The Monday gleaners came on Tuesday this week since many pantries were closed due to the holiday. Why does this matter? Well, I got to be involved in a pesto tasting last time I hung out with them. This time it was pie! Judy does love to bake and try new foods. She brought her famous Concord grape pie (yes, she grows them herself, and, as she likes to remind us, she seeds and juices them individually!). The pie tasted very special. Her experimental pie was a green tomato pie, sweet not savory. As I mentioned, her Concord grape pie is very special. 🙂
Abbie Sewall and her friend Mary stopped by to work on the elderberry orchard. The workshop is next weekend, and Abbie wanted to help it look visually beautiful. Thanks Abbie and Mary for your help with this.
We still have loads of lovely flowers to pick for donation. Christine has been coming by every Wednesday morning to take bouquets to Morning Glory Natural Foods store for donations. Toby has been so supportive of G2G, and this is another aspect of his generosity. Thank you Toby and the Morning Glory staff who are helping to spread the word about G2G.
This year has been another great year for volunteer turnout. We have a lot of new volunteers from Allagash in Portland, school groups, corporate groups and many Master Gardener volunteers. I am the first one to admit it is hard for me to remember everyone’s name. One of the big jokes of the summer is calling Deirdra, one of our regular gleaners, Maria. She let me call her that most of the morning. Now I do it on purpose and even switch it up and call her Marie. If I call you by the wrong name, please correct my mistake, or you might end up with a new identity! Thank you Deirdra/Maria/Marie, for having a great sense of humor and always bringing us joy when you come to glean.
Carrie and I are so excited about our cover crops this fall. We seem to have gotten the timing right and have beautiful healthy crops on so many of our plots. We like to try different mixes. New to us this year is the Sudan grass. It won’t have time to reach its full potential, but the soil will still benefit from it.
Our week ended on Friday hosting a media event announcing Hannaford Supermarket’s donation of a $60,000 check to UMaine Extension’s Harvest for Hunger program. It seems most of this money will go to help fund and/or start up newer gleaning organizations around the state of Maine. Scatter Good Farm was the location for this gathering, and Growing to Give benefited from the event by the press coverage. We were on channel 6 news Friday night and in the Portland Press Herald on Saturday morning. Getting the word out about G2G always has positive results. Thanks to Lynne Holland for suggesting us as the backdrop for this exciting presentation, and thanks to Julia for bringing Hayden and two other Bowdoin students to help glean.
Unfortunately the downpour of rain, plus the added thunder and lighting, caused us to cancel all our volunteers on Saturday morning. Planting garlic was on our agenda, but there is still plenty of time to plant. We still have lots for sale, too!
It was a busy week and still no frost. When the frost does hit, we will have a whole list of new chores. So, think about putting on that sweatshirt or jacket and come out and help us wrap up this fabulous season of growth.
Thanks to everyone for being part of our G2G team in whatever way you are.
Sincerely, Theda