Lexington Interfaith Garden

Now’s the time of year when prudent green thumbs curl up with their favorite seed catalogs and plan their springtime gardens, selecting from a huge variety of vegetable seeds for sale from an equally large number of seed companies. Many companies commonly offer heirloom and organic seeds, but what sets these varieties apart from the rest?

What makes an heirloom tomato different from a hybrid?

Heirloom versus hybrid seeds

The big difference in vegetable seeds is whether they are heirlooms or hybrids. Heirloom seeds are those that are open-pollinated, and passed down from generation to generation. Seeds from heirloom vegetables are true to type, meaning that you can save the seed from a certain plant and expect to get the same thing when you go ahead and plant those seeds again next season.

Hybrid vegetable seeds are created by artificially crossing two or more varieties of a certain plant. Hybrid vegetables are what one typically sees being sold in the your local grocery store: those rows of bright, uniform tomatoes, carrots, and peppers are probably grown from hybrid seeds.

One big disadvantage with hybrids is that you cannot save the seed: resulting seeds may be either sterile or produce a plant totally unlike its original. Although hybrid plants produce fruit that ripens at the same time and may be more resistant to pests or diseases, they’re not selected for their taste. They are typically selected for appearance and shelf life. Hybrid seeds are typically more expensive than heirlooms, too.

Home gardeners will likely be more satisfied with heirloom vegetable varsities for the flavor they deliver, and the sheer variety of vegetable types that are available. Blue potatoes, purple carrots, and orange tomatoes are not unusual among heirloom varieties. And perhaps best of all is that gardeners can save the seed from their heirloom vegetable plants, and continue to grow them year after year, and pass them on the family and friends well into the future. The same simply cannot be said for hybrids.

To learn more about saving seed and heirloom vegetables, visit Seed Savers Exchange.

by Amy Swanson

The Interfaith Garden’s first harvest closed on Saturday, Nov 6^thand there were 4 of us there to witness.    While MaryAnn and I cut the last of the broccoli, Carla and Tom sorted through donated apples to pick out the best of them for the Lexington Food Pantry.

The last harvest of the season

We estimated that there was about 1 ½ pounds of broccoli to deliver along with the 2 bags of apples. (For those of you who know that we are tracking how much is grown and delivered to the Pantry, we only added the broccoli to our cumulative total since the apples were donated, not grown at the garden! More on that in a last report.) We’ve come a long way from those busy Saturday mornings in August and Sept when we were picking, cleaning and delivering 75 to 100 pounds of produce.

Since we had time left that morning, we raked up maple leaves and spread about 6 inches on top of the First Parish garden. They will sit and decompose over the winter adding good organic material to the soil. (Hmmm, this reinforces for me that I need not rake up all the leaves in the beds in my backyard!). On Tuesday, there will be a little more cleanup for the folks from Trinity Covenant and First Parish and then the garden is officially closed for the year.

Spreading the leaves

Many thanks to Carla who has shared her space, time and years of gardening knowledge with us this first year. Rumor has it she has ideas about next year and I know for a fact that she has already planted garlic for next spring.

Can’t wait!

by Amy Swanson

Last time I was at the Interfaith Garden was Oct 10th for an afternoon of recalling why vegetable gardens are important not only for our physical, psychic and spiritual health, but also for our environment. It was a beautiful Indian summer kind of afternoon. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and you ended up wanted to shed the coat when you were in the sun. And the garden, already having yielded over 950 lbs of produce, still had lots of life. Staked high still were plants with late season tomatoes and beans. There were stands of cabbage, broccoli, bok choy, chard, and basil that were at least knee to thigh high.

Yesterday, Nov. 2nd, was just 3 weeks later but now the garden has gone horizontal…even flat. See what I mean?

What a different impression as you approach. As you can see, the garden is almost at an end. But this is New England and it is Nov. and what else should I expect when you best show up to work with gloves and hats!

On Saturday we will be picking the last crop standing: broccoli. It’s kind of ironic that broccoli is the last productive crop considering the difficulty in getting broccoli to survive earlier this season. Carla mused whether this last plot of broccoli might be the 4th planting of it? The first and second succumbed to cutworms and root fungus. The 3rd attempt yielded some but critters liked it as well. This last planting might be the most productive and the last of it will be harvested on Saturday. Below is the last corner of “verticality” in the garden, the broccoli patch.

The last of the broccoli

We aren’t the only faith community in the Boston area that is growing good food for our hungry neighbors. Take a look at the “Garden of Eden” growing the the heart of Boston.

Local Food Celebration Group Photo

You may be aware of Bill McKibben’s efforts to organize another worldwide day of action on October 10th.

This time the theme is about getting to work to make a better, more sustainable future for our local towns and our world. When Bill was in town, he asked us if we could organize an event at the Lexington Interfaith Garden. Well we’ve done just that!

Come celebrate those who grow, eat or serve local food on Sunday, October 10th from Noon to 1PM.

We are encouraging anyone who grows, eats or serves local food to meet us at the garden and bring some produce or food that has been grown locally.  I encourage you to come. Please RSVP here.

We will have a photo taken with all of our local food spelling out 350. At the end of the event all the produce will be donated to local hunger relief groups.

Growing local food is good for the environment and builds community, both key aspects of Bill’s vision for a sustainable future. A community that can grow its own food is much more resilient and can better handle any upcoming climate events or energy price shocks. This event is free and open to the public.

The local food celebration will be hosted at the Lexington Interfaith Garden and is also sponsored by the Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition (lexgwac.org), Lexington Community Farm Coalition (lexfarm.org) and supported by the League of Women Voters (lwvlexington.org) and Nourish Restaurant (nourishlexington.com).

Interfaith Garden Location