Growing fresh fruits and vegetables comes as second nature to the family members of Delvin Farms in College Grove, just outside of Franklin. After all, Hank and Cindy Delvin celebrate 40 years of farming in 2012.

In the late 1990s, the Delvins began the process of turning their 140 acres on the Harpeth River into a certified organic farm. Around that time, their son Hank Jr. and his family returned to the farm, and shortly after, their daughter Amy rejoined the farm crew.

These days, the Delvins, now members of Tennessee Farm Fresh, sell both heirloom and traditional produce at many local farmers markets, restaurants, grocery stores and through their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Members of the Delvins’ CSA sign up in the springtime to pick up their shares – boxes packed with fresh, seasonal produce – weekly or biweekly throughout the regular growing season (though they do offer off-season options as well). Up front, members can learn which crops will be planted for that year. With more than 80 varieties of certified organic produce – from kale, broccoli and cabbage to strawberries, peaches and watermelons to squash, potatoes and garlic – they are sure to find many items to tempt their taste buds.

CSA members can conveniently stop by the farm to pick up their share, or visit one of the 14 drop-off sites in the greater Nashville and surrounding areas.

Not ready to make the CSA commitment? The Delvins also sell additional produce at a number of farmers markets throughout the Nashville area.

“Our family strives to provide a fresh and safe product to your family,” says Cindy Delvin. “When you purchase produce from us, you know where your food came from, and you can be assured in the quality and care that was used in producing our products.”

Visit www.delvinfarms.com for more information on how to sign up for the CSA program or where to find more of Delvin Farms produce in your area. Buy locally and enjoy products you love, fresh from the farm.

For the 17th annual contest, the categories are (1) Tennessee, (2) Home and (3) Farm. Category winners each receive $100, and the grand-prize winner receives $200.

Tennessee Farm Bureau members can enter one photo in each of the three categories in our Tennessee Farm Bureau Photo Contest entry form or through our print entry form in the magazine. Entries will be accepted through Aug. 1.

For the 17th annual contest, the categories are (1) Tennessee, (2) Home and (3) Farm. Category winners each receive $100, and the grand-prize winner receives $200. Farm Bureau members can enter one photo per category. The categories, especially Tennessee, are open to interpretation – so enter any high-quality photo that you feel fit the subject.

You can enter online here, by mailing in either the entry form in your magazine or printing it below (click here and press print).

Reviving Linden With Art
Art became an integral part of the revitalization of Linden. Today, it’s virtually everywhere you look. Bright, colorful murals replace faded facades on buildings, and lively images cover trash cans along streets throughout the town. Perry County residents hope the establishment of this new, thriving arts district will attract tourists, spur economic development and reinvigorate their community. [Read more: Blooming Arts Festival in Linden, Tennessee]

VisionPerry, a summer youth art program, engaged local young people to create these vivid works of art. Working with 11 professional artists over the course of eight weeks in 2009, 20 program participants created a diverse mixture of public art including paintings, pottery, glass mosaics, assemblage and environmental sculptures. All this hard work resulted in the new Linden Arts & Historic District, a magnet for visitors and residents alike.

Restoring a Piece of History
However, Linden’s attractions go beyond artwork. With the support of Mayor Jim Azbill, VisionPerry Director Michael Dumont and his wife, Kathy, decided to purchase the dilapidated Staley Hotel in 2007. Their mission: to restore the old downtown building to its former glory.

“Even though the Staley had not been operated in 20 years, I fell in love with the architecture of the hotel,” says Dumont, a former real estate developer. “We knew it could be a signature building in the area and an asset to the community.

Renamed in honor of the county’s namesake, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the beautifully restored Commodore Hotel Linden is now a historic downtown centerpiece. A grand fireplace, high ceilings and crown moldings opulently adorn the hotel lobby, while large windows and exposed brick walls elegantly decorate the guest rooms.

“Preserving a piece of Americana built during simpler times was a real goal,” Dumont says. “During restoration, we attempted to retain the original character of the building while adding 21st-century amenities.”

One such amenity, the hotel restaurant, the Dumonts transformed into a casual, artsy eatery offering a selection of hand-cut meats, fresh baked breads, desserts and local produce.

Handcrafted Gifts
No visit to Linden would be complete without a stop at the Buffalo River Artisans Co-Operative (BRAC) gallery. A venue for local artists and craftspeople to display their wares, the BRAC gallery carries many unique items such as hand-woven rugs, pottery, paintings and much more.

“Our customers can feel confident when they make a purchase here,” says BRAC member Teresa Yoder. “They know who made their item and have a chance to speak to the artist, in most cases. Your special gift or personal item can be even more unique when you, the customer, are involved from the beginning to the end of the process.”

Mulch. You know it’s good for your landscape, but with so many choices, how do you choose which one to use? Different mulches have different attributes, so I base my selection by determining my most critical landscape need that mulch can satisfy. Any mulch will benefit your landscape by helping soil to retain moisture and by moderating soil temperatures, but different mulches will also help you in different ways.

For serious gardeners who want to see the plants in their landscape have maximum performance, an organic-rich soil is a must. The best mulch for making your landscape look neat and tidy with a well-defined design, while improving your landscape’s soil, is well-composted organic mulch such as shredded hardwood or pine bark. Composted leaves, grass clippings, peanut or rice hulls, and other green waste can also work. The more fine textured the mulch, the more quickly it will break down and be consumed into your soil, thus enriching its organic matter content and nutrient value. The coarser and larger the particle size, the slower the mulch will decompose, but the longer it will last as decorative mulch.

A variety of bark types and colors are readily available to appeal to almost everyone’s taste. By spreading the recommended 1- to 3-inch layer over your landscape beds, you will most likely find that a fine-textured mulch needs to be applied twice a year. This is not always cheap and is pretty labor intensive, but it is the best way to build your garden soil and maximize plant performance.

When I moved into a 20-year-old home with a landscape that had black plastic in all of the garden beds with super-sized pine bark chunks as the mulch, I quickly removed all the plastic and pine bark. I don’t think the previous owners ever had to mulch because the black plastic prevented the bark from making contact with the soil and decomposing. That’s not a good situation if you are a gardener like me. I’m happy to report that after six years of mulching with a finely shredded hardwood bark, I have fabulous soil!

Great soil allows me to grow just about any plant my heart desires. My soil has improved so much that last fall I made the decision to switch to a type of mulch that enhanced the reseeding of the flowering annuals and perennials I like to grow. I’m learning that the older I get, the less I want to have to plant each spring in the garden. I have been purposely planting flowering annuals and perennials that are great for seeding and volunteering in the garden each year. A coarsely-textured inorganic mulch like a mixture of sand and gravel is the best for maximizing seed germination in the spring. I rarely purchase flowering plants anymore. My chore has become thinning out the volunteers. Many make a welcomed gift to my gardening friends.

Gravel, stone, chipped brick and volcanic rock will not break down and enrich the soil habitat, but they can make an attractive mulch. And, of course, they are long lasting. Raking once a year and freshening areas with new materials is all that’s needed to keep the garden looking good.
How about pine-needle mulch? I love that it’s easy to handle and spread, and makes for a good winter-insulating mulch. Pine-needle mulch is great to use on container gardens in the winter and around pansies and other winter annuals like snapdragons, ornamental cabbage, and kale and in fall and winter veggie gardens. Somewhat slow to decompose, this mulch might give you a year of use out of it in the landscape, especially if you apply a 4-inch-thick layer. It won’t affect the pH of your soil either.

Have you heard of rubber mulch? The media has hyped the use of this recycled product. There is only one place where I’d recommend using rubber mulch: in a playground for children. Other than being recycled and a soft, cushiony and non-prickly surface cover, rubber mulch is not an environmentally friendly product. Like black plastic in the landscape, it will not decompose and enrich the soil. Rubber mulch also easily blows and washes away in heavy storms.

In the end, most of us like to use a mulch that suits our needs, both attractive and economical (that is, will last as long as possible in the landscape). No matter which mulch you choose, be sure to apply about a 3-inch layer to reap the benefits of retaining moisture and moderating soil temperatures.

Country legend Dale Evans’ (wife of Roy Rogers) specialty was this simple salad recipe, which her daughter Cheryl Rogers-Barnett contributed to the All-American Cowboy Grill cookbook.

G-G’s Salad
For every four people:
1 clove garlic
1 rounded teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
1 lemon, cut in half
Leaf oregano, enough to cover lemon juice
1 medium head romaine lettuce
1 small bunch green onions, chopped
Extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil

Squeeze the garlic with a garlic press into the bottom of a wooden bowl, and cover it with the salt and sugar. Squeeze the juice from the lemon into the bowl. Cover with the oregano. Let stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Tear (do not cut) the lettuce into bite-size pieces, and drop them on top of the ingredients in the bowl. Sprinkle the green onions over the lettuce. Drizzle the olive oil over the lettuce, starting in the center of the bowl and working outward in circles. Toss the ingredients from the bottom up. Serve with your favorite garlic bread.

Celebrate 100 years of scouting with a new permanent exhibit honoring Girl Scouts at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. This collection of Girl Scout memorabilia, documents, awards, photos and vintage uniforms opens March 24, in time to honor the 100th birthday of the Girl Scout organization, founded in 1912.

The Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians will co-sponsor a special day of presentations and guests for the exhibit’s opening.

Longtime Girl Scout leader, historian and author Joyce Maienschein donated the items in the exhibit, which illustrates the club’s century-long history with a focus on the troops from the area.

Follow the exhibit from the beginning with the story of the first Girl Scout troop in Oak Ridge, founded in 1943 during World War II. Elementary school teacher Elsie Novy had to obtain permission from the Army to start the troop.

For information on ticket prices and hours, visit the museum’s website, www.childrensmuseumofoakridge.org, or call (865) 482-1074.

The annual Blooming Arts Festival, slated for March 23-24, 2012, celebrates the beauty, culture, and revitalization of Linden and Perry County. Featuring a wide range of family-friendly events, the festival offers fine art displays, craft demonstrations, musical performances, children’s activities and much more.

“[It's] just great days of fun,” says Michael Dumont, festival organizer. “Our downtown flourishes.”

Restaurants and street vendors provide a diverse sampling of local food, and guided tours proudly display newly revitalized areas of Linden, such as the downtown arts district, the new Heritage and Visitor Center, and the restored Commodore Hotel Linden. Town officials, including Mayor Jim Azbill, greet visitors each year and show off the town’s new attractions.

In 2011, nearly 100 exhibiting local and regional artists presented an eclectic mix of wood carvings, pottery, stained glass, weavings, jewelry, paintings, quilts, dolls and gourds. Approximately 10,000 people attended the event, but festival organizers expect even more in 2012 as the event expands to two days.

Find out more about the event at www.facebook.com/bloomingartsfestival.

Base Camp Leasing provides an online central location for landowners and hunters to connect and contract the leasing for hunting rights. The website allows hunters to view land descriptions, annual leasing prices, topographical maps and photographs of the private land available to them. Base Camp serves as the broker, handling all of the marketing and contractual details for the landowner; it also retains a percentage of of the lease amount.

The company covers 24 states across the South and Midwest and has plans to continue expanding. To learn more about Base Camp Leasing and to view properties, visit www.basecampleasing.com.

One great event for hunting enthusiasts takes place in Pulaski on Saturday, April 7, 2012. Put on by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Federation, the Governor’s One-Shot Turkey Hunt coincides with Pulaski’s annual Gobbler’s Gala Festival on the Square.

When students returned to school at the start of a new school year, they needed crayons, glue, paper and markers – school supplies many families couldn’t afford.

Across the state, 4-H members stepped in to help, amassing more than 850 items to be placed in backpacks for students. Members from West Tennessee gathered glue and hand sanitizer, Middle Tennessee 4-H’ers collected crayons and markers, and East Tennessee members brought in packets of notebook paper and pencils.

Together, the 4-H program helped its fellow youth and their families recover. To learn more about getting involved in Tennessee’s 4-H programs, visit http://4h.tennessee.edu.