Today I'd love to bend your ear for a few moments about our special little 'town'- Manton, CA. It is more of a community really, though we do have a Mayor, who happened to be my daughter two years ago at the age of 10!

With a population of only about 500 we have at least 6 non-profit and community organizations. I'm not sure how that compares per capita to other towns and cities but I think it's a real testament to Manton and the willingness we have to pull together.

As you can see, this weekend we are donating 1/2 of the proceeds from all orders to Manton Parks Community Center. Our Community Center is only a year old and was opened on the campus of our closed elementary school. Our journey to reclaiming the campus for the community can be read about in a recent article by the North State Parent Magazine.

Like most non-profits Manton Parks needs funds. There is a massive amount of deferred maintenance that needs to be done in addition to just keeping the lights on. We have had very generous support from community members and the McConnel Foundation of Redding, CA.

Currently we are raising funds to begin work on an accessible trail system to link different aspects of the 17 acre campus. This includes Manton's museum that is housed in the original school house dating over 100 years old.

Of course there is a community garden we are developing and the youth program, Club Mustang, is opening a seed library soon. These programs are run by Manton Education Council and both my kids are very active participants.

If you are looking for starts this spring consider coming to Manton Parks, May 4th at 10 am-1 pm, for our annual plant start sale to benefit youth programming.

Onto the Garden: It's starting to warm up in northern CA and feeling like spring has arrived. This is a great time to plant your spring salad garden and first round of carrots, beets and turnips. This is also a good time to start tomatoes and peppers on heat mats. Just be sure to get all your seedlings direct light as soon as they germinate!

Thanks for your support and feel free to forward this email to any garden friends you have!

Kalan

As a bonus, all orders this weekend will be entered in a drawing to win a $50 gift card for seeds! I'll announce that next week!