Canadian Organic Growers -Hamilton Chapter
 July 2007 Newsletter

 Summer is well into hot, humid weather and growing things. My garden
 is providing green onions, beans, muscling mix, arugula, a variety of
 herbs and oak leaf lettuce. The carrots are up and I’ve already eaten
 tiny ones as I thin. The rabbits feasted on beet tops and lettuce
 until I realized why they weren’t growing and put a chicken wire
 guard over the top. Next year the whole garden will have to have a
 rabbit proof fence. The garlic is browning on top, almost ready for
 harvest.

 The Kerr Street Organic Market in Oakville is thriving as a market
 but also as a fun meeting place where people can sit and listen to
 music as they munch on the chef’s creation of the day. The volunteers
 are getting time to breath and enjoy the market as the start up
 glitches iron themselves out and everyone relaxes.
 COG-Hamilton has a combined COG and market info table. We have talked to  more people in the 4 weeks the market has been running than we
 usually reach in a whole season of info tables. People are
 interested, some educated, but not all and always supportive. We hope
 the membership grows from the contacts we make.
 

On Saturday July 7 the market and COG-Hamilton honoured Howard Wills on his  77th birthday with a public presentation of a bag of produce from the
 market. Howard is there as a COG volunteer every Saturday morning at
 7 a.m. to help set up and his history with COG goes back to the
 founding group. Thanks Howard for your years of service.
 

Thanks too to the many other COG volunteers who are at the info table
 each week or helping with other market chores. Emily and Nicole
 Parker are weekly COG volunteers who not only help with the info
 table, sell their herbs but also act as market volunteers. They even
 camped out on our back lawn last Friday night to be ready bright and
 early Saturday morning. I see the next generation of COG coming up!

 As of July 7th the market has featured 2 COG farmer members as farmer
 of the week. Several COG members and market volunteers picked
 strawberries on Friday at Archie Bomberry’s farm and on June 23
 Archie and his strawberries held centre stage. On July 7th Pat
 Kozowyk not only sold out her raspberries by 9:30 a.m. but she was
 interviewed on stage about her crop and growing organically. The
 raspberry cheesecake was heavenly. Thanks to all of you for helping
 to spread the word. To those who don’t know the market it is worth a
 visit. I just came back from Vancouver where I visited Granville Island Market.
Jean Burbidge.