The Blessing of the Garden

St. Timothy’s Episcopal and Covenant Presbyterian held a joint service July 21 to celebrate the bounty of the garden that grows between the two churches and is their joint mission. Following the service, Rev. Kyle Carswell and Rev. Nathan Williams blessed the garden. For the first time in several years, it didn’t rain, so the blessing was actually outside in the garden. Afterward, parishioners from both churches met for a meal and fellowship.

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Planting and Harvesting Update

Vegetables seem to be taking longer to ripen than last year, possibly due to extreme weather and an overabundance of rain. That means our numbers are still impressive, but they are down from last year.

This year, we harvested 7,510 pounds of produce compared with 9,605 last year at the same time. Most of the difference is in tomato weights, which totaled 1,335 pounds this year, almost a third of last year’s count of 3,880.

Below is an update on our donations through August 3.

PRODUCE POUNDS

Beets 210
Blueberries: 10
Bush Beans: 120
Broccoli: 5
Cabbage: 912
Collards: 272
Cucumbers: 196
Eggplant: 98
Garlic/Garlic Scapes: 273
Ground cherries: 25
Kale: 157
Kohlrabi: 55
Lettuce: 225
Okra: 10
Onions: 160
Peas: 380
Peppers: 75
Potatoes 2,495
Radishes: 75
Swiss Chard: 237
Tomatitoes: 15
Tomatoes: 1.335
Turnips: 60
Zucchini: 10

Total: 7,510

DONATION SITES/POUNDS

Fresh Start: 560
Lutheran Services: 39
CFUM (Children and Families Urban Movement): 925
Joppa: 30
St. Marks Community Fridge: 435
Trinity Los Americas: 1,175
Johnston Food Pantry: 866
WDM Human Services: 2,880

TOTAL: 7,510 pounds

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We Always Need Volunteers

Volunteer hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. Afternoon volunteer hours are available by appointment. Please text Mark Marshall at 515-988-5381 to volunteer in the afternoon. Please sign-up for morning hours HERE. No experience necessary.

Why sign-up? By signing up, you help us plan to make your volunteer experience more enjoyable. We are also able to notify you in case of a cancellation.

When volunteering in the garden, wear clothes that can get dirty and dress for the weather. Bring garden gloves if you have them; otherwise, we can provide them. We have all the tools you will need.

Thank you for your help!

Large groups volunteer by appointment. School, church, civic, and corporate groups are always welcome in the garden by appointment. Send a message to info@growthefood.org to learn about volunteering that fits your group’s schedule.

Garlic, Garlic, Everywhere!
Thanks to the 12-person team from Revision Church, we harvested more than 6,500 garlic bulbs on Sunday, June 30.  Revision Church has helped us in the garden several times each season for the past 6 years. We really appreciate their partnership! Mark Marshal holds garlic harvest bottom left – Revision Church Volunteers bottom right.

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Planting and Harvest Update:
We are planting sweet potatoes and melons and are harvesting turnips, some squash, and lettuce. Soon we will be harvesting potatoes.
We dig potatoes with our potato harvester, which is pulled behind the garden tractor. Volunteers then follow behind, picking up the potatoes and putting them in wheelbarrows.
We continue mulching the garden to control weed growth.

Below is an update on our donations through July3:

PRODUCE POUNDS

Beets 35
Blueberries: 10
Cabbage: 65
Collards: 105
Garlic/Garlic Scapes: 70
Ground cherries: 5
Kale: 40
Lettuce: 225
Peas: 380
Radishes: 75
Swiss Chard: 100
Turnips: 60
Zucchini: 10

Total: 1,215

DONATION SITES
CFUM (Children and Families Urban Movement): 350 pounds
Joppa: 30 pounds
Trinity Los Americas: 300 pounds
WDM Human Services: 535 pounds

TOTAL: 1,215 pounds

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We Always Need Volunteers

Volunteer hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. Afternoon volunteer hours are available by appointment. Please text Mark Marshall at 515-988-5381 to volunteer in the afternoon. Please sign-up for morning hours HERE. No experience necessary.

Why sign-up? By signing up, you help us plan to make your volunteer experience more enjoyable. We are also able to notify you in case of a cancellation.

When volunteering in the garden, wear clothes that can get dirty and dress for the weather. Bring garden gloves if you have them; otherwise, we can provide them. We have all the tools you will need.

Thank you for your help!

Large groups volunteer by appointment. School, church, civic, and corporate groups are always welcome in the garden by appointment. Send a message to info@growthefood.org to learn about volunteering that fits your group’s schedule.

Kids in the Garden

The youth group from Covenant Presbyterian Church planted onions on Wednesday evening.

Planting Update

We now have 950 tomato plants growing in the garden. Thanks to the help of students from Waukee High School, most of these plants are also mulched and placed in tomato cages.

We need to make about 300 to 400 more tomato cages to finish work in the tomato patch. If your business, civic, or church group is looking for a service project, here it is!

We are in the process of planting peppers. We have about 150 plants in the ground and hope to have 700+ hot and sweet peppers growing in the garden by the end of the month.

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Storm Report
The greenhouse sustained minor damage from the storms this week. We are very thankful that the hail and tornadoes missed the garden.

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First Harvest

The first deliveries of cool weather crops started this week.
Totals through May 22, 2024:

PRODUCE
Lettuce: 80 pounds
Radishes: 50 pounds
TOTAL: 130 pounds

DONATION SITES
CFUM (Children and Families Urban Movement): 65 pounds
West Des Moines Human Services: 65 pounds
TOTAL: 130 pounds

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Faith + Grace Garden Welcomes New Donation Site – Joppa.
This year we will start making regular produce deliveries to Joppa.

Joppa’s mission is “to create communities of unconditional love, support, and hope for the homeless as we work together to prevent and ultimately end homelessness.”

Joppa’s work includes collaborating with community partners, helping homeless people access existing resources, and mobilizing private donations from families, churches, and organizations to fill unmet needs in homeless services, housing, and education.

To learn more about Joppa, visit their website here

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Can You Help? We Always Need Volunteers

Volunteer opportunities in May are available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. No experience necessary. Please sign-up HERE.

Volunteer hours to change on June 1.

Starting June 1, our new volunteer hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.  Afternoon volunteer hours are available by appointment. Please sign up for morning hours HERE.  Please text Mark Marshall at 515-988-5381 to volunteer in the afternoon.  No experience necessary.
Why sign-up? By signing up, you help us plan to make your volunteer experience more enjoyable. We are also able to notify you in case of a cancellation.
When volunteering in the garden, wear clothes that can get dirty and dress for the weather. Bring garden gloves if you have them; otherwise, we can provide them. We have all the tools you will need.

Thank you for your help!

Large groups volunteer by appointment. School, church, civic, and corporate groups are always welcome in the garden by appointment. Send a message to info@growthefood.org to learn how volunteering can fit your group’s schedule.

Thank you for reading!

Rain and Volunteers Make the Garden Grow

It’s Tuesday and a wonderful rain is falling in the Faith & Grace Garden. That’s good because we are making great progress in planting this spring. So far, potatoes, lettuce, peas, and garlic are in the ground. We are starting to plant onions. Then comes the brassicas family: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, kale, and Swiss chard.

Warm Weather Plant Giveaway
April 27 & 28 and May 4 & 5

We will give away a wide variety of plant starts, including, tomato (red splicer, paste, cherry, and yellow low acid varieties), peppers, (hot and sweet), cucumbers, zucchini, winter squash, melons, and herbs (basil, thyme, dill, and rosemary). Bring a box to carry your plants to your car.

WHEN
Saturday, April 27 and Saturday, May 4 – 10 a.m. until noon
Sunday, April 28 and Sunday, May 5 – Noon until 2 p.m.
Donations accepted but not required.

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“Name That Vegetable”
Each year we plant something new in the garden and have fun as people guess what it is. The vegetable may be one suggested by folks at the food pantries we serve or perhaps by a garden volunteer.

Below is this year’s new garden vegetable and this year’s prize. Let us know what you think our mystery vegetable is. The first person to correctly “Name That Vegetable” will receive a deck of Famous Plants of the Bible playing cards.

Hints: This vegetable is a native of South and Central America. Eaten raw, this vegetable has the crunch of an apple but it’s not as sweet. When cooked, it can be used in any dish as a low-starch substitute for potatoes.

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Plants of the Bible Playing Cards

Famous Plants of the Bible Playing Cards include 54 beautifully illustrated plants, trees, and flowers along with their common and Latin names and corresponding Bible quotation.

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Who Doesn’t Like Sun & Fun?
Be a Garden Volunteer

We continue working in the greenhouse transplanting and, weather permitting, in the garden planting onions. Plenty of volunteer opportunities are available Monday through Friday, 9–11a.m. and 1– 3p.m. No experience necessary. Please sign-up HERE

Why sign-up? By signing up, you help us plan ahead to make your volunteer experience more enjoyable. We are also able to notify you in case of a cancellation.

When volunteering in the garden, wear clothes that can get dirty and dress for the weather. Bring garden gloves if you have them, otherwise we can provide them. We have the tools you will need.

Large groups volunteer by appointment. School, church, civic, and corporate groups are always welcome in the garden by appointment. Send a message to info@growthefood.org to learn about how volunteering fits your group’s schedule.

Thank you for your help!

Spring Planting

It’s springtime in the garden, and plants are popping up inside and out.
Volunteers transplanted 100,000 onions in the past two weeks, moving them from the greenhouse into cold frames outside, where their root structure has more space to grow. Warmer than average temperatures this year meant sunny and pleasant work, but we continue to pray for more rain. Meanwhile, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, cabbage, mustard, and other vegetables were started in the greenhouse. In the garden itself, volunteers planted the first lettuce and spinach.

As part of our continued community connections, Lutheran Services of Iowa brought refugee farmers to the greenhouse and garden for training and orientation.

And our annual cool weather community plant giveaway is scheduled March 30 and 31. Mark your calendars.

In preparation for transplanting, Mark Marshall built 13 cold frames, aided by his faithful assistant, Sadie.
In the Greenhouse

Jennifer Irwin (middle) gives hands-on training to beginning refugee farmers from Lutheran Social Services, with help from an LSI translator.

Sprouts were more than two inches high and ready to leave the flats for the roomier outdoor frames, with Ken Musser’s help.

Ray and Susan Meylor, Alex Raiche, and Mark Marshall (left to right) plant red cabbage and mustard.

It all begins with dirt. Dick Christiansen (Bottom) uses a wheelbarrow to fill empty trays and get them ready for plants
Community Plant Giveaway

We’ll be sharing cool weather vegetable starter plants with the community on March 30 and 31 from noon to 2 p.m. This will include cabbage, broccoli, collards, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, kale, and cauliflower. Drop by the greenhouse, pick up plants for your home vegetable garden, and visit with other gardeners

Thank you for reading!

Questions? Contact us at: info@growthefood.org
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Faith + Grace Garden
1020 24th St
West Des Moines, IA 50266-2107
USA