Adventures In Tunneling

We are so grateful to Jenny, Jeremy and Adam from West Virginia State University Extension. They came back to help us finish building the high tunnel at the end of May (in the calf-deep mud) – something we never could have done without them. We are working on getting electricity and water to the high tunnel and then our growing and season extension will REALLY be in business! We are very grateful to Harvey Galford for providing us with space on his land so that we can do more good in the community.

Despite some harsh weather right after we planted the community garden, the plants are starting to look really good – it was touch and go there for a little bit and I lived in fear that we were going to lose the thousands of seedlings raised lovingly by our participants. We’ve had several community members who are not involved stop by to visit just because people have told them to! It’s really neat to be in the garden in the evening and have anywhere between 5 to 10 participants show up to take care of not only their personal plots, but the community plots of potatoes and corn as well. Speaking of potatoes, the seed potatoes that we planted from Mary Nally at the Community Foods Initiative in Athens, OH are REALLY looking fabulous. I can’t wait until they are ready to harvest!

Also, I went by our local Farmer’s Market on Friday and saw that Linwood Daycare (our wonderful first participants and the ones who generally grow the most stuff!) was the only vendor with lettuce! It is very gratifying to know that the kids are learning how to grow their own veggies at such a young age AND seeing how they can make money and contribute to the community by doing so. Furthermore, we gained a new home garden participant who perfectly matches Grow’s target demographics, so we are very excited about that too…and better yet our new participants might even be more excited than I am! I look forward to continuing to see this greatness spread!

Peace,

Kelley

Pics of the high tunnel shenaniganry: