Harvest report: 9/4

It was another great haul this weekend. This harvest was shared with the Johnstown-Northridge Food Pantry. There are still a few tomatoes to come as well as lots more beans and some peppers. Aphids have finished off the cucumbers and all of the summer squash succumbed to squash vine borer, but we did pick more than in previous summers.

There is still a lot to do in the garden, so please take some time to come out this Sunday night between 6 and 8pm to help us work. Your help is really needed.

Sunday recap (8/21)

We had a group of helpers from New Albany United Methodist come over to help, and we were able to get a lot done. We picked our largest harvest yet, including: two types of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and several types of beans. We also weeded and fertilized, and the garden is looking better than it has in weeks. The volunteers had just returned from a mission trip to Jamaica where for part of the time they worked on an organic farm. The farm trains people in organic methods and hopes to send several to school to become inspectors for other organic farms. I'm sure there is much we could learn from them and NAUMC hops to have one of the people from the organization visit in the near future.

This harvest will be shared as part of the Back-to-School Kick-off to be held at the Westerville Estates Clubhouse this Tuesday night beginning at 5pm. More info here.

Updates: harvest and more

Last week we had a nice enough harvest to make our first drop at the Johnstown/Northridge Food Pantry, and the beans, cucumbers, and squash are still coming in.

Also, I noticed that some helpful people have been out in the garden weeding and doing other work (including adding another level to the pole bean trellis.) Great work!

I saw this cross out in the patch that one of our volunteers has and thought it looked pretty nice. Turns out, it is the frame for a scarecrow. I'll post some pictures of it soon.

We had the kids from the summer program over for a day in the garden and a vegetarian lunch. More details on that later, too.

We'll meet again next Sunday night for more work. If you can't make it, come by any time and pull some weeds.

Sunday work recap (7/24): Quick harvest

The storm clouds were rolling in, so the youth group and I did a quick pick through the beans and cucumbers. We'll have to wait until next week to do some maintenance.

First harvest 2011: It's on

It wasn't the biggest haul of vegetables, a handful of beans and this nice summer squash, but it's a sign that our hard work has paid off. We'll pick more this Sunday and next week. By the end of next week, we should have enough beans and squash to make a drop at one of the food pantries.

First harvest: Peas and lettuce

The peas are ready to pick as is the lettuce. Some of the lettuce was used for the meal that is served as part of Wide Open, a worship service and dinner that is ministered by Galena United Methodist at Westerville Estates. The youth group, Souled Out, at Church of the Saviour will pick the peas and the rest of the lettuce to eat as part of their Sunday night meetings. Hopefully the rest of the garden will turn out this nice. It is a great way to start the summer.

2009 Report

Our first year was a great success in many ways and our second year is promising to be even better. Here's is a quick look back at what we accomplished in 2009:

• Supplied food to the Friends Who Share Food Pantry
• Shared food with neighbors in need
• Youth outreach through education programs
• Used organic gardening methods
• Website with resources and recipes
• Community harvest festival

Harvest:

• Tomatoes: 94 Lbs.
• Beans: 89 Lbs.
• Cherry tomatoes: 66 Lbs.
• Cucumbers: 67
• Zucchini/Summer squash: 36

Also: carrots, peppers, squash, eggplant, cauliflower, broccoli, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkins, okra, corn, herbs, radishes, lettuce and raspberries

Thank you to all the volunteers who worked so hard to get our project off to a great start. We look forward to working with you again in 2010.

Sept. 22 - Harvest report

The garden has continued to produce tomatoes, squash, and berries even though we have done only minimal maintenance. On Sunday, we picked up the remaining winter squash as well as a few left over peppers and summer squash. This will be shared with the youth group which now meets on Tuesday nights. In total:

-13 spaghetti squash
-5 summer squash
-4 pumpkins
-1 butternut squash
-2 pounds of peppers
-several large sunflower heads

That should pretty much wrap it up for the harvest. Our next job will be to get the garden ready for winter and next year.

Aug 24 - Harvest Report

By now, the beans are done, the corn is done, and the zukes and summer squash are petering out. This was really the night of the tomato. We picked a whole wheelbarrow full of them: big beefsteaks, romas, and cherry tomatoes. We also had our first carrots and broccoli.

We picked the rest of the cucumbers and dug up the vines, which had been hit by a blight. Here are the stats:

• 30 bags of large tomatoes (6-8 tomatoes in each bag)
• 12 bags of cherry tomatoes (20+ tomatoes in each bag)
• 25 cucumbers
• 15 carrots
• 4 zucchini
• 20 peppers (assorted types)

Next week, we'll have more tomatoes and a few zukes and squash, but things will be winding down. We do have watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, and pumpkins to look forward to.

This harvest was again distributed to the Wednesday youth group and shared with the residents of Westerville Estates.

August 16 - Harvest report

It's a little late, but I wanted to catch up with the last couple of weeks. We had another great harvest on the 16th. Here's the tally:

• Beans - 17 1-lb bags
• Corn - 48 ears
  
• Cucumbers - 32
• Lettuce - 2 bags
  
• Onions - around 20
• Peppers - 16
• Summer Squash - 8
• Tomatoes - 14 bags of large and Roma tomatoes (approx 8-10 per bag)
• Cherry Tomatoes - 16 quart-sized bags
  
• Zucchini - 4

This harvest was shared with the Wednesday youth group who helped to distribute it to residents of Westerville Estates.

Another harvest

The group work night was highly successful. According to Judy S.-K., who dropped off the harvest at the Friends Who Share food pantry, we picked:

• 60 large tomatoes
• 5 qt bags filled with cherry tomatoes (mostly the yellow variety)
• 10 large zucchinis and summer squash
  
• 2 cucumbers
• 34 pounds of beans
• 1 head cauliflower

We picked so much that we are planning for another group work night next week (Tuesday, Aug. 18 at 6:30pm). This harvest will be shared with the youth group at Church of the Saviour who will help to distribute it to residents of Westerville Estates.

Two new problems have cropped up: powdery mildew and squash vine borers. The powdery mildew can weaken plants but rarely kills them. We'll be applying a diluted milk solution to the affected leaves. This has been shown to be as effective as synthetic fungicides. Hopefully, we'll see results soon.

The vine borers are more problematic. It appears that they have affected pretty much all of our pumpkin vines. There are ways to physically remove them, but I did not have much luck in digging them out. Next year, we'll plan ahead to prevent them from laying eggs in the first place.

Garden pizza party

On Monday the children from the youth program came over to the garden for the morning. We had fun picking lots of different vegetables and tasting different herbs. Everyone got to take home a big bag of beans, tomatoes, and squash. We cut up the onions, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes to make pizzas from scratch. The kids got to shape the dough for individual pizzas and then put on their own toppings. Yes, pepperoni was more popular than peppers, but everyone had a great time.

First harvest!

Beans! That's mainly what we got with our first harvest. Both the green and the blue bush beans produced prodigiously (with more on the way soon). We also got a couple of summer squash and and several radishes.

These vegetables will help to feed the kids at the summer youth program hosted by Church of the Saviour (and staffed with volunteers from all three churches). It's a great start to our harvest season.