Harvest Happiness!

A sample of this year's bounty!

For the last month, the gardens have been producing more than 200 pounds of produce each week! This is more than the Food Bank can give away and they've been letting people come weekly (instead of once/month) if they want fresh produce. Sometimes the surplus has been taken to the senior center for them to distribute, the Methodist church gave some away when they had their yard-sale. Two loads have been taken to Food for Lane County in Eugene (thanks Larry Winiarski for taking one of those loads down...). Many of our volunteers have been learning to can for the first time this year and they have been taking home large loads each week. If you have need yourself, or you know of ways we can distribute our surplus, please contact us, or come by the food-bank as it's closing (noon Thursday, this week.) Don't be shy! You'd be helping us out by bringing the food where it can be put to good use.

Here are some of the sub-totals of the gardens' big producers so far this year:

• Beans: 175 pounds
• Beets: 70 pounds
• Pickling cucumbers: 200 pounds
• Slicing cucumbers: 400 pounds
• Tomatoes (multiple varieties): 550 pounds

 Now that's a lot of food!

Do you need basil? Last year we had a killing frost before we could harvest and freeze much basil pesto and so this year we went overboard in our planting! Between the two gardens we have at least fifty feet of basil! Our freezer, and the freezers of our volunteers are bursting with pesto and we'd love to see the surplus get used before the first frosts come. Join us this week at harvest-time and you can take home as much basil (and other fresh garden produce) as your family can use.

Harvest times this week (times DO vary, so check with us if you're coming another week)

Wednesday: 3:30 - 6:00 Alpine

Thursday: 8:30 - 10:00 Monroe