Join Day of Caring volunteers on the morning of Sept. 21 at the McKinley Rose Garden. Volunteers are needed from 9 a.m. to noon at the rose garden, which is managed by local nonprofit Friends of East Sacramento. Projects will include weeding, raking and deadheading roses. While some equipment and garden supplies will be provided, volunteers are asked to bring a pair of garden gloves and pruning shears if they have them. Coffee, juice and snacks will be provided. Volunteers will meet at the benches in the rose garden located at the corner of H and 33rd streets. RSVPs are requested, but drop-in help will also be appreciated. To sign up, visit yourlocalunitedway.org/day-caring or contact Friends of East Sacramento at friendsofeastsac@aol.com or (916) 452-8011. Day of Caring brings together volunteers from businesses, local nonprofits, schools, community centers and other entities to work on service projects that will have a positive impact in our neighborhoods.
EDIBLE GARDENS TOUR The Edible Gardens Tour, an annual fundraising event by Soroptimist International of Sacramento, will be held Saturday, Sept. 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tour will showcase six East Sacramento gardens where fruits, vegetables and herbs have been incorporated into the landscaping. Each garden will also feature music by Sacramento Symphonic Winds and UC master gardeners who will be on hand to answer questions. Food writer, home gardener and longtime East Sacramento resident
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Susann Hadler came up with the idea for the Edible Gardens Tour when she noticed an increasing awareness about locally sourced food. “I started seeing so much interest in including edibles in landscapes, rather than just having it be flowers and shrubs,” Hadler says. “I think more people are open to the concept of growing food in their own backyard, even if it’s just one raised flower bed or a couple pots of tomatoes.” Bobbin and Patrick Mulvaney are two of the East Sacramento residents opening their home for this year’s tour. In addition to plants, Bobbin has decorated her backyard garden with decorative pieces created out of broken plates. “She’s put together some great mosaic patterns, and she has flowers that are good pollinators that attract bees and butterflies to the garden,” Hadler says. “They’re going to have a big canopy of dried Serrano and Poblano peppers strung across the entryway to their garden, so it should make quite a nice, eye-catching canopy as you walk into the yard.” Other home gardeners on this year’s tour will include a botanist who has incorporated California-native plants into her edible landscape, and a young couple with outdoor furniture that was repurposed from recycled items. Tickets to the Edible Gardens Tour are $20 in advance and $25 the day of the event, and may be purchased at Green Acres Nursery, East Sacramento Hardware, Talini’s Nursery, Fair Oaks Boulevard Nursery, The Plant Foundry or online at ediblegardenssac. org. Children 12 and under may attend for free. Proceeds will benefit
Bobbin Mulvaney's garden will be featured on the Edible Gardens Tour. Brewing as Porchlight Brewing Co., located at 866 57th St. The California State Fair Commercial Craft Beer Competition judging took place over four days in June. Judges considered more than 1,600 beers from AWARD-WINNING BREWS 230 California-based breweries in 62 style-based categories. Sacramento-area East Sac-based craft brewery breweries placed in the top three in Porchlight Brewing Co. fared well more than half of the 62 categories, with in this year’s California State Fair El Dorado Hills-based Mraz Brewing Commercial Craft Beer Competition, winning one gold ribbon and two silvers. Company taking home the top prize for Brewery of the Year. Even more impressive is the fact that two of those wins came in extremely competitive categories. LEAVING THE NEST The big Porchlight victory came After five years of operating in East for All Haze Is Not Created Equal, a Sacramento, Parrot Planet on J Street juicy double IPA brewed with tropical closed in mid-July and moved to Citrus hops and a little bit of lactose, which Heights. Ongoing construction near won gold over 80 other beers in the the East Sacramento location was highly trendy New England-Style IPA apparently a motivating factor for the category. Porchlight’s Hardnox, a move. West Coast-style double IPA featuring Parrot Planet, which not only sells, Ekuanot and Mosaic hops, placed second among 84 entries in the popular Double/ raises and boards the colorful, tropical birds, but also offers training, grooming Triple IPA category. A third victory and parrot-related retail items, is now was claimed by GTFO, a Dortmunder located at 5910 Auburn Blvd. Export lager that placed second in the Pale European Beer category. The victories came almost one year after new owner Manuel Cardoza rebranded the former Twelve Rounds SIS programs for at-risk women and children, including St. John’s Program for Real Change and Roberts Family Development Center.