Children In the Garden

Caleb loves radishes. We find that kids who help in the garden are more likely to enjoy eating vegetables.

Our dear friend Cathy Rose came by recently to pick up two CSA boxes that she delivers for us in Eugene and said, in no uncertain terms, "Post more pictures!". I've also become aware that few people have time to read through our longer posts so here's a quickie to introduce our youngest gardener, Caleb and show how we are finding ways to integrate him into garden-time. Much fun!

Early in the season, Caleb still sometimes needed a morning nap upon arrival at the gardens. Here's his Mom, Sabine, pouring 'compost tea' on the cabbage while Caleb snoozes.

At first, it took one of us full-time to entertain Caleb while everyone else harvested and weeded and planted. (Sabine in the front - harvesting beets, Cindy with Caleb and Chris).

Next we tried a portable play pen but he seemed a bit lonely and...

...we wanted to help Caleb be involved in the gardens, not off somewhere entertaining himself. Here we are planting and mulching potatoes. That's his Dad, Tye with his hand in the garden-cart picking up mulch.

Caleb is beginning to show interest in what the "big" kids are doing. Here he is with Adri (who's been coming since she was a baby, and Chris' grandson - Joey - who enjoyed shelling walnuts from our tree while he visited last week.

We're careful never to use the term "work" in the garden so the children think of helping out as "playing". We also always invite them to participate but don't require it. (Adri and Sabine "playing" in the gardens - 2015).

Usually, if the adults seem to be having fun, then the kids want to join in too. (Adri and her Grandpa Jim shelling kidney beans. 2015)

In the garden, it's important not to be too concerned about staying clean! (Jazmin eating blackberries that she helped pick! 2016)

Before you know it, we'll have Caleb harvesting grass-clippings with our riding-mower for use in mulching the garden!

But for now we're happy that he's finding ways, through 'play' to become part of our gardening family. Here is he "sorting" sticks.

"Work is Love Made Visible"

Hi folks - The coolest thing happened the other day! We were playing in the gardens on Food Pantry day when our friend Dave Cook (who's wife, Janeece runs the Monroe Food Pantry) drove up with a trailer-load full of firewood to donate. No sooner did we get finished unloading and stacking it when another guy, Jimmy Templeton - who runs the Monroe Food and Firewood Gleaners - pulled up with another load to donate. He and his crew then brought another trailer and truck-load to us the following morning and have promised us one more load before the summer's through. That's five cords of firewood; probably enough to get us through two and a half winters, if they're not too harsh.

Unloading firewood donation.

The Gleaners is an organization that "gleans" a community's surplus - whether from farmer's fields, grocery stores, restaurants or, in this case, trees for firewood - and provides them to members of the community who are in need and can't afford it for themselves. Though we're not officially members of the Gleaners, the Sharing Gardens has been supportive of their organization. In the peak of summer, when we have more vegetables than the two Food Pantries we serve can handle, the surplus has often gone to the Gleaners. We have also let them use our flat-bed trailer for over a year to pick up large donations on a bi-weekly basis and donated a large chain saw that the firewood gleaners have used for several years. I guess they felt that they wanted to give back to us in some way.

Their donation is a huge help to us. We heat exclusively with firewood and, cook most of our stove-top meals on our flat wood-stove through the coldest part of the winter. Then, since we don't burn any treated or painted woods, all the ashes are clean and pure enough to use as fertilizer in the gardens. Wood-ash contains most of what's needed for plant growth except nitrogen and sulfur so it's a great resource. LINK to article about Wood Ash Use for Lawn and Garden.

Jimmy Templeton-a man of generosity!

Note: Just as I was writing this post, who should drive up but Jimmy - head of the gleaners, with a donation of surplus organic vegetables gleaned from the local Farmer's Market. He receives more donations than he can distribute through his networks so, by bringing them to us, he knows we'll get them into the hands of people who will appreciate them.

This post is about gratitude. This year feels like a real turning point. After having given away everything we grew for the first nine seasons, many members of the community who appreciate the services we provide have begun looking for ways to give back. The Sharing Gardens is beginning to fulfill its dream of becoming (as it says in our banner) "a common-ground gathering place dedicated to the cultivation of mutual generosity".

Rainbow over the Sharing Gardens - June 2018

Our first expression of gratitude goes to our sharegivers - the volunteers who come on a weekly basis during the growing season and join in the myriad of tasks involved in keeping the gardens thriving.

Cathy, Cindy, Jim, Sabine, Rook, Kat, and Jessie.

Share-givers enjoying homemade soup after a garden-session.

Cathy Rose - (left) helping us sort a huge donation of seeds. She is also being our delivery person for CSA members in Eugene. We love you Cathy!

We also continue to feel gratitude to Oregon State University for its dedication to "service-learning" (students receive college-credit for volunteering in the community). We have been hosting 4-8 groups of students per year since 2012. We estimate that's about 180 students who have spent three - four hours each at the Sharing Gardens learning about sustainable living and how to grow food. Here are some highlights from the four groups we've hosted so far in 2018.

We always share a snack with the OSU students. This provides a great time for conversations about organic gardening and sustainable-living.

We had an abundance of lettuce in March so OSU students helped us harvest it and...

...here they are displaying the lettuce we donated that week to Local Aid Food Pantry.

We have a number of "neighbors" who support the project by bringing us leaves and grass-clippings on a regular basis or make other donations of time and materials to keep the project thriving. John Kinsey, Victor Stone and David Crosby bring us many trailer-loads each, full of compostable materials each year. Keep 'em coming, guys!

Bob Nelson - refrigerator repair and re-wiring of an electrical outlet that kept 'shorting out'.
St Vincent de Paul - honored a warranty for a defective refrigerator we bought from them last Fall. The warranty had expired but, because of what we do, they let us come and pick out another refrigerator to replace the one that 'died'.
George and Irene (leaves and zucchini plants) - they've been donating leaves for many years.
Sally and Gary Smith - donated a miniature greenhouse, still new in its box that we will pass along to a family in-need.
Uncle Craig Erken - computer help.
Pete Alford - pick up for Local Aid. Pete drives several miles out of his way to come pick up our donations.
Chris' Dad, Pete Burns, for being a role model for community-service and teaching Chris so much about using tools.

Pete Alford - picking up a vegetable donation to take to Local Aid.

Papa Burns - Chris' Dad - chief of his town's volunteer fire department for many years; he built their brick station-house by hand. Chris' Mom, Rene drove the ambulance and taught first aid classes through the Red Cross for decades. True community-servants.

New for us this year is our membership-farming (CSA - Community Supported Agriculture). We have seven members/share-holders. Two in Corvallis, two in Eugene and the rest are more local. Special thanks to Dr Kyle Homertgen (our local, vegan doctor) for his strong encouragement to move forward with our idea and for being our first subscriber.

Our first subscription food-box. April, 2018.

And last, but not least, we wish to extend gratitude to all those who have made cash donations. Though we do our best to live simply and keep costs of the project low, there are just some things that only money will get you (just try trading a case of ripe tomatoes for a tankful of gas...).

Our largest donor by far is the South Benton Food Pantry-LINK. They invited us to make a presentation to their Board at the beginning of the year, outlining the Gardens' income and expenses.They granted us a very generous annual grant of $1800 with no strings attached so we can spend it on whatever the project needs to continue. They also continue to allow us to add the Garden's trash in with their weekly pick-up service. We don't generate a lot of garbage but this saves us from accumulating enough to warrant a trip to the dump.

Chalk-sign, Llyn made for the Food Pantry in our town.

Since January of 2018, we have received cash donations from several other individuals, ranging from $100 to $500 each, for a total of $1,100. Thank you so much!

John and Donna Dillard - our neighbors - who have also donated paint and fencing material to the project and tolerate our lackadaisical approach to weeding our common fence-line. Much thanks!
Rich Locus - a stranger we met at a restaurant who, after talking with us through breakfast, pulled out his check-book and wrote us a check, right on the spot!
Judith Peabody- Llyn's Mom who gives generously, each year.
Rob Wiseman - a local friend, former share-giver and repeated donor. We love you Rob!

LINK to Wish List

P.S. We sure love hearing your comments! Won't you please take a moment and leave them below so others can enjoy them too :-). Love, Llyn and Chris  

We got a nice comment on this post from a friend of ours and guest-blogger to our site. She wrote:

Llyn & Chris -- 

Well, this post just begs a big THANK YOU in return -- both for the work you do, and for faithfully reporting back on your progress. This project is social experiment that I SO enjoy watching unfold (better than anything on Netflix, let me tell you!)

Happy summer gardening!!
Tuula

 Here's the post she wrote about the SG back in 2012:

Conscious Cultivation: A community food solution flourishes in rural Oregon

What are "Garlic Scapes"?

Every year, before garlic bulbs are ready to be harvested, the plant sends up a flower-stalk, or "scape". If picked when young and tender, they are a delicious, mild form of garlic and can be used just like garlic, in most recipes that call for it. They are considered a gourmet treat by many and are not often found in grocery stores or markets.

Fresh-cut garlic "scapes"

We like to chop them up in eggs, saute' them in stir-fries or cook them into soups.

Garlic-farmers pick them off so the garlic plant will send more energy into the bulb and the cloves will be bigger at harvest time.  As long as they are picked young, all parts are edible.

Here's a link to Cook's Illustrated, for more detailed cooking ideas.

Happy Birthday - Sharing Gardens!

Hi Folks! On April 15th, 2009, our friend Steve Rose broke ground with his tractor at Alpine Park, marking the birth of the Sharing Gardens. We're nine years old this week!

Here's Chris, forming 'raised beds' with our little 1947 Farmall Cub tractor in Alpine, after Steve Rose had plowed it (April, 2009).

Here's Llyn with the Sharing Gardens' first harvest taken to the Food Pantry, July 2009.

Here are a few highlights from the 2018 season so far. Enjoy!

We've had two service-learning groups from Oregon State University. We have two more scheduled for later this spring.

The February group helped us mulch trees...

...empty our compost bins...

...mulch our blueberries...

...and mix and sift soil in preparation for starting seedlings.

Our second group of OSU students came on April 14th. The ground was too wet to do anything outside so they helped us in the greenhouses:

April, Ema and Anna harvest radishes.

They helped us transplant tomatoes too.

Here's Cody harvesting lettuce in the Sun Ship greenhouse...

...and potting onions to be transplanted outdoors once the ground dries out.

We've managed to host a few volunteer sessions with our local Share-givers:

Chris and Rook mulching potatoes with leaves in the Sun Ship greenhouse (Feb 15).

Rook, Kat and Llyn planting cabbage before the big rains came (March 20).

Here's Kat on April 5th. Even on cool, wet days outside, it's always more pleasant in the greenhouses!

We are so grateful for our two big greenhouses. They allow us to plant many cold-weather crops directly in the ground much earlier than we could outside. Also we can start all the heat-loving seedlings and grow them big indoors so they're ready for outside planting as soon as the last likely frost-date has passed.

Here's a view of the Ark greenhouse on March 15.

Here's that same view in mid-April. Left bed has radishes, and two patches of lettuce. Right bed has radishes, beets and red lettuce in the background. Note fresh grass-clippings in the path. These are very pleasant to walk and kneel on, smell great, and provide food for the worms and other "micro-livestock" living below.

I didn't take many early pics of the  Sun Ship greenhouse for comparison, but here's Chris, on April 18th examining our pea-patch, started in mid-December! It looks like we're going to have a fantastic harvest this year.

We experimented with starting tomatoes and peppers in early/mid February on heat mats with excellent results (late Feb. start is more typical for our region). We had only a few freezing nights once they had sprouted, but the seedlings did fine under plastic tray covers and/or 'floating row cover fabric' with the heat mats left on.

Here are some of those same tomato 'starts' on April 17. Some are beginning to flower already!

As some of you recall, we had a terrible problem last year when our potting soil was contaminated with herbicides (from un-composted horse manure) which killed many of our tomato-, pepper -, and flower-seedlings. No sign of that problem this year; all our seedlings look great!

Great, spring weather is in the forecast and we expect everything will really begin to grow much faster now. Hurray!

A New Chapter!

Dear Friends - We're adding a new feature to the Sharing Gardens this year in order to put this project on a more financially sustainable foundation. It will be a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - subscription farming). As many of you know, we've never sold anything so this represents a major shift for us. We're going to start small, with only 12 subscriptions, so we're sure to be successful. We intend to continue in our charitable contributions to those in our local community who need food-assistance through the South Benton Food Pantry.

Here's a description of our CSA to give you all the details:

Llyn and Chris-Your local 'farm'acists.

What is a CSA? A CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a membership-relationship between you and a farm. Members receive a "share" of seasonally available produce, on a weekly basis. This gives you the benefit of knowing where your food comes from, how it is grown, and that you are giving direct support to the people who grow your food.

The Sharing Gardens CSA will provide weekly boxes of seasonal produce from early May until mid-November, by subscription, to a limited number of families. 

Your subscription will bring fresh and local food to your family while supporting us in our mission to provide healthy produce to people in our community, through local food charities, who otherwise could not afford it. We will be focusing on familiar, staple crops; the things that are most popular at grocery stores and farmer's markets.

Home-grown fresh!

What's in my box? In the beginning of the season, the produce available may not be worth what you'd pay for the same organic produce at a store but the value of the boxes from July through November will be worth more than $25 so it will more than balance in the end. The Sharing Gardens has always been known for generosity! Also, the freshness will be unlike anything you can get at a store.

May, June: Beets, cabbage, carrots, green onions, kale, lettuce and radishes
July: same as above, AND early tomatoes. summer squash and cucumbers
August, Sept.: same as above, AND celery, large tomatoes, peppers
Oct., Nov.: Most of above, AND winter squash.

Lettuce grown from seed we saved.

How do we grow your food?

No herbicides or pesticides
Soil-fertility created primarily through compost, worm castings, leaves, grass-clippings and wood-ash.
Slow-grown for maximum density of nutrition and flavor.
We encourage birds and beneficial insects for natural pest-management.
We grow all heirloom varieties (no hybrids or GMO) from 85% (or more) of seed we saved ourselves.

Healthy food for you and your family!

Cost of membership: $25/week x 28 weeks = $700 (payable either in full - when you sign-up, or in two payments of $400 - when you sign up and $300 by July 1st).

Payment methods: We can accept cash or checks made out to 'The Sharing Gardens'.

Early sign-up bonus: Some vegetables will be ready earlier than May 9th. Members will receive a share of whatever we have available on a weekly basis, once it is available.

Where do I pick up my box? Members in the Monroe area will be able to pick up their boxes on Wed. afternoons from 3:00 to 6:00 at the Sharing Gardens (map below).

664 Orchard St., Monroe 97456 

Corvallis: Boxes can be picked up on Wed. afternoons at NW 36th and Polk from 2:00 to 6:00 Eugene: We have one member already signed up who lives at 12th and Grant SW. If we get more members in Eugene we will see if all boxes can be picked up there on Sunday afternoons/early evening.

Can I share my membership? Yes, if you find someone to share it with.

Can I cancel my membership? Only if we have a waiting list. You will be refunded the balance of your fees if there is someone else who wishes to buy your "share".

To sign up for the Sharing Gardens CSA,  send an email to us at - ShareInJoy@gmail.com - We will email you an application for you to fill out and mail to us, along with your payment.

Questions? Phone: Chris and Llyn (541) 847-8797
Call: 8:00 to 12:30 or 2:00 to 6:30 (we keep 'farmer's hours' and take a nap each day :-)

Map to the Sharing Gardens: