Colors abound in the long row of tomato plants as red, yellow and orange cherry tomatoes ripen and heirloom varieties such as mortgage lifters and san marzano weigh heavy on their drooping branches. Rows of deep burgundy beets are yielding dozens weekly and the green beans just won’t quit. Multi-colored carrots will be ready soon but we are giving them a little more time to lengthen. Eggplants are late coming but look super healthy. Our kale patch has been a hearty producer, sturdy, steady and strong like the bodies it will nourish. The cucumbers are beyond huge. New zucchini, spinach, radishes and lettuces are coming in for a second round to keep us going to late October if we are lucky. The soil has been rich and taking it easy on us. We have been lucky to be free of pests so far.

For the first time, a week ago, it was my turn to take our pickings downtown to the Food Bank and get to personally meet the folks down there who are working so hard. They were so delightful and appreciative of my boxes of vegetables. They tried to give me some peanut butter ice cream in exchange and I laughed and begged off and finally accepted a bottle of water which tasted so good after a long stint in the garden. I watched some people shopping in the small store which is only part of what this organization does to help feed the hungry. All vegetables and dairy products are free and shelf items sell at a very nominal amount, mostly $1.50.  Families were carefully taking stock of everything and making their decisions. It felt good to see the end game in this process and know that the effort is worthwhile.

Pastry chef, Heather, with very capable leadership and a touch of good old-fashioned guilt therapy,  has marshalled a handful of us who now dedicate a few hours consistently to the fun stuff – the harvest!  We’re not quite able to keep up with everything, especially the weeds, but it is not as bad as it got midsummer when we were saved by the volunteer efforts of Christ English Lutheran Church.  Ruth Olson, editor of the Fulton Neighborhood News has been instrumental in keeping the neighborhood aware of our progress by writing a few articles and it resulted this week in a new volunteer from the area who loves to garden and wants to help us out! Thank you Ruth.

Of course I am always grateful to Travis Dahlke at Hands for Harvest for inspiring this journey to begin with.

mb

Our new Wine Section will feature information about wine, on classes and who are friends are in the wine community and of course our up to date wine and beer lists.

They all descended cheerfully on our mess of a garden to help our effort! How lucky is that? I hate to tell you how much we needed their work. This first year has been a struggle finding enough volunteers to keep up.   In fact we weren’t keeping up with it.  The owners of the property, Max and Kelly, have had to put up with an eyesore of late because there was so much weeding and tending to be done.

In three hours time, all of us worked hard to really tackle the weeding. We staked up tomato plants that were heaving under the weight of branches and heavy fruit. We harvested 40 pounds of chard, leeks, green onions, cucumbers, beans, and carrots and filled 15 bags for the compost heap.   Of course, in gratitude, we were downright obligated to feed pizza and lemonade to these hungry, thirsty workers at the Cucina.  After lunch, Ann immediately dropped our booty off at the food bank and then the two of us spent another hour or so cleaning up the garden.

On Sunday I plan to spend a couple of hours (with helpers, I hope), harvesting more food and planting seeds in newly-opened spaces
MB

and 1.5 pounds of beautiful basil.  I took it all to GLCF this morning.  They will divide the basil into 1.5 ounce bundles and the beans into 1/2 pound bags and distribute it all to the senior high rise folks that they serve.  What great work they do!

-ar-

Bulging cases of greens

A little over a week ago, we went to the garden and harvested all kinds of head lettuce and a whole case of mixed lettuce trimmings, beautiful Swiss chard, not so beautiful spinach and arugula but still edible – a lot of those had gone to seed. Hey, it’s our first crack at this and we are proud of ourselves. A total of six bulging cases! The lettuce varieties were outstanding in quality if I do say so myself – red and green leaf, romaine, red and green butter lettuce.  Within a couple of hours the job was accomplished with a good amount of weeding too.

Oops! Arugula gone to seed.

While we were there, we got to meet the new owners who were just moving in. Max and Kelly are enthusiastic about the project so that has relieved any worries we had. They loved the garden and may volunteer as well.  Total score!  Sounds like Kelly is an avid gardener so I anticipate we may receive much appreciated advice too.

After filling Ann’s trunk, she took our bounty to the Greater Lake Country Food Bank (GLCFB) in downtown Minneapolis.  GLCFB was established in 1980 as the first large-scale community food bank in the Twin Cities area. Since the beginning the Food Bank’s primary focus has been to provide non-profit agencies with food for “congregate dining” (residential facilities, daycare centers, other mass feeding programs) as well as any agency offering emergency food boxes.  They also run a mobile food shelf that visits at least 35 low-income senior hi-rises a month!  We appreciate their mission and are very happy to partner with them for this growing season.  The two guys working at the food bank on Saturday were certainly happy to see all our fresh produce come in the door!

Ann's trunk ready for the food bank

Now that the lettuces are harvested it’s time to get a second rotation planted.  Volunteers?  Oh, and did I mention the weeds?  Volunteers?   Luckily, even with the HOT HOT HOT weather right now, our beautiful watering system, overseen by kind neighbor Tim, is doing it’s job and then some! 

ar/mb

I made a quick trip to Settergren’s Hardware  to pick up a watering timer and a splitter to hook up the two hoses.  Then on to the garden.  But…no battery in the timer.  Another trip to Settergren’s.  Then,…no wrench to put it all together.  What was I thinking?  I realized I was not very prepared and it was very hot and getting hotter.  Once again, Tim stepped in to save the day and got it all set up.  Now water sprinkles the little plants at regular intervals and everybody’s happy.  But lots more to do!  And we wait with bated breath to see if/when the house sells, hoping all along that the new owners will be willing to continue with us.  Stay tuned!   -AR-