A new blog for 2012

Thanks so much for your interest and involvement in our annual Garlic Mustard Challenges! If you’re looking for information and updates on the 2012 Challenge (which will be kicking off on Wednesday, April 11th), please visit our new blog at http://www.garlicmustardchallenge.wordpress.com.

Thanks so much, and Happy Pulling!

And the winner is…

…the West Michigan Cluster, with a whopping 52,258.75 lbs!

Together this spring, we pulled 266,012 pounds of garlic mustard from our woods and natural areas. Thank you for all of your hard work this spring! It takes a lot of people with a lot of different skills to accomplish something so huge. Whether you were pulling in your own back yard, telling your neighbor about the plant, teaching in classrooms or in the woods, leading events or spreading the word about workdays, THANK YOU!

While the West Michigan Cluster won the Cluster Cup this year, something happened this year that has never happened before. We actually had more pounds reported from Out-of-Cluster participants than we got from any one Cluster. Out-of-Cluster competitors joined forces from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Missouri to report a spectacular 75,313.25 pounds! More people are hearing about the Stewardship Network and want to join in what we’re doing, which means sharing more knowledge over an even greater area. It’s really exciting! 

Thank you all for your participation in the 2011 Challenge. All of the work you’ve done this spring is important and will be postively effecting our natural areas for many years to come!

Check out how all the Clusters wrapped up the Challenge season, and make sure you guys all pat yourselves and each other on the back from making the 2o11 Challenge such a phenomenal success. Cheers!

Lisa, Katie, Kara, Erin and Brandon

8.5 hours to go!

We’re coming into the final hours to report your pounds for the 2011 Garlic Mustard Challenge – and what an exciting season it’s been! The plants had a slow start with the late spring, but you pullers were out early getting a jump on them. Not only did you get an early start, but you stayed strong and got stronger as the season went on!

As of yesterday, our total pounds pulled was up to 249,066! And, more reports have been coming in since then. Remember to keep reporting through midnight tonight to count towards our final total!

You may notice that there’s no graph up this week. Since we’re close to the end, and there are still more reports coming in, we’re going to hold off giving you the final numbers until NEXT FRIDAY, July 15th. Be sure to check back then!

Please share your garlic mustard stories and pictures with us – we’d love to pass them on to the whole Network! Email your before-and-after shots, your team photos, and any tales from the field to
 GarlicMustard@StewardshipNetwork.org.

The Huron Arbor Cluster returned the Cluster Cup to us this January at the conference – who will take it home in 2011?

Out-of-Cluster Contenders

2011 marks the 4th run of our Garlic Mustard Challenge. Like many events, support for the Challenge has grown from year to year as more people hear about it and get involved. It’s particularly interesting to note how much support has grown for the Challenge outside of our Clusters.

In 2008, for the first run of the Challenge, 18,436 pounds were reported from outside of our (at the time) five Clusters. The next year, we saw a slight dip in that number to 11,090 pounds. At the time, we had just launched the Lakeplain and ThrEE County Clusters, so people who had been reporting from the Metro Detroit and down river areas, as well as Shiawassee, Genesee and Lapeer counties, were now reporting for different Clusters.

In 2010 our O.O.C. folks made a huge jump forward, reporting 35,575 pounds and coming in at 4th place. That jump in numbers comes from us being able to focus some concentrated time on outreach, as the Challenge that year was funded by a grant through Sustain Our Great Lakes.

This year, many of those Out-of-Cluster reporters have returned! As of last week, O.O.C. had pulled 40,679 pounds, placing them in second place behind West Michigan. And they’ve had some more big reports coming in the past couple days! They’re continued, and growing involvement is a good indicator to us of just how useful it is for our partners to feel that their efforts are linked with something larger. Thank you to all of our supporters and participants!

Will O.O.C. win the 2011 Garlic Mustard Challenge? Will West Michigan be able to hold the lead for the next 32 hours? Has the two-year Champion, the Huron Arbor Cluster, been sandbagging and saving up their pounds to report on the last day?

Make your report by 12 midnight ET tomorrow (Friday, July 8th). Your pounds could determine the winner for the 2011 Challenge!

Endangered species spotted while pulling garlic mustard

We’re coming up close to the end of the 2011 Challenge, and I just wanted to give you all another quick reminder of what we’ve been working towards over the past three months (wow the time flies)!

Preventing invasive plants like garlic mustard from taking over an area and creating a monoculture means we’re protecting the species that have evolved in those unique and delicate ecosystems. Some of these species are already endangered, which makes your efforts to maintain their habitat that much more important. Here are some of the species sited by participants during pulls this spring!

Blanchard’s Cricket Frog(Image thanks to the Michigan DNR webpage)

Chuck Pearson spotted one of these guys while pulling garlic mustard around a fen in Lenawee County, MI.

Karner Blue Butterfly (Image thanks to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website; Phil Delphey)

Karner Blue Butterflies were spotted by Sarah Pregitzer while she was pulling in Newaygo County, MI.

 Michigan Monkey-Flower (thanks to the Michigan Nature Association blog).

Darcy Rutkowski and Becky Hill both spotted Michigan Monkey-flower, in Mackinac and Leelanau Counties, MI.

Thanks for everything you’ve done this spring to protect these and other species by protecting their habitat and pulling garlic mustard! Remember, we’re closing in on the end of the 2011 Challenge, so be sure to get your reports in by midnight on Friday, July 8th to be counted in our official tally this year.

A Garlic Mustard Cocktail to Celebrate, Plus a Few More Good Recipes

When the Garlic Mustard Challenge was just beginning, I posted a few garlic mustard food recipes. Now that the Challenge is coming to a close, there’s no better time to share a garlic mustard cocktail recipe to celebrate all our hard work in the field!

Garlic Mustard Cocktail:

1 oz Brugal white rum
¾ oz blanco tequila
½ oz creme de moutard*
2 dashes orange bitters
3 garlic mustard leaves, muddled

*Creme de Moutard:

(1) Place 1 cup cleaned garlic mustard leaves into 1 cup pure grain alcohol. Let sit 18 hours, then strain and set aside.

(2) Chop 1 cup garlic mustard roots, cover with 1 cup water, and bring slowly to a simmer, but do not boil. Add 1 cup granulated sugar and stir to combine. Let cool one hour and strain.

(3) Combine the alcohol infusion with 1 cup 2 oz of the syrup. Let sit overnight to allow the flavors to marry.

Stir. Strain. Serve garnished with a floating garlic mustard leaf.

In my quest to find more cocktail recipes, I came across a wonderful lamp chop recipe, and potato salad recipe! Enjoy!

Garlic Mustard Encrusted Lamb Chops
Serves: 6                        Preheat oven at: N.A.

Ingredients:

Garlic mustard greens
Fresh rosemary
Fresh chives
Fresh thyme
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 lamb chops
2 tbsp
Pasteurized egg yolk
Pinch of salt and pepper
1-cup fresh breadcrumbs

Directions:  In a food processor, add garlic mustard, rosemary, chives, thyme, Dijon mustard, pasteurized egg yolk, salt and pepper, and breadcrumbs.  Pulse machine until blended well.  Mark 2 lamb chops on grill.  Let set, then add mixture to lamb, and bake at a desired temperature.

From: Steve Wecker, the Iron Bridge Wine Co.

Warm Potato Salad with Wilted Garlic Mustard Greens
Time required: 45 minutes                 Serves: 6                   Preheat oven at: 350

Ingredients:

2 Red bliss potatoes (quartered)
½ cup Caramelized onions
¼ cup rendered bacon
½ cup garlic mustard greens
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Directions:  Quarter potatoes, and toss in canola oil.  Roast for about 30 minutes.  In a sauté pan, heat bacon. Add onions and potatoes, and add salt and pepper to taste.  Deglaze with vinegar, and toss in garlic mustard.  Serve warm.

From: James Jennings Belmont – 2004 recipe

Wash it all down with the garlic mustard cocktail, and give yourself a pat on the back for all your hard work!

Week 11 – West Michigan Cluster Does It Again!

For the eleventh week of the Garlic Mustard Challenge, the West Michigan Cluster remains in the lead with 51,673 lbs pulled! In second for the first time this year is Out-of-Cluster with 40,679 pounds! Great job! Trailing by a hair in third is Huron Arbor with 39,257 pounds.

Cumulatively we’ve pulled 214,921 pounds!!

We have just one more week, so keep up the hard work if you’re somewhere you can still pull, and report your pulls one last time!

 

Week 10 – West Michigan Stays on Top

West Michigan has been able to keep a steady lead in front of its competitors for six straight weeks! That might be a record! West Michigan has pulled 49,528 pounds, followed by Huron Arbor with 35,938, and Headwaters with 26,956 pounds.

Our totals for this week are 182,067 pounds! 

We’re getting closer and closer to the end of the Challenge, and we may bump up against the end of the pulling season even sooner. If you’re still pulling, make sure the pods are green and aren’t popping before you start working. And if you’ve already wrapped up your pulling for the season, make sure you’ve reported all your bags to the Garlic Mustard Challenge!

 Great job everyone, and keep pulling! Continue to report your pulls!

“Weight Classes” in next year’s Challenge

As we’re getting towards the end of June, the Garlic Mustard Challenge 2011 is coming to a close and we’re already looking ahead to next year’s Challenge!

Great work is done all across the region and between our Clusters during the Challenge, but it does always seem like the work of some Clusters gets a little more recognition than others. It’s hard to ignore West Michigan and Huron Arbor duking it out for the lead the past four years.

We’re looking for input on an idea we’ve got for our 2012 Challenge. What if we were to split our Clusters into “weight classes” so that there are multiple competitions? Our thought is, it’s like high school wrestling. The 120lb guy and the 200lb guy are both great wrestlers, but you don’t put them up against each other. Plus, it means two Clusters have the chance to win the Cluster Cup!

What do you think? Do you like the idea or not? How would you divide the Clusters (by population, by number of reports, some other way)? Thoughts and suggestions are encouraged – we’d love to create a dialogue about this! Post your reply here.

Week 9 – West Michigan Cluster Remains in Lead, and We’ve Reached Our Goal!

The top three are still the same with West Michigan Cluster remaining in the lead with 48,104 pounds! Huron Arbor Cluster in second with 34,238 pounds, and Headwaters Cluster in third with 25,156 pounds! Will West Michigan remain in the lead and snatch this year’s Cluster Cup from last year’s winner Huron Arbor? Only time will tell!

What’s even better is that we’ve now reached and surpassed our Challenge goal! GREAT WORK! Our goal for this Challenge was to cumulatively pull 150,000 pounds of garlic mustard and as of this week we’ve pulled 161,182 pounds!!

Keep, keep pulling! (one of these days I’m going to make up a little ditty about pulling garlic mustard!) Any ideas?

Also, if there’s any garlic mustard you’re still sitting on, make sure to get it reported before July 8th to have them count in our official reckoning for the the Garlic Mustard Challenge 2011!

Report your pulls, find your Cluster!