Why mow when you can grow?  Maintaining lawns wastes precious resources such as water, oil, time, energy, and money, and damages the earth.  Converting your lawn into a food garden is good for you…and good for the planet.

Eat Your Yard! began as a special project of Skagit Beat the Heat in November 2008.  Volunteers are working to re-create lawns into food gardens by offering no-till workshops, garden classes, yard tours and more.

COOKBOOK READY – CALLING ALL LOVERS OF LOCAL FOOD! Serving the Skagit Harvest, our new community cookbook is done and on sale now!  We’ve created a unique book, with over 100 seasonally-organized recipes, “must-have” growing and food storage tips, profiles of local gardeners, a harvest calendar, and a resource section showcasing the bounty grown right here at home.

Books are $20 from Eat Your Yard and selected local outlets, including Azusa Farm and Gardens and Skagit Valley Coop in Mt Vernon, and Ace Hardware and Watermark Books in Anacortes.  All proceeds benefit Eat Your Yard to help our community build a more resilient food system.

To order, mail $20 plus $4.95 shipping and handling for the first book, $1 s/h for any additional books, to Skagit Beat the Heat at PO Box 1122, Anacortes, WA 98221, and thank you for your support!

COMING UP! Here’s the schedule for our next workshops, 6:45-8:15 PM, at the Anacortes Library (free – bring a friend!):

Aug. 24:  Keep Your Garden Growing! Ready to put your garden to bed?  Not so fast!  Eat Your Yard favorite Peter Heffelfinger will cover crops that can be grown in late August and September, the “second spring” for those fortunate enough to live in a mild maritime climate.  He’ll also discuss ways to protect your overwintering greens.

Sept. 28:  The Year-Round Vegetable Garden:  Fresh Food from January through December Celebrate Skagit Valley’s new homegrown cookbook, Serving the Skagit Harvest!  Meet the veteran gardeners profiled in its pages who’ll share must-have growing tips and favorite ways to serve up your garden bounty. If you’ve loved the Eat Your Yard workshops, come and buy a book—all proceeds go to grow a more resilient local food system! Or just come and enjoy an evening focused on the gift of fresh food—year round and right in our own backyard.

It may be a short trip to the store, but did you know food travels an average 1500 miles to get to that grocery?  It takes a lot of energy to grow, package, refrigerate and transport that food.  And the fossil fuels used to do all that are becoming ever more costly, and dangerous to the health of our planet.

So why buy food that 1) is bred for long-distance transport rather than nutrition; 2) is exposed to chemical pesticides; and 3) is dependent on the fossil fuels that drive global warming?

Grow your own – it just makes sense!

If you would like to be part of this effort, we’d love to hear from you!  E-mail evelynadams1@verizon.net or call 360-293-4048.