A Visit to Twin Ponds Community Garden

Lettuce Link Intern Rhona visited the Twin Ponds Community Garden this summer.

Nestled within Twin Ponds Park, a $30,000 initiative by the City of Shoreline City Council to create a community garden resulted in today’s Twin Ponds Community Garden. Since 2010, the once-fallow area previously mined for peat consists of 38 garden plots, water hydrants, shed, gathering area, and most notably, a “giving garden” staffed by volunteers for food donation. Along with being an effective use of land and promoting views of a “healthy city,” Twin Ponds Community Garden strives to stimulate community interaction and improve economic development within the area.  

A walk past the Honey, Mason, and Spelling beds, all food donation beds commemorated after different types of bees, spans 17 plots and growing – and not a minute is spared. Beds are turned over as soon as the harvest is in, crops are rotated to keep the soil nutrient-rich, and volunteers are year-round to ensure maximal yield of the land, no time wasted nor inch spared.

Upon arriving to Twin Ponds, Nancy, a 4^th year garden coordinator, led me on a tour of the community garden, proudly pointing out the zucchinis, squash, and tomatoes that were starting to come out. She led me past some well-maintained P-Patch gardens with quirky garden art hugging the vegetation, past the giving gardens, and to the garden gathering area, where garlic sprouts were sun-bathing on the picnic table. She and three others, Shellie, Randy, and Mical, were appointed by the city to head each work day, to oversee farm operations, and to communicate with their local food banks – a year-round effort.

Twin Ponds Community Garden is not only an example of sustainable gardening, but it is one of many symbols of community engagement. Here, we have neighborhood interaction and community cooperation – a badge of sustainability and service that the city of Shoreline can proudly wear.

There are four garden coordinators at Twin Ponds. They monitor the P-Patch rented plots - 36 10ft×10ft raised beds and 2 4ft×10ft accessible beds – but their real job lies within the center of the garden, a “giving garden” run by volunteers that has yielded upwards of 3000 pounds of fresh produce to date for the Hopelink Shoreline Food Bank.

To learn more about Twin Ponds Community Garden and how you can volunteer, click here.

Training and Teaching, Gardening and Giving

Lettuce Link Intern Rhona got a chance to meet with Dorothy and Lar, two community giving gardeners.  

Meet Dorothy and Lar, both are lovers of all things outdoors, nature, and gardening. Growing up in Gilroy, California on an apricot prune farm with two hundred chickens and a cow, Dorothy was able to find an outlet for gardening in her current house, a quarter-acre plot of land she and Lar have worked and lived on for the past eight to nine years.

Having bought the land knowing they could fix the house, Dorothy and Lar worked intensively to make their quarter acre into the lush and plentiful garden it is today – one that yields over 130 pounds of produce a year, most of which is harvested to feed the family, to offer to the neighborhood, and to donate to Picardo Food Bank. Together, Dorothy and Lar have become strongly involved in their local community, getting people involved with growing their own food, and forming a seed-trading and garden-teaching program with friends and neighbors. In addition to providing a source of seeds and planting advice to the public, they have initiated a neighborhood Blockwatch, a neighborhood alert system connecting residents within a safety network, and been the head organizer of events such as Tuesday Night Out, the first Tuesday of every August when Lar and Dorothy roll rye, trade seeds, and invite policemen and firemen to come and talk about neighborhood safety.

As we walk through beds of potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, and zucchini, Dorothy points out each vegetable, making a checklist of things she has to do and things she already has done. Through her explanation the work seems to never end, and one can see the long and tedious process of turning residential land into farmland, the amount of effort put into breathing life into the soil and having sustainable food come out. Their job isn't easy, but their work is paying off year by year, leaving a deeper and deeper impact on the landscape of the neighborhood and the people of the community.

What follows is a piece by Dorothy herself on why she gardens:

“Why Do I Garden?”

By Dorothy Spencer

A friend came by and said, "Your always out in the garden." As I thought about this, I thought, "Not always." My life is full of activities shared with friends family and neighbors.

Why do I garden? Hmmmm...

I like the company of crows, intelligent critters who seem to sense I'm a friend. The dirt turns black and friable with care, welcoming seeds and plants. Dogs roll in my pesticide free grass, what little we have, and they eat it too. They rest happily in the shade as their owners trade seeds and plants with me, or we just graze on ripe fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Children are my small way to change the world, one person, one family at a time. Once they taste food warm from the sun, and sweet with the rich deep fresh picked flavor, they remember, get the growing bug, and get their families to garden too. One little boy came by with his family, gravely accepted sugar snap peas, then stood there holding them in his hand. When his Mom asked him why he wasn't eating them, he said, "Because I want to plant them." He said what was true for him. This

left me wondering how many more people garden because we do. A lovely synergistic thought.

I remember when I was a child in a family low on money. I was not able to have a second apple when I was hungry. This experience left me feeling empathy for families in need, so we now share our bounty with the food bank. Stories from people getting our food warm me and keep me growing.

It's the wonder of it. My husband, Lar laughs at my childish glee. Every spring, anticipation follows me around the yard as I look for favorite perennials to poke tender heads through the soil. "Look, look, it came up, there it is!" I get to be this delighted every year in the spring and through much of the growing season.

Alone, I lean on my hoe to rest and think about the next steps. I spent time early this year developing my own companion planting chart, including a rotation schedule. We compost food waste and greens, and make weed tea to fertilize our plants. This year, as each planting finishes its growing cycle, we mulch with cardboard, chips, fall leaves, and grass clippings. This slows down weeds and helps the ground hold moisture. In a few weeks, we can pull back the mulch, plant winter crops, and gardening gets easier for me for next year.

I like gardening. It feeds me in many ways. And I really like it being easier and more fun!

Blues for Food 2013

Good music. Delicious food. Great friends. Enthusiastic gardeners.

Really, what could be better?

Enjoy live music by some of the finest blues bands in the Northwest, fresh, tasty food from local vendors, a fabulous auction of luscious, homemade pies, and children’s gardening activities at the 7th annual Blues for Food Fest on Saturday, August 31.

The Blues for Food Fest raises money and awareness for the people and organizations in Seattle that grow and donate 28,000 pounds of organic produce each year for the hungry. Proceeds from the festival go to Seattle’s Giving Garden Network.

Lettuce Link will be there manning our favorite booth -- Beet Hunger -- where you can donate your homegrown produce and non-perishables. After the festival we will deliver all donations to a local food bank or meal program.

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2013 Blues for Food Fest
Saturday, August 31, 12-9pm
Magnuson Park Amphitheater and P-Patch, 7400 Sand Point Way NE (free parking)

2013 Lineup:

• 12:00: Kenova, featuring Billy Stoops, Nick Vigarino, and Hambone Wilson
• 1:30: T-Town Aces, featuring Steve Bailey and Tom Boyle
• 3:00: Polly O’Keary and the Rhythm Method, featuring Seattle Slim
• 4:30: Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble
• 6:00: The Delgado Brothers, featuring Patti Allen
• 7:30: Fat James and Fatback

Buy tickets - $20 for adults (early bird price), free for children under 12. $25 for adults, free for ages 16 and under. Dogs on leashes welcome. Tickets available at the door.

Bring your extra backyard produce for donation!

The Blues for Food Fest is organized each year by Deb Rock -- stellar Interbay P-Patcher and food bank gardener extraordinaire. Deb and Jude from the Interbay P-Patch coordinate efforts to grow and donate over 5,000 pounds of produce each season!

Growing Kale at the Mayor's Office

Today we welcome guest blogger Allison Burson, who works in the office of Mayor Mike McGinn and helps tend their Giving Garden.

Over the past few years, volunteers have helped us start a garden on the west-facing balconies of the Mayor’s Office on the 7th floor of City Hall. We donate the produce to the Cherry Street Food Bank and encourage others to consider doing the same. The balconies get bright sun all afternoon and evening, and they get a lot of wind as well.

The food bank has requested dark green leafy vegetables, such as kale.

We are also growing raspberries, Sungold tomatoes, and lettuce. Thanks to Deb Rock from the Interbay P-Patch we have extremely robust rhubarb.

It doesn’t take a lot of space for a garden, and the food banks are really grateful for fresh produce.  

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Thanks Allison and all the staff at City Hall who tend the balcony Giving Garden! If you'd like to start a Giving Garden at your workplace, check out the resources on our website or contact us. 

(photos by Allison Burson)

A Lifetime of Gardening: Learn Once, Get Forever

Yao Fou Chao, preparing to weedwhack, and Sue McGann at Marra Farm

At Lettuce Link, one way we engage community members in growing and sharing fresh produce is by supporting the work of Giving Gardeners across the city.

A Giving Garden can take many forms. It may be a garden plot dedicated to growing food for donation in a P-Patch or other community garden. It may be a group of volunteers who glean from their garden plots for donation. Or it may simply be a community of people that grow and share produce together.

Yao Fou Chao works with all types of Giving Gardens. As a Mien immigrant and Washington State University Extension garden educator, Yao Fou primarily works with Mien, Lao, and Hmong gardeners. At the Mien Community Garden at Marra Farm and three other P-Patches in Seattle, he teaches gardeners how to grow food in Seattle, where the climate is very different from the highlands of Laos.

Yao Fou has been a farmer his whole life and is eager to share his knowledge. Sometimes Yao Fou has to tell someone "you can't grow that here." But he’s quick to help that person find a different vegetable to grow instead.

He also shares resources widely. If he gets bitter melon seeds that won't grow here due to the cooler summers, he then finds a garden in Yakima that will take them. There's no reason to waste good seeds just because they won't grow here!

Yao Fou knows his community, and he knows what they like to eat! He serves his community by donating from his own garden and encouraging the gardeners he works with to donate their extra produce to the Beacon Ave Food Bank and the ACRS Food Bank in the International District. People that visit these food banks delight in the familiar varieties of Asian greens, cucumbers, beans, and squash.

Yao Fou also serves his community by teaching and sharing his knowledge. He is particularly concerned that Asian youth learn not just the skills, but also the importance of growing food. "Learn once, get forever," he says, expressing his conviction that learning to garden is a skill that lasts a lifetime.

The Mien Community Garden and the P-Patches Yao Fou works with are lucky to have his expertise. At Lettuce Link, we’re lucky to work with him, too!

~ Mariah Pepper, Harvest Coordinator

Growing and Giving: A Gratifying Experience

Meet Pete Lawrence of the Queen Anne P-Patch.

Pete is one of those amazing people who seem to have boundless stores of energy. He is quick to volunteer for large-scale projects at the garden, such as pruning and spreading woodchips, and puts in many hours each season caring and tending the Giving Garden plot.

Last year, under Pete’s leadership, the Queen Anne P-Patch Giving Garden donated over 1200 pounds of produce! The vegetables go to The Lord's Table, a local meal program that serves hot dinners on the streets of downtown Seattle.

After growing up in Seattle, Pete moved to Oregon for work, where he became certified as a Master Gardener through the Oregon State University Extension program. When he moved back to Seattle in 2003, he got a plot at the Queen Anne P-Patch and became involved with the Giving Garden.

When asked why he grows for giving, he responds simply that it is satisfying. It's satisfying to grow the vegetables. And it’s satisfying to share the vegetables he grew with people who really need them.

Pete finds his work in the Giving Garden a gratifying experience. The Lord's Table meal program feeds up to 200 people per night, so Pete knows that the produce from the Queen Anne P-Patch is definitely going to good use!

Over the past ten years, interest in the Giving Garden at the Queen Anne P-Patch has ebbed and flowed, but Pete has returned year after year and is always happy to see new gardeners take up the cause.

Many young couples and families garden at the Queen Anne P-Patch. The community created around the Giving Garden allows for different generations to work together, growing food to share with those in need.

Thank you to Pete and all of the amazing Giving Gardeners out there!

~ Mariah Pepper, Harvest Coordinator

Why We Give: Reciprocity

When asked why she thinks growing and giving is important, Sally, a gardener at the Hawkins P-Patch has an elegantly simple answer: reciprocity.

“One summer, an unidentified neighbor left a bag of potatoes on my porch. It was a gesture that made me inexplicably happy, and I thought ‘why wouldn't this make other people happy?’—especially those who don’t have access to a garden, or healthy food.”

And so, for the past four years, Sally and her co-gardeners Hope and David have coaxed three raised beds into productivity; a bounty of kale, cherry tomatoes, beans, and chard going to The Food Bank @ St. Mary’s in the Central District.

Sally is not alone in her motivation for growing and giving. Reciprocity is a concept that resonates deeply within the food bank and gardening communities, and can be observed profoundly at the Providence Regina House Food Bank in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood. On any given distribution day, dozens of neighborhood volunteers—young and old—mill about helping unload trucks, bag peppers, make signs, and wash produce. They joke with each other as they work, talking with friends, and entertaining children.

As Paige Collins, director of the Providence Regina House Food Bank explains, many of her volunteers are current or past clients. They are both the people the food bank serves and those doing the serving. The South Park community has taken ownership of their food bank—they have made it a comfortable, fulfilling place to volunteer, valued by the community.

In food banks and at gardens across the city, reciprocity is a driving force. Whether it’s a bundle of kale, a bouquet of chard, or a bag of potatoes, Sally, Hope, David, Paige, and countless others know the personal value of good produce, and are doing what they can to share it with others.

After all, what is happiness if not a sun-ripened tomato?

Sharing Your Backyard Bounty

The sun is shining, the rain is (almost) gone, and plants are finally growing at an alarmingly fast rate. This time of year, we know exactly what all you gardeners are wondering:

What in the world am I going to do with all this zucchini??

We at Lettuce Link are excited to remind you of the perfect solution:

DONATE IT!

Food banks across Seattle have a continual need for fresh, nutritious produce, so what better way to cull your garden of those delicious but over-producing squash, greens, beans, and tomatoes than to share them with families who need it most?

And if your garden is not yet overflowing with excess veggies, consider growing an extra row for your local food bank as you plant your fall crops! It can be as small as a row of greens, or as big as a backyard committed entirely to giving (à la the Seattle Seedling). Big or small, every donation is appreciated!

To help you, here are a few pointers we've developed on growing and giving, and a list we've compiled on where to donate your veggies as well as the types of produce most popular at local food banks and meal programs. Thank you in advance for your time, work, and veggies, and believe us, there’s no such thing as too much zucchini...

If you need help, let us know!

Contact Jessica Sherrow, the Lettuce Link Summer VISTA with any questions, concerns, or requests for help with harvesting and/or donating! jessicas@solid-ground.org 206.694.6746 x2

Here's to Our Volunteers!

By now the growing season is in full swing, and thanks to the help of our incredible volunteers we got off to a fantastic start!

This spring, we had over 700 volunteers! People weeded and planted at our Giving Garden at Marra Farm, distributed seeds at food banks, grew starts in the Wallingford greenhouse and tended the giving garden plots and community gardens around the city. Our volunteers commit their time, energy, knees and backs to providing hungry families with nourishing food, and with the number of food bank clients on the rise, their hard work has never been more important--or appreciated.

To show our appreciation for our wonderful volunteers, Farmer Sue opened up her home for a potluck to end all potlucks - after all, no one cooks quite like a gardener. Kale and herb salad, black sesame asparagus, fresh-from-the-garden mojitos, strawberry-rhubarb pie... A deliciously local spring feast, indeed. We ate, we drank, we talked, and hopefully over the course of the night, conveyed our immense appreciation to our volunteers. You are the heart of our mission - we can't do it without you!  

So, here's to our volunteers, their gardens, the start of summer (finally!), and what will surely be a fruitful 2012 growing season. Grow on, gardeners!

Missed our June volunteer appreciation dinner? Never fear, we'll have another one October 11th. Save the date! 

Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale - Plant an Extra Row in Your Garden!

What are you doing this weekend? On Saturday and Sunday, we hope to see you at Seattle Tilth's Edible Plant Sale! 

We'll be at the sale encouraging folks to consider buying some extra starts and growing a row (pdf) for the food bank this season. Everyone deserves fresh produce.  No amount of home-grown delicious produce is too small, and it always goes to an appreciative home.      

Here are some tips for growing extra produce:

• Plant an extra row or more. The more you plant to give away, the more you can help.
• Plant just one or two extra crops. This will result in a larger harvest of fewer items, which is better for the food banks.
• Food banks love most fruits and veggies! Some good examples of easy things to grow are: Beets, carrots, collard greens, green onions, herbs (dill, basil, cilantro, etc.) beans, peas, cucumbers, squash, pak choi, chard, radishes and lettuce.
• Harvest, wash and deliver to a local food bank or hot meals program in your neighborhood (pdf).
• Keep track of your produce donations; send totals to Lettuce Link at the end of the season. Last year, over 20,000 pounds of produce was donated from P-Patches and backyard gardens.

Share the bounty of your harvest!  Seattle Tilth's May Edible Plant Sale runs from 9am-3pm on Saturday May 5^th and Sunday May 6^th.   Located at Meridian Park in Wallingford behind the Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N.   

The sale features over 350 plant varieties and 50,000 plants. Unlike many plants sold at local stores and nurseries, these varieties are well adapted to thrive in our Pacific Northwest climate and are locally and organically or sustainably grown.

Be our new VISTA Gleaning Coordinator!

Are you passionate about community food security, gleaning, gardening and community building?  Come join the Lettuce Link team through the Rotary First Harvest's Harvest Against Hunger AmeriCorps*VISTA position.

Lettuce Link AmeriCorps*VISTA Gleaning Coordinator
This position will work in collaboration with community groups to expand participation in fruit tree gleaning and growing food for Seattle area food banks and meal programs, working with the Community Fruit Tree Harvest and the P-Patch Giving Gardens. 

Specific responsibilities include volunteer recruitment, community outreach and program coordination. This is a good fit for you if you:

• Have an interest in working with people from a variety of racial, cultural and economic backgrounds. 
• Have worked with volunteer organizations and/or the emergency food system. 
• Are highly organized and self-directed with the ability to speak to groups. 
• Can work independently and collaboratively and juggle many different projects. 
• Are committed to diversity, undoing racism, innovation and community-building. 
• Can work weekends and occasional evenings during the growing season (with time off in exchange). 
• Like to work in an office as well as an outdoor environment, including working in hot or cold conditions, and can lift 30-50 pounds regularly during the harvest. 
• Are comfortable with web-based social networking technology. 

Full job description located here. 

This AmeriCorps*VISTA position is for 12 months, starting January 30, 2012.  Volunteers receive a living stipend, education award at completion of service, student loan deferment, health benefits and childcare assistance.  

The positions are open to applicants until December 23, 2011 (applications reviewed as received). Please both apply online and send your resume and a cover letter that explains your interest and fit for the position to benjamin@firstharvest.org.

Don't forget: Our friends at Homegrown Sustainable Sandwich Shop have created a tasty Seasonal 10 sandwich, Turkey + Red Pepper Relish, and 10% of the proceeds from the sandwich will go to Lettuce Link. Stop by one of their shops in Fremont, Queen Anne, or Capitol Hill this fall for a delicious treat, and thank them for supporting Lettuce Link!

Giving Gardeners: Evanston P-Patch

The iconic Evanston gate

Tucked into the Greenwood neighborhood, the Evanston P-Patch is a delightfully surprising lush green plot of land. Established in 1974, this P-Patch has had many loyal gardeners over the years. There are 69 designated plots, and over 20 more additional co-gardeners. Helen has been around the longest, since 1975, and many still look to her plot as an example. The P-Patch is full of raspberries this time of year, and many of Helen’s flowers seem to have made their way around the garden as well.

There is a proud tradition of donating to the food bank from the Giving Garden and from individual plots. Cath, Cyndi, and Carol are the co-coordinators of the Giving Garden at Evanston.  They organize monthly work parties that usually involve around 20 people. In addition, they keep a task list in the shed so that gardeners always know how to help out when they are in the garden. They also encourage gardeners to email the coordinators about their vacations so that their produce can be harvested for the food bank instead of going to waste.

Evanston has donated over 1,300 pounds of produce every year to the Volunteers of America food bank. In 2009, they donated a whopping 1,750 pounds! This year, their biggest crop has been lettuce—they donated over 200 pounds over 3-4 weeks.

The sense of community amongst the gardeners has certainly contributed to the success of Growing and Giving at Evanston. New gardeners are immediately welcomed and encouraged to participate in Giving Garden activities to get to know the other gardeners.

Thank you Evanston for all you give!

Helen's red dahlias and some neighbors enjoying the evening sun

The Giving Gardener: Take dry moments to sow spring crops

The Lettuce Link staff have started a regular feature on the Solid Ground blog, offering advice about cultivating your own food and growing for others. 

Rain and cold and more rain – and yet really, it is gardening season. Last week, we planted pea starts, onions, cilantro and radishes with 15 very cute 4-year-olds at Marra Farm. Their wonder and enchantment in the natural world was incredible, and amazingly enough, the rain stayed away the entire time they were at the farm.

That day was a good reminder to make use of any dry moments and get spring crops into the ground. Crops like spinach, peas and lettuces thrive in the cold, wet spring – and if they are planted too late in the spring, they are quick to wilt or go to seed in the warmer days of summer.

Click here to read the rest of Michelle's musings on planting with preschoolers and planning for sunnier days.  

Giving Gardeners unite!

Even in a region where you can grow vegetables year-round, it’s hard to resist the call of spring as a new beginning and a time to celebrate. As the birds build their nests and the peas begin to sprout, P-Patches come to life and traditions abound as gardeners reconnect at gardener gatherings and work parties.

Here at Lettuce Link, we like to start our spring by bringing together Giving Gardeners from all over the city to talk about food bank gardening. When I go to meetings like this, I’ve learned to keep two columns of notes in my notebook—one for official meeting business, and one for advice I want to try out in my own garden. When you get a group of dedicated, passionate gardeners together, good ideas sprout immediately. Here are some of the highlights from the 2011 Giving Gardener Gathering:

• Waste not. We talked quite a bit about gleaning surplus produce from individual garden plots, and the consensus seemed to be that patience and a light touch will get most gardeners on your side. Good communication ensures that none of that beautiful organic produce will go to waste!

• Greens are glorious. Sure, if you’re tracking pounds donated they might not weigh as much as squash, but you get many harvests from one plant, which means less time spent planting and replanting. Our gardeners recommend looking beyond kale and exploring the wonderful variety of Asian greens available.

• Make it fun. Growing, harvesting, and delivering fresh, nutritious food can be hard work. And with one in seven Washington households struggling to put food on the table, it’s incredibly important. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun! P-Patchers rave about evening work parties filled with delicious food and drink, good company, and when the weather cooperates, stunning sunsets.

• Feed the soil. Okay, so maybe you didn’t fall for our April Fool’s joke about drinking compost tea. But your garden will love it! And did you know that the P-Patch office maintains an excellent list of Organic Gardening Resources and Tips, full of ideas about where to find compost, wood chips, and even elephant manure?

What was especially exiting about getting all of these giving gardeners together is that they represented the entire spectrum of experience, from new gardeners to about the greenest thumbs you can find, and they were from P-Patches that ranged from decades old to not-yet-built. Yet everyone had something to share and to learn, and thanks to a little cross-pollination, I think we’re in for a great year of growing and giving!

Want to get involved with your neighborhood’s Giving Garden? You don’t need to have a P-Patch plot to volunteer! Just contact mollyw@solid-ground.org.

The Giving Gardener: plant your cool weather crops!

The Lettuce Link staff have started a regular feature on the Solid Ground blog, offering advice about cultivating your own food and growing for others. 

If you haven’t yet planted a seed this season, do not fear, there is still time! In fact, if your garden beds are not too soggy, this is a great time to get started. March was kind enough to water our garden beds almost daily and though April feels as cold as winter, spring is here.

This is the time of year to plant cool weather crops—lettuces, carrots, beets, pak choi, gailan, kale, chard, collards, spinach, mustards, broccoli, radishes and onions. The radishes and onions, if harvested when young can be the first crop you donate.

Click here to read the rest of Michelle's musings on planting cool weather crops and popular vegetables to grow for food banks. 

Giving Gardeners: Hazel Heights P-Patch

(L-R): Shanelle Donaldson, Jen Thompson, Carol Edmonson, and Beckey Sukovaty. Not pictured: Rosemary Ferrentino and Mia.

The Hazel Heights P-Patch, located in Fremont, officially opened on March 21st last year and though the gardeners there may be new to food bank gardening, they grew and shared over 350lbs with the Family Works Food Bank!  This is a significant amount for a first year garden with only 18 gardeners. 

With an innovative approach, amazing community support, and a dedicated volunteer team led by co-coordinators Jen Thompson and Rosemary Ferrentino, they will surely grow and share even more in 2011.  Much of this success comes from high gardener participation in a form of gleaning they call “light picking.” Almost every plot holder at Hazel Heights has agreed to let the food bank team harvest small amounts from his or her plot. Individual gardeners may not notice the absence of a few leaves or a handful of cherry tomatoes, but those small amounts from each plot add up!

Light picking supplements the harvest from the food bank plot and two community herb beds, but it also serves another purpose: preventing food waste. Not a bad idea, considering the fact that about 40% of all food in the US gets wasted. As giving garden co-coordinator Jen Thompson points out, “there’s no need for organic, fresh produce to go to waste.” At Hazel Heights, even the produce that is too unappetizing for the food bank gets put to use, whether it’s in green tomato jelly or the good old soup pot.

Of course, this style of harvesting can be time-consuming, and good communication is crucial. The gardeners at Hazel Heights use email to stay well connected. Gardeners alert coordinators to their vacation plans, so that volunteers can water their plot and harvest for donation. This year, the goal is to increase communication and education about year-round gardening. Over the past winter, there were enough overwintering greens to allow for monthly harvests for the food bank, but the food bank team sees room for improvement.

And perhaps the final ingredient in Hazel Heights’s recipe for success is community participation. Their 8,000 gallon cistern fills with water from neighboring rooftops and several key volunteers don’t even have plots. Their weekly work parties, which feature food, drinks, and socializing, have attracted several passerby. Some of these neighbors go on to offer plant starts, backyard gleaning opportunities, or even yard space for plants that would overwhelm the small food bank plot!

If you live nearby and would like to volunteer at Hazel Heights, please contact Carol Edmondson at edcatlick AT yahoo DOT com. Helping out at Hazel Heights offers not only the chance to do good, learn about gardening, and have fun with your neighbors. If you stay long enough in this hillside garden, you’re sure to catch a fabulous view of the sun setting over the Olympics. 

The Giving Gardener: Growing for others

Pea starts at Marra Farm

The Lettuce Link has staff started a regular feature on the Solid Ground blog, offering advice about cultivating your own food and growing for others.

Growing food for yourself, for friends, family and especially to donate to strangers is at once an act of kindness and self-indulgent. Yes, self-indulgent, because growing food involves connecting with the senses when so often in our busy, urban lives we live hurried, stressed and detached.  

Click here to read the rest of Michelle's musings on planting peas, dirt under the fingernails, and preparing for spring.  

Thank you, Giving Gardeners!

A Giving Garden sign at the Magnuson P-Patch

As P-Patch Giving Gardeners from around the city reported back on their food bank gardening efforts this past growing season, it wasn't hard to spot some recurring themes. Some described "disastrous" crops. Others experienced sudden, inexplicable plant deaths. Many were overwhelmed with green-and only green-tomatoes. Almost everyone blamed the weather.

But all of these gardeners grew something. And when you put all those harvests together, even if they seemed small or not worth recording, they add up. In 2010, those harvests from 37 P-Patches across Seattle added up to 20,889 pounds of fresh, organic produce grown locally for food banks and hot meal programs around the city. That's a lot of high quality, nutritious food!

So thank you for all the gardeners who worked with Lettuce Link to grow, harvest, and deliver food for low-income families this past year.

This year ten P-Patches donated 500+ lbs of produce:

But that doesn't mean there aren't other ways to measure success!

To see how all 37 reporting P-Patches contributed, check out the full set of charts here. And if you'd like more information about food bank gardening, check out our Giving Garden Tips or email mollyw@solid-ground.org.

Not a P-Patch gardener? Food banks can still use extra produce from your garden. No amount is too small! Click here for a list of food banks in your neighborhood and their favorite crops.

Giving Gardeners: David, Alexander, and Simon Barbe, Marra Farm

As a child, David Barbe’s favorite chore at his grandparents’ house was taking kitchen scraps out to bury in the yard. He also loved eating tomatoes from their garden. “It took me about twenty years to make the connection,” he laughs. But now he and his two sons, Alexander, a senior at Inglemoor High School, and Simon, a sophomore at Lakeside, are the ones creating that connection on Marra Farm. Over the past eight months, they have transformed Lettuce Link’s compost, bringing order to the once-neglected piles and restoring nutrients to the garden beds that nourish thousands of pounds of organic produce each year.

The family first came to Marra Farm in April, when they volunteered with Boeing employees and their families to celebrate Earth Day. Terry Barbe, an employee at Boeing, brought a list of potential volunteer opportunities home to show her husband and sons. Fortunately, Marra Farm was the option that appealed to everyone, because when David, Alexander, and Simon learned that volunteers were needed to regularly maintain the compost, they took on the project immediately.

Once each month from April to November, the Barbes made the trip from Kenmore to South Park to maintain and monitor the compost piles. As David observed, "While great effort had been put into creating some good bins, they were not being used effectively." But he, Alexander, and Simon quickly turned things around and by their fifth visit, they were already sifting finished compost onto the beds. In less than a year, they've worked their way through about a third of previously accumulated plant material, while keeping up with what was produced this year.  

In fact, they are so committed to the project that when they learned that Sue wouldn’t be at the farm on the snowy Saturday after Thanksgiving, they brought their own tools, hopped the waist-high fence, and worked anyway. “The hardest part,” notes Simon, “was getting the wheelbarrow over the fence.” But they agree it was worth it for the chance to wrap things up for the season.

They also agree that being able to work on the compost together made it an ideal family volunteering project. Both Alexander and Simon were able to count hours spent at Marra Farm towards their schools’ community service and service-learning requirements. For other families, they recommend looking for an activity that is fun no matter how many other volunteers show up.

And though they enjoyed the physical nature of their project, Alexander is quick to point out that there are other options on the farm: “There’s always work…you don’t have to lift hundred-pound wheelbarrows.” Each task on the farm contributes to the harvest, something David recognizes: When you learn about the Lettuce Link’s mission and how much production increases each year, he says, “you feel like you’re part of a winning team.”

If you’d like to join the team, check out current volunteer opportunities here.

Giving Gardeners: Steve Tracy, Marra Farm

Steve, holding a bundle of radishes at Marra Farm

Every Friday during the growing season, Steve Tracy arrives at Marra Farm, pulls the hose from the shed, plugs the drains, and fills each side of the sink with clean water for washing vegetables. Rain or shine, you will find Steve washing, weighing, and stacking bins full of radishes, beets, chard, broccoli and squash all morning, finishing just in time for the 1pm pick-up from the Providence Regina House food bank truck.

Not only does Steve have a deep commitment to Lettuce Link and garden education, but he has been living in the area for 62 years and currently resides in same house in Burien where he was raised. He says that in addition to the thousands of pounds of food grown for the food bank each year. Marra Farm “is an important place [in the community] for networking and education for ‘one-time’ volunteers about food and agriculture systems.”

Steve’s dedication to helping change the food system started in his mom’s vegetable garden, where he learned basic gardening skills. Later, during the oil crisis of the 1970s, Steve joined with others to explore alternative ways of energy and food production. He has spent time on the board of Seattle Tilth, taken permaculture courses, and always has an eye out for new projects. “There is a vacant lot across from the library where I envision a great community garden, but I have not pursued that dream yet,” he says. Some of Steve’s greatest contributions to Lettuce Link are his stunning photographs of Marra Farm produce. Ranging from the colorful complexity of a simple radish to a bee landing on a flower’s anther, his pictures capture the delicate beauty of our food.

Steve has been a regular volunteer at Marra Farm for five years and plans to continue indefinitely. Thank you Steve for your dedicated service and elegant portraits!

--Blair Hensen