Oh, June. You were a hot one. June has come and gone. Many of our gardeners had the same troubles. Our counties suffered several weeks of extreme heat with heat advisories, with no rain in sight. Most of our gardeners hustled to get their gardens watered most weeks due to the lack of rain. Thankfully that didn’t stop things from growing in our necks of the woods.

We had a wonderful harvest month with beans, cukes, and squashes finally producing. One of our biggest producers in the program is the Lincoln County Day Report, Fresh Start Program. The Fresh Start Program is a community garden in Hamlin, WV grown by clients who report to the day report center. In one picture to the right, you’ll see Elly Donahue, with over 70 pounds of green beans that were picked in one sitting. The Fresh Start Program uses produce for clients in their program and they also give produce to the local LCOC- Lincoln County Opportunity Company, who offer programming and assistance to elderly and disabled in the community. Fresh Starts produce helps hundreds of Lincoln County families each summer.

Another community garden in our program is Caldwell Farms Community Garden. Kandi Messinger, Health Educator through WVU Extension- Family Nutrition Program, manages this garden. Produce from this garden helps supplement produce for Kids Pop-Up Markets in Cabell County. The first market of the season was held at Salt Rock Public Library on July 3rd with over 30 families participating. This garden takes a lot of work, and you can see in the pictures that Rylee helped Ms. Kandi water the garden during those hots days in June to make sure our plants survived.

Here’s hoping for just the right amount of rain and wonderful, fruitful harvest during the month of July.

Heather Cook