We had a (work) party in the garden this weekend!
For those who do not know, this garden (“Susan’s Seeds” after our previous youth director) was built in 2011 following a youth group mission trip to Portland, OR where they learned a lot about community gardening and food justice. Chris Singer reminded us of the story… during some free time they were riding the Aerial Tram in Portland, looking down on vacant lots and lawns and thinking “those could all be gardens!” Then they thought of the little lot sitting vacant at MPC and returned full of excitement to build a garden with raised beds.
Fast forward two years and several harvests, and this weekend we took out our summer crop of tomatoes, beans, peppers, and cukes (mostly tomatoes!) and prepared the garden for a winter planting.
Before picture: 
During:
Usually we partner with schools or food banks to get a portion of the produce delivered to people who could really use it. This time, unfortunately, as we were mainly harvesting green tomatoes, there wasn’t much we could do. Some youth took them home to try making fried green tomatoes or other dishes. I already made a half-gallon of pickles and am working on making sauce tonight. Yum!
After:
