A Busy Month

Hello All,

Well, we’ve had a busy month of harvesting, weeding, and teaching. We had a instructional day for the Union County Wrestling Team. The team came out to the Moffit Lake garden to learn about gardening and volunteer some of their manpower. We conducted a class with the young men involving plant identification, plant harvesting, proper weeding, and successive planting in a typical home garden. The boys volunteered hours on their Saturday and they were a big help to us. We really appreciate Robert and Brad Ervin, the wrestling coaches for allowing this day to happen. We had the boys weeding potatoes, tomatoes, picking green beans, and picking sweet corn.

We had a Union County Community Garden Coalition dinner that we prepared mostly with our fresh garden foods. We had fresh green beans with new potatoes, yellow squash and zucchini casserole, veggie tray with cucumbers, tomatoes, and green peppers, fresh cucumber salad, local BBQ, and zucchini bread. We invited our volunteers and people in the community interested in becoming involved in the garden coalition and learning about gardening. We enjoyed visiting with the volunteers and talking about the different garden locations. Nancy showed a movie trailer that is about gardening that she plans to show on a movie night for the community to get more people involved.

This month we have had several volunteers helping harvest all of our gardens. We have been delivering fresh produce throughout the community to our senior citizens and those in need. The seniors have really enjoyed it all, but I’ve heard the favorite is the green beans and yellow squash! We have also distributed produce to the shelter of love, which is single mothers in need. We have had volunteers pick produce for local food banks as well.

We have had some new volunteers interested in helping with out program and learning about gardening. We have been teaching them about gardening and we are so excited to have them as volunteers and watching them learn how to grow their own food.

Summer is coming to an end and I have moved back to Martin, Tennessee to attend the University of Tennessee Martin as a junior. I would like to tell you all how much I have enjoyed my time here and saddened that this summer is ending. I have learned so much over the past two summers and can honestly say that I have enjoyed my job as the intern. I am so thankful to work throughout my community and give back and support this community that I call home. I am truly thankful for this wonderful opportunity and great experience. I am glad to have worked with Nancy and I have great faith that this program will only continue to grow in the community.

God Bless you all,
Alexandria

.