Published: Thursday, September 10, 2009
Snohomish Garden Club is a growing concern
Members harvest their vegetables to feed the hungry
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Michael O’Leary / The Herald
Snohomish Garden Club volunteers have developed a community garden in Snohomish to grow produce for the local Food banks. Volunteer Kim Brook was at the garden Tuesday picking tomatoes.
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Michael O’Leary / The Herald
Snohomish Garden Cub volunteers have developed a community garden in Snohomish to grow produce for local food banks. Volunteer Jerry Stansberry was busy Tuesday picking cabbage, lettuce and peppers.
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Michael O’Leary / The Herald
Snohomish Garden Club volunteers grow produce for local food banks. Volunteers Dorothy Fuhrman (left), Larry Dahl (center) and Kim Brook were busy Tuesday picking vegetables.
SNOHOMISH — On most Thursday mornings, Martha Perry is up early, breathing in the fresh scent of a garden.
“The sun was just trying to come out and the water was still on the plants,” she described one recent morning at the Snohomish Veggie Garden. “I could stand there and admire before I started (picking food).”
She’s not the only one.
Members of the Snohomish Garden Club have been weeding, planting and harvesting more than 40 different crops at the garden since May. The volunteers learn tricks of the gardening trade and share conversations while bent over beds of carrots, beans, tomatoes and zucchini.
They get the experience, and the local food banks get the fresh produce. It’s a perfect exchange, Perry said.
“I think what we like best is that many of us didn’t know each other before we came out here, and now we’re kind of a cluster,” she said. “We all enjoy it. I don’t think anybody’s out here by pressure.”
Perry and her husband, Art Mafli, first became involved in organizing the Snohomish Veggie Garden Project one year ago when they decided to do something to support the increasing use of local food banks.
“My biggest concern was finding a piece of property but, as it turned out, that was the easiest thing,” she said.
They met members of the Bailey family, who offered to lend the club a quarter-acre of their farm land on Springhetti Road outside of Snohomish. The family donates compost and water for the garden on a regular basis.
“This is a great area to grow vegetables and we just thought it would be a good thing for the community,” Don Bailey said. “They’re out there almost every day watering and weeding.”
Garden club members spend time harvesting on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Each type of crop is carefully weighed and recorded before someone drives the morning’s harvest to the Maltby Food Bank or to the Snohomish Community Food Bank. Volunteers work in the garden every Tuesday and Saturday pulling weeds and completing other chores.
Volunteers collected almost 250 pounds of food during one recent harvest, Perry said. The immediate goal is to donate 3,000 pounds of food, but she expects to exceed that amount and donate nearly 4,000 pounds of food before harvesting begins to taper off in mid-October.
Fresh produce from community gardens such as the Snohomish Veggie Garden is appreciated, said Ed Stocker, volunteer coordinator for the Snohomish Community Food Bank.
“A lot of fresh produce has been donated from orchards and farms here,” he said.
Almost 500 people come through the food bank every week, Stocker added. Donations of fresh produce help the Maltby Food Bank serve 440 people every week, said director Fran Walster.
“It’s premium produce,” she said, referring to food from the garden project. “Our clients are thrilled. It’s the best produce we receive.”
The garden club accepts donations of seeds, tools and time from other volunteers including Girl Scout troops, church groups, college students and individuals. She hopes word will continue to spread about the garden and it will only improve through a second harvest season.
“We’re all learning,” she said. “Even those of us who felt we were wonderful gardeners have never gardened on this scale and we all have ideas about what to do next year.”
Volunteers such as Kathleen McKenty have seen the garden transform and look forward to watching it continue to grow.
“I’ve always wanted to be part of a community garden,” she said. “This is my bliss, I’m at home out here.”
“The sun was just trying to come out and the water was still on the plants,” she described one recent morning at the Snohomish Veggie Garden. “I could stand there and admire before I started (picking food).”
She’s not the only one.
Members of the Snohomish Garden Club have been weeding, planting and harvesting more than 40 different crops at the garden since May. The volunteers learn tricks of the gardening trade and share conversations while bent over beds of carrots, beans, tomatoes and zucchini.
They get the experience, and the local food banks get the fresh produce. It’s a perfect exchange, Perry said.
“I think what we like best is that many of us didn’t know each other before we came out here, and now we’re kind of a cluster,” she said. “We all enjoy it. I don’t think anybody’s out here by pressure.”
Perry and her husband, Art Mafli, first became involved in organizing the Snohomish Veggie Garden Project one year ago when they decided to do something to support the increasing use of local food banks.
“My biggest concern was finding a piece of property but, as it turned out, that was the easiest thing,” she said.
They met members of the Bailey family, who offered to lend the club a quarter-acre of their farm land on Springhetti Road outside of Snohomish. The family donates compost and water for the garden on a regular basis.
“This is a great area to grow vegetables and we just thought it would be a good thing for the community,” Don Bailey said. “They’re out there almost every day watering and weeding.”
Garden club members spend time harvesting on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Each type of crop is carefully weighed and recorded before someone drives the morning’s harvest to the Maltby Food Bank or to the Snohomish Community Food Bank. Volunteers work in the garden every Tuesday and Saturday pulling weeds and completing other chores.
Volunteers collected almost 250 pounds of food during one recent harvest, Perry said. The immediate goal is to donate 3,000 pounds of food, but she expects to exceed that amount and donate nearly 4,000 pounds of food before harvesting begins to taper off in mid-October.
Fresh produce from community gardens such as the Snohomish Veggie Garden is appreciated, said Ed Stocker, volunteer coordinator for the Snohomish Community Food Bank.
“A lot of fresh produce has been donated from orchards and farms here,” he said.
Almost 500 people come through the food bank every week, Stocker added. Donations of fresh produce help the Maltby Food Bank serve 440 people every week, said director Fran Walster.
“It’s premium produce,” she said, referring to food from the garden project. “Our clients are thrilled. It’s the best produce we receive.”
The garden club accepts donations of seeds, tools and time from other volunteers including Girl Scout troops, church groups, college students and individuals. She hopes word will continue to spread about the garden and it will only improve through a second harvest season.
“We’re all learning,” she said. “Even those of us who felt we were wonderful gardeners have never gardened on this scale and we all have ideas about what to do next year.”
Volunteers such as Kathleen McKenty have seen the garden transform and look forward to watching it continue to grow.
“I’ve always wanted to be part of a community garden,” she said. “This is my bliss, I’m at home out here.”
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