Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Roanoke Island Garden Club will meet on Thursday, February 3 at Odom Hall at The Elizabethan Gardens. Refreshments will be served at 12:30 p.m., followed by a presentation by Eric Soderholm of Croatan Gardens, LLC.

Soderholm will be speaking about his experiences raising specialty and heirloom varieties of produce in Dare County. He and his wife Ladd have owned and managed their community-centered produce operation since 2016 and rely on ecological farming practices to raise healthy food at a patchwork of garden sites on Roanoke Island. Learn about raising the heirloom Hayman white sweet potato, seasonal cover crop mixtures to build soil organic matter, producing shiitake mushrooms on logs and cultivating ginger and turmeric, among other topics.

After earning a degree at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, Soderholm continued an informal education in agriculture by working under mentors at diversified, small scale farms across the east coast. In 2018, he and his wife created a farmers market in Wanchese called Secotan Market with a group of fellow producers.

“The market’s mission is to connect residents and visitors with local sources of sustenance that elevate careful stewardship of land and craft to build community,” stated a press release from RIGC. “Through staying active in their gardens and sharing this passion with market attendees, Eric works to rekindle an era where neighbors rely on each other, sharing food and goods made by our own labor.”

The club meets the first Thursday of each month. Refreshments are served at 12:30 p.m. and the meeting starts at 1 p.m. The club sponsors educational programs about all aspects of gardening and promotes a variety of community garden-related projects.

Guests are welcome at the meetings and membership is open to all interested gardeners.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.