The Deviled Eggery Garden Network is in it’s 2nd year and provides regular delivery of produce, flowers, and herbs to the Una Vida Tuesday Market. With a total of 11 gardeners donating in the network, we’ve donated 33 types of produce, for a total of nearly 1200 pounds, which means nearly 4800 servings were added to the tables in the community!
As is often the case, the experiences and relationships built provide even more benefit to the community. Several of the relationships involve a number of parties. For example, Dawn was one of the first to sign up to grow food, but being disabled, she needed help to get her garden beds into shape for planting. Lamar and Liz worked with Dawn to underwire, fill with soil, fertilize and irrigate Dawn’s raised beds. Using donated plant starts and seeds, Dawn cared for her garden and provided regular donations of zucchini, tomatoes, herbs, peppers and lemon cucumbers to the Tuesday Market.
Another example of community building was with MentorMe. Lamar’s mentee, Gabby, and her grandmother, Teresa attended the plant sale in April, and then planted flowers and vegetables in both Gabby’s and Teresa’s gardens. Not only did the produce help fuel donations to the Tuesday Market, but with gleaning in mind, Lamar arranged for the apples on Gabby’s tree to be used in an Apple Pie Workshop at the MentorMe center, teaching seven mentor/mentee pairs to make apple pie.
Often, shared plants lead to more sharing. For instance, the pumpkin plants sold to Audrey were planted and lovingly tended, producing a whopping 18 pumpkins for her family and friends. Some of those pumpkins will be deseeded, with the seeds distributed to network members, leading to future donations. And the fruit of the pumpkin itself will be turned into delicious baked goods and shared with volunteers.
Last but not least, the Deviled Eggery Garden itself provided an opportunity for network members to learn and bond over the shared experience of growing food.
Through work parties and ongoing activities, the garden was planted, nourished, harvested, and replanted. Donations from Cottage Garden Nursery (http://www.cottagegardensofpet.com/)
have been used and distributed through this process, and hundreds of pounds of produce make their way to the community through Una Vida’s food distribution.
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