What a Week for CFI!

As part of our Community Orchard project, CFI has planted a large number of fruit and nut trees around the area on public land, available for anyone to harvest. These past few years, we noticed that four of our peach trees beside the West Side Community Garden were badly suffering from gummosis and hadn’t ever produced any fruit. After having them examined by a plant health specialist, we decided that the peach trees would be better off removed and replaced.

We got them all torn out no problem.

This Friday, we replaced the peach trees with three grafted mulberry trees and a native persimmon. We also held a ceremony dedicating the planting of the special persimmon tree to our friend and former board member, Greg Broadhurst, who passed away last year. Greg will be remembered by his friends, family, and all of us at CFI.

I would like to give a warm and heartfelt congratulations to the students of Vinton County Middle School in McArthur, Ohio, who with guidance from their teachers and our school garden coordinator, Keith Wilde. Together, they raised funds and received many generous donations of materials, time, and effort from their community to come together and build a beautiful school garden behind their school.

It will be a valuable learning experience for many of the students to learn and practice growing their own food. Also, a main goal of the garden will be to hopefully provide more healthy fresh produce for the cafeteria to serve in school lunches.

All in one afternoon, the students and volunteers managed to till up a large garden plot, plant a few rows of potatoes in it, create a composting system nearby, and build and fill six separate raised beds for the project. We’re all very proud of them, and look forward to seeing their garden grow and flourish with fresh healthy vegetables.