on Route 108 in Kingston.

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