Our little garden came up big in the 10,000 Garden Challenge. The Challenge, sponsored by the Missouri Department of Agriculture, encourages people to “connect with agriculture, promotes local foods and healthy eating.” says Dr. Jon Hagler, Missouri Department of Agriculture.
Our prize? A gift package worth over $500 including seeds, plants and equipment for our garden!
We also got a little press -
St. Francis enjoys Spring and he gazes toward the flowering serpentine cherry!
Erin Schmidt wandered throught the deep snow and clicked some wonderful pictures…look see…
This summer, Kansas City Community Gardens announced its second annual Marder Family Garden Awards. These awards are granted to gardens that best represent the “Spirit of Community Gardening” and the contest is open to all individual gardens, schoolyard gardens and community partner gardens in the Kansas City metro area. Last year’s recipient of the award was William Chrisman High School where students, teachers and the Local Investment Commission (LINC) created innovative ways to integrate the garden into the school’s science curriculum.
This year’s winner was our very own St. Peters Community Garden!! Below is the text of the submission, written by Valerie Schroer. Thank you Valerie! Reproductions of the actual submission including pictures can be found inside the door of the garden shed, at the back of the church, and at the entrance of the Legacy Center
St. Peter’s Community Garden was started about eight years ago by several parishioners of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in order to supplement our parish food pantry. It is now part of our Social Services Ministry and is a member of the Kansas City Community Gardens. We use organic practices at the garden to insure that are produce is safe for the recipients, and the garden volunteers. The food pantry serves our neighbors in need by providing them nutritious, organic greens, berries and vegetables – food that is often expensive at the grocery store. The garden has grown over the years, in size as well as in volunteers. We have even had to move the garden once to make room for a playground. Currently, the garden is made up of thirteen raised beds for vegetables, long rows of blackberry and raspberry bushes, fruit trees, a blueberry patch, a squash patch, a butterfly garden and a beautiful herb garden. We have a shed to store all our tools and recently added a row of compost cages and a pair of bat houses. Our volunteers not only support the garden with their time, but several members have generously donated items to enhance the garden. There are two picnic benches that are handy for both garden work and fun. Also contributed are a series of benches to support a resting visitor along the garden path, and a water fountain, statues and prayer markers to enhance their interlude. It is quite a lovely and restful place. If that isn’t enough, the community of volunteers that have formed around the garden is what really makes it so special. People of all ages and experience volunteer in the garden. We learn so much from each other, and when we don’t quite know something, we experiment. We try to grow something new every year. We’ve celebrated birthdays at the garden, eaten homemade ice cream, shared recipes, and even hosted an open house for the parish. We work hard, but it’s in community, so we’re always visiting and forming friendships.
What is especially fun is the enthusiasm of the youngest volunteers. The children are always so excited to come to the garden; they help plant, weed, harvest, and carry the food to the pantry. They learn about where vegetables come from and why we are growing them. Of course, they get to take some home to taste too. During berry season we often see a few little berry-stained faces. The kids have started to teach each other. So while we watch our green beans grow, we get to watch our youngsters grow too. While we serve to fill our food pantry, for privacy reasons, we don’t often get to meet the recipients of our work. However, from time to time a story comes back to us that warms our hearts. It can be hard work, but we have to admit that our St. Peter’s Community Garden is not only a great ministry, it’s a great community.
Fall is the time to amend the soil, and last weekend several committed garden volunteers with shovels and rakes in hand scooped and spread zoo manoo. Each year the zoo makes available composted manure from our friends that spend most of their time there (the animals that is…) I think the elephants are the biggest contributors!
Thanks to Mike Thomas and Michael Brock for letting us use their trucks, and thanks to the helpers for doing the dirty work!
It was a mixed bag this year with the sweet potato harvest – the vines were about as healthy as they could be. They filled up the compost bin after being cut from what waited below the soil’s surface. A good turnout of volunteers helped dig and poke at the surprise that awaited us. Some vines had nothing but a spindley root, and some had ‘taters worth taking to the county fair! The harvest wasn’t as bountiful as last years, but just as sweet. There’s just somthing really fun about picking potatoes…
On October 5th Erin, Lucy and Oscar Schmidt, Lori, Luke and Carley Lewellen, , Ray Hain and Bebe Harrington spent a portion of their day “gleaning” with Bernie Schneider. Besides being a St. Peter’s parishioner, Bernie is with the Society of St. Andrew – west.
(http://www.endhunger.org/default.htm)- “The Society of St. Andrew is a grassroots, faith-based, hunger relief nonprofit organization working with all denominations to bridge the hunger gap between 96 billion pounds of food wasted every year in this country, and the nearly 40 million Americans who live in poverty. We rely on support from donors, volunteers, and farmers as we glean nutritious excess produce from farmers’ fields and orchards after harvest and deliver it to people in need across the United States.”
Three cars were filled with potato sacks and they went to Harvesters, St. James and St. Peter’s.
Instead of hoeing, weeding and picking this past Tuesday, 18 adults and 8 kids from the St. Peters Community Garden crew enjoyed each others’ company and some great food at the KCCG Children’s garden. This part of KCCG is an educational feast of fruits vegetables, grasses, herbs, berries and other interesting things.
Mary, our tour guide showed us how to card and spin cotton, where peanuts come from (they’re actually beans!), and even how to sooth a toothache, naturally. She dug a 7 lb. sweet potato and showed us how to protect fruit from insects with a ziplock bag (and then be able to sell it for $10 “american”). She was great with the kids, handed out samples of watermelon, pears, peppers, beans and berries packed with vitamin C…She even played with her food! Everyone had a great time…
It was a beautiful night to enjoy our garden community, and another amazing Kansas City garden.
Today after the 11am mass, the memory of Warren Trahan was honored in the garden. Father Steve reflected on the garden of Eden, the garden of Gethsemane, and how Jesus was mistaken for a gardener after his resurection.
Norma’s daughter, Laura, read a passage about the garden of Eden and Norma’s grand-children, Warren and Lily, blessed the benches with holy water.
