It finally feels like we have a garden really growing here in Linwood!  For a while there, it seemed as though we would NEVER arrive at the eating part, but finally we have!  So far we have harvested garlic, radishes, basil, kale, lettuce, spinach, onions, beets, cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli, snap peas and swiss chard!  The kids from Linwood Daycare eat their peas as quickly as they can pick ‘em!  This is really a wonderful thing we’ve got going on here.

We were very lucky that our garden did not flood at all.  It is in a low spot, and I fully expected to find it underwater that day, but the damage turned out to be minimal.  One of our participants who farms at home in addition to having a plot in the community garden had her high tunnels flood, and when the water receded she found them overrun with silt.  We had a great cleanup crew go over and help her put her gardens back together, but her harvests certainly will suffer this year as a result of the rain.

On a more positive note, we had a very successful opening of our new grill at the Linwood Pavilion.  Many people came out and bought meat at the Pocahontas County Farmer’s Market to grill, and we provided a salad from the community garden.  Others brought assorted breads, veggies and other stuff to chow on.  The turnout was excellent and the vendors at the Farmer’s Market definitely saw an increase in their sales.  We intend to repeat this event every first Friday and use it to raise some funds to put back into the program.  We also have our Farm to Table dinner planning underway.  This fundraiser was extremely successful last year (not to mention fun) and we are looking forward to repeating it!

Also, we received a grant from Try This WV to build a walkway from the daycare to the community garden, which will increase educational opportunities for the kids as well as providing a safe place for them (and other members of the community) to walk.

Lastly, we have stuff planted in our high tunnel!  It still needs to be finished but we just couldn’t wait!

So, as you can see, things here sure are looking good!  I can’t wait for our tomatoes to grow, and ripen.  Definitely expect a blog post about tomatoes in the future, since nothing speaks to summer like a ripe tomato straight out of the garden.

Peace,

Kelley