Recently our community garden has undergone some amazing changes. In late fall of last year we partnered with Refresh Appalachia to have a crew work our garden. With a crew of two and a crew leader on site for regular full time gardening, we were able to cut our own Christmas trees in December and have a winter market, build a giant picnic table, and now supply our CSA boxes. While many of our beds for the community garden are rented, there are usually a few who pay and then never show up to plant. There are also some beds that remain empty just because they are too large or too small. The empty beds now have a home with the Refresh Appalachia crew! We were able to sit down with Wilburn, garden crew worker, and plan out things we needed for this years CSA boxes. With some planning and unused spaces, they were able to grow us 45 head of cabbage for our first week, endless onions on a continuous basis, potatoes and carrots on a continuous basis, and a few surprises like beets! The crew is being led by our joint employee, Rebecca Casey. Rebecca began working with us in the beginning of the year as a mobile market manager and the crew leader for the garden crew. She comes from a long line of gardeners and has experience with a variety of planting projects. When in doubt her 87 year old grandfather serves as a knowledge bank for all things green and frequents the garden, just to check up on the plants. With Wilburn and Rebecca checking to see what we need they are going to keep a spot for our CSA boxes on a year long basis with both high tunnels. In a region where there is much demand and not a lot of supply this is a very welcome treat for us. Normally we have to procure produce from places that require us to drive up to two hours several times a week, this makes the burden a little less for us and we can tell them exactly what we want. Other garden news includes the garden camp coming up next month,(this month’s camp was postponed by massive rains), and the addition of a game area at the end of the garden for cornhole and horseshoes. With a small area that was sectioned off for gaming this month the garden hosted a community fitness activity in which teams competed in tournament with horseshoes and cornhole. Having the garden serve multiple healthy purposes is a win for us as we encourage a active lifestyle just as much as we encourage healthy eating.
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