I harvested salad greens and kale with the sunrise this morning. The air was cool and the soil dark from yesterday's rain.
It's a lovely thing to harvest at the garden and think of all the work that went into it--not just the obvious ones of sun and rain and soil, but the bigger story of fourth grade students on a field trip planting seeds last September. And Dr. Wilson watering those seeds. Warren Wilson students and Dr. Wilson setting up winter hoop tunnels. And then there were glorious weeks through November and December when I harvested sweet baby leaves of tatsoi and lettuce. Then the deep winter snows which came again and again this year. The weight of them collapsed the hoop tunnels and buried the tender greens.
But then spring came and with it dead nettle, hairy vetch and chickweed crowding in with the greens. Then the tatsoi went to seed, bursting with yellow flowers. Two hours and the many hands of Warren Wilson College volunteers removed the weeds a few weeks back. The greens began to grow again until this morning I could harvest 10 pounds, four shopping bags packed full of their goodness. I took them to Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministries. There are still pounds left to harvest for this week's volunteers and next week's distribution at the Carver Community Center.
I looked over our harvest records for exactly one year past, this April to last. We have harvested and donated 3, 042 pounds of produce from the Black Mountain Community Garden. This number doesn't include the produce that goes home with folks who volunteer in the garden, or all the delicious strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries harvested by children and volunteers. I am in awe of the impact one small piece of land can have on our community, when put to creative use. I work each day in gratitude for the original vision of Dr. John Wilson to begin this Community Garden, for the town government which has supported this vision, and for the many people who contribute to the vision every season.
It's a lovely thing to harvest at the garden and think of all the work that went into it--not just the obvious ones of sun and rain and soil, but the bigger story of fourth grade students on a field trip planting seeds last September. And Dr. Wilson watering those seeds. Warren Wilson students and Dr. Wilson setting up winter hoop tunnels. And then there were glorious weeks through November and December when I harvested sweet baby leaves of tatsoi and lettuce. Then the deep winter snows which came again and again this year. The weight of them collapsed the hoop tunnels and buried the tender greens.
But then spring came and with it dead nettle, hairy vetch and chickweed crowding in with the greens. Then the tatsoi went to seed, bursting with yellow flowers. Two hours and the many hands of Warren Wilson College volunteers removed the weeds a few weeks back. The greens began to grow again until this morning I could harvest 10 pounds, four shopping bags packed full of their goodness. I took them to Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministries. There are still pounds left to harvest for this week's volunteers and next week's distribution at the Carver Community Center.
I looked over our harvest records for exactly one year past, this April to last. We have harvested and donated 3, 042 pounds of produce from the Black Mountain Community Garden. This number doesn't include the produce that goes home with folks who volunteer in the garden, or all the delicious strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries harvested by children and volunteers. I am in awe of the impact one small piece of land can have on our community, when put to creative use. I work each day in gratitude for the original vision of Dr. John Wilson to begin this Community Garden, for the town government which has supported this vision, and for the many people who contribute to the vision every season.
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