"Gardening is a way of showing that you believe in tomorrow."

As we are quickly moving into October, the community garden has seen many new faces in addition to our returning gardeners. Although the weather is becoming a bit colder, the energy level has not lessened. The past two Tuesdays in the garden have been filled with hard work and lively conversation. Our harvests, and then donations, have included: Pablano Peppers, Russian Kale, Dinosaur Kale, Red Russian Kale, Bright Lights Swiss Chard, lettuce, and Heirloom Organic Tomatoes in the Orange Queen, Yellow Pear, Cherry, and Sun Marzano Roma varieties. Our donation to the Midway Food Shelf on September 23rd weighed in at 70 pounds. Last week, September 30th, our donation was down somewhat at 50 pounds; however, this is understandable as we moved further away from summer and towards another Minnesota winter.

The food shelf that we donate to is actually one of the three food shelves of Keystone Community Services. Jennifer thought that it would be interesting to share part of their newsletter in this post with regards to the use of these food shelves. According to the Fall 2009 Keystone Newsletter, the use of the food shelves has been higher in 2009 than ever seen before. Just between January and July 2009, the use of these shelves was up 43% from the same period in 2008. These numbers should definitely encourage us to keep sharing our harvests with them to do our part for the community as a whole.

This Tuesday, October 5th, is our salsa making night. Jennifer should be sending out an e-mail with the proposed recipe for everyone to look at. We will be meeting by the greenhouse at 5pm to harvest and then begin the salsa making process at 6pm. We will also make Calendula salve. Hopefully everyone will be able to make this event!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Katie