I am writing you about tomorrow night's(July 18th) harvesting. We are without Ray and Mary Van Leeuwen for 2 Wednesdays while they visit their family in California. This is a big loss to our Wednesdays. So it is that we need all of you willing people to come out tomorrow! As always please join us even if you must insist you are no gardener. All who fit in that category can simply combine abilities to make one composite gardener between us : ) If you come to the garden you have a great chance of really becoming a gardener which could be fun. Come when you can and stay until you need to go.
Tomorrow we will have iffy weather so I am making a few adjustments. I will be there unless it is actually raining. Hadley and I will be there at 5pm this time to start the picking and harvesting in case the weather comes early. Hopefully we can get to the bigger items that way even if we get rained out for the herbs. Please join us at 5 or 5:30-p as usual. Jeff will come and fire up the grill at 5 45p when he arrives from work. We will provide hot dogs and drinks. Please bring a dish to share if you are able to and a chair or blanket to sit on.
I have not been over to see the tomatoes in the past few days so we will only be picking those if they have suddenly become ready. There is zucchini and peppers, okra, a few more green onions and maybe one more batch of beans. We should have lots of need for people to pick herbs as well. The garden is enormous now. If you haven't looked in awhile, you will be amazed. The efforts of a small army of APC's kids helped to make that happen this year and that is exciting.
We will have the sprinkler out with the heat so come in your suit and bring a towel and change of clothes. I often forget one of those last two things for my own child so I am writing that to myself!
We are always collecting gently used clothes and shoes for all ages to take down to Calvin Presbyterian's clothing closet. The clothes will be taken down at the same time as the vegetables on Thursday mornings. We have been made aware that Calvin will be starting a daycare for 2,3 and 4 year olds in the fall. We have taken one load of toys. learning items and books down already. They were really delighted to receive them. We hope we can help and encourage them further before they launch in the fall. If you would like to purchase or donate a usable toy, game, puzzle, book(etc) to this effort, we could accept that from you at the garden or at church on Sunday. As most of you know our own church and also Calvin also operates a food pantry. Both are needing donations at all times of the year. Please bring any donations to our own church office or any donation for Calvin to the garden and we will get it down there. We are always available to pick up these items from your homes. We mean that. We know it can be too tricky to transport things for a variety of reasons. Let Jeff or Karen Barnes know in person or at i2thee@hotmail.com.
We are having many good times at the garden this summer as we find we have a mission field right on our church property and certainly right up the road. Come join the harvest and the chance to show the love of Christ to our neighbors and the body at Calvin Presbyterian. We pull the vegetables with the hope that someone will know God cares for their present situation but also that their neighbors(us!) care for them as well.
Blessings,
Jeff and Karen Barnes
