Mid-Summer Update

We’ve been very busy at the Lend-A-Hand Center this past month!

Our gardens at the Center and at the community gardens are looking good. We have had several planting days at the Dewitt Community Garden and are experimenting with netting.

I am doing several garden visits this week to check on everyone’s progress. This year we are also getting ready for the first ever Stinking Creek Garden Tour! We will be partnering with the extension office on July 21st at 2:00. We will be visiting several participants’ homes to check out their gardens as well as the community gardens and the gardens at the Center.

The Knox County Farmers’ Market has also had a great start. We are accepting WIC and Seniors Vouchers as well as SNAP/EBT and credit and debit cards.

Also here’s one of Irma’s recent articles from earlier in the summer:

The middle of May and almost the beginning of summer. This 90- 90 weather we have been having is good for the hay makers and we have been busy on Stinking Creek as well as all around us doing just that. The long sun lit days make most of our garden plants really take off.

The strawberries are past and the raspberries are being harvested. We are already eating out of the garden such as onions, lettuce and peas especially sugar snaps. They are so good to eat pod and all if you pick them young and just steam them or eat them raw in a salad.

Our Farmers Market should soon be overrun with produce from our gardens. That can be an opportunity to get fresh home grown food. Our local farmers and gardeners are good at picking them at the right time for not only the fresh taste but also the peak of goodness. They take the time to present them at their best. But there is one way that is even better than buying them on Thursday evening market. I think the best way to really enjoy them and get the best nutrition is almost straight from the garden to the kitchen and to the table in the least amount of cooking time. Fresh green beans that snap with a pop and new potatoes that respond to rubbing the skins off and gentle cooking and—that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. So buying at the local farmers market is good but having your own garden is even better.

There is a real therapy to getting your hands in the dirt, pulling weeds and pulling fresh dirt around the tender little plants. There is also the challenge of the crows or other varmints beating you to the harvest. And even the weather plays a big part in being successful in getting back from the garden what you put into it. Some people can control the weather to a certain point by having access to a water hose but most of us just have to learn to go with the weather rather than trying to control it. This is a good lesson in itself because we people of today’s age want to control everything rather than learning to live with it.