The Tomatoes have Arrived

Its September and the fall crops are starting to ripen! 

Last week's tomatoes from the G4G garden

That means tomatoes and peppers are now mixed in among the zucchini, cucumbers and squash. The variety of vegetables being donated each week is actually amazing. We have had kale, all kinds of interesting squash, green beans, carrots, onions, hot peppers, green peppers, and an array of tomatoes. We also received a batch of locally grown peaches last week and grapes this week. So we are going to try our hand at juice making.


The collective effort has also been impressive. Besides our gardeners in the Littleton Pea Patches, who wow us every week with their generosity, we have received vegetables from backyard gardeners around Littleton, who have made an extra trip to Bemis Library or the Buck Center just to share their bounty. Also, the gardeners at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Centennial have donated at least 60 pounds of vegetables. With so many people involved, I think I can safely say that Gardening for Good is truly a COMMUNITY project.


And, thanks to everyone's support we donated 400+ lbs. last week and 300+ lbs. this week, putting us real close to our 1 ton goal for the season. Because of these numbers we are now able to donate to all our recipients once a week! Honestly, I cannot get over how successful this year has been and we still have a month to go.

So stay tuned for more updates and for information on our final celebration in October.

475 lbs. Donated in 1 Week!!!

That is not a typo.  We received well over 450 lbs. of vegetables last week.  Amazing!  

If we keep getting amounts even close to this, we will need to begin delivering vegetables 3x per week.

Thank you so much!

We also had our G4G kickoff event at Amity Plaza this week.  We shared samples of a number of simple vegetable recipes with the senior residents at Amity and gave away an amazing amount of vegetables.  We had a great time!!  We will be hosting a similar event this upcoming week at another site.

If you are interested in the recipes you can find them here: Squash and Cuc Recipes.

Also, we would like to give a big thanks to Recipe for Change for providing all the printed recipes.

A Little Garden Humor

Thanks to some forgotten zucchinis, healthy-sized squash, cucumbers, and even a few peppers and tomatoes, G4G donated over 100+ pounds of vegetables this week!

A Bit about Who We Donate To

Well, week 2 was even more successful than the last. We delivered 75 lbs. of vegetables to our neighbors.

LITTLETON GARDENERS YOU ARE AWESOME!

We are delivering these vegetables to members of our community who too often cannot afford fresh produce. 

Each Wednesday, all the vegetables donated between Sunday and Tuesday are picked-up and taken to Interfaith Community Services' food bank. Interfaith has been serving the South Metro Denver community for over 40 years. In addition to their food bank, they offer a wide variety of services including homeless prevention programs, assistance to homebound seniors, and Ready, Set, School!, which outfits low-income children with new clothes, backpacks, and school supplies so they can start their first day of school on the right foot. The mission of Interfaith is to foster the self-sufficiency and respect the dignity of each of their clients. The mission of Interfaith and its motto 'neighbors helping neighbors' is a true representation of what Gardening for Good is all about and we are excited that we can play a small part in their service to the community.

On Mondays, we deliver all donated vegetables to senior and family residents of the Littleton Housing Authority (LHA).  LHA 'seeks to strengthen our community by creating opportunities for diverse housing alternatives'.  The LHA operates three senior housing residences and also offers affordable, quality housing to over 100 families in Littleton.  Each week we deliver vegetables directly to these senior residences and to all the families who have signed up to receive vegetables.  In this way, we hope to reach members of our community who cannot easily travel to Interfaith's food bank or who could use the support but have no need for food bank services.  More importantly, we aim to develop a community of sharing that is more direct, interdependent, and interactive.  To this end, we deliver the vegetables in person each week and plan to host several events to bring volunteers and recipients together.

Yesterday, when delivering vegetables I was told by one recipient to say thanks to all the gardeners who have so kindly shared their bounty.  So again and always THANK YOU!

First Full Week and Wow!

I am so excited.  I just returned from the G4G garden plot with cucumbers, squash, swiss chard, and lemon cucumbers!  I guess we did not have to wait long at all for the other vegetables to arrive.  It is amazing how quickly things are growing and maturing now.  I took a picture of the plot a couple weeks ago (below) and it is unrecognizable - some of our tomato plants are approaching five feet and the cucs, squash, and zucchini have taken over the whole front plot.  It is so fun to watch.

But that is not why I am writing.  I am writing to report on the success of our first full week of donations.  I have to admit I did not expect much until the end of the month or beginning of August so I am blown away.  On Wednesday I delivered about 10 pounds of zucchini and sqaush to Interfaith Community Services' food bank.  Today, I weighed all the vegetables we collected since then and the grand total is 45 lbs.  We will deliver these to Amity Plaza residents (Littleton Senior Housing community) tomorrow.  

That puts us at almost 60 lbs. for our first full week. Amazing.  And I cannot begin to describe the radioactive sized vegetables we have received.  

This just affirms what I already knew - 
Littleton gardeners do not just have green thumbs, they are also amazingly generous.  Thank you!  This project is nothing without your generosity and we cannot begin to convey how appreciative we are.  

Happy gardening and be well.

The G4G Garden the first week of July 2010

First Week's Bounty (7/18/2010)