MARYSVILLE — Every Monday morning from spring to fall, groups of volunteers descend on the demonstration garden in Jennings Memorial Park and harvest the produce.
On Monday, the volunteers, all from the Snohomish County Master Gardeners, loaded 225 pounds of produce into a truck.
All the produce from the garden is donated to the Marysville Community Food Bank.
Michele Duncan, one of the Master Gardeners who manages the one-acre garden, said they were on track to donate more than 3,000 pounds of produce this year.
Monday’s haul included potatoes, peppers, kale, tomatoes, leeks and squash, including a football-size winter squash that will wind up in one lucky person’s grocery bag.
The Master Gardeners program of Washington State University offers extensive training and workshop instruction every winter quarter.
The Master Gardeners are certified to work and educate the public about gardening and environmental stewardship. The program has three demonstration gardens in the county — two others are in McCollum Park and Legion Memorial Park in Everett, although the latter is in a transitional state while the Department of Ecology is cleaning up toxic chemicals from the park’s soil.
“A lot of us are involved in community gardens as well, just as a source of information about how to grow food,” Duncan said.
Marysville Community Food Bank director Dell Deierling said the food from the demonstration garden only amounts to about 10 percent of the donated produce they distribute during the year.
But the quality of the demonstration garden produce sets its above the rest.
“It means we get the freshest food possible available to our clients,” Deierling said.
“You know that it’s going to be organic, you don’t have to worry about chemicals,” he added. So far this year, the food bank has distributed 27,815 pounds of produce, Deierling said. Much of the remainder comes from community gardens, such as through its “Giving Gardens” program that encourages people to plant produce specifically for the food bank.
“We are benefiting not just from them now but from many communities here in Marysville who grow for the food bank,” Deierling said.
There are approximately 325 Master Gardeners in the county, Duncan said. More than 200 of them typically sign up for work parties in the Jennings Park garden over the summer.
“It’s so rewarding to be able to do that for the food bank,” Duncan said. “I think that’s why the Master Gardeners like to volunteer, because they like helping people.”
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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