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| Lettuce ready for planting - April 2011 |
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We've been watching the dramatic weather world-wide;
floods, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, heat waves and record snows! It
seems more important than ever to be helping people learn this basic
skill of growing food while building community ties amongst neighbors.
We are very grateful for the surge of support that has come to us since
we lost greenhouse access and the big grant we applied for. All told, we
received close to $2,000 in donations from people near and far. We have
also received materials donations and the warming weather here in the
Pacific NW has brought out droves of volunteers, both new faces and
familiar friends from last year.
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| Our garden "palette" to choose from - May 2011 |
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We have been moving forward in faith, trusting that
there is some greater purpose to recent events. We don't want to miss it
by wallowing in regret or judgment. We feel on-purpose again and happy
to honor the commitments we have for growing food for those in need,
and continuing to develop this model of gardening that builds community
and helps increase local food security. We have some exciting
prospects calling us forward and are freeing-up our energies to pursue
those. Thank you to everyone for your wise words and all the ways you
have shown us that this program matters to you. It has really helped.
A few highlights since our last post:
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| Jan with lettuce for the Food Bank |
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Harvest has begun: We've begun to harvest from
the gardens! The cool, wet spring has been very good for our lettuce
and kale. Volunteers have been taking home as much as they can eat, we
took thirty lettuce-heads to the food bank last week and another twenty
to the
Monroe Legion Hall: they
serve lunch to seniors
twice a week and appreciate the fresh vegetables we're able to provide.
The seniors take home whatever isn't used in the lunches.
This week's lettuce harvest was over 40 heads!
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| Llyn with spring's bounty! |
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Straw delivery: We are extremely grateful to Mark Frystak, a resident of Monroe who saw our recent wishlist posted in the
Tribune News
and came through with 55 bales of straw for us to begin to mulch the
gardens. Everyone agrees that the straw makes the garden look so tidy,
volunteers love the dry comfort of weeding from straw paths and the
worms, snakes and other garden-friendly wildlife appreciate the food and
shelter it provides.
We can still use much more straw, and will
continue to have need all through the season. We used about 10 tons last
year and had about a third less garden in cultivation. If you know of
anyone with bales to donate, we can probably arrange for pick-up.
Here's a link to our full wish-list.
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| A-Frame - tomato cages with mulch on the paths |
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Young people in the garden: The last day of
school is June 10 but we're already receiving lots of help from some of
the local young people. Weeding, mulching, planting seeds and
transplanting starts...all these tasks provide meaningful activity and
fun in a town without much else to do after school. One afternoon last
week we had five kids stop by; some just to visit, and others to help
out.
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| Seth and Ricardo take lettuce home to their families after helping us mulch the garden paths |
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Volunteers: We've got some new faces and many
of the core group of volunteers coming back from last year. Today we had
five people helping with the harvest and other tasks. These included
Pastor Mark Peterson from the nearby Monroe
Church of Christ, Jim
and Cindy Kitchen who are the coordinators for a garden modeled after
the Sharing Gardens, in Corvallis and Larry Winiarski who went above and
beyond the call of duty and patiently took apart our donated lawnmower
that hasn't been working at all this season. He finally sleuthed out the
problem and got her running! Now maybe our garden paths won't look
quite so shaggy. Thanks to all the rest of you who have been coming out
to help.
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| Jan, spreading mulch |
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| Jennifer and Llyn planting tomatoes |
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| Larry (the lawnmower doctor) starting seeds at the Monroe garden |
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The gardens are starting to take shape. We've been
preparing beds and planting almost every day. Here are some pictures of
the garden's progress:
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| "Butter Crunch" lettuce |
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Pepper plants interspersed with red lettuce. The lettuce will be harvested before the peppers get too big.
Much thanks too to all the people bringing us your used pots and flats. We're glad to give them new life. Phyllis Derr
has been calling us to pick up her lawn clippings in Monroe. We use
them to mulch. We've received financial donations since our last post
from Jennie and Kris Rhoads, Craig Erken, Karen Josephson, Angee Costa and Chuck and Betty Conway. And thanks to Steve Rose who,
once again has grown hundreds of tomato starts which he gives away to
food-bank recipients, volunteers and provides us with the surplus at the
Sharing Gardens.
It looks like we'll have quite a few extra tomatoes to give away. First come, first served. Stop on by the Monroe garden during volunteer times if you'd like to take some home to your own garden.
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