Greetings
Garden friends!
Praise God
for the all the many ways He has shared His love to many through our community
garden ministry and plantings. This past
month we began a pilot CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program in
offering 10 families identified for us by school social workers at B.E. Jordan
and Sylvan Elementary Schools as well as S.A.F.E. each a “Box of Blessings” for
12 weeks provided by “Garden Angels” and packed with fresh veggies harvested
(and washed) from our garden. The boxes
are packed (and prayed over) on Thursday mornings with families picking up on
Thursday afternoons during garden hours.
The families are invited to grow with us (but not required to) and many
have! We are continuing our regular
donations to S.A.F.E. as well in which we have already doubled our donations as
compared to last year at this time.
Thanks be to God!!
As we are
thrilled to be entering into Week #5, we hope to increase our “B.O.B.” sharings
to 15 in the fall (for an 8-week session) by offering another 10 through
donations and extending 5 more shared to anyone wishing to purchase a box for
their own families! By year end 2016,
our goal is to be at a total of 30 in which half would remain as benevolent
shares. More info on our new offerings
to be forthcoming! Thanks be to God
again for His vision and leading!
What are we harvesting in the garden? Lots!!
Tomatoes are abundant as well as potatoes, Swiss chard, onions, garlic,
peppers, eggplant, blueberries, cucumbers, beans, beets, basil, and
carrots! Sweet potatoes have been
planted (900 plants!) along with more beans and buckwheat cover crop. Other plantings can be found at our Garden
Annex (Donna's house!) to include Butternut, summer squash, zucchini, and
cantaloupe planted for later sharing to garden peeps (and CSAs).
Keeping the squash bugs out of Eli Whitney (and so far no sitings in Snow
Camp)!
So what else has been happening in (and out of!) the garden! Our CoolBot (walk-in cooler) is complete and keeping our pending Box of Blessings fresh along with our overflow of harvested veggies for later sharing. Our interns have been busy both working in the garden as well as off site in the pending production of a garden video by Garrett Rea and a website being developed by Taylor Smith! We are thankful for our successful flower presentation for Andrew (our previous intern) and Justine's Hammond's wedding! (6 Bouquets/Boutonnieres, 16 Table and 2 Altar arrangements!.
Later this
month, we look forward to enjoying that first ripened tomato sandwiched in
between some Duke's mayo (and a little pesto:) at our annual Tomato Sandwich
gathering to be held again this year in conjunction with our Vacation Bible
School celebration luncheon on Sunday, July 26th at 12:30 pm. Mark your calendars with more details to
follow! Invite your friends!
Thank you
everyone for your prayers and support of our garden.
It WILL be
Good!
-Donna Poe
