A unique and viable approach to establishing local food self-reliance and building stronger communities.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It's been awhile since we've reported on the progress of Alpine's Food Sharing Garden. We've been as busy as nut-burying squirrels - harvesting the garden, sharing the harvest with the local food-bank and canning and drying some of the surplus. Just last week we began planting our fall/winter crops of greens, cabbage and brussel sprouts.

On average we take a well-mounded wheel-barrow full of produce to the Monroe Food Bank each week. Chris and I (Llyn) still do most of the garden's tending but the word has gotten out that Thursday is harvest day and we have volunteers showing up most weeks to help with the harvest and assist with other projects as they arise. Here are a handful of pictures that show our harvest and volunteers at "play".

Llyn Peabody with our first week's harvest:


Eva Riedlecker harvesting beans inside the tipi:


Steve Northway and Chris Burns planting fall crops:


We love growing food for people and we're already preparing for next year's garden. We'll have the luxury of having beds prepared and the fence built. We now know which produce is most popular at the food-bank so we're planning the garden around this information. Here's an overview of one of the lushest areas of the garden. That's the pole-bean tipi on the left and to the right is the 50' x 25' NE section of the garden with tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, kale, collards, chard, raspberries and sunflowers. The picture was taken a month ago so things are even lusher now!