by Amy Swanson
Volunteers: Temple Emunah, Hancock and Lexington Catholic Community
Weather: beautiful fall afternoon
Since I usually work on Saturdays, it was nice to get a taste of the Tuesday routine. Without a deadline of getting produce to the pantry, there’s a different vibe…a bit more relaxed. But I’m making this comparison during the busiest part of the garden cycle, which will be pronounced on Pantry days!
Watering and Weeding Bok Choy
This crew had some experienced gardeners, so when a question came up such as whether some squashes were ready for picking, or whether we needed to do a deep watering, there was an informed answer in Carla’s absence.
We opted to pick a lot of tomatoes on Tuesday. The idea was to pick the very red ones. Leave them on the plant too long and tomatoes can start to split. In fact, it might be smart to protect against splitting by picking tomatoes with a little green. Leave them out on your counter and they will ripen very nicely.
The other big harvest was the Romano and pole beans. We picked pounds and pounds of beans…possibly as much as 7? We had a young helper who loooved to find the beans hiding among the leaves. And good thing, because had we waited for Saturday morning when it rained, we wouldn’t have been able to harvest any, since you don’t want to pick beans when the plants are wet.
Our diligent bean pickers