Hard to believe that the garden year is basically at an end. Our gardeners have dealt with an
ongoing drought compounded by high temperatures and critters that tried to raid our gardens,
but they still managed to harvest food to preserve for use over the winter. Some gardeners have
planted a second crop of cool weather crops to harvest up until the first hard frost and possibly
beyond if they are covered during the coldest times.
Looking back at this last year, one of the highlights for me was the inclusion of youth and teens
in our program, and the enthusiasm they showed for all aspects from raising produce to
harvesting it to preserving it; they were so proud of their accomplishments and their ability to
help provide food for use with the Center programs and to help provide for their families.
We also expanded our program to two workshops on different days and times so that we could
reach a wider range of gardeners who might find it easier to come to the workshops. This also
opened the option of offering different sub-topics under a set topic, such as both freezing and
canning under food preservation as many gardeners prefer to use both methods.
We also partnered with the Big Ugly Food Pantry to recruit gardeners from those utilizing the
food pantry, and plan to continue this partnership in 2025. Looking ahead at 2025, our
gardeners are already excited, and we have 30+ already signed up; some of our teen gardeners
have “graduated” to adult status for the next year as they look at their final year of high school or
their first year of community college. Other gardeners who have already signed up are
gardeners recruited through the food pantry, plus a couple of people who heard about the
program at the end of this year (one gardener recruited late is trying a winter garden after
attending our last meeting on winterizing gardens/winter gardening).
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